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nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted

Hi Scott. I noticed in your response to someone's post about how many calories they need you said "You should be eating in a surplus above your BMR in motion - that is the calories you burn on days you workout. On days you don't workout, you can cut it back a bit, but not too much."

Does this apply to their specific situation, or is this a general rule of thumb for everyone? I workout 3 days a week and my goal is to gain muscle, but I'm having trouble getting the total calories I need every single day, so it would be easier if I only had to do it on the 3 days I workout (but only if this won't negatively affect my progress).

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Hi Scott. I noticed in your response to someone's post about how many calories they need you said "You should be eating in a surplus above your BMR in motion - that is the calories you burn on days you workout. On days you don't workout, you can cut it back a bit, but not too much."

Does this apply to their specific situation, or is this a general rule of thumb for everyone? I workout 3 days a week and my goal is to gain muscle, but I'm having trouble getting the total calories I need every single day, so it would be easier if I only had to do it on the 3 days I workout (but only if this won't negatively affect my progress).

Building muscle requires a daily caloric surplus. You must eat higher than BMR calories everyday if you want to maintain muscle growth. Muscles grow and repair on your rest days not your workout days. You need to eat a surpulus on both days to not only fuel your workouts but fuel your growth on rest days.

 

What do your macros look like? Once easy way to bump the calories up is to increase your healthy fats. Fats are very calorically dense and sometimes just a couple tablespoons of coconut oil or an avocado with a meal will give you the extra calories you need to meet your daily goals.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: jmboiardi

Building muscle requires a daily caloric surplus. You must eat higher than BMR calories everyday if you want to maintain muscle growth. Muscles grow and repair on your rest days not your workout days. You need to eat a surpulus on both days to not only fuel your workouts but fuel your growth on rest days.

 

What do your macros look like? Once easy way to bump the calories up is to increase your healthy fats. Fats are very calorically dense and sometimes just a couple tablespoons of coconut oil or an avocado with a meal will give you the extra calories you need to meet your daily goals.

 

John

But coconut oil is mostly saturated fat...I thought healthy fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats?

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Hi Scott. I noticed in your response to someone's post about how many calories they need you said "You should be eating in a surplus above your BMR in motion - that is the calories you burn on days you workout. On days you don't workout, you can cut it back a bit, but not too much."

Does this apply to their specific situation, or is this a general rule of thumb for everyone? I workout 3 days a week and my goal is to gain muscle, but I'm having trouble getting the total calories I need every single day, so it would be easier if I only had to do it on the 3 days I workout (but only if this won't negatively affect my progress).

John has got you covered again - you need to eat more calories than you are burning each day. So on the days you aren't working out, then you won't need as many calories as the days you are working out, but you'll still need to be above your average BMR. If you're doing cardio and still burning more calories, then you should probably stick to eating more calories than your BMR in motion. For muscle gain it's simple - you have to maintain that surplus. You can simply manipulate the macro ratios (for example eat fewer carbs) on the days you don't workout and replace them with fats and proteins.

 

Nothing wrong with coconut oil.. you need a certain amount of saturated fat (and a good amount of monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fats) in your diet for healthy T leves. Have you seen this article? http://muscularstrength.com/article/Coconut-Oil-Bad-Oil-Gone-Good

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jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

But coconut oil is mostly saturated fat...I thought healthy fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats?

Saturated fat is not the demon the media and AMA/AHA make it out to be. Saturated fats build all your hormones and the lining of your cells. Man-made saturated fats and trans fats are what are bad. Natural saturated fats like those found in coconut oil, egg yolks, and whole dairy are fine for you as long as you don't eat a lot of processed foods loaded with man-made added sugars, fats, and salt in combination with them.

 

Sugar - especially man-made high fructose corn syrup and other added sugars - is the culprit in heart disease not saturated fat and cholesterol. Cholesterol lowering drugs and low fat foods are a multi-billion dollar industry using disproven science to sell their products to you. The reason we have a rash of people with mental issues/alzheimers, low testosterone, and high body fat is because the key components for all hormones and the entire brain and nervous system - cholesterol and fat - are being demonized and removed from the diet and replaced with tons of man-made sugars.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

John has got you covered again - you need to eat more calories than you are burning each day. So on the days you aren't working out, then you won't need as many calories as the days you are working out, but you'll still need to be above your average BMR. If you're doing cardio and still burning more calories, then you should probably stick to eating more calories than your BMR in motion. For muscle gain it's simple - you have to maintain that surplus. You can simply manipulate the macro ratios (for example eat fewer carbs) on the days you don't workout and replace them with fats and proteins.

 

Nothing wrong with coconut oil.. you need a certain amount of saturated fat (and a good amount of monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fats) in your diet for healthy T leves. Have you seen this article? http://muscularstrength.com/article/Coconut-Oil-Bad-Oil-Gone-Good

OK, two things.

 

So you're saying on my workout days I should be above my BMR in motion, while on non-workout days I can be below my BMR in motion as long as I stay above my BMR at rest, correct?

 

 

I just read the article. OK, maybe satured fat isn't as bad as I thought, but the article said something confusing. It says saturated fat should ideally make up no more than 10% of someone's total energy intake and around 7% of your total fat intake. The macros you calculated for me a few weeks ago say this:

 

Protein: 200g

Carbs: 250g

Fat: 90g

 

Total Calories = 2610

 

Based on those numbers, since the article says 10% of total energy, that would be 261 calories/29g. However, the article also says around 7% of total fat intake, which would be 56 calories/6.3g. These are two completely different numbers. So which one do I go by?

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

OK, two things.

 

So you're saying on my workout days I should be above my BMR in motion, while on non-workout days I can be below my BMR in motion as long as I stay above my BMR at rest, correct?

 

 

I just read the article. OK, maybe satured fat isn't as bad as I thought, but the article said something confusing. It says saturated fat should ideally make up no more than 10% of someone's total energy intake and around 7% of your total fat intake. The macros you calculated for me a few weeks ago say this:

 

Protein: 200g

Carbs: 250g

Fat: 90g

 

Total Calories = 2610

 

Based on those numbers, since the article says 10% of total energy, that would be 261 calories/29g. However, the article also says around 7% of total fat intake, which would be 56 calories/6.3g. These are two completely different numbers. So which one do I go by?

First thing.. yes if you aren't doing any kind of cardio, circuit training or weight training, then just make sure you are 250-500 calories above your BMR on non-workout days.

 

Remember it is NO MORE than 10%.. that means 10% of your total calorie intake would come from saturated fat at the MAXIMUM level.. it's not actually a number you NEED to aim for. If you get 6-7g of saturated fat (e.g. 1 teaspoon of coconut oil along with the little bits of saturated fat in other areas of your diet) then that's fine 😊 

Need 1 on 1 coaching? Send me a direct message to learn more!
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

First thing.. yes if you aren't doing any kind of cardio, circuit training or weight training, then just make sure you are 250-500 calories above your BMR on non-workout days.

 

Remember it is NO MORE than 10%.. that means 10% of your total calorie intake would come from saturated fat at the MAXIMUM level.. it's not actually a number you NEED to aim for. If you get 6-7g of saturated fat (e.g. 1 teaspoon of coconut oil along with the little bits of saturated fat in other areas of your diet) then that's fine 😊 

Well currently I'm right around 10% of my total calories and I'm only getting about half of the total fat I need, so I need to increase the total fat without increasing the % of saturated fat. The oil seems like a good way to help with the overall fat, but it would put me over the 10%. I've started adding flaxseeds to my diet which is mostly unsaturated fat, so maybe those can help kind of offset the coconut oil...or something haha.

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

OK, two things.

 

So you're saying on my workout days I should be above my BMR in motion, while on non-workout days I can be below my BMR in motion as long as I stay above my BMR at rest, correct?

 

 

I just read the article. OK, maybe satured fat isn't as bad as I thought, but the article said something confusing. It says saturated fat should ideally make up no more than 10% of someone's total energy intake and around 7% of your total fat intake. The macros you calculated for me a few weeks ago say this:

 

Protein: 200g

Carbs: 250g

Fat: 90g

 

Total Calories = 2610

 

Based on those numbers, since the article says 10% of total energy, that would be 261 calories/29g. However, the article also says around 7% of total fat intake, which would be 56 calories/6.3g. These are two completely different numbers. So which one do I go by?

Don't be too confused about articles telling you how much saturated fat should be as a percentage of daily calories. These are just general guidelines. For example, people who follow a Ketogenic diet have over 75% of their daily calories come just from fat and sometimes saturated fat is 35% or more of that total. Natural fats of all types - saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated - are all critical for health. There are only essential fats and essential amino acids but no essential carbs. This is because the body can produce glucose from either fat or protein but can not produce these essential nutrients on its own.

 

My general advice is to eat natural, nutritionally dense foods to get all your macronutrients - including fats. The key is not to exceed your total caloric budget for the day if your goal is fat loss. When you are eating wholesome non-processed foods, it doesn't really matter what percentage of your macros of all types come from where in relation to your total calories. I eat way more than 10% of my calories from saturated fat and I don't concern myself about it. However, I cook and eat my own food and only eat 100% non-processed and nutritionally dense foods 24/7/365 - no exceptions :-)

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: jmboiardi

Don't be too confused about articles telling you how much saturated fat should be as a percentage of daily calories. These are just general guidelines. For example, people who follow a Ketogenic diet have over 75% of their daily calories come just from fat and sometimes saturated fat is 35% or more of that total. Natural fats of all types - saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated - are all critical for health. There are only essential fats and essential amino acids but no essential carbs. This is because the body can produce glucose from either fat or protein but can not produce these essential nutrients on its own.

 

My general advice is to eat natural, nutritionally dense foods to get all your macronutrients - including fats. The key is not to exceed your total caloric budget for the day if your goal is fat loss. When you are eating wholesome non-processed foods, it doesn't really matter what percentage of your macros of all types come from where in relation to your total calories. I eat way more than 10% of my calories from saturated fat and I don't concern myself about it. However, I cook and eat my own food and only eat 100% non-processed and nutritionally dense foods 24/7/365 - no exceptions :-)

 

John

My goal is muscle gain, not fat loss (the only fat I'd like to lose is the stomach area). Although you're saying I shouldn't worry too much about my macro ratios, I still want to try to get as close as I can to them. I do have another question on this topic though, and it may be a dumb one but I'll ask anyway.

 

I know sugar is one of the things that make up carbs. So on a nutrition label the sugar grams are included in the total carb grams. What about sugar that I add on my own, such as to coffee? That should count as part of my total carb intake too, right?

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

My goal is muscle gain, not fat loss (the only fat I'd like to lose is the stomach area). Although you're saying I shouldn't worry too much about my macro ratios, I still want to try to get as close as I can to them. I do have another question on this topic though, and it may be a dumb one but I'll ask anyway.

 

I know sugar is one of the things that make up carbs. So on a nutrition label the sugar grams are included in the total carb grams. What about sugar that I add on my own, such as to coffee? That should count as part of my total carb intake too, right?

Tracking and meeting your macros is key. I am not suggesting you don't worry about them what I am saying is you don't need to worry how much of your fat comes from saturated, mono-unsaturated, or polyunsaturated if you are eating only non-processed, nutritionally dense foods when calculating your Fat macros. You need to run a surplus to build muscle and to prevent unintended fat gain you must track your macros and meet the selected amounts.

 

As for sugar - sugar is sugar no matter where it comes from and needs to be accounted for in your Carb totals. A teaspoon or so in your coffee won't add up to much but other than that there should be no other times you are adding additional sugar to your meals.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

My goal is muscle gain, not fat loss (the only fat I'd like to lose is the stomach area). Although you're saying I shouldn't worry too much about my macro ratios, I still want to try to get as close as I can to them. I do have another question on this topic though, and it may be a dumb one but I'll ask anyway.

 

I know sugar is one of the things that make up carbs. So on a nutrition label the sugar grams are included in the total carb grams. What about sugar that I add on my own, such as to coffee? That should count as part of my total carb intake too, right?

Ideally you wouldn't have much more than 10% of your fat intake from saturated fat.. but if you were to go over that number it's not the end of the world. The main places you are going to get saturated fats are things like coconut oil, maybe some seeds and things like red meat, which are fine. The things you don't want are the saturated and trans fats associated with things like greasy takeaway foods.

 

And for sugar.. John's right.. sugar is sugar. One teaspoon in your coffee is probably about 20 calories. Once a day, no big deal. If you were doing that 3 or more times a day, I would maybe start to count it.. especially when you start to diet down. Remember there are plenty of artificial sweeteners which do basically the same job without the added calories 😁 ðŸ˜Ž 

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nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

Ideally you wouldn't have much more than 10% of your fat intake from saturated fat.. but if you were to go over that number it's not the end of the world. The main places you are going to get saturated fats are things like coconut oil, maybe some seeds and things like red meat, which are fine. The things you don't want are the saturated and trans fats associated with things like greasy takeaway foods.

 

And for sugar.. John's right.. sugar is sugar. One teaspoon in your coffee is probably about 20 calories. Once a day, no big deal. If you were doing that 3 or more times a day, I would maybe start to count it.. especially when you start to diet down. Remember there are plenty of artificial sweeteners which do basically the same job without the added calories 😁 ðŸ˜Ž 

Yea, aside from red meat, the main source of saturated fat for me is milk (for daily protein shakes and for oatmeal a few times a week). I could switch to low fat, but losing some of the fat from the milk will have the opposite effect of what I need...which is to get more calories since my issue is not getting enough. I can't win!

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Yea, aside from red meat, the main source of saturated fat for me is milk (for daily protein shakes and for oatmeal a few times a week). I could switch to low fat, but losing some of the fat from the milk will have the opposite effect of what I need...which is to get more calories since my issue is not getting enough. I can't win!

You could always switch to low fat milk, but then add some more fat to your diet through peanut butter? Or avocados? Or nuts? Plenty of other options 😊 

Need 1 on 1 coaching? Send me a direct message to learn more!
nyyanks937
nyyanks937 g Yevgeniy Kruchenetskiy
86 Post(s)
86 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: October 10, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

First thing.. yes if you aren't doing any kind of cardio, circuit training or weight training, then just make sure you are 250-500 calories above your BMR on non-workout days.

 

Remember it is NO MORE than 10%.. that means 10% of your total calorie intake would come from saturated fat at the MAXIMUM level.. it's not actually a number you NEED to aim for. If you get 6-7g of saturated fat (e.g. 1 teaspoon of coconut oil along with the little bits of saturated fat in other areas of your diet) then that's fine 😊 

Hi Scott. It's been a few weeks since I said anything on this post, but I just thought of a follow up question. Here are the macros you provided for me before:

 

Protein: 200g (31% of total cals)

Carbs: 250g (38% of total cals)

Fat: 90g (31% of total cals)

 

Total Calories = 2610

 

On my non-workout days when I can lower my total calories as long as I stay above my BMR at rest...do I lower all three macros proportionally? In other words, do I lower them and stay at 31% cals from protein, 38% cals from carbs, and 31% cals from fat? Or, is it better to keep my protein intake the same at 200g on non-workout days, and just lower the carbs and fat a bit more? Thanks!

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: nyyanks937

Hi Scott. It's been a few weeks since I said anything on this post, but I just thought of a follow up question. Here are the macros you provided for me before:

 

Protein: 200g (31% of total cals)

Carbs: 250g (38% of total cals)

Fat: 90g (31% of total cals)

 

Total Calories = 2610

 

On my non-workout days when I can lower my total calories as long as I stay above my BMR at rest...do I lower all three macros proportionally? In other words, do I lower them and stay at 31% cals from protein, 38% cals from carbs, and 31% cals from fat? Or, is it better to keep my protein intake the same at 200g on non-workout days, and just lower the carbs and fat a bit more? Thanks!

Keep the protein and fats the same if you can, and just lower carbs. If you lower carbs to 150g on non-workout days for example, would that be enough to keep you in a slight surplus on non-workout days? It would take your total calories to 2210.

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