curtis wrote:Pre bed time you need to be getting some slow digesting protein with a little fat, so cottage cheese, double cream,oil,milk protein conc etc.

curtis wrote:. I find brown rice pre workout much better carb source than yeast though.

Nick.O wrote:

curtis wrote: One of my problems is im pretty fussy with food

Nick.O wrote:7:30am bowl of oats w/ skimmed milk, 1 scoop Protein Shake, Multi Vit
Not enough protein the immune system scavenges the first 20g you consume each day
10am 150g mixed nuts and raisons

Err this is not a meal at all

12:30pm 4 Large egg ommelette w/ ham, mixed salad leaves, 2 cellery sticks, handful of raisons

2pm 2 slices of wholegrain bread with Peanut Butter, Creatine, Taurine

all bread is pure rott, switch to white basmati rice, veg and some god dam protein!

4:30pm 1 1/2 scoop Post Workout Shake w/ 2/3 cup of oats + skimmed Milk

7pm 2 Large Chicken Breasts pan fried in olive oil, 100g of brown rice, large serving of green beans and carrots (not sure of measuremens)

Looks like the best planned meal of the day

9:30pm Banana, Apple, cellery with peanut butter

some dude on T-Nation wrote:Hey Coach,
when wanting to gain quality mass with as little fat gain as possible,
would you reccomend a straight bulking cycle or alternating with bulking and cutting cycles to keep the fat gain to a minimum, if so what duration would you suggest for each?
Cheers.

Christian Thibaudeau wrote:1. I do not like ''bulking''... in truth, bulking means eating as much as possible to gain as much total weight as you can. This results in too much fat gain in most individuals. I do recommend ''mass gaining'' which is a more appropriate term; you are eating a lot of food in order to grow a your goal IS to gain as much muscle as possible, but you want to avoid excessive fat gain.

*IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL THOSE WITH BAD READING COMPREHENSION: When talking about ''bulking'' on forums, most people REALLY mean ''mass gaining''. They just use the term ''bulking'' either because of tradition or because it sounds cool.

2. While alternating periods of ''mass gaining'' and ''fat loss'' is a decent approach, especially if you already have a good amount of muscle, most people don't do it right; they use phases that are too short (e.g. muscle gaining for 4 weeks, fat loss for 4 weeks). To make an appreciable gain in muscle you need to focus on that goal for at least 10-12 weeks (preferably more), so doing a 4-6 weeks ''mass gaining'' phase is often not ideal for maximum progress.

Fat loss phases on the other hand can be shorter because fat loss is more rapid than muscle growth if things are done properly. A 2-3lbs fat loss per week is pretty easy to achieve with an halfway decent diet, but gaining that amount of muscle could take you 4 weeks and as much as 6 or even 8 in some people.

So you could focus on gaining muscle for 10 weeks then 2-4 weeks of fat loss, then back on 10 weeks of mass gaining, etc.

OR, this is a strategy that I like to use during mass gaining phases, include 1 or 2 days per week of ''damage control'': you eat for maximum growth 5-6 days a week and include 1-2 days per week where you limit your energy and carbs intake. In other words you eat below maintenance; less than 50g of carbs during the day, keep fat relatively low too but keep protein high. On that day do not strength train, but do cardio and/or metabolic training (see my Monday with Thib article on the subject).

This(these) control day(s) will allow you to eat more on the other days of the week without fear of gaining too much fat because the control days are there to limit the damage.

Depending on how you are progressing, add or remove control days. For example, start at one control day per week. If you find yourself gaining fat too much, add a second one (control days should not be on consecutive days), if you are still pilling on fat too much add a third one (do NOT include more than 3 control days per week).

If you find that your gains are slowing down, remove one control day or make it less severe, etc.

Craig wrote:so lets get a little more info, what body type are you ecto/meso/endo or combo of?

Rilla wrote:I'm tempted to say just get anything in you. If you're truly a meso and very active (as a football player) you're in the same dilemma as I am - gaining weight can be VERY hard.
For the past six months I've been on around 4000 kcals a day without gaining weight.
Get eating.

Nick.O wrote:

Rilla wrote:I'm tempted to say just get anything in you. If you're truly a meso and very active (as a football player) you're in the same dilemma as I am - gaining weight can be VERY hard.
For the past six months I've been on around 4000 kcals a day without gaining weight.
Get eating.

haha that was my original plan

Alex wrote:

Nick.O wrote:

Rilla wrote:I'm tempted to say just get anything in you. If you're truly a meso and very active (as a football player) you're in the same dilemma as I am - gaining weight can be VERY hard.
For the past six months I've been on around 4000 kcals a day without gaining weight.
Get eating.

haha that was my original plan

I kinda agree to a point but it's also easy to get carried away as you want to try and not add too much excess. By the same merit it wouldn't hurt to enjoy cheat foods either.