[John M Berardi]

Nutrition, Training, and Muscle Gain
by Carter Schoffer

With all this talk about fat loss, and all the gaunt poster boys and girls of the pop media, I’m starting to worry that lean mass has become passé. Or even worse, that we’ve become deluded into thinking that 150lbs on a 6 foot man is muscular if he has abs - air brushed or otherwise. Or that Jessica Alba, as beautiful as she is, is “fit” or “toned.”

The 150 pounder and Miss Alba, as beautiful as she is (did I write that already?), are not muscular, toned, jacked, the epitomes of fit physiques, etc and certainly wouldn’t be winners of the PN Body Transformation Challenge. Well, not unless they started the challenge obese.

Remember, as stated in the rules, this isn't a fat loss contest. Rather, it's a transformation contest. And we're looking for those folks who build muscle, lose fat, and get healthier

No, you don't need to look like a bodybuilder. But you should also know that lean mass is always prized - for both the aesthetic benefts as well as the health benefits. And the following is a collection of tips that should prove useful for this endeavour.

Tip 1 – Read and become comfortable with the basic tenets of PN before thinking about individualizing. Heck, if you’re not already implementing PN, don’t read any further. The stuff below is the fine tuning. Trust me; you need to crawl before you walk before you run.

To be honest, the majority of you, if following PN, don’t need to read any further.

Tip 2 – Don’t buy into the bulking vs. cutting schemes. Although we need to supply enough energy for growth or conversely, create ‘pockets’ of energy deficit for fat loss, the extreme mindsets of bulking or cutting almost certainly don’t apply to you (NOTE: This tip assumes you're not trying to become a pro bodybuilder. If so, you may need different advice)

Cutting phases followed by bulking phases are nothing more than titles for yo-yo dieting. You don’t need to starve yourself to lose fat and you don’t need to overeat to build muscle. Keep your metabolism healthy, your muscles big and your fat cells small by gradually manipulating your diet and exercise for body comp benefit.

When talking muscle gain, if you've not been gaining, this means eating 250 extra kcal / day until you start gaining. Here's what this might look like.

Original diet = 2000kcal
Muscle gain week 1 - 2500kcal
Muscle gain week 2 - 2500kcal
Muscle gain week 3 - 2750kcal

And so on until you start gaining muscle. At that point, keep the intake the same unless you stagnate again. And remember, these kcal increases should come from clean food selections and should still follow the PN principles.

Tip 3 – Take advantage of energy requirement fluctuations. Guess what? Your body needs more energy when it’s faced with demanding exercise than when it’s at rest. Relating to the last tip, this translates to feeding the body when it needs extra energy (muscle repair) and not overfeeding when it doesn’t need the kcals (at rest or after an energy expenditure bout). Just blew your mind didn’t I?

For so simple a concept, you would think people would catch on and thankfully many do. But just as many end up underfeeding when they need fuel for recovery and growth and/or overfeed when they’re inactive. The result – muscle loss and fat gain.

So make sure that you eat really big on weight training, muscle damaging days. Then eat smaller on the other days. This might look like this.

Muscle gain diet - training day - 3000kcal
Muscle gain diet - non-training day - 2500kcal

Tip 4 – Continuing on this theme, don’t be carb phobic. Seriously people, this has gone too far. You don’t do well on carbs, you say? So instead, you take half a container of glutamine and/or specialty supplement post-workout? Then you fall back on the argument that we didn’t evolve to require or handle carbohydrates well?

Are you kidding me?

When in evolutionary time did we need to increase our genetic fitness by knocking back a bolus of glutamine?

Now do some people tolerate carbs better than others? Most certainly. Are we, with our evolved brains, able to manipulate our physiology by means not available during our evolutionary growth? Clearly. And as an offshoot, can approaches such as glutamine, or some other compound, in place of carbs be effective? A third affirmative, of course.

Two things though –

• Don’t pee on my leg and then tell me it’s raining. If you’re going to argue against carb intake on evolutionary grounds, don’t turn around in your next utterance and prescribe a manmade or refined supplement.
• Don’t extrapolate results seen with a handful of people or over the course of a week or two of progress to the entire population. And that applies on an individual level. Just like training, just about everything works – for a little while. It’s in the months and years of refining progress that individual approaches are validated.

So people, seriously, these no carb ever approaches only apply to a subset of a subset of a subset. If you’re looking to build lean mass, it’s not applicable to you. Follow PN and the tips above.

A simple strategy is to reserve carbohydrate intake for when your body needs the extra fuel (post-workout for the most part) and watch your muscles grow. If you can handle more carbs, by all means, include them more frequently. But the strategy above acts as a good baseline.

Tip 5 – Don’t buy into supplement company rhetoric. Unless you’re willing to break the law by taking steroids, a speciality pill or powder won’t provide you with the vehicle for muscle gain. A small number of supplements may upgrade the interior of the vehicle – that is they’ll make the ride a bit more enjoyable – but what good is leather if you don’t have the car, or seats for that matter, to put it on?

The vehicle for lean mass gain is the combo of proper whole food nutrition along with resistance training. Couple it with food-derived supplements to make your grocery shopping and eating easier (fish oil, greens and protein powder) and that’s all you’ll really need to get from A to B. Like I said, certain supplements that have a proven track record (creatine for instance) may improve the ride but they’re useless unless you have the eating and exercising down pat.

Tip 6 – Eat and exercise more. As JB wrote about in his G-flux article and follow-ups and I touched upon above, the more you exercise, the more food your body needs. And why does it need this food or energy? To repair. And, if the stimulus was appropriate, to grow.

The more opportunity you give it to grow, if coupled with an intake to meet increased energy requirements, the bigger and leaner you’ll get. So make sure to train hard, train often, and eat big.

If you increase your exercise but don’t increase your intake, your metabolism will go into starvation mode – using muscle for fuel and hoarding the kcals you do consume for fat storage.

Alternatively, if increase kcals beyond your needs, your metabolism may ramp up a bit but most of the extra energy will be bundled up and stored for later in the form of body fat. Both scenarios resulting in the same – an unfavourable body comp.

So stay a step ahead of your body by negating its self-preservation techniques. Train often, eat big (but intelligent), and grow.

[jlats]

I guess you didn't like CT's article... I'd be interested to see Dr. Berardi's stance on CT's recommendation regarding post workout nutrition for optimal fat loss.

"Seriously people, this has gone too far. You don’t do well on carbs, you say? So instead, you take half a container of glutamine and/or specialty supplement post-workout? Then you fall back on the argument that we didn’t evolve to require or handle carbohydrates well?

Are you kidding me?

When in evolutionary time did we need to increase our genetic fitness by knocking back a bolus of glutamine? "

[Carter Schoffer]

As emphatic as I can via a forum post without bolding or putting in caps, I assure you and everyone else reading the tips that it wasn't meant as a knock on Christian or his maximal fat loss article. In fact, every time Christian lends pen to paper or finger stroke to keyboard I'm humbled by the result.

Moreover, it wasn't directed at a coach at all but rather this movement to abandon carbs. Simply put, an individual isn't going to become or stay obese because he/she is having a sweet potato after a resistance training bout.

Now if we're getting a physique competitor ready for a show, a model for a shoot or an everyday joe down from 10% to 5%, post-workout non-veggie carbs likely won't be found. But the majority of those in this challenge don't fit that bill.

Context further plays a role in terms of the theme of the write-up - Lean Mass Gain. If I had to write up an Advanced Fat Loss tip sheet, I'd include advanced techniques such as those Christian outlined.

[aluschka]

Fantastic article Carter and wonderful reply too. You are da man I have nothing but respect for you..look at Val's results..she speak for you Keep the info coming please. I learn all the time

Ciao

[John M Berardi]

Originally Posted by jlats

I guess you didn't like CT's article... I'd be interested to see Dr. Berardi's stance on CT's recommendation regarding post workout nutrition for optimal fat loss.

"Seriously people, this has gone too far. You don’t do well on carbs, you say? So instead, you take half a container of glutamine and/or specialty supplement post-workout? Then you fall back on the argument that we didn’t evolve to require or handle carbohydrates well?

Are you kidding me?

When in evolutionary time did we need to increase our genetic fitness by knocking back a bolus of glutamine? "

Two different goals entirely...two different types of bodies...please recognize this!

As discussed in PN, aggressive fat loss for that small % of the population that's already lean requires an aggressive approach. That's Christian's article.

Moderate lean gains while keeping fat in check for the average exerciser is the point of Carter's post above. No excess required...except, of course, an excess of committment and discipline for those not used to exercising these traits.

Perhaps I'll write an aggressive muscle gain strategy in an upcoming set of tips.

[jlats]

Thanks for the tips guys. I appreciate all the help.

[jijin]

Just in time for my transformation plans!

Is there a limit to how much starch I can have post-workout? I only take starches for breakfast and postworkout, so I tend to stuff all my starchy food then. This can be quite a bit of carbs since my caloric intake is quite high. Is that ok?

[planford]

Thanks, for the tips and the frank talk! I guess after a while I feed into the hype too.

[MightyAl]

Just found this thread. Fantastic article Carter! Thank you!

Alexandra

[delco]

When talking muscle gain, if you've not been gaining, this means eating 250 extra kcal / day until you start gaining.

Or it could mean your workouts lack the intensity to stimulate muscular growth. Only intense exercise generates cellular messages that stimulate DNA to begin the process of expanding muscle fibers. An excess of dietary protein, or other nutrients, won't generate these messages. Nutrition enters the picture only after the muscles are stimulated to grow, and even then, rest is at least as equally important as nutrition.