Macro ratios for bulk

#1

How do I adapt my diet from weight loss to a bulking diet?
when to add carbs around a work out?
Hunger in the early hours.

I have been taking weight training more seriously this last few weeks. I have moved from doing more energetic cardio and full body workouts to doing a 4 day split where I weight train 3 days and only do cardio 1 day.

My goal is to gain muscle mass for long term health, to increase my metabolism, improve physique and because I really enjoy weight training. I plan to ‘bulk’ for 3 months, then reduce calories to reduce fat from january onwards.

Most calculators say that I should be eating 3000cals per day to bulk. I have gone for eating
5% carbs - 37g
35% pro - 265g
60% fat - 200g

but… with an extra 40g of carbs before a workout, which is an extra 160calories.

I do not think i will be able to hit these macros exactly, and will need to be consuming at least 3 scoops of protein powder a day to hit that protein goal. I would rather eat real food, but there are only so many hours in the day.

I am also concerned about having too much liquid fat. I found that I lost weight best when my fats came from nuts, cheese and solid animal fats (like bacon) rather than adding heavy cream and olive oil to everything.

Lastly, Hunger. After a big leg workout, I am waking up in the night so hungry than I have to get up and chug a protein shake with cream and eggs just to get back to sleep.

I know there is a lot to unpack there, but havnt been here much recently and have a lot to talk about.

#2

I personally would just eat fattier meat on average but it’s me. I never felt the need for extra carbs yet (but I don’t have any chance to gain a visible amount of muscle per year anyway so I just care about how I feel) but others do and should eat accordingly. Some likes carbs before, some afterwards, it’s individual.
If liquid fat is a problem for you, don’t eat liquid fat. Fatty meat could give me enough fat, no matter what (and I have a vivid imagination even though I doubt I ever will need over 300g fat a day).

Meat helps with protein too. 265g protein doesn’t seem much to me but I regularly go near that while trying to eat as little protein as possible for me… But I need high protein for satiation so of course I can’t keep it “low”.

So… Why can’t you eat a decent amount of fatty meat? And a bunch of other fatty protein sources to give you variety?

If you have satiation problems (i.e. you are too satiated for getting your target macros easily), experiment with different items, they usually have different satiation levels though some people get satiated by everything almost the same, that’s an interesting case. For me even macros say little about satiation, some protein sources don’t satiate me at all while others are amazing at it.

I can’t say anything to your hunger problem as I never had such a thing and didn’t heard about it from others either let alone figuring out WHY… Do you eat enough during the day? Apparently not, can’t you eat more on those days then?

Oh and I doubt percentages matter. They rarely do. You need enough calories, protein, nutrients, carbs should do whatever is best for you… And that’s it. The percentages fall wherever they do when your carbs, protein, energy intake is right…

(Allie) #3

I don’t bother, just eat at maintenance and focus on building strength / health, the increased muscle mass is dealing with the remaining fat I wouldn’t mind losing.

There’s no need to bulk / cut specifically unless you’re competing.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

More protein, especially the branched-chain amino acids, leucine, iso-leucine, and valine.

Experts vary on this, but one fitness coach who is big into keto says that carbs are completely unnecessary for bulking.

Not quite sure what you mean by this, but be sure it’s actually hunger, not thirst. If it is hunger, perhaps eat some meat or fat.

Percentages of calories make me nervous. First of all, the carb limit is an absolute amount, not a percentage of calories, if you want to stay in ketosis. The insulin threshold has been shown to be 25 μU/mL, and ketosis only happens when we are below that limit.

Protein should be targeted to the level of lean mass you are aiming for, and enough fat to provide energy for the exercise and the growth.

Is liquid fat really necessary? If you are cooking with the solid animal fats (butter/ghee, bacon grease, lard, tallow) and are eating meat with the fat on, isn’t that enough?

Why not eat a full meal between working out and going to sleep? Does that not work for you?