There are many factors that influence muscle growth including:
Genetic predisposition
Age
Training Program
Training Status (beginner vs advanced)
Injuries
Pain Tolerance
Drug Use
You’ll notice that nutrition isn’t one of the factors. Once you’ve hit your daily require of how much protein you need to gain muscle then there is little nutrition can do for muscle growth, but this fact is largely ignored by the supplement and bodybuilding community hence the ‘eat to get big’ mantra.
In this podcast we’ll discuss:
What causes muscle growth
The main drivers to muscle growth
The misinterpretation of calories for muscle growth and the limited role nutrition plays.
How to properly view muscle growth (balloons not bricks)
John
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
{ 23 comments }
Great Podcast Guys!
Your right it´s really funny when you´re dieting down, before two Months(at 187 Lbs ) i would have sweard i could see my abs if i where 165 Lbs. Now i am 155 and still can´t see them xD
Nice one guys!!
A quick question:
Where can I find out about the “rules of seven” that you talked about on the podcast?
Thanks,
One more question also. Can you elaborate on “eating to your BMR vs Calorie restriction”? Something you guys were talking about at the end of the interview.
Thanks,
What about super skinny teenagers(16-20) years old who want to gain a good amount of muscle. Almost everyone I know in that age group had to eat a alot of food in addition to their training to gain some nice mass
This is why i disagree with this statement, i was 18 and not gaining any new muscles at 5 feet 10 inches, i ate normally was able to get my bodyweight from 142 pounds but i was stuck at 165 pounds, still very skinny.
I met a bodybuilder who was 34 years old and he showed me how to gain mass, by eating more, you get bigger.
Within a year of serious training and eating as he showed me i went from 165 pounds to 188 pounds, but then again this was not all muscles because i also add gained 2 inches off my waiste, from 32 to 34 inches, but that is quite normal for anyone who wants to gain mass to gain so fat in the process.
If i would go back today i would surely do it differently and take the time to let my body get to its full potential.
As always – great stuff.
Here’s a nice ditty for the whole ‘type of calories’ and ‘type of training’ thing:
‘its not the drink you drunk – its that you drunk the drink’.
They knew that (it was in common usage and ‘common knowledge’) in the Victorian era.
Very right. I’m 6 foot used to be 210 pounds, now I am 173 and have a good old bit of muscle (actually more now than when I was heavier) but before I get totally shredded I believe I am going to have to drop another 8-10 pounds of fat. Now if you had told me at 210 pounds that I needed to get down to around 165 to get ”cut” I would have found it very hard to believe indeed!
Yeah fat loss is an all day thing!
Very educational thanks.
Just an interesting thought – the health and fitness ‘industry’ rose hand in hand with the rise of Arnold (may protein be fed to him), which corresponded to the rise of body building, the muscular movie hero and the ‘public’ gym.
And, of course, anabolic steroids (which were legal).
Subsequently the public eye (subconsciously) sees the athletic human form as synonymous with steroid use. Is it only in athletes for whom excessive muscle mass would be a bad thing (mountain climbers and ballet dancers maybe) do we see how the human athlete appear unadulterated?
I used to eat an excess of calories while weight training. So glad i found this blog!! My bodyfat is 10% now, and i will try and come down to 8% While building up some muscle. Only gonna eat 1800 calories.. my bmr is 1690
As far as i understand, it was only the two groups who took testosterone who gained muscle AND lost fat at the same time.
But don’t you think the only reason they are able to do that is because of the drug use? Since the group who worked out without drugs didn’t lose any fat.. and both groups where eating the same amount of calories.
In my network of friends, there’s a lot of guys who are weight training and trying to gain more muscle. Similar for a bunch of them was that they didn’t get any results before they started eating more food. Alot of them where eating plenty protein in the start, but maybe only around 2500 calories daily, and whey just wheren’t gaining any muscle.
Dont you think it actually does take some amount of excess calories?
Im a little worried. And thinking that maybe you are only saying all these things, making it up.. to have a unique product to sell (Adonis effect)… no competition.
Rod,
We’re not making it up. Believe me I wish gaining muscle was as easy as just eating more calories and training hard, but it really isn’t. If you’re training without steroids you just can’t gain at the same rate no matter how many calories you eat.
JB
I “Feel” what you guys are saying about “permission to be light.”
at 5’7.5″, I should be at about 150 lbs!!!!! Not including being water depleted or whatever…
150?!?!?!?!?!
Sure, I look a LOT better at 150 than any higher weight (and I’ll do whatever I can to NOT go back to the old way), but still…it’s 150!! ugh.
Jason
I have a rare condition that keeps me from producing hormones on my own. I have to take them in pills and injections every day.
Wondering if this can keep me from getting results..?
My doctor injects me with 250mg Testosterone Enanthate every 14 day.
Is this considered a normal dose, or is it less than what the average guy produce on his own?
Don’t worry if you can’t answer the questions, I know this subject is not what your blog is about.
Karsten,
Your physician is probably dosing you with enough testosterone to put you back into normal physiological ranges. In other words, he’s giving you enough to make you normal (but not bodybuilder superhuman). It wouldn’t make much sense for him to go below normal. If you want to be sure ask him what your testosterone levels are with the replacement therapy he is providing.
JB
Yeah, he must be doing that. Will try and get my levels checked.
Btw. does genetics also play a role in how fast you can build muscle?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-exercise-really-make
in the artical above it is said,
“The longer, harder and more often you exercise, the greater the health benefits”
preatty much exactly what you guys are saying is needed to build muscle (although they say health but like you guys said in another post healthy can be a vauge term.”
In your opinion,
Is being shredded impressive no matter how lightly muscled you are?
I mean, there must be a place for genetic ectomorphs, who train like bodybuilders, yet look like twigs in clothes (but have visible muscle detail worlds beyond any “big” guy in the gym).
Jason,
Being very lean is always impressive no matter how much muscle is there. This is the great equalizer for guys who are true ectomorphs. Ecto’s can maintain a level of definition that most people cannot achieve for extended periods of time.
On the flip side endo’s will seem to have trouble being extremely lean on a regular basis, but they’ll always have impressive muscle size.
Might as well flaunt what you got.
JB
John, in how much protein on page 57 the study where they had 2 groups eating an extra 2010 calories gained more muscle then the group that did not. Do you think it was the calories that directly added to the muscle difference?
I thought of another reason by borrowing one of your ideas from an older podcast. You said something along the lines that eating in a deficit can make you weaker just because you have less food in your system which I’m guessing meant you just have less energy. But your muscles are still there and are not any smaller although you may be weaker.
So what do you think about the idea that the group that did not eat the extra calories; didn’t gain as much size not do to the direct effect of the calories. But rather the groups that ate more simply had more energy so they were in a better state to be lifting. So they benefited more from it then.
Looking over it again it says that they gained fat free mass. That extra mass that the high calorie groups gained over the placebo could have just been water couldn’t it?
flaunt what you got, absolutely!
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