BULKING on High Fat & Low Carbs

AVelasques911 · Jun 10, 2018

Tom said:
I have been doing high fats and lower carbs for a long time now and swear by it. I also do not eat excessive amounts of protein like most here advocate keeping it around 125 grams per day. I look better and feel healthier eating this way. I get most of my fats from raw nuts mostly almonds, cashews and walnuts.

Same.

I go even more extreme though, at 5'9 I maintain 190 on about 75g of protein per day. Most fats from nuts and seeds, I do add some dried fruit and something sweet here and there as I'm not trying to dip into ketosis, my body just doesn't handle too much sugar or fibrous carbs well.

This is always controversial but I don't believe a caloric surplus is needed for gaining muscle (I don't like the term mass). I believe as long as you are not in contest-prep starvation mode, you can gain muscle just fine just eating a good amount of protein (half a gram per pound) and getting lots of micronutrients as well as a good source of essential fats. If you are gaining centimeters, or even an inch over time on your waist, that's your body telling you it has more than it needs to do all the tasks you're asking of it, that's literally not-needed energy spilling over, it doesn't need to "bulk", it's got enough to get things done. If you are on certain nutrient partitioning drugs, understandable, eat away, you'll get results but too many natural or close to natural bodybuilders want to eat like they are top-level MMA fighters or marathon runners that are burning insane amounts of calories and glycogen, our sport is a very easy one (try a proper MMA conditioning routine if you don't believe so).

I'm 190. 18.5 neck, 46 chest, 17.5 arms, 30-31.5 waist, 24 legs ...... not too bad for someone who eats 75g of protein and maybe 1500 calories per day year round, on only TRT.

That's just me though. But I see people constantly bulk up every year from say, 170 to 210, then diet right back down to 168-173. Year after year, after decade getting fat all year just to be right back at the same weight class. Seems more like a psychological need to be "big in clothes" IMO because if you've been at this for years and not adding or upping any dosages of anything, you aren't gaining anything.

FK86 · Jun 10, 2018

AVelasques911 said:
But I see people constantly bulk up every year from say, 170 to 210, then diet right back down to 168-173. Year after year, after decade getting fat all year just to be right back at the same weight class.

Thanks for your input. This in particular is a classic scenario for a lot of natural people. Guys on gear hate hearing this because they think it takes from their hard work, but the nutritional recommendations for someone on the sauce and someone natural isn't going to be the same. There are general guidelines that obviously are; high protein, caloric surplus, but putting food into a normal bloodstream and one that is enriched with testosterone, tren, DNP, insulin, and GH is obviously different. GH is the reason Strydom could smash 7000 calories a day and still have his waist taper.

Palumbo, Serrano, and Meadows have definitely advocated not to fear fat. The magazines for so long just constantly peddle 2-3 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight to gain. I think I got fat just typing that.

Then of course you have Gironda who was a protein and fats guy 50 years ago. He was ahead of his time on a lot of things.

Sixfoottwo · Jun 10, 2018

Shape-wise I prefer eating fat/protein meals all day except for post workout when I will eat carbs. Problem is I need roughly 5000 kcal to gain and I need to eat such a load of fat I'm on the crapper the entire day.

RamboStallone · Jun 10, 2018

I prefer carbs over fats. When I tried higher fat diets it prevented me from getting leaner when I needed to, made it harder and slower. With carbs, even if I overdid it, a few days and I can lean back out. Everyone is soo against carbs these days with these BS keto diets, etc. Carbs are not bad, you just have to eat the right carbs.

FK86 · Jun 10, 2018

RamboStallone said:
Everyone is so against carbs these days with these BS keto diets, etc. Carbs are not bad, you just have to eat the right carbs.

I agree and am not aiming to eliminate the macronutrient altogether. I just think a gram per pound or less (depending on goals) would be enough and placing a greater emphasis on protein and healthy fats to gain would be better. It's what I'm going to experiment with and it sounds like what asteelz benefited from before he passed on.

shelflife · Jun 10, 2018

unless i misunderstood, , mat porter found that a high fat diet combined with certain PEDs negatively impacted his triglyceride profile.
mark bell said the same thing in one of his podcasts.

whats your current cycle(if any), and what does you blood work reflect while on this type of diet ?

FK86 · Jun 10, 2018

shelflife said:
unless i misunderstood, , mat porter found that a high fat diet combined with certain PEDs negatively impacted his triglyceride profile.
mark bell said the same thing in one of his podcasts.

whats your current cycle(if any), and what does you blood work reflect while on this type of diet ?

How much fat were they taking in? Of course there would be such a thing as too much. What kind of fats? Sausage and bacon all day? Big time detrimental.

Not on cycle, clean. Always have been, always will be. The reason I had initially dug up this old thread was to utilize a different approach to mass gain as the typical high carb approach doesn't seem to work for me in acquiring lean tissue. I am also interested in the hormonal benefits fats provide. As the OP had stated; having healthy fats in the 150 g-200 g range.