Thread: Need Help devising a 3 month Program!

Need to rethink those macronutrient breakdowns a little bit. I usually calculate them like this:


1. Start with protein. For most people looking to gain mass 0.6g per lb of bodyweight will suffice. So for you, thats 98g protein or 392kCal.

2. For carbs, 2.7g per lb bodyweight is usually okay for these people too. So for you that would be 437g or 1748kCal.

3. For fats, add the calories for protein and carbs together (2140) and divide by 80 to get 1% total energy, then multiply by 20. For you this works out as 535kCal or 59g of fat.

4. Add them all up (2675kCal) and you have a rough level of where to start. This is probably a ballpark figure for your maintenance level of calories. Its not totally accurate.


Another way for finding your maintenance is 15x your bodyweight which works out as 2430 for you. I like the above 4 step method better, but the numbers per lb bodyweight are only really applicable to people doing regular strength/power based weight training.

I've found them to work well for myself and other people. Based them off dietary reference values for UK, a great book called "Clinical Sports Nutrition", some research studies, and my own intuition/experience. Take em or leave em.

They're not drastically different from the numbers you used, but your carbs are a little low. Overall you'd be taking in 2397 with your breakdown, which is probably at or below your maintenance level. You're not gonna bulk that way - if anything even though my numbers are higher, they're still slightly too low to bulk properly.

Its a sad fact that by trying to clean bulk, you'll end up just not getting any bigger. Be prepared to get a little smoother round the edges, but don't worry about it. Bigger muscles look good, you've probably got the capacity to put on a good 30lbs before you start looking fat, and at that point you can just cut 500calories out of your diet and get rid of it in about a month with added help from all that extra calorie burning muscle tissue.

I see so many people get absolutely nowhere because they're so petrified of putting on even a gram of extra fat they can't bring themselves to eat enough to build muscle. Don't be that guy. Have a cookie and get some big guns.

I have a somewhat different strategy:

Figure maintenance to be about 15 x bodyweight in lbs unless you happen to know it offhand. For you, maintenance will be around 2500 a day, give or take a few hundred.

Protein should be at least a gram per pound lean mass (higher if cutting)
The target for fat is at least a half a gram per pound lean mass
For you, you probably carry around 140-150 lbs lean mass, so aim to consume at least 150g protein and at least 75g fat. This accounts for about half your daily 2500 maintenance calories, so you can fill up the remaining 1250 or so calories from whatever combination of protein, carb and fat you desire.

To gain, eat more. Try an extra 500 calories a day. If you gain too fast, you can always dial it back a bit. Those extra 500 calories can come from whatever combination of protein, carb and fat you desire.

Happy bulking.

Originally Posted by Gazhole

Its a sad fact that by trying to clean bulk, you'll end up just not getting any bigger. Be prepared to get a little smoother round the edges, but don't worry about it. Bigger muscles look good, you've probably got the capacity to put on a good 30lbs before you start looking fat, and at that point you can just cut 500calories out of your diet and get rid of it in about a month with added help from all that extra calorie burning muscle tissue.

I see so many people get absolutely nowhere because they're so petrified of putting on even a gram of extra fat they can't bring themselves to eat enough to build muscle. Don't be that guy. Have a cookie and get some big guns.

This is my struggle. It took a while to lose my beer gut, so I was hesitant to start consuming the excess calories again to bulk. I have to remind myself the extra calories are from more protein instead of alcohol this time.

I am slowly adding more cals for a few months, and have seen some weight gain/upper body growth. I just wish my chicken legs could put on mass.

Well, how about you describe, in detail, your current training?

My training is pretty much the p90x weight training videos or variations of them. If you guys havn't seen them I can try to find a written version of the workouts on line. My cardio I do 20 minutes of HIIT with jumprope and sometimes doing variations of plyo jumps. 60 second bursts and 30 second rest for 20 minutes.

P90X is known among these circles as "iron cardio" - fine for some conditioning work, but it won't help you recompose. It WILL help you drop weight - muscle, and fat - which probably isn't what you're looking to do. As an aside, the training you're doing will do nothing to promote leg-growth, but we'll get to that in a minute.

How often to you do P90X, and how often do you do the HIIT?

Do you have access to a gym, or do you train at home?

Well right now I'm waiting until I get settled back into school to get back to my routine. I would usually do the weight training monday wednesday friday and the HIIT tuesday thursday saturday and rest sunday.

Have you ever done any heavy lifting, or just P90-x stuff?

Lifting has been a big interest of mine for several years. I would say I started getting serious in early 2006

Okay, good. What kind of weight can you push around for a below-parallel free barbell squat? How much can you deadlift? Bench?

I havn't done barbell dead lifts and barbell squats in so long so I really cant say. For legs I usually workout with dumb bells. My bench has been been around 180 lbs. I havn't done straight up bench in a while though so it will take me several sessions in the gym to work back up to that. The p90x workouts have made me into much more of a pushup guy. I will have access to a gym by the way

Well, that explains the chicken legs.

Heavy deads and below-parallel barbell squats, twice a week or more my friend.

ok thanks. Hows the meal plan look? I'll ajust the amounts to fit my new caloric intake later. Can you direct me to any training programs that you recommend that are posted elsewhere on the site?

come on ou guys can't leave me hangin now...

Meal plans don't matter all that much, outside of how the total works out. Pick a layout that feels comfortable with the plan you set out for your day.

That being said, eat your egg yolks and butter your baked potato. Saturated fats are important for testosterone production. The almonds will help with that too - monounsaturated fats help your boys turn cholesterol into testosterone.