Starting Young – Part II

Now that you have a kick ass program to run for a while, it’s time to talk about fueling the best you’re going to turn into. While Hollywood and your favorite fitness guru’s are telling you to eat 6 small meals a day, no carbs, no fat, moderate protein, and drink 8 glasses of water a day we’re going to throw up a nice middle finger to all of that. A 5 yr. old girl may be able to get big on that type of diet (actually no, not even her) you are going to need a lot more than some tofu 6 times a day to get the size and strength you are after. So allow me to introduce you to Part 2; Nutrition.

Getting Started
To get yourself to the level you want, you’re going to need to ditch almost everything you’ve heard about nutrition. To get the size and strength you want you need to eat and eat a lot. A good rule of thumb is to gain size and weight eat more food less often, and of course snack, and to lose weight and trim some of that lovely beer gut eat less food more often. Since many of the new guys are looking for size gains, we’re going to cover the former first.

Get Big=Eat Big
Okay so you’re ready to make some serious gains as fast as possible. You’re willing to shovel down 6 bags of fast food a day and drink 10 gallons of water to get there. But you’re not going to be doing either, sorry to disappoint. To get bigger all you need to do is eat more calories than you are using during the day. This is very simple and yet very hard to accomplish. The rule of thumb is to add 500 calories over your maintenance level to start gaining weight. So to get started, do just that. Now you can do that by picking up a large sweet tea everyday from McDonalds, or you can do it in a way that will actually help you; eating more carbs and protein. This is actually one of the easier ways to start initially gaining weight. Simply throw in some extra oatmeal and milk during your day and BOOM! Protein and carbs everywhere. By doing this instead of picking up that sweet tea, you are getting in some quality protein and carbs and saving yourself from serious sugar highs.

Not Gaining weight
Guess what, 500 calories over maintenance is not a lot, so it’s not going to last forever. In fact, 500 is more than likely way too little. You see, when you are a couch potato who barely walks during the day, maintenance is going to keep you at the same weight. You should also factor in the fact that you probably don’t even get your maintenance calories in. So now that you are, what about the extra activity from training? 500 extra calories is nothing when you are burning anywhere between 1000-1500 every training session. So to counteract this, you are going to eat MORE. Now is where you get to have a bit of fun, because now you’re looking to get at least 1000 calories over maintenance. To do this we’re going to stick to eating more carbs and protein. Now don’t go crazy and start eating 500 grams of protein everyday when you weigh a buck 50, but getting a good 1-1.5 grams of protein per lbs. of lean body weight is the standard and it works. Next is carbs, anywhere from 2-3 grams per pound of Lean body weight is going to be just enough to get you on the gaining track.

Fat
Fat is not the devil. In fact you need fat to survive. But bad fats are the devil (not really) and good fats are your friend. Now you’re not going to really need to watch fat when trying to gain weight, but 200 grams of it is bad and not going help you. Make a majority of your fat consumption come from good fats. Some good sources of good fats are nuts of all sorts, peanut butter, and different oils. Try to minimize the fat you eat with meat, preferably by eating lean chicken and red meat, and of course some fish. But since you are after size having a nice fat ribeye or some mayo on your sandwiches isn’t going to hurt you, it may even help with the extra calories. To throw a number on it, at 225 lbs. I try to keep fat consumption under 125 at the most.

Water
Drink it. A lot of it. At least a gallon a day. 8 glasses of water a day, or 64 oz. is not what you need. 1 gallon. Learn to love it.

I’m getting fat

Sorry Justin Beiber, but if you want to gain serious size and strength you’re going to have to get over the fact that your sorry excuse of a six pack is going to make a disappearing act for a while. But if you are finding yourself to be over the 18% body fat range or so, it may be time to cut down the extra calorie sources like that weekly trip to taco bell that turned into a 4 times a week trip. Or you could throw in some extra cardio, because when you are desperately trying to gain weight you probably threw it out the window. 2-3 times a week, 15-20 mintues at a low-moderate intensity should do the trick. Regular athletes most likely will not have this problem (football players, baseball, soccer, etc.). But don’t go crazy with the cardio. Too much can not only make you lose too much weight too fast, but it can also hinder your strength levels. Sticking in the 12-15% body fat range is a good place to be in my opinion, that way if you’re lucky you may get to see an ab or two every so often so you don’t burst into tears on a regular basis (at least not from your lack of a six pack).

In conclusion
Eat more than you do now, eat good fats, carbs, and protein, drink a lot of water, and don’t try to get all of your calories from “skinny” foods. Don’t be afraid to eat a burger every so often, maybe even a soda from time to time. Just don’t go crazy on either side of the spectrum and you will do fine.
Stay Strong and stay safe.