Questions about calories/diet

[speakeasy]

I know my diet is inadequate, I plateued and I'm no longer getting any stronger or gaining any weight even though my workout didn't change. I know it's simply my diet and I'm not getting enough calories.

I have sort of a chicken-egg question. If you get bigger does it increase your appetite thus prompting you to want to eat more, or is it the other way around with you having to force yourself to eat more than your body wants in order get bigger. I hover around 160 and I'm 5'8". I could easily get by on less than 1500 calories a day and not even be hungry once. I used to eat just one meal a day before I got into working out, with maybe a snack here and there and never even felt like I needed much more. I think I just have that kind of metabolism. I've never been a big eater and I get full quickly. I've heard that you should be getting 3000 calories a day at least to put on bulk, but problem is, my appetite doesn't prompt me to want to eat that much.

Second question, if you were to in theory eat 3000 calories a day but little of it was protein, would you be able to put on ANY muscle at all? Or is it strictly no protein surplus = no muscle?

 

[Warboss Alex]

At 31 your metabolism/diet will be different to how it was at 21. It's normal to have a lower appetite because of a lower metabolic rate. A high proten diet with cardio and other things (vegetables, green tea) can help boost your metabolism and get you hungry.

You must eat by the clock and not by your hunger, every 2-3 hours. Once you force yourself to do this for a while, your stomach expands (not permanently), your metabolism increases and your appetite gets better, and you WILL get hungry for your 5-6 meals a day..

Muscle is built from protein, no two ways about it. It is not physiologically constructed from fats or carbs. Little protein = little muscle gain. But why would anyone want to go on a low protein diet anyway?

ps if you're considering a low protein diet.. don't do it, at your age it is even more important for a thermogenic diet through higher protein intake, and low carbs as your insulin sensitivity is definitely reduced.

 

[Throttle]

I have sort of a chicken-egg question.

the answer: eat more chicken. eat more eggs. esp. the latter.

 

[speakeasy]

Here's a mystery to me, what explains herbivourous yet muscular animals like bison, horses, bulls, giraffe that eat nothing but grass, yet are ripped. I wonder where they get their protein for muscle growth from.

 

[Master Bates]

Here's a mystery to me, what explains herbivourous yet muscular animals like bison, horses, bulls, giraffe that eat nothing but grass, yet are ripped. I wonder where they get their protein for muscle growth from.

streams are a great source of natural Whey.

 

[Fuglydude]

I'm close to your stats at 5'8" - 170 and I think I would end up going to jail at 1500 cals a day because I'd get so hungry/hypoglycemic and irritated that I'd freak out and hurt people! I have to eat every 3 hours, at 4 hours I start going kinda loopy.

3000 cals is what I take in per day on average. I diet on 2500-3000, just up my protein, eat cleaner and do cardio and take more thermos. Eating higher protein not only helps me recover faster, but also helps me to stay leaner.

Animals can synthesize amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins. An amino acid structurally is pretty simple, with a central tetravalent carbon bonded to a hydrogen, a -COOH group, an -NH2 group and a variable R group. Therefore, its not tough for our metabolisms to make these molecules. In humans I think its 8 or 9 of the 20 commonly occurring amino acids are deemed essential, in that our bodies do not have the proper metabolic machinery to generate them from other organic molecules. Other amino acids are called conditionally essential. I'm not sure about what amino acids are essential/conditionally essential in large herbivores.

By supplying your body with ample amounts of amino acids dispersed through out the course of the day not only do you make it easier for your body to regenerate/heal other tissue faster because you always have an available pool of amino acids, but you also speed up your metabolism because conversion of excess amino acids to other metabolites requires a step called transamination which takes energy. This is one of the ways in which eating more protein increases your metabolic rate. Furthermore, restricting carbohydrate intake and eating higher protein will further increase your body's ability to burn fat because not only will you have the higher metabolic rate from consuming higher amounts of protein, but you'll also turn to your adipose tissue for energy when you don't have that much carbohydrates to metabolise.

The human body will typically preferentially and selectively metabolise carbohydrates for energy over other sources. Restrict carb intake...and burn fat!

 

[Warboss Alex]

Here's a mystery to me, what explains herbivourous yet muscular animals like bison, horses, bulls, giraffe that eat nothing but grass, yet are ripped. I wonder where they get their protein for muscle growth from.

it is in their genetic makeup.. if you lived in the wild all day you'd have a greater propensity to be lean and muscular, as opposed to 'civilised' human beings who sit at a desk all day and eat refined carbs.

if you are genetically inclined to carry muscle at a low bodyfat, you will even on lower protein intakes. man used to be genetically predisposed to be lean and muscular too, til agricultural carbs and sedentary lifestyles came in.

that said, there's still genetically elite individuals (everyone knows a (usually black) guy who eats one meal a day and is bigger and leaner than you could ever become).

animals have evolved to get by on lower protein intakes from inferior sources (plant protein), we have not. it's all in the DNA.

we should all be like that too, but since we don't have to hunt our meat or escape sabretooth tigers anymore, we haven't had the need to be and have 'devolved' (compare the skeletal structure of a caveman to modern day man - you'll find the cave dude had a huge frame and huge frame, both necessities to easily carry muscle).

 

[Warboss Alex]

The human body will typically preferentially and selectively metabolise carbohydrates for energy over other sources. Restrict carb intake...and burn fat!

carbs suck.

 

[mrRuckus]

I know my diet is inadequate, I plateued and I'm no longer getting any stronger or gaining any weight even though my workout didn't change. I know it's simply my diet and I'm not getting enough calories.

You should still be able to get stronger without a surplus of calories.

 

[Throttle]

Here's a mystery to me, what explains herbivourous yet muscular animals like bison, horses, bulls, giraffe that eat nothing but grass, yet are ripped. I wonder where they get their protein for muscle growth from.

they spend literally all day standing and eating, and they have stomachs that are extremely efficient at processing vegetation.

and here's the kicker: in the wild, with access only to vegetation, they all grow lean, especially beef. they don't develop intramuscular fat unless we start feeding them corn (with all it's sugars & starch). cows get fat on carbs, too.

 

[mrRuckus]

your mom gets fat on carbs