If your bulking, what is the best split for protein, carbs, and fats? Does it matter? Lately, i've been only eating about 100g of carbs a day and the rest from good fats and high protein. Is this a good idea, or should i have lower fat, high carb? I'm bulking just a little over maintenance and want to gain about 1lb a week...

This is my short opinion, if you want to "straight bulk":

Set an adequate surplus at the beginning, and watch your feed back with a keen eye. If too much body fat is accumulating, reduce calories, tweak carbohydrates a tad (since glucose stores are full). Try one, the other, or both, and see what is best.

Your calorie surplus is your first parameter in being anabolic.

While Protein consumption is important, I believe Carbohydrate consumption to be the most important between the two--in a bulk cycle. Keep Protein consumption above 1g per pound of body weight, or a ball park figure around this.

Keep your glucose stores full (adequate Carbohydrate timing, and consumption will take care of this).

Your glucose storage is the second parameter in being anabolic.

Here we can define very, very low as 20 to 50g, low as 75-100g, moderate as 100-200g, and high anything over 200g per day.

For basic performance needs and attempt at proper weight gain, 200g or more per day is a good starting point. Again, remember this as a possible tweak point.

Additional opinion on the mighty carb: If you're looking to improve body composition and drop fat quicker (later for example), keeping carbs under 100g per day is a good idea. The moderate approach is the balance point, still allowing improvements in body comp while not entirely sacrificing performance. And, going lower as fat loss problems develop.

Fill the remaining with good fats.

And, remember this:

The first parameter in being catabolic: Calorie deficit.
The second parameter in being catabolic: Glucose lowering/depletion.

It is as easy as this, my friend!


ROCK ON!


Best regards,

Chillen

Great stuff.

I'm 5'10 and 165. I just got my stomach thin with my abs peeking through. What should be my mix if I want to keep a slim weight and put on about 10 pounds of muscle?

Right now I'm eating about 2300-2400 calories per day with 4 days of heavy lifting and no cardio.

I get about 150 g's of protein, 250 g's of carbs, and 70 g's of fat. I also drink about 10 cups of water per day.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Excellent post Chillster.

Wow, oldspice; amazing that you can eat 100g of carbs a day. I try my darnest and closest that I got is 150g. Shoot a banana has 29g and bagel has 58g. I don't doubt that you are doing it consistently but wow.

Start out with increasing carbs to 200g like chillen said to help keep your muscle glycogen saturated and eat 1g of protein per pound. Take whey after working out and eat slow digesting after that. Think cottage cheese and chicken breast. Putting on 1 lb a week is tough man, at least for me. Ideally, 1 lb is the max muscle gain that the average person can get, fyi. I'd be happy with 1/2 a lb of lean muscle gain a week.