Calories & Ectomorph

[chingyvang]

I'm an ectomorph and never reached 100lbs until after high school. Now i'm working on developing some shoulder size with handstand work and maybe some pullups for lats. I wanna know if Calories is more important than Protein for me? I heard SLizz said something like it's not really about getting high proteins, but more about getting good calories? Since I have an extremely fast metabolism that makes it very hard for my to gain weight, can I just bust a Michael Phelps diet?

[RatioFitness]

Yeah, just stuff your face. I've gained some fat but my bodyweight skills are still improving.

[Philip Chubb]

It is usually not good to gain fat while trying to increase your lean body mass. You of course want to eat, but they should definitely be good calories. Poliquin has some good stuff on ectomorphs and weight gain. If I remember correctly, it involved BCAA and alternating liquid meals with solid ones.

[Quick Start Test Smith]

chingyvang, I don't know what Slizz said or what context it was in, but the simple method of eating a lot of protein, moderate fat, and moderate carb, does seem to work very well for a lot of people.

I know it works great with me.

Have you seen these blogs yet? If you haven't read any of them yet, they will really get you started.

1) http://robbwolf.com/

2) http://www.archevore.com/

3) http://thehealthyskeptic.org/9-steps-to ... -your-body

4) http://whole9life.com/2010/05/whole-30-v2/

5) http://www.marksdailyapple.com/97-bonus ... lifestyle/

I could be wrong but I think Slizzardman's situation is fairly unique regarding the calories and his slightly "un-paleo" nutrition. After all, he's been training for a LONG time and he is in GREAT shape. His body is probably pretty used to getting stronger and bigger, whereas yours is not. Again, I could (likely) be wrong, but I think your nervous system has a lot to do with it, and his has been pretty well conditioned. I hope he will comment on this.

[chingyvang]

chingyvang, I don't know what Slizz said or what context it was in, but the simple method of eating a lot of protein, moderate fat, and moderate carb, does seem to work very well for a lot of people.

I know it works great with me.

Have you seen these blogs yet? If you haven't read any of them yet, they will really get you started.

1) http://robbwolf.com/

2) http://www.archevore.com/

3) http://thehealthyskeptic.org/9-steps-to ... -your-body

4) http://whole9life.com/2010/05/whole-30-v2/

5) http://www.marksdailyapple.com/97-bonus ... lifestyle/

I could be wrong but I think Slizzardman's situation is fairly unique regarding the calories and his slightly "un-paleo" nutrition. After all, he's been training for a LONG time and he is in GREAT shape. His body is probably pretty used to getting stronger and bigger, whereas yours is not. Again, I could (likely) be wrong, but I think your nervous system has a lot to do with it, and his has been pretty well conditioned. I hope he will comment on this.

|^ thanks for the advice and links, i will surely read them all

[Scott Malin]

I second that you ought to at least read up on some of the Poliquin basics:

-Do you know for sure you are under 10% BF? Electronic body fat doodads or a couple skinfold sites aren't going to work here. A few years back, the same strength coach did a 7 and 9 site test on me to show the difference between methods. 7 sites claimed I had 4% body fat and 9 sites claimed 11%. At the same time, the electronic doodad claimed 3% BF. And mind you this was a very experienced person...a novice doing it would make a mess of results. You want to be lean and then eat carbs up to your tolerance to not increase past that 10%

-Digestion. Do the HCL Test and get it in order.

-Not just enough protein, but enough quality fats too.

-Get Poliquin's lean muscle mass podcast

In my experience, though, the two kinds of people who support vacuum cleaning calories are usually a)the same kind of trainers who support steroid use or b)overweight nutritionists and the people who listen to them that mean well but never helped clients get anything but bigger love handles. Eating clean just worked well for all my clients. Myself included. Now, I'm not huge, but I have increased steadily with simply good training and eating clean plus some digestion work. We make it more of a rocket science than it is. And putting a timeframe over something like that only increases stress and anxiety. Focus on what you should do from day to day and the rest will take care of itself.

I haven't followed slizz's current nutritional practices, so I won't try and agree/disagree on what he has said because I don't have the posts in front of me. Could you link the exact place you saw this for us?

BTW, I wouldn't recommend Michael Phelps'ing it. A lot of guys idolized him at the time, but my women clients only noticed the fat on him. Same way even the most obese new client would immediately comment on the amateur bodybuilder with the "chicken legs."