Bodybuilding Forums

for the bodybuilding mans diet i have read the article and think it is really good, but it says u have to consume around 30 grams of carbs daily for 5 days a week,but i cant find anywhere where it says how much protein and fat ?
does anyone know how much fat and protein i should be taking in ,

The reason it doesn't mention specific macronutrient ratios is that they are unnecessary on MANS. Ignore macronutrient ratios for your first few weeks on MANS. Seriously. Just get used to eating low-carb; spend AT LEAST two weeks eating strictly low-carb so that your body becomes fat-adapted. Worry about the stuff below only after you've seen the results from spending several weeks on MANS eating unrestricted low-carb, or if you feel the need to take it to the next level. If you try to boil it down to strict macronutrient ratios when you are first starting out, you're setting yourself up for failure!

That said, some of us like to over-think things. For those people, here's a sample macronutrient ratio calculation.

Macronutrient ratios are easy to calculate.

1. Get on a scale and weigh yourself, then get a tape measure and measure your neck just below your Adam's apple and abdomen around the belly button (or whatever area of your abdomen is the FATTEST above your buttocks). Plug the figures into the body fat calculator on the front page of http://www.musclehack.com.

My stats: 215 lbs, 40" waist, 73" tall, 16.5" neck. Body fat percentage: 24.1% (ugh! I was somewhere around 40% last year, but still, ugh!)

2. Multiply your body fat percentage by your weight. In my case, that's .241 * 215, which is around fifty-two pounds of fat.

3. Subtract your fat weight from your total body weight: 215 - 52 = 163lbs

4. Eat at least 1g per pound of lean body weight in protein. So in my case, at least 163g of protein per day. I actually shoot for around 200-210 because 1g/lb doesn't lead to gains for me!

As a thirty-six-year-old male who considers himself Lightly physically active, my maintenance calories are around 2700-2800 calories per day. I've found that to be mostly true, though I can err with the fat calories quite a bit and my body still maintains weight around that number. Fats are 9 calories per gram, proteins are 4 calories per gram, and carbs are also 4 calories per gram (more or less). So from that, it's easy to calculate an exact ratio if I want to be pedantic about it:

Carbs: 30g == 120 calories
Protein: 163g == 652 calories
Fat: ?? == 2028 calories (the remainder, which comes out to 225g)

Now, I have trouble eating 225g of fat in a day... so I boost my protein quite a bit, to around 1.25g per pound of lean weight. Anything up to 2g per pound is totally safe unless your kidneys are failing, and most people experience better muscle-building results with a higher amount of protein. 1g per pound of lean should be your working MINIMUM.

--Matt B.

I have a problem with that formula for getting your fat percentage by measuring your neck, waist, and height? I think to get a more accurate measurement of your fat percentage you need to be measuring with callipers and use the Parillo 9-site measurements.

lukegraves wrote:for the bodybuilding mans diet i have read the article and think it is really good, but it says u have to consume around 30 grams of carbs daily for 5 days a week,but i cant find anywhere where it says how much protein and fat ?
does anyone know how much fat and protein i should be taking in ,

The MANS diet is a bit like the anabolic diet. On the anabolic diet the main macronutrient ratios are 35% protein and 60% fat with 30g carbs.

krs wrote:I have a problem with that formula for getting your fat percentage by measuring your neck, waist, and height? I think to get a more accurate measurement of your fat percentage you need to be measuring with callipers and use the Parillo 9-site measurements.

It's true that if you deviate substantially from "average" (meaning: you are extraordinarily muscular or heavily-framed), the neck/waist/height measurement is probably inaccurate. However, I recently took a Bod Pod test, however, and found the neck/waist/height measure was the most accurate of all for my current body composition. That method was within 0.6% of the Bod Pod reading. Next up in accuracy was an Omron hand-held meter in Normal mode, used first thing in the morning. The skin-fold testing as performed by trained specialists was wildly inaccurate (to the LOW side), and that was performed by two different trainers two different times at the gym.

Moral of the story: if you aren't in the teens in body fat, skin-fold is probably one of the least accurate body fat measures. Of course, hydrostatic, DEXA, and Bod Pod testing are "gold standards" for getting accurate body composition measurements. But the key thing for home use is whatever method you use, it should be accurate compared against itself. Neck/waist/height methods are really my gold standard at home right now. My Omron is really consistent if I follow the protocol (roll out of bed, take the measure standing up with my elbows slightly flared, Normal mode for my current body type and body fat). Skin-fold varies too much to be reliable for me, and I don't think it's a matter of training, it's a matter of I'm still too fat for it to be accurate.

My advice? Whatever method gives you the most consistent results, keep using that one and compare it against itself. Ultimately, the goals of bodybuilding are to look fantastic and be healthy. Your body fat testing method should be compared against itself to ensure you're moving the right way (preferably, down or sideways, not up!).

Regards,
Matt B.

I must must say that sometimes when I do the skin fold test with calipers you might get three readings that are all different as fat tends to move around the body One down side to the calipers skin fold is you need help with tricep & Subscapular. I did a skin test today 9 site reading and was 11.88% also done the height, neck, abdomen test and was much higher