Month: November 2008

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General Philosophies of Muscle Mass Gain

Because of the primary focus of my books and many of my article topics I tend to get tagged as the fat-loss guy more often than not; but nutrition and training for muscle gain is actually a primary interest of mine. Having worked with bodybuilders, powerlifters and other athletes over the years, figuring out the optimal approach for muscle mass gains is just as important.

In this article (which will actually form an introduction to a series of articles I’ll be doing over the next several weeks and months), I want to talk about some basic concepts related to mass gaining nutrition, primarily looking at some of the different philosophies of mass-gaining that are out there. As usually, I’ll look at each in my normal way, looking at the various pros and cons of each approach.

And, of course, I’ll give my own recommendations for what I think is actually optimal for most trainees under most circumstances.… Keep Reading

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How Many Carbohydrates Do You Need?

How many carbohydrates do you need to eat?  This is one of those perennial questions around which there is endless debate.  One the one hand, mainstream nutritionists continue to recommend very high carbohydrate intakes.  On the other are “fringe” groups who are convinced that carbohydrates are the cause of all ills in the world.

And while I have discussed these controversies previously, primarily focusing on health issues, I want to look at the topic again in a more athletic context.

Carbohydrate Intake Recommendations

It’s safe to say that most carbohydrate recommendations that you will see are put in terms of percentages, you should be eating 45% of your calories as carbs, or 65% or whatever number is being used.

Now, I don’t like to use percentages to set up a diet as they can be terribly misleading. A low percentage of a very high calorie intake may have more total carbs than a high percentage of a lower calorie intake.… Keep Reading

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Meal Frequency and Energy Balance

Perhaps one of the longest standing claims is that a high meal frequency will improve fat loss, spare muscle loss or have some other beneficial effect over a lower meal frequency.    But is this claim actually true?  To examine the topic, I want to look at the following paper.

Bellisle F et. al. Meal frequency and energy balance. Br J Nutr. (1997) 77 (Suppl 1):S57-70.

My Comments

Perhaps one of the longest standing dogmas in the weight loss and bodybuilding world is the absolute necessity of eating frequently for various reasons. Specific to weight loss, how many times have you heard something along the lines of “Eating 6 times per day stokes the metabolic fire.” or “You must eat 6 times per day to lose fat effectively.” or “Skipping even one meal per day will slow your metabolic rate and you’ll hoard fat.” Probably a lot

Well, guess what. The idea is primarily based on awful observational studies and direct research (where meal frequency is varied within the context of an identical number of calories under controlled conditions) says that it’s all basically nonsense.… Keep Reading

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A Guide to Bench Press Technique

It’s safe to say that, in the US at least, the bench press is one of the favorite exercises of most trainees (especially males). Let’s face it, if someone finds out if you lift, their first question is invariably “How much do you bench?”.    The problem being that most people’s bench press technique is awful.

Mind you, this isn’t exclusive to the bench press.  Most people in most gyms do most movement wrong and the bench press is no exception.   I’ve seen staggering amounts of truly amusing things done on bench press, usually by guys who want to lift more weight to impress their buddies and/or hit the minimum macho poundage (which ranges from 225 to 315 lbs depending on what type of gym you’re in).

Never mind that the bench is realistically more or less responsible for more shoulder injuries than any other lift, the reality is that trainees will want to do it.… Keep Reading

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Insulin Levels and Fat Loss

Insulin is a complicated hormone, complicated further by the amount of utter nonsense and gibberish that is written about it when it comes to dieting, fat loss and fat gain.  And one of the many questions that comes up is this:

If insulin goes up when we eat, storing nutrients and inhibiting fat mobilization, how do we actually lose fat during a calorie deficit?  Does insulin eventually just drop so fat burning can resume?  How does the glycemic index (GI) impact this?  Will eating a lower GI food make a difference compared to a higher GI food?

I think you get the idea.  So let me try to address each of this by looking at the impact of insulin on fat loss along with those other issues.

Insulin is a bit Schizophrenic

This is because, in a lot of ways, insulin is a schizophrenic hormone.  Depending on what folks read (e.g.… Keep Reading