You don't need to eat more, you just need to improve the quality of your foods. Just eat good basic fresh foods, believe me if you ditch all of those junk ridden flapjacks etc and stick to fresh meats/eggs/vegetables/fruits etc you won't feel bloated or uncomfortable. The weight/muscle will gradually increase, stop trying to rush things.
Why can't I put on any more weight? Am I just limited by my genetics?
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You don't need to eat more, you just need to improve the quality of your foods. Just eat good basic fresh foods, believe me if you ditch all of those junk ridden flapjacks etc and stick to fresh meats/eggs/vegetables/fruits etc you won't feel bloated or uncomfortable. The weight/muscle will gradually increase, stop trying to rush things.
Soldato
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Bull ****.
(to a degree)
Are you telling me if i dropped my ~3500 calorie diet which includes a fair amount of crap, in favour of eating "better quality" foods but far less calories, i would still gain weight? Because i can assure you 100% that isn't the case.
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I'd have to eat mammoth amounts of veg/fruit to get the calories I need more than i'm eating now.
Soldato
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Citation needed.
No, but I am saying that if you ate 3500 cals of food that didn't include any crap you'd make equally good gains (probably better) and IMO you'd be healthier and feel even better physically/mentally.
I didn't say he should eat less just better, pretty obvious what he's currently doing isn't working well for him.
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He's not really that far off.
Quality of food and calories are important. For example, several spoons of MCTs will give you more calories than a plate of food - will that make you feel full? No not really.
Protein rich foods stave off appetite, but add to them good quality fats then you've got a calorie rich yet satiating meal.
Lots of carbs will fill you up, provide energy, but will generally, not be as nutritionally effective as better quality foods.
Yes yes yes, ultimately calories in vs calories out is key - but making those calories in of improved quality and bioavailability as well as beneficial to health the more you are likely to use to not only increase muscle size, but less likely to turn to fat.
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Processed carbs are hugely insulin responsive - insulin is a fat storage hormone - and processed carbs are full of sugar etc... you know the rest.
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You'd store less fat (potentially) - and your metabolism would be more effective. FACT. (yup it's in capitals, ergo it's the TRUTH!
).you forgot the peanut butter
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Oh i don't deny that. But the fact of the matter is i can't physically eat 3500 cals of "clean" food. I just can't do it.
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Let's not get onto that topic (steroids as it's very easy to kill yourself with it - so let's put an end to that discussion right now).
Insulin is a storage hormone, but loves to store fat - however it also shuttles other nutrients around the body.
Along with glucose it also allows amino acids to be drawn into the muscle cells. This dramatically increases protein synthesis (the more insulin the more this happens), this builds/rebuilds muscle tissue. I believe it can also increase testosterone production through the increasing of LH and follicle stimulating hormones. There are also synergies with how it interacts with IGF and GH.
I'm not saying insulin is not good - au contraire - however, a decent insulin uptake with decent food in you is MUCH better than ****** insulin spike shuttling crap around your body. It's very simplified however.
Insulin is a storage hormone, but loves to store fat - however it also shuttles other nutrients around the body.
Along with glucose it also allows amino acids to be drawn into the muscle cells. This dramatically increases protein synthesis (the more insulin the more this happens), this builds/rebuilds muscle tissue. I believe it can also increase testosterone production through the increasing of LH and follicle stimulating hormones. There are also synergies with how it interacts with IGF and GH.
I'm not saying insulin is not good - au contraire - however, a decent insulin uptake with decent food in you is MUCH better than ****** insulin spike shuttling crap around your body. It's very simplified however.
My diet isn't the best example for some of the reasons FF referred to: but i'm not rich enough to change it unfortunately, or would rather spend my money on other things. It's good enough to give me all the nutrition I require however.
If I had the choice I'd **** off the peanut butter for proper nuts, eat completely organic food, switch milk for Almond milk because it's full of hormones and whatever else they put in cows these days, drop the few processed foods I do eat such as Pasta and add in other things like Flax seeds and Quinoa which are very expensive. Now I'm not recommending this as it's unnecessary to build muscle but it will make you healthier therefore you'll perform better and feel better so it will have a small impact when you hit the Gym.
I don't think this is your main problem though and as you work in manual labour and work out 5-6 times a week.
I'm a warehouse operative, specifically I do loading as it's what I enjoy which is very physical. I could sit on a forklift all day but that' boring. Add into that cycling 10 miles a day up hills to commute then by the time I get in I'm knackered and can barely bring myself to lift heavy things. As I'm brand new to this I'm hoping as I make more gains it'll become easier but it's definitely a lot of work and I have to make sure I get enough recovery time in to cope with it all.
For you specifically from what you've said I think you're doing too much which isn't allowing you time to recover and you're not meeting your calorie needs to make gains because of all the extra workload. Like the guy on here who was swimming an insane amount and despite eating 5,000+ cals a day was probably using all of that when swimming.
So maybe dropping your workload down to 3 days a week mon/wed/fri and simplifying it as Mrthingx suggested will mean you'll be getting a calorie surplus with the quantity of food you're eating currently. That and trying to tweak your diet to be a bit more healthier.
For diet take a look here: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php
if you stick to the foods in that list and aim for the proper macro's with atleast 5 or 6 portions of fruit&veg a day and see how you get on. You'll get most of your calories from grains such as oats&brown rice, Lean meats, nuts/peanut butter and Dairy. 3,500 cals is easily achievable while eating relatively healthily and you can always add in a flapjack or two to hit 4,000+.
I reckon you could, have a couple of these a day along with all of your usual meat/fish, veg etc! Egg drink. chuck a couple of extra eggs in to get the protein levels up. 714 cals per drink + 180 if you add a couple more large eggs, so 894 x 2 = 1788 cals. Best energy drink on the planet!
MCTs, good Saturated fats and protein. I'll probably get slaughtered for posting that due to the high fat content, but what can I say, they're healthy fats.(yeah I know citation needed).
I've been on 2 a day of these for years and I carry very little body fat. Wouldn't say I'm into the weights like I was but still do 3 or 4 workouts a week on moderate to heavyish weight and aim to just keep in good well muscled, lean shape, 46 this year so I'm a bit long in the tooth to be aiming at mass.
For someone like you though who's in his prime I'd say good natural clean foods in conjunction with your current regime will stand you in good stead for years to come in your training, you already know what you're doing and get good advice from the blokes in here anyway so you don't need me confusing matters. But it's pretty easy to eat 3500 clean cals a day, and if you do, as the years progress your body will definitely thank you for it.
Soldato
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Interesting. What's the white solid in the picture, coconut oil? Might need unsalted butter..
I have no problems with fats I have the largest knob of butter in my scrambled eggs that is possible.
I have no problems with fats
I have the largest knob of butter in my scrambled eggs that is possible.Christ I don't even realise i'm doing it! It was 4 years ago though. Guess I haven't learnt much! Thing is advice is so contradicting and you learn new things every time. I wouldn't have even thought people look badly on brown pasta until this thread or apples and milk.
Interesting. What's the white solid in the picture, coconut oil? Might need unsalted butter..
I have no problems with fats
Yeah the white stuff is VCO (Virgin Coconut oil). Unsalted butter probably would make the drink taste better but it's already pretty delicious.(though you may not think it at first glance
) One draw back though is coconut oil isn't cheap, I get mine from here these days as it seems to work out cheaper than getting it from any of the uk suppliers.Reminds me of a guy I knew well at Uni years ago. 6 feet tall and 10 stone dead. He started training and after a month he had put on half a stone, and when i chatted to him he said he felt great! I bumped in to him again a few weeks later and he said he'd given up training and was back to ten stone. When I asked why? He said that he was fed up (forgive the pun) force feeding himself and eating when he wasn't hungry!