Bodybuilding Forums

Hey everyone! New member here... to the forums.

I have been browsing the actual website for quite awhile. I've read THT. I've read both MANS and GLAD diet pages hell, I think I've read almost all the pages on the site.

I am going with MANS for one main reason. I have already been lowcarbing for a little over a month now, and I enjoy it. I love to eat meat, and I'm happy to hear that I can basically eat all the fat and protein I want

The one page that has me slightly confused is the one that talks about how to calculate your calorie intake. The only thing that confuses me is the fact that it says it's geared towards the GLAD diet.

I've (roughly) calculated my maintenance calories at about 2800 (I'm 5'11, 175lbs, probably about 25% body fat - I need calipers). In that article, it states that in order to bulk, you need to add 200-300 EXTRA calories to gain. Is this the same with MANS? Should I be eating around 3000 calories per day? I'm basically putting my diet at about 30g carb/165g protein/220g fat. Can anyone guide me in anything I may be doing wrong/miscalculating? I want to make sure my diet is right so I'm not wasting my gym time.

That seems pretty good. I would however increase my protein up to 200-210 grms and take the difference from the fat. I would also suggest that if your BF is around the 20% mark you might be better of starting with TSPA first and cutting down to under 15% before building.

I just came off of an 8 week cycle of MANS and am now on another cut phase with TSPA. I agree with Aaron.....start with TSPA....get your body fat down to the 8-12% area before you bulk. There are a variety of benefits to getting lean first. Once you get there....go to MANS. On your macros....up your protein to around 200 and drop your fat accordingly. I started at about 18% bf when I first started the program (around August 2011)....I am glad a cut first as it seems once you get that first cut done successfully...you can build (which will inevitably add fat)....and then the next cut is much faster and easier.

I agree with Jim agreeing with me I also agree with everything else he said. Plus i read an article resently which stated that when the body fat is below 15% and you start building, more of the calories get put into building the muscles and less into the fat cells. In contrast to this, the higher your fat % is the more of the extra calories get put into the fat cells and less into developing the muscle. I have no idea as to the validity of the article but it warrents taking into consideration.

Well, according to the sites little tool, I'm roughly 17%. I guess I'm a little confused. Mark's philosophy seems to be that if you follow the program, and eat right, you can cut the fat, and gain lean muscle at the same time?

I wouldn't use the sites tool for calculating your body fat, it's just no where near accurate enough. If you are the member of a gym see if they will do it for you, or get a callipers and calculate your own. I would also add that if you have never trained or haven't training for a long time you may well lose fat for a while on the mans diet and trainging program, but ultimatly MANS and GLAD are building diets and while they are designed for clean building (building while adding as little fat as possible), it's very hard to shift fat when you are above maiantence level calories. Of course if you build a lot of muscle the fat you have can be spread over a larger area and your BF% can go down, bu this is not the same as cutting. Cutting programs are designes to get rid of fat and where possilbe maintain as much muscle mass as possible while doing so. That is what TSPA is designed for, and is very good at.

I agree with you bclark96....you can cut fat and build a little bit of muscle, but you will have to be on TSPA to do that. On my first TSPA I did build some muscle and cut the fat. But if you go on MANS or GLAD and follow the program precisely...you will be in a calorie overage, which makes it difficult to cut body fat. You will build muscle under the fat (which may not be too noticeable due to the fat), but the fat will still be there. On the flip side...if you cut first and get lean...this causes the body's metabolism to speed up, then when you switch to MANS or GLAD is causes a growth spurt (if lifting) for about two weeks...this is a good thing (plus you are lean). Additionally, after you cut all the old fat (the stuff that has been there a while)....the new fat you put on in your bulk phases comes off much easier.

I wrestled with the same thing when I started....I was going to just do the muscle building because I did not think I was fat. Glad I cut first...best thing I ever did. I realized I was a skinny fat guy once I saw what I looked like after the fat cut. Take a look at my log...you can see the difference the cut made for me. Everyone has different goals....you will have to decide based on what your goals are.

total-six-pack-abs-members-area/tspa-mans-jimboski-log-t6520.html

Thanks for all the input.

Unfortunately, I don't have the $47 at the moment for TSPA, BUT... I think I will complete one meso, and do some calculating to see where I stand BF wise and look-wise. If at that point I need to lose some BF, I should be able to afford Mark's book.

Thanks again.

One other suggestion...you might consider getting an accumeasure body fat caliper. This will give you a better and more consistent reading on BF% then the calculator on the website. This would cost you $5-10.

http://www.amazon.com/Accu-Measure-Fitn ... 435&sr=1-1