Afternoon chaps.. below is a pretty long winded post so if you have time then please have a read, if not then thanks for checking in!
Summary:
Should I be in a deficit, sit at maintenance or be in a surplus on a rest day throughout a gaining phase when the goal is to keep body composition relatively in check?
A little (or a lot) of information to go base your views upon..
My main goal is to gain weight.. first things first I am natural so muscle is harder to come by as we all know.
I have in the past cycled through a traditional 6 month off-season followed by an extended cut then repeat aiming to gain around 1lb a week however with no intention to compete anymore I am looking to adopt a new approach of keeping it as tight and in as little a surplus as possible in order to have a really successful gaining phase.
Current weight is 155lb, I would like to sit at 170lbs which is quite a jump but regardless of that, that is my goal weight one day.
The end of my last prep I ended up at 154 and was quite happy with my look however after my comp I regrettably tried to make the most of my rebound and I ended up injuring myself due to accumulative fatigue / overtraining which in turn resulted in muscle loss and fat gain (from not being able to train efficiently etc).
As stated above I am only 1lb heavier but with around the same condition as I was at 158-160 so really looking to make the most of this year by regaining lost tissue and overall labeling my little injury / mishap as a minor blip rather than a major setback
.
I over the course of this down period been running FT Basic Tier II and essentially working around my injury's which for the record are both shoulder related (both rotator cuffs). This annoyingly has limited the exercises I could do so squats, deads, anything where I rest weight on my back, any sort of pressing movement, flat bench, overhead press etc have all been out which has left me with a very small selection of exercises to work with (leg press, pec-fly, side lateral raises).
A few months from the initial hit I now feel fully recovered or atleast 95% and looking to start making some serious progress. Hopefully the result of not utilising all or any of these exercises over the last few months will spurt some new and additional growth when I start to implement them back into my training and make up for lost time.
With this in mind I am however going to ere on the side of caution as I don't want to re-lapse like I did post comp. Some exercises are still out of the equation based on recent feedback however I have and still am slowly introducing new movements which all seem to be going well.
Below is my current diet setup etc..
Current kcals or should I say kcals as of recent blast:
1900 @ 12 kcal per lb on rest day
p: 260 c: 45 f:75 approx values.
3000 @ 20 kcal per lb on training days
p: 295 c:315 f:60 approx values.
you can see from above that I am or have been essentially in a deficit rest days and in a larger than normal surplus on training based on a 15x per lb = maintenance value (2325 kcals) formula.
I am currently cruising and on the last few days of the 'no training period' and
in regards to diet setup I have had to bring calories up to 15x per lb due to my weight dropping and by doing so have added some additional carbohydrates on rest days, at both meal 1 and 3.
2320 @ 15 kcal per lb on rest day
p: 278 c: 110 f:85 approx values.
Where do I go from here? I am unsure whether or not to keep my kcals on rest days at a similar value as is of 15x per lb and then drop down the training day kcals to 18kcal per lb to offset that increase or.... revert back to my 12kcal per lb rest day and 20 kcal per lb training day ratio.. do you think there is a benefit of going with one setup over the other?
All in all my weekly a caloric total will be the approximately the same but just set up slightly differently.
The issue I have with both of these is I am going to have to drop food on one day or the other and both days I am extremely ravenous, I eat whole filling foods and a ridiculous amount of veg which keeps me satiated to an extent but if someone put another meal in front of me I could happily inhale the lot no issue.
Thanks in advance!
Summary:
Should I be in a deficit, sit at maintenance or be in a surplus on a rest day throughout a gaining phase when the goal is to keep body composition relatively in check?
A little (or a lot) of information to go base your views upon..
My main goal is to gain weight.. first things first I am natural so muscle is harder to come by as we all know.
I have in the past cycled through a traditional 6 month off-season followed by an extended cut then repeat aiming to gain around 1lb a week however with no intention to compete anymore I am looking to adopt a new approach of keeping it as tight and in as little a surplus as possible in order to have a really successful gaining phase.
Current weight is 155lb, I would like to sit at 170lbs which is quite a jump but regardless of that, that is my goal weight one day.
The end of my last prep I ended up at 154 and was quite happy with my look however after my comp I regrettably tried to make the most of my rebound and I ended up injuring myself due to accumulative fatigue / overtraining which in turn resulted in muscle loss and fat gain (from not being able to train efficiently etc).
As stated above I am only 1lb heavier but with around the same condition as I was at 158-160 so really looking to make the most of this year by regaining lost tissue and overall labeling my little injury / mishap as a minor blip rather than a major setback
.I over the course of this down period been running FT Basic Tier II and essentially working around my injury's which for the record are both shoulder related (both rotator cuffs). This annoyingly has limited the exercises I could do so squats, deads, anything where I rest weight on my back, any sort of pressing movement, flat bench, overhead press etc have all been out which has left me with a very small selection of exercises to work with (leg press, pec-fly, side lateral raises).
A few months from the initial hit I now feel fully recovered or atleast 95% and looking to start making some serious progress. Hopefully the result of not utilising all or any of these exercises over the last few months will spurt some new and additional growth when I start to implement them back into my training and make up for lost time.
With this in mind I am however going to ere on the side of caution as I don't want to re-lapse like I did post comp. Some exercises are still out of the equation based on recent feedback however I have and still am slowly introducing new movements which all seem to be going well.
Below is my current diet setup etc..
Current kcals or should I say kcals as of recent blast:
1900 @ 12 kcal per lb on rest day
p: 260 c: 45 f:75 approx values.
3000 @ 20 kcal per lb on training days
p: 295 c:315 f:60 approx values.
you can see from above that I am or have been essentially in a deficit rest days and in a larger than normal surplus on training based on a 15x per lb = maintenance value (2325 kcals) formula.
I am currently cruising and on the last few days of the 'no training period' and
in regards to diet setup I have had to bring calories up to 15x per lb due to my weight dropping and by doing so have added some additional carbohydrates on rest days, at both meal 1 and 3.
2320 @ 15 kcal per lb on rest day
p: 278 c: 110 f:85 approx values.
Where do I go from here? I am unsure whether or not to keep my kcals on rest days at a similar value as is of 15x per lb and then drop down the training day kcals to 18kcal per lb to offset that increase or.... revert back to my 12kcal per lb rest day and 20 kcal per lb training day ratio.. do you think there is a benefit of going with one setup over the other?
All in all my weekly a caloric total will be the approximately the same but just set up slightly differently.
The issue I have with both of these is I am going to have to drop food on one day or the other and both days I am extremely ravenous, I eat whole filling foods and a ridiculous amount of veg which keeps me satiated to an extent but if someone put another meal in front of me I could happily inhale the lot no issue.
Thanks in advance!