protein and nutrient partitioning

[smunky]

I was re-reading the HST faq on diet and nutrition, in particular the section on gaining muscle mass.

I'm currently on a bulk cycle, and have gained approximately 8 pounds or so within the first month, some of which I'm attributing to water retention now that I'm eating carbs. I was essentially doing a CKD diet of around 2000 calories daily before I started to bulk, and gradually increased my calorie intake through the first month of my bulking cycle to where I am around 3500 calories now.

Stats for me are 180lbs, 6ft, approx. 12.5% body fat, give or take. I was around 10% or so before I started bulking.

My main question has to do with protein intake. Currently, I am holding to a fairly balanced 40/30/30 ratio of carbs/fat/protein, being sure to get bodyweight in protein. I am not too into tweaking to the extreme, but I'd like some input if possible. I feel that maybe I'm gaining weight/fat a little faster than I would like.

Should I be cutting back on my calories at the moment? Reading the HST faq in that particular section on muscle gain, Blade outlines that one should aim for .75XFFM (fat free mass I take it?) for protein intake. Well, I've been going over that by quite a bit, whereas I am going bodyweight, if not more at times with an overnight casein shake that puts me at 200g per day.

Also, my fat intake is decently made up of EFA's, but there are times where my ratio of Saturated/Mono/poly are almost even, and sometime the saturated is the most in my day. Again, as I am not overly concerned with this, I just wanted to know if this would be an issue in the long term and if I should really be much more disciplined over it.

The rest of my diet is carbs, of any and all sorts.

So to restate my questions:

Protein intake too much, and does that matter?

The effects of my fat ratios?

Thanks to any who can offer input, much appreciated.

 

[jboy]

JMHO…take it for what it’s worth!

Your excess fat gains are a sign that you’re taking in more calories than you need to be. It also looks to me like you increased your calories too quickly after your cutting diet. Your body had adapted to 2000 cals/day, and in 4 weeks you've almost doubled your intake! From what I've read, you should take the time to slowly increase your daily calories by about 150 every week until you hit your bulking levels as follows:

Week 1 = 2150
Week 2 = 2300
Week 3 = 2450
Week 4 = 2600
Etc…….

Your body needs the time to ramp up all the metabolic processes (that you slowed way down during your cutting cycle) and to adjust to the new higher calorie levels. It might be wise to even take a couple of weeks at maintenance level just to let you body adjust (during the 15’s seems like a good time to do this).

In my (maybe skewed) view, you should try something like this:

Cut your calories back down to 3000 and slowly reintroduce the extra 500 over the next month. I don’t know what cardio regimen you’re using (if any), but I’d throw in a few extra session or extend existing sessions by 10-15 minutes.

As far as the protein goes, I don’t think I would lower your ratios just yet. There’s a big energy requirement for your body to convert protein to stored fat. Carbs and fats are much cheaper for your body to store as body fat. I don’t see how cutting protein and adding more fat or carbs will help you.

What are your typical carb and fat sources? Make sure you’re eating CLEAN!!! Keep your carbs from low GI sources except for pre/post workout.

 

[smunky]

Much thanks for the reply jboy.

Yeah, I pretty much went nuts and laxed on exerting any level of proper discipline with my diet and cardio regimen. During my cut cycle, I was doing 40 min 3x a week on off days, and hardly any nowadays.

Anyways, the question I have now is the idea of ramping back the calories: To what point? Should it go back to maintenance for a while, and should the decrease be immediate, and then stable for couple weeks before I go back up to the proper calorie amount for bulking? I'm in the 5's now, and am going to throw in extra day of cardio as well during the week so that I'm doing 4x a week, although not always immediately after I wake up.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[jboy]

We’ve all experienced the loss of discipline on a bulking cycle! I’m not sure what to tell you as far as how low to take your calories. I’m sure there are others around here who have more experience than I have who will share some good advise.

Definitely add the cardio back in your program. 3 or 4 lower intensity 45 minute length sessions/week should help a lot!

Anyway, this is what I would do. Since you’re already on the 5’s, you’re at a good point to drop back down to about the 2000-2300 cal/day range and cut for a while to drop some of the fat you’ve put back on. You want to get lean again so you can take advantage of nutrient partitioning during your next bulking cycle. Lifting heavy (with lower volume) is supposed to help spare muscle while cutting, so you might want to extend the 5’s by three or four weeks for this reason. When you’re ready to start ramping your calories back up, you could go to 8-10 rep lifting scheme for a couple of weeks (or stay with the 5’s…the change is just for sanity sake&#33. Then continue to ramp up your calories through the SD (with lots of lower intensity cardio) and also through the 15’s of your next cycle. This would allow you to get back toward the 3000-3500 cal/day range just in time for the 10’s.

Just a thought!