Bodybuilding Forums

I've been on the MANS diet for about 3 months. I've lost about 1% body fat (15% down to 14%) and my weight has gone from 162 lbs to 157 lbs (5'9"). I've been working out as Mark describes... getting plenty of protein and supplementing with creatine and glutamine. For about the first two months I ate about 300 more calories than my daily requirement was...but no significant lean muscle or weight gain. For the last 3-4 weeks I've been eating the "MANS" foods, but not counting calories...just eating when hungry. For me this amounts to fewer calories than before. Still no real weight change. So, here's my question...if I'm working out hard and eating enough protein to support the repair and rebuilding of my muscles (which should grow larger & heavier), how & why do an abundance of calories factor into this? Eating surplus calories is a real hard thing for me do to my job & my hunger level. I'd like to fully understand this dynamic so I can stay motivated and re-plan what comes next for me as I try to put on lean muscle.

PS I feel like I'm looking more fit and toned up, but this layer of fat on my abs just won't go away!

It's not just about eating enough protein, calories are burned to do basically anything and everything in your body. If you are not eating enough of them, your body has to go elsewhere for the energy, the first backup source usually is converting proteins from your muscles into glucose for energy.

So when you thought you were getting enough grams protein you actually aren't, because your body is breaking down a lot of that protein into glucose to use for energy instead of maintaining and building muscle mass, and you end up with a shortage, so your muscles get used for energy maintenance and cannot grow.

That's why it's important you take in enough calories, so that your body has the energy it needs to sustain itself for the day and doesn't have to take away from your muscles.

I also found that it was hard to eat enough calories on a no-carb diet, since 50g of protein is going to make you infinitely more full than 50g of carbs will. Fat is the ticket to calories though, since there are 9 calories per gram of fat instead of 4 calories per gram like with protein and carbs, that's why MANS is very big on foods high in fats, because you would NEVER be able to hit your calorie goal on protein alone. So don't forget about those fats.

In an effort to REALLY understand this I have some more thoughts...How do the excess calories know to go to your muscles for growth rather than to your waistline? I find the mechanics of losing fat WHILE CONSUMING EXCESS CALORIES difficult to understand. It makes sense to me, however, to consume exactly (and only) the amount of calories your body needs to sustain & energize itself (containing the proper amount of protein to prevent muscle loss & promote muscle rebuilding). That method would seem to suggest that you won't loose muscle because you are feeding them what they require, and they will build back larger and heavier after working out. Thus, eliminating excess calories will prevent the excess from going to your fat reserves (because they were not needed for energy...)? At this point I don't understand how the "excess" calories are used to grow muscle vs fat...I can see easily, however, that they may be converted to fat??

kurtmmiller wrote:In an effort to REALLY understand this I have some more thoughts...How do the excess calories know to go to your muscles for growth rather than to your waistline?

It doesn't know to go to one place or the other. It's just that your calorie usage goes up when you have an active workout routine, because it takes energy to both do the workout, and to repair your muscle tissues between workouts. That's why you typically want to eat more calories when you are trying to build muscle, because your calorie requirements to sustain your daily body functions is now higher than before when you are constantly working out and repairing muscle tissue.