ok guys,lots of confusion seems to be appearing about dieting. basically u need to know that is this.
Protein is the building block of muscle. it helps repair and build the damaged muscle that happens during training.your muscles dont grow in the gym,the muscles get damaged and torn in the gym and protein goes and repairs the muscle and makes it grow and fill in the little tears in the muscle making it grow bigger and the bigger the muscle is the stronger it is.Per 1g of Protein you get 4 calories
carbs and fats are energy sources,fats are slower releasing energies as they take longer to digest than carbs and carbs are more of an instant form of energy depending on the type of carbs u choose. remember that u need carbs to fuel your work outs,recover from work out and to replenish liver glycogen stores when u wake up from sleeping. so keep your carbs to 3 times a day,breakfast,pre work out and post work out. by keeping carbs at these times of the day it will ensure that they are all burned up and will have no additional carbs in the system to be stored as fat as all the energy will be burned up. now the other 3 meals of the day will be protein and fats as the protein and the fats together will help keep u fuller for longer,keep your metabolism going as they take longer to digest and will also act like a diuretic making u drop any excess water u are retaining making u look leaner and harder and appear to pick up less fat compared to the higher carb approach. carbohydrates per 1 gram are 4 caloires and fats per 1g are 9 calories
1.) to gain muscle
u need to eat more than u need,but not so much so that u blow up like a blimp with fat and water.your protein content needs to be higher than that of when u are cutting and your carbs and fats need to be at a level where u dont store to much extra...
2.) cutting down
to get cut u need less calories than u take in.but not so low that u start eating muscle.whilst cutting u are going to be adding in cardio burning up extra calories / stoking the metabolism,so by cutting calories to low your body is going to starve as leptin levels drop and your body is going to start to butcher muscle for energy.so slow and stead wins the race.
now when gaining muscle u need extra protein,carbs and fats. now keep your protein level set and then alter and modify your carbs on weekly basis depending on body weight gain/fat gain. now lets use seeing your abs as a marker,u have jsut dieted down and now u wanna pack on the muscle but u dont wanna loose your abs,so you need to alter your protein and fats accordingly from your cutting phaze.lets say for this example u are 90kgs(200lbs) say you have just come off a cut and u where having 300g of protein,200g of carbs and 100g of fats and u got really lean. first off u increase your protein. from 1.5g to 2.0g per pound of lean body mass.so your protein will be at 400g a day. increase your carbs and fats by 15% so carbs to 230g and fats to 115g and see how that goes,if your abs start going away drop the carbs and fats a bit and see if things change,if they come back then u know that are taking in to much extra energy or u are not training intensly enough so either keep the lower calories or add in some more heavy sets...just remember,slow and steady...after 12 weeks u will know what will make u hold water/gain fat vs gain muscle. a good level to start with carbs and fats is 0.5g of fat per pound and 1-.1.5g of carbs per pound of weight.
to get cut u need to work out your protein value for the day. say u are 100kgs at 15% bf. so your lean mass is 85kgs. so 85 x2.2 (how many pounds there are in a kg) = 187lb x 1.5g = 280 of protein daily.so every day u are gonna need to get in 280g of protein to maintain lean muscle. now u have just come off your bulking diet where u where eating 300g of protein 250g of carbs and 100g of fats. u only want to cut back the calories slightly as u are going to be adding in 30mins of cardio 3-5times a week. so u cut back your protein slightly to 280g to maintain right,now u cut back your carbs and fats by 10-20%. so your carbs for theday will come down to 225-200g a day and you fats down to 80-90g a day. so if u cut back by 20% u will be dropping down by 460calories (20g of protein = 80 calories, 50g carbs = 200calories, 20g fat = 180 caloires = 460 calories) now thats a decent defecit to make u drop fat. now do this for 3 days. on day 4 increase your daily carbs by 115g. i say after 3 days cos the body starts to go into starvation and your leptin levels drop,when leptin levels drop your fat burning shuts off and your body will want to hold on to body fat as it is a form of stored energy and your will want to keep all the stored energy in can get cos it thinks its going through a starvation period. so u increase your carbs for 1 day to boost leptin levels and get the body into fat burning mode.repeat this every 3 days.if you are not dropping weight drop your carbs down by another 10-20% on the 3 low days and still have the high carbs day on the 4th day.
meal timing : now this doesnt change from bulking to cutting,all that changes is the quantitities in each meal
but meals should look be devided in to 6 meals. 3 with carbs and protein,3 with protein and fats.
meal 1
protein + carbs.
meal 2
protein and fats
meal 3
protein and fats
meal 4(pre work out)
protein and carbs
meal 5(post work out)
protein and carbs
meal 6
protein and fats.
now carbs source for breakfast should be low gi,starchy carbs such as oats... this is a brilliant slow releasing energy source.
carbs for pre work out i feel that low gi and and medium to high carbs such as oats raisins and honey (low,moderate and high gi)to fuel your work out constantly.
carbs for post work out should be high gi simple carbs such as glucose powder,dextrose,vitargo (BUT NOT Waxy Maise Starch,this exits the guy quickly but doenst spike insulin levels making it not as good at replenishing glycogen stores like the others will do as they do spike insulin) as all of these High gi carbs spike insulin and shuttle nutrients to the muscle which are needed for repair.30-60mins post simple carbs have low gi carbs in solid form.
now i personally dont count veg as a carb as they are so low in carbs and high in fiber,every solid meal of chicken/beef/mutton/fish/tuna that u have should have 2-3 cups of veg with it as this will keep your bowel movements regular and keep u healthy as well as aiding in nutrient absorbtion in the gut as the bowel will be clean and not clogged up.
remember to adjust your protein and fat and carbs on weekly based on your results,there is no generic formula to say u need this % of carbs and fats so make your own adjustments based on the results.no bodies diet should be a cookie cutter diet following an exact % breakdown.
Now for all those people who say you need major carbs for bulking,well you dont! you need major calories! now your energy sources come from carbs and Fats as explained at the top.now carbohydrates have an effect on blood sugar levels,making them rise when your eat carbs,and once your body has burned through those carbs makes the blood sugar levels drop,now fats do not have any major effect on blood sugar levels so u wont feel a major crash 1-2hours after a carbohydrate based meal! also just remember trying to eat 1500 calories from clean carbs in a day is a bitch! as thats 425g of carbs,convert that into white rice and u looking at 1/2 a kg raw weight white rice! where as u take 1500 calories from fats such as nuts and oils and peanut butter and u get 166g, now when u look at that in terms of nuts that about 332g of almonds which is alot easier to get down that about 1.5-2.0kgs of cooked rice in a day.please realise that carbs are needed for maximum muscle contraction but i have seen time and time again where guys pick up alot of fat and water by over eating excessive carbs as they arent as active as they seem.
EDIT: after a couple of weeks start manipulating fats and carbs, see how your body reacts. for example if you are joe average been on a 3000 calorie diet and you hit a plateau either be it cutting or bulking using the rule of carbs pre post work out and for breakfast and the other meals being fats and proteins, try and swap it to 4 meals of protein and carbs and 2 meals proteins and fats for a week and see how your body responds to this manipulation, if you start gaining around the mid section rather go back to the previous way of dieting. if you start loosing more or gaining more weight then stick at this for a week or two. this is trail and error based things to do when you have hit a plateau.
Please note that not everyone need to have carbs only pre and post work out and for breakfast,but this is an excellent place to start,when you tracking diets,this is all based on my experience working with clients that when keeping carb timing to these times that it allows clients to stay lean whilst putting on muscle mass...
I hope this clears up everyones confusion on dieting and shows you that you dont need major carbs to bulk up on,you do need carbs but not crazy amounts depending on your metabolism!! guys please dont ask for a sample meal plan,if you want that you can contact me from the contact us page and get a custom diet from me but note i do charge.this is just to show you a differnt perspective to high carb,low fat dieting!