I need personal opinions please
tanakz
Posts: 10 Member
I'm just starting out counting my macronutrients. I'm 5'8" at 158 lbs. My goal is to gain lean mass and gain strength. I've decided to hit a daily goal of 2,728 calories at 30% protien 30% fat and 40% carbs. That's 205 grams protien, 273 grams carbs, and 91 grams fat. I do weight training 5 days a week and cardio 3 days a week. I just want some personal opinions on these numbers and if there is anything you would change or tweak a little. Thanks
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Replies
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Numbers sound good - In my experience, (one of the) important thing(s) is to ensure you are hitting your protein (between 0.9 - 1.1 grams per body/lb) then you should see progress.
What is your training plan like? Another key thing is to incorporate compound lifting into your training, things like Bench, Squat and Dead lifts and progressively overloading the weight each session (adding 2.5kg-ish). This will help you build on strength. Just be careful and ensure you keep good form to avoid injury.
I would suggest sticking to your Macros for 2 weeks and keep an eye on body weight and take progress photos. After 2 weeks, you can make a decision on whether the macros / training need tweaking.
Hope that helps!
P.S. As well as the P F C Macros, keep track of Fibre too (at least 30g)
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Have you checked out MFP's Gaining Weight & Bodybuilding forum? You'll probably get some good answers there, too.0
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try it for 4-6 weeks, tweak based on results....0
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I would suggest stopping the cardio. Cardio is a gains killer. The best thing to do to make muscles grow is to rest them sufficiently after lifting. If you must expend more energy to keep BF% down do HIIT instead.7
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Numbers sound good - In my experience, (one of the) important thing(s) is to ensure you are hitting your protein (between 0.9 - 1.1 grams per body/lb) then you should see progress.
What is your training plan like? Another key thing is to incorporate compound lifting into your training, things like Bench, Squat and Dead lifts and progressively overloading the weight each session (adding 2.5kg-ish). This will help you build on strength. Just be careful and ensure you keep good form to avoid injury.
I would suggest sticking to your Macros for 2 weeks and keep an eye on body weight and take progress photos. After 2 weeks, you can make a decision on whether the macros / training need tweaking.
Hope that helps!
P.S. As well as the P F C Macros, keep track of Fibre too (at least 30g)
Thanks for your help! My training is pretty basic where I target a different part of the body every day. The only thing I cannot do is deadlifting due to a lower back injury I went through. Other than that everything is maximum amount of reps with the maximum amount of weight where I can get at least 10 reps or more.
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I would suggest stopping the cardio. Cardio is a gains killer. The best thing to do to make muscles grow is to rest them sufficiently after lifting. If you must expend more energy to keep BF% down do HIIT instead.
Do you I think I should completely cut my cardio out? I have a pretty active lifestyle so I guess it's more of a lifestyle for me rather than a choice. I don't really do it to keep body fat down but to maintain a good conditioning and it's also a great way to start my morning.
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I would suggest stopping the cardio. Cardio is a gains killer. The best thing to do to make muscles grow is to rest them sufficiently after lifting. If you must expend more energy to keep BF% down do HIIT instead.
This^^^ is false.
Nothing wrong with your numbers, way more protein than is needed, but otherwise fine.2 -
I would suggest stopping the cardio. Cardio is a gains killer. The best thing to do to make muscles grow is to rest them sufficiently after lifting. If you must expend more energy to keep BF% down do HIIT instead.
This^^^ is false.
Nothing wrong with your numbers, way more protein than is needed, but otherwise fine.
Should I down my protein intake and up the carbs or fat intake? How would you tweak the ratio?0 -
Not a body builder here, but a veteran of measuring and counting. If you reduce the protein to the maximum you can absorb (I don't have my calculator so I don't know what the magic number is), the fastest and easiest way to make up the difference is with fat. Whole milk. Butter on your bread. Cheeeeeeese.2
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I would suggest stopping the cardio. Cardio is a gains killer. The best thing to do to make muscles grow is to rest them sufficiently after lifting. If you must expend more energy to keep BF% down do HIIT instead.
This^^^ is false.
Nothing wrong with your numbers, way more protein than is needed, but otherwise fine.
Should I down my protein intake and up the carbs or fat intake? How would you tweak the ratio?
So there is nothing wrong with eating that much protein, but you may not get much benefit (outside of compliance possibly) from eating 200g of protein. If anything, hit your calories goals, get at least 150ish grams of protein and don't over complicate the rest.
And don't listen to the nonsense that cardio robs gains, it doesn't.5 -
Nothing inherently wrong with those numbers, but the protein is overkill and you're not really benefiting from it...just expensive glucose.
The only way cardio kills gains is if it results in you not getting a surplus of calories. Most body builder types that I know do pretty minimal cardio simply because doing it means they need to eat an ungodly amount of food to put on mass. You may find that your calorie target doesn't result in a calorie surplus necessary to build mass.1 -
As far as cutting out cardio or not, it really depends on your goals. You said you wanted to gain lean mass and strength. Cardio is in opposition to that.
You said you do weight training 5x/week. I assume you are hitting each muscle group hard 1x/week. After an intense lifting session on a muscle group, those muscles should rest for 5-7 days to get maximum gains.
Whatever activities you do, just ask yourself if they fit into your goals for your body. Adjust if needed. For example, if you love running, but would rather look like an Olympic sprinter than a marathon runner, change how you run. Do a short warm up, then HIIT (example: 30 sec @ 100% , then 1 min @ 50%, then repeat til you can't stand up).
A lot of great info can be found in a free ebook by Mark McManus. He also has great workout free to download.
http://www.musclehack.com/build-muscle-fast-for-free/3 -
I'd probably drop protein to 25%, up carbs to 45% and fill in the rest with fat - which for 2700ish would be:
168g protein (672cal) - 25%
300g carbs (1200cal) - 45%
92g fat (828cal) - 30%
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By "cardio kills gains", I meant that it prevents optimal gains. Lifting heavy "tears a muscle down", and the repair process is when muscle is gained. The more a muscle can rest during that repair window, the greater the gains. Mark McManus explains the "peak overcompensation point" here:
http://www.musclehack.com/10-rock-solid-scientific-laws-of-muscle-building/4 -
Thank you guys so much for all of the opinions and knowledge. This is just what I was looking for. Please feel free to keep them coming!0
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deannalfisher wrote: »I'd probably drop protein to 25%, up carbs to 45% and fill in the rest with fat - which for 2700ish would be:
168g protein (672cal) - 25%
300g carbs (1200cal) - 45%
92g fat (828cal) - 30%
This ratio seems like something I'm going to try, it's just having all of these extra carbs in my diet is something I'm going to have to get used to. Thanks!
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It appears that many people don't believe that cardio inhibits muscle growth. The science is explained in section 2: "Impact of Cardio on Muscle Gains" here:
http://www.musclehack.com/why-cardio-sucks-you-dont-need-to-do-it/4 -
deannalfisher wrote: »I'd probably drop protein to 25%, up carbs to 45% and fill in the rest with fat - which for 2700ish would be:
168g protein (672cal) - 25%
300g carbs (1200cal) - 45%
92g fat (828cal) - 30%
This ratio seems like something I'm going to try, it's just having all of these extra carbs in my diet is something I'm going to have to get used to. Thanks!
My overall cals are similar to you but I weigh abt 10lbs less (and am female)
My protein is 140g; fat is 78g and the rest carbs (I focus on starchy carbs and grains)0 -
It appears that many people don't believe that cardio inhibits muscle growth. The science is explained in section 2: "Impact of Cardio on Muscle Gains" here:
http://www.musclehack.com/why-cardio-sucks-you-dont-need-to-do-it/
Does cardio interfere with hypertrophy/strength adaptations? Sure.
However the magnitude of interference is hardly anything to fuss over if you account for it in your training and diet. Hell, better cardiovascular capacity might cause you to recover better from strength allowing you to train more and make more gains.
Just look at Alex Viada (the guy holds a record for deadlifting 700lbs within a week of running a 50 mile ultramarathon) and what his company does.
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30/30/40 is pretty standard. Nutritionally you are on the right path. IMO and experience, Cardio is my gains killer as well. I have pretty much the same regimen. 5 to 6 days a week splits. I am too am naturally lean. I try to stay away from Cardio unless its to shred down.0
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By "cardio kills gains", I meant that it prevents optimal gains. Lifting heavy "tears a muscle down", and the repair process is when muscle is gained. The more a muscle can rest during that repair window, the greater the gains. Mark McManus explains the "peak overcompensation point" here:
http://www.musclehack.com/10-rock-solid-scientific-laws-of-muscle-building/
That's an article and i use thst loosely. Its more of an advertisment as opposed to science..he doesn't even describe volume right. Volume is not sets, its sets*reps*weight.
And to your other post, is a person is only hitting each muscle once a week, they are far from being optimal. MPS occurs over a 36 to 48hr period, so hitting each muscle group 2 to 3x a week is optimal. 1x per week is for those on vitamin S.1 -
It appears that many people don't believe that cardio inhibits muscle growth. The science is explained in section 2: "Impact of Cardio on Muscle Gains" here:
http://www.musclehack.com/why-cardio-sucks-you-dont-need-to-do-it/
So rather than steady state cardio, you'd recommend HIIT (as you did above)? Which imposes a much higher stress on the muscles/CNS and creates much more significant recovery issues than steady state cardio?
If that's the kind of "information" McManus is putting out, I'll pass.1 -
@AnvilHead Mark only recomends HIIT for those who need greater fat loss. And I would definitely recommend HIIT over cardio for fat loss. HIIT as well as cardio can be done with strength training. The degree to which they affect gains depend on what activity is done and when.
The OP stated that his goal was strength and mass gains. I simply stated that if he was doing cardio 3x/week to keep BF% low, he should switch to HIIT. Done properly, it will maximize fat loss and has a minimal effect on gains. However, neither is needed if the goal is just to bulk.1 -
@psuLemon Mark is pretty good about backing up his articles with scientific studies. He did simplify volume there, but explains his opinion on total volume here:
http://www.musclehack.com/total-volume-or-high-intensity-for-best-muscle-gains/
I agree that a 3x/week routine is far better and that a 5 day split is far from optimal for natural lifters. I just assumed that's what the OP was doing since he lifts 5x/week. There seems to be some debate about the 48 hours of active protein synthesis being the end all of gains. Something about decreases protein breakdown rates creating greater hypertrophy continuing past that 48 hr mark. Haven't had time to research it yet, so I'll just stick with my 3 day routine. If you know if any studies on that please let me know.
Thanks for the input. I'm always open to learn more!0 -
Betting you need to consume more than 2700 calories to gain just based on height and weight along with guessing you're under 25 years old.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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@psuLemon Earlier you said that cardio does not inhibit/"rob" lifting gains. Every study I have read has concluded that it does. However, it has been several years since I looked into it (just now getting back into lifting). If you know of studies that support your opinion and can post links, I would love to read them.0
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Betting you need to consume more than 2700 calories to gain just based on height and weight along with guessing you're under 25 years old.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I would concur with this assessment - I would hypothesize his maintainance is probably in the 3000-3500 range so even 2700 could have him losing weight0 -
@psuLemon Earlier you said that cardio does not inhibit/"rob" lifting gains. Every study I have read has concluded that it does. However, it has been several years since I looked into it (just now getting back into lifting). If you know of studies that support your opinion and can post links, I would love to read them.
It's an oversimplication because you have to consider food inadequate and recovery. But there are types of cardio that support hypertrophy and strength gains; especially those types of cardio that is based on multijoint movements (i.e., rowing, cycling, etc..). The three main reasons to cut down on cardio is, 1. it prevents you from staying in a sustain surplus, 2. doesn't allow you to adequately recover, 3. you just don't like it.
If I get some free time, I will find the studies.2
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