Ive heard that eating A LOT helps muscular hypertrophy, so would this mean that diet would change from gpp to spp if eating a lot to increase muscle size was causing higher body fat? Because I know that sprinters want to have low body fat, but often people trying to add muscle tend to almost overeat. As far as diet for a sprinter goes, during a hypertrophy phase, is adding body fat worth it?
Eating a LOT is not required to grow although you need a surplus of calroies. But there is a rate limit on how fast you can gain muscle. Eat more than what you need to cover that and you just get fat.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/macronutrient-intake-for-mass-gains-qa.html
Neither muscle nor fat accumulate overnight. Its also difficult to gain muscle without gaining some fat. Increase your intake and keep track of your weight and bodyfat%. If the weight you’re adding has a muscle/fat ratio that doesn’t increase your bodyfat% much, you’re probably not eating too much. If you’re the weight you’re gaining has a muscle/fat ratio that increases your bodyfat%, you should probably cut back until you reach a more appropriate level.
yeah, sounds about right, is there any easy way to keep track of body fat%?
Mirror…
yeah, i guess that could work, im a kind of skinny dude, so im not sure i could really tell any flucuations in body fat from a mirror though…
My weighing scales have built in Bioelectrical impedance analysis…measures your body fat by sending a small electrical current up one leg and down the other. Not sure as to how accurate it is though, it has me at 5.9%.
Yes, you have a Tanita scale or something similar. It is quite inaccurate–to the point of nearly being useless.
ive read that the problem with scales like that are that how hydrated u r severely affects the body fat% it gives u
Yea, it does say that in the manual to be honest, though it normally doesnt vary more than half a percent regardless of how hydrated i am, but there’s no way im 6% bf haha
Unless you adhere to insanely strict hydration protocols, Tanita is garbage IMO and IME. I know people who cna get a 2% shift after taking a piss. Don’t use it.
A cheap pair of body fat calipers do a better job than them scales. Even if you just get the following sites
thighs
arms
chest
beside your belly button
above your hip bone
your upper ribs - between chest and Lats
make a spreadsheet and keep track that way.
A 80kg dude who is 20% Fat is 64kg Lean.
This dude can easily train hard for 1year and not gain 1kg by the scales.
yet move his weight from 64kg to 72kg, a Lean 8kg Move.
If all he did was look at scales, he would be vastly disappointed.
Yet his body fat went from 20% down to 10%
I see guys in the gym all the time, getting bigger and bigger, but they fail to realize they are getting Fatter and Fatter. Then they dont know how to loose that Fat later on.
Its much easier to gain Fat than Muscle. Just look at how Obese the wold is getting.
A high protein diet - grams per Kg of body weight. Around 100g of carbs (clean carbs too) and essential oils will get you heading in the right direction.
would fruits and/or veggies fall into a good diet for a sprinter?
If you dont, you wont be going to the toilet.
haha, well yeah, but i meant like a subtancial amount. like would they be more important for a sprinter to eat than a just a normal person?
if you want to put on functional muscle and not a lot of excess slop, you just need to kick calories maybe 300-500 kcal per day. It is so dependent on many questions though. Is it for sport or for personal choice? You need to take much into account if it’s for sport. Position? Game? etc. As for bodybuilding, it is much simpler to just simply get big. Eat enough to have calories surplus, from good nutrient dense foods. Train your ass off. Vary the stimulus from low reps 4-6 to high 20+. I have had athletes put on 20 lbs in 3 months with little visible fat gain after a season. Its a great time to rebound from catabolism to anabolism. Diet should be lots of carbohydrate(both simple and complex), maybe 1 gram/lb of bodyweight, and good fats. I use Udo’s oil, Barleans Fish oils, CLA. It is so individual that you are going to need to experiment with macro nutrient ratios. My advice, be diligent. Grind it out. Too many people give in when they plateau.
great summary Speedcoach
i see exactly what you mean speedcoach. i wouldnt exactly say ive plateued because i never have really put on much muscle weight and i started this thread because i weighed 144 before track season and was stuck at 138 even after picking up lifting for over a month again
i started eating more and taking protein powder, i havent weighed myself lately but i dont seem to be putting on any noticeable body fat. and by eating more i mean eating as much as i can, esp. of carby foods. guess i must just have a fast metabolism?
and as far as goals for the hypertrophy my build is very skinny for a baseball player/short sprinter (my main event is the 55m) so i wanted to add bulk for that
thanks
on getting stronger and let the rest of it fall into place. You are probably one of those people who just burn up calories. Even though the 55m is an explosive event, I don’t think you need to be overly massive. Relative strength is much more important. Ben Johnson looked big, but was only 175-180 lbs. He was extremely strong for his weight and that combined with Charlies excellent training, he excelled. Just keep eating, lifting, and tracking your performance. Don’t let your quest for size get in the way of your real goal which is lower times in 55m.
very true, i think even just aiming to add strength will in effect add some bulk too.
also, i only run indoor track in high school and ive read that out of season a hypertrophy stage can be beneficial (reps 8-10) so during baseball (spring and summer), in which size is important, i am trying to kill two birds with one stone by thinking of my lifting during baseball as a hypertrophy phase