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I've managed to reach my goal weight of 200 pounds and keep my bf practically the same, which is awesome but I've now hit a weight gain wall! Now as with most dilemmas in bodybuilding the answer is actually very simple, eat more!So my question to you fine people is this: Do I up the food intake for the back load? The low carb portion of the day, perhaps adding in breakfast? Or both? I could obviously trial each for myself but I thought i would save time and ask here first. Thanks in advance
for me i found upping the ULC foods helped more with putting on weight.. adding ton of carbs didn't do much at all to my weight… i have a pretty fast metabolism it seems and my body apparently just burns through carbs even if I'm doing nothing so i found it much better to increase the fats and protein
I've managed to reach my goal weight of 200 pounds and keep my bf practically the same, which is awesome but I've now hit a weight gain wall! Now as with most dilemmas in bodybuilding the answer is actually very simple, eat more!So my question to you fine people is this: Do I up the food intake for the back load? The low carb portion of the day, perhaps adding in breakfast? Or both? I could obviously trial each for myself but I thought i would save time and ask here first. Thanks in advance
This is actually kind of tricky. In my personal opinion, you can't just eat more food an magically grow more muscle. That works if you were under eating or coming off a cutting cycle, but not if you are bulking. Unless you change up training or some other factor in your lifestyle, I don't think eating more food will do anything in the short term other than possibly just get you fat. Slowly add calories in as your weight continue to increase. I think the extra calories should come all three macros combined.
Both Sano and ibob have given some pretty good recommendations here. I would agree that decreasing any amount of fasting you are doing and increasing food intake across the board (all times and macros) is the way to go. But like ibob has mentioned if you have gained a fair bit already and would have to force feed to gain more weight then youd likely just get fatter. Especially if “unassisted”. You may need to optimise what you are already doing to make further gains. These would include (but not be limited to) the followingSleep (if this isnt already optimal its a good thing to start with)Diet (nutrients to support growth, especially important is vitamin a, zinc)Training (cut back on recovery reducing practices, schedule or take deloads/time off at appropriate times)Training (change exercises, techniques to keep muscle adaptation high)Avoiding alcohol/drugs as much as possible if not already. Other physical and emotional stressors (stress/adrenaline/cortisol breaks down muscle) So basically you'd need to optimize your hormonal environment as much as possible. Taking some time off bulking, doing some deloading/strategic deconditioning and maybe even doing a mini-cut (2-4 weeks or so perhaps) to reset the body's anabolic responses might go a long way to spurring additional growth. Just some idea's.
Both Sano and ibob have given some pretty good recommendations here. I would agree that decreasing any amount of fasting you are doing and increasing food intake across the board (all times and macros) is the way to go. But like ibob has mentioned if you have gained a fair bit already and would have to force feed to gain more weight then youd likely just get fatter. Especially if "unassisted". You may need to optimise what you are already doing to make further gains. These would include (but not be limited to) the followingSleep (if this isnt already optimal its a good thing to start with)Diet (nutrients to support growth, especially important is vitamin a, zinc)Training (cut back on recovery reducing practices, schedule or take deloads/time off at appropriate times)Training (change exercises, techniques to keep muscle adaptation high)Avoiding alcohol/drugs as much as possible if not already. Other physical and emotional stressors (stress/adrenaline/cortisol breaks down muscle) So basically you'd need to optimize your hormonal environment as much as possible. Taking some time off bulking, doing some deloading/strategic deconditioning and maybe even doing a mini-cut (2-4 weeks or so perhaps) to reset the body's anabolic responses might go a long way to spurring additional growth. Just some idea's.
+1Progress overload in your training. Provide new stimuli for your (CNS) and therefor muscles to react to.. Switch it up in a drastic way. Whether you up your intake during ULC or not, maybe it nutrient dense food not just empty kcal.
Both Sano and ibob have given some pretty good recommendations here. I would agree that decreasing any amount of fasting you are doing and increasing food intake across the board (all times and macros) is the way to go. But like ibob has mentioned if you have gained a fair bit already and would have to force feed to gain more weight then youd likely just get fatter. Especially if "unassisted". You may need to optimise what you are already doing to make further gains. These would include (but not be limited to) the followingSleep (if this isnt already optimal its a good thing to start with)Diet (nutrients to support growth, especially important is vitamin a, zinc)Training (cut back on recovery reducing practices, schedule or take deloads/time off at appropriate times)Training (change exercises, techniques to keep muscle adaptation high)Avoiding alcohol/drugs as much as possible if not already. Other physical and emotional stressors (stress/adrenaline/cortisol breaks down muscle) So basically you'd need to optimize your hormonal environment as much as possible. Taking some time off bulking, doing some deloading/strategic deconditioning and maybe even doing a mini-cut (2-4 weeks or so perhaps) to reset the body's anabolic responses might go a long way to spurring additional growth. Just some idea's.
+1Progress overload in your training. Provide new stimuli for your (CNS) and therefor muscles to react to.. Switch it up in a drastic way. Whether you up your intake during ULC or not, maybe it nutrient dense food not just empty kcal.
I agree with this as well. Training is the stimuli that triggers muscle growth. Nutrition, sleep, ect. simply support it. There have been times where I gained more muscle during a fat loss stage than weight gain phase. So don't forget about training too. Increasing volume on multijoint exercises is a good place to start.
Most certainly, if your not lifting heavier each session, or pushing that extra rep at least… your not going to grow, try drop sets, supersets, etc.
Wow thanks for the response, all good points. The reason I have focused on nutrition is because everything else it pretty on point. Training wise I'm always progressing with either weight or reps and including intensity techniques like your drop sets, pause rest, forced reps, negatives etc. I could prob be getting more sleep tho.I designed my diet when I was 175lbs to get me to 200 which I've managed with no noticeable fat gain. naturally the protein and energy requirements of a 200lbs man are gonna be more. I'll refer back to the CBL book to workout what I need as that seemed to work well before.
Wow thanks for the response, all good points. The reason I have focused on nutrition is because everything else it pretty on point. Training wise I'm always progressing with either weight or reps and including intensity techniques like your drop sets, pause rest, forced reps, negatives etc. I could prob be getting more sleep tho.I designed my diet when I was 175lbs to get me to 200 which I've managed with no noticeable fat gain. naturally the protein and energy requirements of a 200lbs man are gonna be more. I'll refer back to the CBL book to workout what I need as that seemed to work well before.
You're probably on track then. The hard truth is gaining muscle takes a very long time. Unless you are new to lifting, you are lucky if you gain 10 lbs of muscle in a year.
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