Bodybuilding Forums

Hi there,

First of all I'd like to say congratulations on a fantastic resource for muscle building. I've wanted to build muscle for years (I'm 30 now) without any great conviction and read a fair bit of what's available online but stumbled upon nothing as in depth as this site for free. This website seems to give honest, very well researched advice and really will be the only place I visit now - presuming I can actually get off my arse and motivate myself to get down the gym!

I have a few questions which I'd really appreciate answered if possible.

Firstly, I'm a little confused as to which diet I should try first. I'm 30 years old and only done very small amounts of weight training in the past. I've been eating a low calorie, low carb diet recently as I had a bit of a belly which I wanted to shift. I have a small frame though, and whilst I haven't actually checked I would guess my body fat is low as I play a lot of football (soccer) and squash as well as swimming from time to time. I've always been skinny so I guess you'd describe me as very much a hard gainer. My instinct is to go with the MANS diet but perhaps I'm wrong?

My second question is is the recommded daily carb intake (starting with 30g), net carbs? If so, how do I calculate these from the information listed on food packaging (UK). On lots of packaging it says "carbohydrates of which Sugars" - should I subtract the "of which sugars" value from the carbs?

Another thing I'd like to know, not related to diet, is what is the general consensus on body fat scales (BIA)? I know in some of your articles you recommend the use of body fat calipers but when I've read reviews of these, people say they are very difficult to measure your body fat unless in the hands of someone skilled in using them. I know body fat scales aren't 100% accurate but they would give me a general indication of how much protein to eat, what progress I'm making, etc.

Finally, you don't have to read too many articles on this site in order to get the impression the feeling here is cardio is the enemy of the body builder. The problem is, I do a lot of cardio. I play squash 2 or 3 times a week, and play football 3 times a week, as well as swimming. I love playing football and squash, the only one I'd be prepared to give up is Swimming. Does this mean I am fighting a losing battle in trying to build muscle or do I simply need to make sure I eat sufficient calories to compensate? It's probably worth pointing out I don't want to get uber stacked, I don't think that look would suit me. I want to remain lean but much more muscular than now.

Any help would be much appreciated - thanks.

In regards to which diet to follow, it's realy up to you. It just depends which you'd find easier to follow.

The cardio you do will no doubt slow your muscle growth, but you'll still be able to achieve your goals, just with a little more time required. In regards to whether you should eat more to compensate, I would say yes, but someone else will need to give more detail on this.

For UK food labels, you just take the total figure (i.e. the figure above the sugars figure). For instance, if it says 15g carbs, or which sugars 5g, then the carb count for that food is 15g. It is only with US food labels that you have to subtract things.

Frogmarch1987 wrote:In regards to which diet to follow, it's realy up to you. It just depends which you'd find easier to follow.

The cardio you do will no doubt slow your muscle growth, but you'll still be able to achieve your goals, just with a little more time required. In regards to whether you should eat more to compensate, I would say yes, but someone else will need to give more detail on this.

For UK food labels, you just take the total figure (i.e. the figure above the sugars figure). For instance, if it says 15g carbs, or which sugars 5g, then the carb count for that food is 15g. It is only with US food labels that you have to subtract things.

Thanks for coming back to me.

So, the top figure of carbs is the only one I need worry about. The thing is, I drunk a small carton of apple juice earlier and that stated 25.9g of carbs (of which sugars 25.9g). Does that really mean 1 and a bit of these apple juices is my daily intake of carbs under the MANS diet? That seems crazy. Not saying it's wrong, just surprising and a little bit scary to be honest. With that in mind, maybe I'd find it easier to follow the GLAD diet. From what I've read on here there seems to be pretty great results with either option.

Sorry, one more quick question.

Is the TSPA only for people who are perhaps a little overweight who want to get ripped or would it work for someone like me, who's already pretty skinny with quite low body fat % who want to bulk up?

cheers,

J

jdj983 wrote:

Frogmarch1987 wrote:In regards to which diet to follow, it's realy up to you. It just depends which you'd find easier to follow.

The cardio you do will no doubt slow your muscle growth, but you'll still be able to achieve your goals, just with a little more time required. In regards to whether you should eat more to compensate, I would say yes, but someone else will need to give more detail on this.

For UK food labels, you just take the total figure (i.e. the figure above the sugars figure). For instance, if it says 15g carbs, or which sugars 5g, then the carb count for that food is 15g. It is only with US food labels that you have to subtract things.

Thanks for coming back to me.

So, the top figure of carbs is the only one I need worry about. The thing is, I drunk a small carton of apple juice earlier and that stated 25.9g of carbs (of which sugars 25.9g). Does that really mean 1 and a bit of these apple juices is my daily intake of carbs under the MANS diet? That seems crazy. Not saying it's wrong, just surprising and a little bit scary to be honest. With that in mind, maybe I'd find it easier to follow the GLAD diet. From what I've read on here there seems to be pretty great results with either option.

Yep, that apple juice's 25.9g carbs pretty much uses up your day's supply of MANS, but even worse is the fact that the juice is high glycemic carbs so you got a huge insulin rush from that one carton, which is the one thing you want to avoid on MANS. The 30g carbs is supposed to be low glycemic veggies and fruits. That's why I prefer GLAD even though it requires a little more planning and calculating. MANS is easy - if it's protein without carbs, eat it almost to your heart's content (still don't want to completely overdo the calories, of course)! GLAD requires you to add calculate your GLs, but it becomes pretty much intuitive after awhile.

TSPA is for those who wish to lose weight, whilst preserving their muscle tissue. If you are wanting to bulk up, then you should use Mans or GLAD