keithcw_the_first Member

I have MFP set to "gain .5 lbs. a week" -- then I eat back the calories that my FitBit tracks. Is this a stupid idea? As a point of reference, I'm 31 M 193 lbs. Using this method, I've been averaging about 3200 calories a day. Less on rest days, more on workout days, more on rest days where I end up doing something active…

Well, that's a little disheartening. Although not entirely unexpected.

I guess I assumed Olympians are tested pretty rigorously?

I'm just saying I think there's a false dichotomy between getting strong and getting heavy. This dude is heavy, strong, and doesn't have that powerlifter sloppiness that sometimes happens. Yes he's an Olympian and yes, he may be receiving assistance. But I think in the spirit of the linked article from T-Nation, that's par…

Is it DOMS? Where you're sore the next day, and then the day after that you can barely walk?

@terizius I've heard you mention wine a few times as part of your overall strategy to hit your calorie goals. I always thought, "Why not beer?" After putting a milk stout on top of almost 3,000 calories I can see why you favor wine.

Can I throw something else in here? What if, instead of considering powerlifters, we were looking at Olympic lifters? Not the people in the unlimited classes; the ones who have to make a certain weight. Here's this dude: Competes in the 105kg class. Doesn't look like a powerlifter, doesn't look like a bodybuilder. That's a…

I'm still starting out so... I guess just keep that in mind. I'm fairly strict with calories in that I have a surplus in mind and I try to hit it and not go over too far. It varies though, as my training days and rest days differ by about 400- 600 calories. Right now I'm approaching week 2 of the bulk. Weight gain is…

I read the linked article. I definitely don't have anything to back up what amounts to my intuition but I feel like a comparison of elite powerlifters and elite bodybuilders doesn't apply to 80% or 90% of the people out there. I guess by definition it would only apply to the percentage of the population that are elite…

Bulk peanut butter?

Yes I believe I was. And that's why I'm not an architect.

The strength training would be helping you maintain your lean body mass as much as possible while the caloric deficit slowly sheds fat. That's my understanding at least.

+1 to a sticky'd list of calorically dense foods. And +1 to oats and peanut butter. I'm about to have some myself, with honey and whey too.

Read this sticky thread first; it's got a lot of good info: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10049766/bulking-a-complete-guide-for-beginners#latest

Yes; certainly not useless. I do feel like I see people doing behind the back barbell forearm curls and moving the bar two inches, and I wonder if there is a better use of their time.

That's a joke fail on my part. I meant "Do these minor isolation exercises count as majoring in the minors?" That's not actually part of my routine.

So I'm not coming from exactly the same place as you -- if I'm trusting the metric conversions you're over 6 feet and about 100 pounds? I was fat in high school, and college, and any time I ever went to the gym it was with the goal of losing weight. In fact, I started this year trying to get down to 185 from 205. I noticed…

What about my shrugs/forearm curls/reverse forearm curl/preacher curl day? Then I finish it off with some calf raises. Is that the same?

You can put peanut butter on things until you get sick of it. Or add a glass of milk.

@terizius I'm a big fan of your other thread. FitBit gives me a data dump in .xls format -- something MFP sorely lacks -- so I'm tracking a rolling 14 day average intake and a rolling 14 day average weight to see what's happening. That should be enough to even out the bumps and let me course correct if needed. Then I'm…

Also from that very same Mayo article: So I don't know how much further you're going to get. If you don't move a lot and don't live somewhere warm or dry, then you probably don't need 8 glasses of water (whatever a glass consitutes) or x ounces per pound of bodyweight or whatever. Just use the chart. Maybe you can get by…

Bump. I should add that I'm also having my Fitbit calories fed into MFP so MFP is recommending anywhere from ~3,000 on a rest day to ~3,400 on a workout day. This has the added benefit of helping me eat more if I do something activeon a rest day like mow the lawn. Then I get a dynamic adjustment of my target calories. It…

Nailed it. Or at least just strong enough to break Batman.

You can either deadlift more to deadlift more and eventually your hands will catch up with your back (but I hate the "lift more to lift more" flavor of advice). Or! Do grip specific exercises. Get a Captains of Crush grip trainer from Iron Mind. Even cheaper would be to include some sets of Farmers Walks or Suitcase…

Sometimes there's a chest press machine; I don't know what your gym has. There's pushups; a regular pushup has you pushing somewhere around 60% of your bodyweight. If that's not heavy enough, do decline pushups. I would also say triceps and shoulders would help contribute to a stronger bench but at some point, you have to…

Now the flags are flying? @nopotofgold It sounds like it's more than picky eating. But it does also sound like there's a thread of validation-seeking in there. @NewXila It really, really isn't "boom you're fat". I can gain two pounds today if I drink two pounds' of water. There's a lot of stuff here to unpack; certainly…

This.

I'll also say, "please see a professional". You may be a good candidate for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy -- where you purposefully expose yourself to small amounts of a stressor in a controlled manner. If it was fear of spiders; it might start with pictures of spiders and then footage of spiders and maybe observing spiders…

Part of it is yeah, I'm coming from a strong "diet" eat at a deficit mindset. The other part is though... When you listen to your body's signals that say "Hey, enough!" and you're still low for the day, that's daunting. To me, at least. I still check out restaurant menus beforehand and I go in knowing "I *have* to eat this…

I like Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard. It's fine as long as it's mixed; like with cottage cheese or greek yogurt.