Karim's muscle gain carnivore adventure

(Karim Wassef) #21

I’ve been retooling my food intake to try and bring the protein closer to 1g / lb of lean mass.

I’m 140g of lean mass now and my target is 160g so I’m using the target (even though I shouldn’t).

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Also wanted to simplify and remove as many plant components as I can. I just can’t give up the mayo with EVOO… it’s the last plant standing.

While this may seem excessive - here’s my daily intake the last time I was carnivore (prior to the extended fast):

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I gained a lot of weight over that time … no idea how much of it was fat vs. muscle:

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went from 163 to 193 in three months of keto carnivore (Jan - Mar). I ate way more than satiation clearly, but it was an experiment. My GKI was over 12 most days - super anabolic

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Now with both the over-eating keto carni experiment done, and my extended fast done, this is going to be a balanced keto carni experiment.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #23

I’m addicted to squats. With my tailbone injury from the accident, I owe a lot of my mobility to doing so many squats because the muscle memory gives me very good control over movements.

Cant wait to get back to doing them.

(mole person) #24

I adore squats too. I’d gone my whole life thinking my butt was just really “meh”, but when I started CrossFit with all the squatting, both weighted and air, that just really changed. I was in shock. I had a nice butt for the first time in my life at 50!

(Karim Wassef) #25

I like alternating wide (sumo) and narrow stance for squats. Range of motion is still hard for me going as far down as I’d like. I started doing seated starts (starting seated in the lowest point of the range of motion) to get there.

Best glute building exercise is the hip thrust … https://www.stack.com/a/hip-thrust

(mole person) #26

Interesting, I’ve not seen that exercise before. That link suggests it’s helpful when you have issues getting low enough in your squats, but what if you don’t? My ass goes to grass although this does get harder when significantly weighted.

(Karim Wassef) #27

The two aren’t really related. The thrusts are alll about just glutes.

The range of motion issue is a combination of glutes, quads and hams.

(Karim Wassef) #28
(Little Miss Scare-All) #29

Yeah I do sets of 20 weighted and air, of varying leg width. Wider obviously uses more inner thigh, and sometimes I’ll go well past the 90 degree form standard.

I see a lot of people at the gym with the most horrendous squat form. I used to take this sports endurance strength training class 3x a week for years, and Id cringe at peoples lunges and squat form. Not being snobby but it really was bad.

(Karim Wassef) #30

No. That’s definitely snobby… :smile:

I like to think of it as wishing they would take more care… the caring makes it not snobby. :joy:

(Little Miss Scare-All) #31

Well that was part of it! If you saw it, lunges were the worst.

But in all honestly, I guess I am kind of a form snob. I just believe in taking the proper measures to do it right. It actually makes the motion harder when form is proper, because other muscles aren’t jumping in and taking the load off the muscle you’re targeting. Coupled with negative sets at the end of each set. :metal:

(Karim Wassef) #32

So. I’m still struggling with the macro math for this new experiment…

I want to stay under 140g of protein but I also want to have my 1lb steak, 4 eggs and 2 strips of bacon a day…

Then for nutrients, I add liver.
And for omega 3, I add cod liver.
Then for collagen, I add pork rinds.

For fats, I have HWC, mayo and ghee…

And I’m at 160g already with only 2700cal.

I find myself unable to give any of this up… I have a big carnivore appetite… I know I can be satiated at less but I don’t want to… LOL

My macro table is a few posts back… Anyone have ideas on where to trim back and not feel like I’m giving much up?

For example-
…eat 5 egg yolks but only 2 whites? What do I do with the rest of the whites?
…cut up the bacon strips to feel like it’s more?
Maybe not eat 1lb steaks every day? Alternate days?
…less liver but mix it into the mayo to make it feel like more?

It’s really not about avoiding hunger. I can be satisfied that with much less. I’m really looking for mental / perception solutions to deal with my mental appetite for meat.

(Karim Wassef) #33

They call that “English”… when you intentionally perform with bad form so the rest of your muscles have to engage and make it a full body exercise… I think it’s called cheating.

(Karim Wassef) #34

It’s also how I tore my right bicep tendon… so maybe curling an 80lb bar with bad form was not smart… duhhh :crazy_face:

(Little Miss Scare-All) #35

Totes is. I see a lot of meatheads at my gym throwing up huge weight on bicep work, but they’re swinging their whole body to vampire the momentum to do the reps. And the ones with huge muscles, with low weight and bad form; they’re juicing. Been to a lot of gyms, but my current gym is Juiceville.

#FORMMATTERS

(mole person) #36

I’d cut the grams of steak and add solid beef fat chunks to the pan. That bulks out your fat and also improves it.

(Karim Wassef) #37

That’s just it. I don’t want to cut back the steak. It’s not hunger. I’m totally full.

It’s pleasure.

I don’t have this problem when vegan. I don’t get pleasure from veggies (except nuts & avocados). I eat it because I need the nutrients and proteins - functional use.

With steak and eggs, I just enjoy it. I can eat it when I’m not hungry. I actually wanted to see just how far this could go and I happily enjoyed about 4lbs of steak, 5 eggs and 6 strips of bacon before my pleasure sensors went into overload (wife was screaming at me too… :joy:

This may be TMI… but there it is. I fasted for 4 days a week back then. I won’t be fasting this time.

So how to derive the pleasure without the volume?

One problem I have is finishing my food… it’s trained behavior. If it’s on my plate, it will all go. So I cannot put it on my plate. But I hate cutting a beautiful steak in half… feels wrong.

So maybe if I slice it up and share with the family, then take less on my plate, it’ll feel just as good but without the volume of meat.

(mole person) #38

Lol…did my husband make you say that?

But seriously, leaving half a steak for the next day only makes it better. I leave it unwrapped in the fridge on a small grill so air can circulate around it and it just ages and tenderizes a wee bit more. Mmmmmmm…

(Neil) #39

Cook smaller steaks? Then you’d be eating an entire 0.5 lb steak (for example), rather than an entire 1 lb steak.

(Karim Wassef) #40

I like mine off the grill and oozing fresh barely warm juice. I eat mine blue…

(Karim Wassef) #41

I may have to. Just doesn’t look like a steak if it’s smaller than my head and 1.5” thick… lol

I think I’ve found my handicap. We’ll get through it…