Ok - Firstly I just have to quickly say that I although you probably do need less carbs, I don't neccessarily agree with people saying 'drop your carbs' on the basis of ratio's alone... We need more information on you to tell you whether or not this level of carbs is appropriate and dietry ratio's are not that important in terms of what you need... What you eat and how much of each macronutrient you eat needs varies on an individual basis - it should be altered according to your lean mass, your daily activities (how much, type, intensity, duration etc), your physiological status (age, hormone levels etc) and your genetics (your metabolism and natural energy output). Not your calorie intake....
So.... Anyway - To get to your question:
confusedBuilder said:
I'm 22, weigh:145, ht:5-6. I've been trying to bulk up since the last month and have been eating like 4000 calories a day(abt 6 meals, 65%carbs, 25%protein, 10%fat). And I am working out 4 days a week. I am gaining mass, but also my stomach is expanding so much. I just wanted to know from people who have been doing this bulking/cutting for a long time as to if this is normal?? Will my stomach contract during the cutting phase???
Well - how 'normal' it is depends on how 'dirty' you like to bulk. If you bulk dirty, then you have to live with some extra pudge around the stomach... But, yes, you can clean that up in your cutting phase (although it is much more of a hassle if you let it get out of hand).
Now.... Your fat to muscle gains will depend on lots of things - like how lean you are when you start to bulk, your age, your training intensity and your diet...
If you have a high BF% now, then you tend to gain a higher proportion of fat mass (sucks, but it is what happens)...
In terms of your age - you are 22 - so you are still at a great age for adding lean mass.
For training - what are you doing? You are training 4 days/week but what does this involve? Are you doing any cardio? Usually - as long as you are not doing anything entirely stupid then this will be ok....
So you probably want to look at your diet.
4000 cals is a lot for someone who only weighs 145 pounds.... Why so are you eating so much? How did you come to the conclussion that you need to eat that much? Also, at 4000 cals, with 65% carbs, 25% protein and 10% fat, that means you are eating 650g Carbs (
), 250g protein (boardering on the highish side for someone your size), and 45g fat (a little low).
For 145 pounds, at your age, I would think you have a maintainence of about 2500 to 3000 cals (unless you are really active or you have a really fast metabolism) - so, you would be better off with calories down between 3000 and 3500...
So - firstly, lower your calories... If you want to stall your fat gains then I would suggest you drop back to about maintainence (so 3000 cals or so - but you would want to decrease to this level over the course of a few weeks) and stay at that for a few weeks. Allow your body to 'rest' and recompose a little and then gradually increase calories again (but probably not to the same level).
Otherwise, take off about 500 cals and then monitor yourself for a few weeks
I would also council you to reconsider how much fat you are getting - at 145 pounds, you want to be getting a minimum of about 45g of fats for a healthy diet (although you may want a little less than this when in the last few weeks of cutting)... So I would suggest you go up to a healthy figure of at least about 0.4g/pound if you are trying to gain mass. This means you want about 60g. Realistically, 0.5g/pound (73g) or, if you are REALLY active, then 0.6g/pound(90g) would be ok. To get these you want to add your poly-unsaturated fats (eg: fish, nuts, seeds) or mono-unsaturated fats (eg: olive oil, avocado).
Your protein intake is ok... anywhere between 1.0g and 1.5g per pound is good... Which means, 180g and 220g for 145 pounds...
So, if you drop your intake back down to ~3000-3500 cals (so, say we pick 3200 to start) this would mean that:
65g of fat (585 cals)
250g protein (1000 cals)
Which leaves you ~400g of carbs.
Which would give you a ratio of 18% fats, 32% protein and 50% carbs.
I will stick to this routine come what may.
)
