Cut or bulk?

Broly

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Hi. My situation here is this: from this September I started to do a bulk diet, and since the last year during my bulk season I've had some problems about gaining weight I thought I could push myself a little more on my healthy fats and carb's intake in order to put some more pounds without so many difficulty. But what happened was this: to much fat gain to what I supposed I would have gained, since I've been an hardgainer. Within a month I went from 179lbs to 200lbs. Now I face myself with a new problem: I like to weight 200lbs but I don't like the amount of fat I see, so how could I lean out without cutting to much on my current weight? What changes do I have to do to my diet in order to do this? Basicaly my diet goes like this:

-Breakfast: 90gr of oats, 40gr of whey and soy milk to mix it (no I don't measure it)
-Lunch (about 3hours later): 200gr of beef or 2 cans of natural tuna with either sparggeti (if it's beef) or black-eyed peas (if its tuna), and some fruit
-Post W.O. shake: 60gr of maltodextrin with 40gr of whey
-Meal 3: 33,8oz of soy milk
-Dinner: 200gr of beef or 2 cans of natural tuna with either sparggeti (if it's beef) or black-eyed peas (if its tuna), fruit and 100gr of peanutbutter (although I've cutted on the peanutbutter this last few days)
-Meal 5: 200gr of peanuts
-Meal 6: 33,8oz. of skimmed milk

Any help is welcomed:)
 

Mindless

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-Meal 3: 33,8oz of soy milk too many carbs, get a wpi shake w/ water instead + some almonds
-Dinner: 200gr of beef or 2 cans of natural tuna with either sparggeti (if it's beef) or black-eyed peas (if its tuna), fruit and 100gr of peanutbutter (although I've cutted on the peanutbutter this last few days) too much food at once, cut the peanutbutter out
-Meal 5: 200gr of peanuts too much fat imo, try 50gr of peanuts + 120gr chicken breast or a shake
-Meal 6: 33,8oz. of skimmed milk too many carbs, get casein shake w/ water or cottage cheese instead
my opinion in bold.
 

Broly

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So that's all I need to alter in order to achieve my goal: not precisely cutting but rather "work" with my body composition keeping the weight or just going a little down, is that it?
Thanks for your help, it was indeed very important;):)
 
PublicEnemy

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I agree with mindless. Cut down your carb intake and replace at least a quarter of your CHO intake with vegetables, they'll slow the gastric emptying and supply much needed fiber and micronutrients.

My meal suggestions are as follows:
Breakfast: Replace the whey with some whole food, eggs would be a good choice. I've noticed you have a bit of soy milk incorporated into your foods, personally i'd stay away from it. Research Soy Isoflavones, those are pretty much 90% of the reason I don't eat soy regularly.
Lunch: If lunch and breakfast are spread more then 3 hours apart I would recommended incorporating a small, healthy snack in between. Nuts or homemade trail mix are awesome choices. Make at least a quarter of this meal fibrous veggies. I'm suspecting you don't respond ideally to carbs, so either switch the spaghetti for whole grain otherwise prepare a minimally processed starch source. While I'm not a huge fan of starches in general, i always think they should be eaten pre workout. You could try sweet potatoes, what I call "earthier" grains like quinoa and foods along those lines, or go with a wild or white rice and bean mix.
Post Workout: If 60g Malto + 40g whey has always worked the best for you then stick with it. In your position, seeing as your CHO intake is fairly high I would replace the Malto with 5-10g Glutamine, which is also insulogenic, or else do a post work out mix of 30g CHO + 30g Whey. The optimal amount of whey to take at once is hotly debated, but because of its nature to be absorbed quickly and its short half life, too much whey will result in a good portion of it being converted into glucose and stored in fat cells.
Meal 3: If I knew the time frame you have between meals I could give you a better suggestion, but drinking a mid caloric liquid as a meal isn't going to keep you satisfied or stay with you. Depending on the breakdown of your calories per meal, the amount is going to vary but the one absolute truth in bodybuilding is whole food>supplements. I'd try to get something solid in your stomach instead.
Dinner: More veggies and a more nutritious carb source, preferably a quality starch. Consider swapping your beef for other animal proteins such as fish, (tilapia is good stuff) eggs, chicken etc
Meal 5: I'd eat something else along with the peanuts. Variety is the spice of life afterall.
Meal 6: eat cottage cheese. Its cheaper then casein and has a higher nutrient density.

One of the things I firmly believe is that each individual genes are (obviously) unique and determine how favorably your body handles macronutrients and different ratios of such. When I eat a macro ratio of CHO >50%, i tend to put on more visceral fat, even if I am at caloric maintainence. The best macro breakdown for adding quality mass while keeping myself in good composition is appromixately around 30% Fat/ >30% Protein/ and between 40-50% CHO. But that's my own body. My guess is that your body doesn't handle carbs the best, probably around half of people don't, but try tweaking your macro ratios every week and pay close attention to how you feel and respond. Its really quite neat when you find that sweet spot for your body where with disciplined management, you look, feel and perform at your peak.
 
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Broly

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Thank you PublicEnemy! :)
You have a great point when you say I may not respond idealy to carbs, so I realy have to do some expermints with my own body, becuase for exemple I do know that I have a fast absorption of protein in high amounts, because I used to do a diet with the same amounts of protein but with much less carbs and fat's. I realy do have to do those expermints.
But you have a point too about eating more veggies, they are also a great sorce of cabrs often forgoten because they aren't that dense when it comes to their carb concentration per 100gr. And about the isoflavones, I think that although teoricaly they should lower our test levels and therefore our bone density also, in vivo they don't interact with our bodies with that high effect, just remember how edysterone should work theoricaly and how it works in real world. And so far I see no reduction on my test levels (I'll recive my blood test tomorow and I'll bring some real numbers;)).
So if I do changes in terms of the amount of carbs and fat that I eat in order to lean me out, incorporating a sugar free energy drink (thinking about sugar free RedBull) or any other stimulant before workout would bring me some benefit or would be irrelevant?
 
PublicEnemy

PublicEnemy

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I disagree with the isoflavones.

So if I do changes in terms of the amount of carbs and fat that I eat in order to lean me out, incorporating a sugar free energy drink (thinking about sugar free RedBull) or any other stimulant before workout would bring me some benefit or would be irrelevant?
I'd suggest using an energy drink or p/wo mix only if you need the extra boost. Arguably the two most important meals in the a day are the pre workout and post workout meals. Its good to have a relatively higher CHO intake pre workout to top off muscle glycogen before you hit the weights. Just experiment, you know your body best and the best suggestions I can give you are just going to be general guidelines.
 
PublicEnemy

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I thought you need an extra amount of carbs on a bulk? Theres some guys out there that actually drink 2 gallons a day of milk.
Depends on the type of bulk your running. CHO intake is pretty debated anyways, IMO once you start to accumulate unwanted body fat then its time to modify CHO intake if everything else is on point.
 
TimberLakers

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I thought you need an extra amount of carbs on a bulk? Theres some guys out there that actually drink 2 gallons a day of milk.
I really can't think of a worse carb source than milk...

Its almost entirely lactose sugars - add to that the digestion issues and low quality protein...
 

Broly

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Well I'm back with some news for you all! :)
As you've said, I reduced the amount of carbs and fat, increased my protein intake (since I do react realy well to high protein diet, about 1gr or 1,5 gr per pound), and used a higher amount of carbs (about 70 to 90gr) only at two meals of the day: the breakfast and pre-workout. The results are clear: only one week have passed and I look a bit leaner (I can see my 4 pack) and kept my dear 200lbs:D
I'll keep reporting my body changes and diet changes to see how do I progress and for others see how diet is very important when it comes to body composition.
Thank you all for your help;)
 
PublicEnemy

PublicEnemy

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Well I'm back with some news for you all!
As you've said, I reduced the amount of carbs and fat, increased my protein intake (since I do react realy well to high protein diet, about 1gr or 1,5 gr per pound), and used a higher amount of carbs (about 70 to 90gr) only at two meals of the day: the breakfast and pre-workout. The results are clear: only one week have passed and I look a bit leaner (I can see my 4 pack) and kept my dear 200lbs
I'll keep reporting my body changes and diet changes to see how do I progress and for others see how diet is very important when it comes to body composition.
Thank you all for your help
Great to hear! Out of curiosity, what macro ratios are you sticking to at the moment?
 

Broly

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Although I can't precise, I'll do the number based on the food that I eat. So it should be about 260gr carbs, 220gr protein and 80gr fat. Two litters of water per day and not much more than that.
 

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