Eating For Size

"Whether you choose to believe it or not, wanting abs and definition is men's subconscious way of impressing other men. Think about it. Go to a gay bar and see for yourself. Men like those things. Women don't give a damn about your low body fat. They want their men big, strong, and confident. #instincts"

     Gaining wisdom in the gym  is very similar to gaining it throughout life. We are oftentimes given sound advice from others, but it isn't until we are in the trenches for a while getting our ass kicked by reality until we start to actually hear what they were saying.  For years, I have struggled in my attempts to get bigger and stronger, and for years, I have heard over and over again that I must not be eating enough.  I would tell myself "forget them, they don't understand how much I eat".  Or, "it's just harder for me to get stronger than it is for them".  Or most commonly,  "Wahh wahh wah, bitch bitch bitch".  It wasn't until a few months ago that I finally gave in.  I was completely fed up and had heard it enough times - from coaches, from other lifters, that I decided to finally start putting aside my healthy morals and start crushing some serious food.  "Maybe all of these people who I look up to and who are extremely successful are correct?" - what a dumb ass I was.  I was tired of my weight never increasing and my strength gains never following the expected route promoted by various programs.
      I originally started lifting to get bigger so I could become more of an impact on my soccer team at college.  Then it was all about bodybuilding and aesthetics.  And now - because using my body to do fun things is my favorite thing to do - it's about getting as big and strong as genetically possible so that I can use my body to its full potential in athletic situations (and also so I can continue to learn, in order to improve my coaching through applied personal experience).  However, regardless of whether you want to improve aesthetically, get stronger, be bigger, or improve physically in any way, adequate consumption of food is MOST OFTEN times the limiting factor for growth.

     It's taken me close to 4 years to go from a body weight of 145 lbs to 172 lbs.  My squat has gone from nothing to 340 lbs, my deadlift - from nothing to 360 lbs, and my OH and Bench presses to 155 lbs and 225 lbs respectively.  Knowing what I know now,  sadly, the truth is that I could have gained similar results in about 1 year or less if I had been blessed with a good coach from the beginning.  Unfortunately, like many others, I had to learn the hard way.  I've been squatting CORRECTLY for only about a solid year or so, I started OH pressing at the same time,  and the only reason my deadlift is so low is because I recently altered my technique about a couple of months ago after meeting and working directly with Rippetoe at his seminar in Brooklyn.  At the end of the day, all the bullshit I had to go through to learn how to do things right has made me an excellent coach, and I'm confident to say I'm definitely part of a unique club of coaches who REALLY understand how to use the barbell.  One of my favorite quotes from Rip - "Mediocre athletes make the best coaches"- is very accurate, and I am definitely a good example of that philosophy.  I was not blessed with a good coach to show me how to lift, what to lift, and how to eat.  I'm an ectomorph with an RMR that exceeds ridiculous, I have short arms and long legs (shitty pulling mechanics), narrow shoulders (shitty mechanical advantage for the presses),  I do not have a high percentage of type 2 musculature,  and I have very average, if not lower than average serum Testosterone levels (as measured through a saliva test).  Everything I am works against everything that I want to become.  It's kind of a sick trick played on me by God, but in the end, I've had to struggle and search for the answers for a long time, and it's helped me perfect my coaching style and reach higher PR's.  

     That being said, I'm here to share some knowledge about getting bigger and stronger that I hope some of you will heed.  Trying to get bigger and you aren't?  Guess what, you aren't eating enough.  Trust me - I know.  Try and tell me "no matter what I do, I just can't get any bigger Dave" and I will slap you in the face.  Tell it to me again and then I'll slap you in the dick. I've been there and the truth is, you just don't want it bad enough.  Don't think for a minute that working hard in the gym is enough.  That's the easy part.  Let's be honest, the hard work we put into the gym isn't work.  We enjoy it, we look forward to it.  We feel the best about ourselves when we are putting the work in.  We are happy.  The hard work is what we have to do when we aren't lifting.  Waking up late after drinking the night before and eating when we are hungry is unacceptable if you are going to complain about not gaining weight.
     Hopefully I can alter your paradigm - that training hard is going to get you big and strong - right now.  It is important to lift hard, but it is the easy part.  It's kind of like studying in college.  Getting to the library is very important, but if you don't do shit when you get there, you're still going to fail.  Getting to the gym and lifting hard is your way of going to the library, and studying hard equates to resting well and eating your face off.  The problem is that you are skipping the hard part: the work that you don't enjoy doing, the work that takes you out of your comfort zone.  It's funny how life works.  Doing the things that we hate and aren't willing to do is oftentimes the missing link between succeeding and failing.  

     Allow me to put things into perspective.  In order to gain 1 lb of body weight in a week's time, this is what I must do.  Let's take yesterday's exact food intake.

6:00 AM - Bowl of cereal with whole milk/ cup of coffee

8:00 AM - Bacon Egg and Cheese with a side of hash browns

11:00 AM - Chipotle Burrito with everything including guacamole/ cup of coffee

2:00 - LIFT
5:00 PM - Banana, peanut butter, and oatmeal protein shake with whole milk
7:00 PM (big meal) 2 McDoubles and 3 crispy snack wraps from McDonald's
10:00 PM - 2 slices of pizza with a protein shake and 10 mg creatine monohydrate.

* All whilst snacking throughout the day on a half bag of Almonds from Whole Foods

Approx.  calories - 5000 -5500

     Many of you may say "gross", but you can all suck it because I also hit a big PR that day.  Squat 315x5 has been on my mind for a while and I finally threw it up.  I've been working on crushing food for the last 4 weeks or so and I definitely see a change in the progression of my lifts.  I am stronger.  I am recovering better than ever.  I'm currently following Texas Method pretty much to the T with an aesthetic arm day (because I'm lame) on Tuesday, and my squat and dead lift feel like they can increase 10 lbs every intensity day for a while, which I've never really felt before.

     Now, many of you may be thinking that eating McDonald's 5 times per week is unhealthy.  Well, you're right, but I promise that if gaining weight for you is as difficult as it is for me and you aren't willing to eat half a pizza sometimes, you are not going to grow and you are going to continue to be overly sore and disappointed.  Here's an example that may relate to you. I remember back in the good ol' college days when I thought I was eating a lot.  I was on a meal plan that my parents paid for and so I was able to eat pretty much whenever I wanted to.  I was full most of the time but I still wasn't putting on weight.  The difference was this:  back then, my idea of a big meal  after a lift (or whenever) was having a huge plate of pasta/ chicken/ vegetables.  Now, as admirable as my efforts were to eat healthy AND eat a lot of food, the reality is that eating a meal like that to full stomach capacity would cap at no more than 800 calories if I really pushed it.  Now on the other hand, eating 2 McDoubles and 3 crispy snack wraps from McDonald's results in an equal feeling of satiety (and 88 grams of protein)  but with the calories consumed being more than doubled at about 2200 calories.  Now that I've started doing the latter, I'm gaining muscle, I'm actually putting on some fat, my lifts are continuing to linearly progress at a more constant rate, and I'm starting to feel like a beast.
      Most people are smart enough to understand that wanting to be able to run a marathon AND squat double their body weight is not going to happen.  These are examples of conflicting goals.  Unfortunately, the same obvious reality isn't so obvious when referring to the belief that trying to be a health freak and becoming a massive piece of man is possible. These are also what we call conflicting goals. Let me tell you that eating healthy and getting big and strong are only going to work for so long.  All you fricken kids tell me the same thing.  "I want to get bigger and stronger, AND I want to be ripped up and keep my abs." Every time I hear this, I die a little inside.  I know that I now have to give the same 5 minute speech on the topic that I just finished telling that other kid over there rocking the dog tags and the backwards Brooklyn hat finishing his 30th set of "abs" STEREOTYPING!  And, if you become my client I'm probably going to have to repeat it 39 more times in the future until the Men's Health, Bodybuilding.com, and Jersey Shore brainwashing have been overridden. 

::big breath in::
::and release::

     You can stay at <10% body fat year long, keep some definition, and put on maybe a few pounds of muscle in a years time. Or you can just say fuck it for a year, eat a crap load, and put on 15 lbs of fat and 10-30 lbs of muscle (depending on your training age) - which is very possible for a novice.  15 lbs of fat which you can lose by decreasing your calories and doing some cardio for just a few weeks.  Which sounds better to you?  Stop thinking that having ab definition during the winter is going to get you laid.  By this point, you either got game or you don't.  Plus, here's a bit of wisdom that I've learned along the way.  Whether you choose to believe it or not, wanting abs and definition are men's subconscious way of impressing other men.  Think about it.  Go to a gay bar and see for yourself.  Men like those things. Women don't give a damn about your low body fat.  They want their men big, strong, and confident.  #instincts.  If you're comparing yourself to what some physique competitor is saying in a magazine or on their Facebook page about how they eat really clean, and never touch a carb while gaining muscle, they either have freak genetics that you don't have,  or they are probably taking drugs (the latter is true more often than not).  Deal with "THE TRUTH".
    Want to substitute a healthier choice in place of McDonald's?  It's definitely possible.  There are other ways to make it happen.  For me, having to sometimes be in a gym without a kitchen for 12 hours, eating a bag of almonds all day works well.  Jim Wendler suggests waking up at 3:00 AM every night to slam down a shake. Or you could always go with the the very popular GOMAD, and drink a Gallon Of (whole) Milk A Day. Same 2200 calories as McDonald's,  but it's just going to be hard as hell.  I've tried it.  You will poop... A lot.  Where there's a will, there's definitely a way.
     So choose for yourself.  Remain healthy and watch your size and strength potential suffer, or do the hard work that it takes to succeed, man up, stop cringing when you see bacon and mac & cheese on the same plate, and crush some food.  Now that I know "THE TRUTH" about getting big and strong,  I will continue to eat like a slob and see how big I can get.  There are no more excuses.  I know what I need to do and I'm going to do it.  It is expensive.  It is time consuming.  It is annoying to be full and tired all the time.  But I accomplish things when I say I'm going to.  New goal:  Squat 400 by my birthday (3/7).  Stop me

    Read this article!  It outlines exactly what I'm saying with real examples of young men pounding food and gaining weight at a rate similar to that of "young farm animals".  The best case scenarios are divulged for you to sink your teeth into.  PUN

THE NOVICE EFFECT