Justin-27’s BodyBlog

Hey guys, a point I’d like to make here.

So it is no secret that I am on a gain muscle quickly program right now.  In fact, it has been about a month to the day that I started weight training again after a 6+ month layoff.  I was both reading a John Gerardi "Eat Big" article on T-Nation.com yesterday and also watching Layne Norton’s "Life of a Natty Pro" vid series here and noticed something that is correlating in my physique.

Take Subject "A," a male that eats a solid 2800 cals a day to maintain his weight when not training (but remaining physically active).  Now say this person wants to regain some lost muscle, and quickly.  So he says to himself "well body, we’ve been there, done that with this….the training won’t be easy….it never is, but we’ve chugged on up 25lbs of muscle before and we’ll do it again…so LET’S EAT!"  Lofty goal sir, but I like the drive!   So our subject hits the gym like old times (starting a bit slow so we don’t die obviously), and moves from 3-4 meals and ~2800 cals (his old diet for high activity but no lifting), and goes straight to 6 meals a day, 300+ grams of protein, creatine, and upps the cals a SOLID THOUSAND.  Obviously, this was not a gradual change….this subject wants…scratch that NEEDS this muscle, and needs it fast!  So he gets back to the good ole days diet.  Now don’t get it wrong here, this subject is dedicated…..is not eating ****…..just good solid muscle gaining food. 

So what’s the problem you ask?

He looks like a pregnant woman after a week of this and is holding 1029384lbs of water.  Ugh…..bloated, gassy, uncomfortable, the whole deal. 

My point?

Well obviously the "subject" is me.  But something I noticed the past 5 days has been happening…..and happening rapidly.  I am leaning out quite a bit, and still packing on the muscle.  My body has FINALLY caught up to this calorie fest and of course the 5 or so lbs of muscle I’ve put on is helping ramp up my metabolism and burn through the cals faster.

This leads me to my recommendation for those that have been out of the game for a while, and as Norton mentioned, those that are coming from any type of restricted cal diet (like a bodybuilding/fitness show).  You really need to let your body g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y assimilate the higher levels of protein, carbs, and fat.  That’s why the rebound is so nasty for many competitors and they get fat and depressed post shows. 

Take it from one obsessed dude to another (or dudettte), slowly up your calories by 200-300 a week until your body is chugging along smoothly and actually using those quality nutrients instead of making you bloated and gain fat. (Trust me, it’s no fun looking fat when you’re eating oats and chicken as a meal).  I was like WTF?>!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.