Extreme Eating for MASS

[AnaSCI]

A GOOD READ

Extreme Eating for Mass
By Jason Mueller

Bodybuilders are constantly in search of substances
that will increase anabolism. We take our creatine,
glutamine, pyruvate, and a host of other nutritional
supplements in our quest for more muscle. Bodybuilders
who choose to go the "enhanced" route are always
searching for the anabolic drug that will take their
physique to the next level. With all of the means at
our disposal to increase muscular bodyweight, one
simple fact often gets overlooked. Food is the most
anabolic substance we can put in our bodies.

What separates pro-bodybuilders from the rest of us? I
know that people like to engage in discussions about
aesthetics, muscle maturity, and symmetry. However,
it's painfully obvious that the primary difference is
muscular size. It's amusing for me to hear competitors
talk about how great their symmetry is despite the
fact that they don't have enough muscle to win a local
qualifier. Muscular size is the primary indicator of
success in bodybuilding competition. With regular
certainty, the largest man on stage wins the show.

Over the past several years, there has been a push
inside the supplement industry towards low-calories
mass building. We've seen "lean-mass" products appear
on the market, with all of the major supplements
companies like Met-RX and EAS advocating their MRP's
as a way to add lean tissue without gaining additional
fat. It is no longer en vogue to bulk-up in the
off-season, the industry line that is touted in the
magazines these days is that athletes rarely stray too
far from their contest bodyweights. With the advent of
these new nutritional technologies, it is now possible
to be both massively muscled and lean at all times.
Horseshit!!!

The truth is that the pictures seen in the various
bodybuilding publications are all taken immediately
before or after contests. It is not uncommon to see a
bodybuilder put on 20+ lbs the day after a contest!
Most bodybuilding aficionados don't have the slightest
idea of what these athletes look like 95% of the year.
It's mistakenly assumed that these guys always look
fairly lean and chiseled. Nothing could be further
from the truth.

By attempting to stay lean year-round, you are
sabotaging your goals to become as muscular as humanly
possible. Athletes who constantly chase more muscle
while worrying about body fat levels will never gain
the muscle they need to achieve their goals. Let's
consider this question: Which is harder to build, fat
or muscle? Obviously, muscle. Next question. Which is
easier to lose, fat or muscle? For those of you that
said muscle, sorry, wrong answer, thanks for playing.
Once muscle is built it's a fairly easy proposition to
maintain it while dieting off body fat.

I honestly can't fault anyone for following these
"lean mass" programs. Being bloated and fat in the
off-season isn't any fun. If any of you have had the
chance to see Lee Priest in the off-season, you'll
know what I mean. The man is nearly unrecognizable
from the contest and ad pictures we constantly see in
the various publications. Lee doesn't get just a
little heavy, he gets fat. It don't think he would be
offended if I say he looks like a lop of shit.
However, when the fat comes off, and it surely does
every year, Lee's physique is amazing. If you talk to
Lee, and ask him what his secret to success is, he'll
tell you. It's food.

So, why all the secrecy and smoke and mirrors
surrounding the nutritional profiles of these
athletes? One simple reason. Money. Money from
endorsements, contracts, and ad work. Say I'm an up
and coming national level bodybuilder. I'm eating over
7,000 calories a day. In order to do this, I'm
consuming a lot of fatty foods, hell, I'm eating
McDonalds and ice cream as much as possible. Why?
Because I cannot physically consume that level of
caloric intake in clean, low-fat foods. It cannot be
done. However, do the supplement companies want their
customers to know this? Of course not. Look, it's an
accepted premise that all national and professional
level bodybuilders take steroids, right? However, it's
something that's never discussed in the supplement
industry, and bodybuilders get paid to endorse
products. So, they lie. My success is based largely on
the fact that I use XYZ Protein. I was able to compete
20 lb heavier at this year's Mr. O because I was
taking Sportgear prohormones. Whatever. My point isn't
that nutritional supplements don't have their place,
they certainly do. (We'll discuss that in a feature
article in next month's issue of Anabolic Extreme) My
point is that professional bodybuilders are used
because there is a large segment of the population
that would like to emulate that look. If they can be
made to believe that look is obtained through clean
eating and sports supplements, who's hurt, right?

I've seen so many genetically gifted bodybuilders fail
in the quest to achieve greatness. 9 times out of 10
the culprit is nutrition. Specifically, the problem is
not consuming enough calories. I can't tell you how
many times I've had an athlete come to me who has hit
a plateau. I modify their nutrition slightly and they
are growing again. People, you are not going to
achieve brutal muscle size on 3,500 kcal a day!! I
don't care what anyone else tells you, I've seen it
fail and I know it doesn't work. All successful
national and professional level bodybuilders eat all
day long. In the off-season their only concern is
getting those meals in and eating enough protein.
Anyone can train intensely given the right
circumstances and knowledge. Any fool can jab
themselves with steroids. However, there are very few
people in the sport of bodybuilding that are
consistently able, day in and day out, to eat their
6-8 meals a day and consume enough calories to reach
anabolic extreme. (Please refer to the Ian Harrison
interview in this month's issue for Ian's thoughts on
off-season bodybuilding nutrition)

What are your goals as a bodybuilder? Is it your goal
to have an aesthetically pleasing physique, staying
relatively lean year round? Or is it to carry as much
muscle as your genetic potential will allow? One goal
is not nobler than the other, but they certainly
require different strategies. While it is possible to
stay relatively lean year round once a desired level
of muscle has been achieved, it is not possible to do
this while trying to gain the muscle initially. Unless
extraordinary circumstances are present, muscle cannot
be added and fat lost at the same time!! The
conditions necessary for this to happen are so rare
and require so many drugs that it's not worthy of
discussion in this article. Muscle is gained by eating
over and above what is required for maintenance. Fat
is lost by eating less than what is required for
maintenance. It's virtually impossible to gain muscle
without adding some concomitant fat, conversely, it's
almost impossible to lose fat without losing
concomitant muscle tissue. These are the irrefutable
facts.

 

[AnaSCI]

We see a lot of huge professional bodybuilders in the
off-season that would not be characterized as "fat" in
the normal sense of the word. They are fat only by
bodybuilding standards. As I'm writing this, it's
Wednesday, November 17, 1999. Last Saturday I was
lucky enough to see Ronnie Coleman in Sacramento, CA.
Ronnie competes close to 260 lbs at a height of about
5'10". When I saw him, he was weighing in at about 305
lb still appearing to be fairly lean, just weeks after
his wins at some major European shows. The whole time
I was at this event, Ronnie was eating. Burgers,
fries, you name it, he ate it. In a few months, he
should well over 320, eating everything in site in his
attempt to add more muscle. This is 60+ lb over his
competition bodyweight. It's also what is necessary to
continue to grow.

Dorian is one of the people responsible for the new
era of freakiness seen in bodybuilding today. I was
fortunate enough to see Dorian a few times in the
off-season during his competitive heyday. I was able
to sit and have lunch with Dorian through a friend of
mine immediately after he announced his retirement
from competition. Among the myriad of subjects that
were discussed, off-season nutrition certainly was one
of the most interesting. Does anyone remember the 1995
Night of Champions when Dorian guest-posed at roughly
300 lbs? That was nearly unheard of at the time. Many
said that he was too fat and out of shape and that
would never come be able to come down for the O. Not
only did Dorian lose the weight, he crushed his
competition. Dorian's philosophy was that his
off-season appearance was inconsequential. What
mattered was what he looked like when he stepped on
stage. During the off-season, his nutrition centered
around two simple factors: total caloric intake and
total protein intake. Nothing else mattered.

The Role of Drugs in Diet
Before we continue on, I'd like to make it clear that
the nutritional strategies that are discussed in this
article are not designed with the health of the
athlete in mind. Additionally, the plan we will
outline will be of benefit only to bodybuilders using
significant amounts of growth promoting drugs,
specifically heavy androgens. In a future issue of
Anabolic Extreme, we will examine the various
high-fat, low-carb diets, which I feel are
particularly effective for natural athletes. Please
bear in mind that any numbers or figures discussed in
this article would apply only to bodybuilders that are
fairly advanced and using a significant amount of
steroid. Nutritional strategies would vary for
beginners or natural athletes. I can always be
contacted via the site and try and answer as many
emails as possible. I'm also available for
consultations and on-line training.

Obviously, something is going on here that is allowing
these guys to consume an enormous amount of calories
and not have it go straight to their ass and gut. If a
natural athlete were to eat in this fashion, he'd soon
be getting a visit from a sobbing Richard Simmons. The
drugs these athletes take not only have an anabolic
effect, but have some effect on adipose tissue as
well. So, out of the myriad of drugs these athletes
use, which are responsible for keeping for them both
large and lean (relatively!) at the same time?


Hopefully everyone is aware of the amazing effect HGH
has on reducing body fat. This is one of the few real
world effects of growth that has been proven through
scientific research. Its effects on lean body mass, at
least according to all of the studies I've read, are
less than impressive. This isn't what I've witnessed
with my own eyes, but I don't even want to open up
that can of worms here! However, all of the studies on
growth show that it burns fat, with some subjects
losing as much as 15% of their fat tissue.

Testosterone has a proven effect on lipolysis (fat
release) in adipose tissue. To my knowledge, there has
never been a study done using young, healthy males and
large doses of testosterone to determine its effects
on body composition. For the most part, studies done
on growth hormone and testosterone are performed on
aging populations and geriatrics, or severely ill
individuals suffering from wasting conditions.
However, there have been a few studies on younger
males using very low doses of testosterone that have
clearly demonstrated its effectiveness at reducing
body fat.

Meal Planning, Frequency, and Consistency
We've all heard we should eat 4-6 meals a day. I try
and have most of my clients shoot for 6-8 meals a day.
Why? Well, let's say your caloric intake on any given
day needs to be 7500 kcals per day. If you consume
this over three meals, each meal will contain
approximately 2500 kcal. Realistically, your body is
not going to be able to digest this many calories and
much of the nutrient value of the food is lost. By
spreading these meals over 7 sittings, you're able to
effectively digest the food and maximize the benefits
of eating at this level. Additionally, your metabolism
is going to speed up since every time you consume
food, your body has to expend energy to digest it.

Eating more frequent smaller meals has been proven to
have positive effects on cholesterol and body fat
levels. Now, I'm not telling you that eating 7,500
kcals is unhealthy when consumed in three meals but
healthy when spread out over seven. Eating calories at
that level is unhealthy, PERIOD!! However,
bodybuilding is about achieving a certain cosmetic
effect, and the extremes of bodybuilding are only
reached through extreme measures. If this frightens
you, you need to reevaluate your goals. Again, we are
discussing what it takes to succeed in the upper
echelons of the sport.

When it becomes necessary to consume calories at this
level, life becomes a constant stream of eating,
cooking, cleaning, and eating again. Most pro
bodybuilders don't have a job outside the sport, the
daily regimen that's required to be successful
precludes outside work. Meals should be consumed every
2-3 hours with clockwork precision. This ensures a
constant supply of nutrients and protein in the
bloodstream. Obviously it's nearly impossible to
consume 6-8 solid food meals a day, most athletes will
take 3-4 or their meals in liquid form. Since these
liquid meals are more easily digested than whole
foods, it allows the bodybuilder a respite if 7-8
meals are required to get the necessary caloric
intake.

So, how many calories are necessary for growth? Every
athlete has a different caloric need, based on a
variety of factors. At the elite level, athletes have
been known to consume 25-30 kcal per lb of bodyweight
per day. What's important to understand is that the
level of caloric consumption should be based on the
weight you are striving for, not your current weight.
Let's take Joe Bodybuilder. Joe weighs 260 lbs at 6'
and has been lifting seriously for several years now.
His friends keep telling him to compete at the State
level so he's decided to get up to 300 lbs and diet
back. However, no matter how hard he tries, he can't
add any more muscle. The problem probably lies with
Joe's nutrition program. Since he wants to weigh 300
lbs, he might have to eat somewhere in the range of
8,000-9,000 kcal per day to achieve that weight. Most
bodybuilders are unable to do this.

If Joe does have the willpower to do this, what should
he eat? I've known many elite bodybuilders that eat
whatever they want in the off season. Certainly they
focus on protein consumption, but after that,
everything is fair game. It is possible to eat in a
fashion that is conducive to both fat loss and
muscular gain but that requires constant monitoring of
the athlete and is beyond the scope of this article.

The bodybuilding media has perpetrated the myth that
we should be in shape all year long. Realistically,
this is ultimately a recipe for disaster in your quest
to add muscular size. Staying lean year round is the
domain of male models and endurance athletes. If
you're serious about packing on as much muscle as
possible, go buy that baggy T-shirt and start loading
up on the groceries. When you diet off that extra
flab, you'll find that you've taken your physique to a
whole new level.