How clean is your offseason diet

[Muscleboy]

I just started my offseason diet and i wanted to know how clean it should be? I dont want to get fat. I take in 3000 calories for maitenance and am going up to 3500 for growth. Do you still eat chicken breast, whole grains, and other stuff offseason or do you eat pasta, fatteir meat, and potatoes.

Also cardio. How much should i do in the offseason to gain mass and not look fat.

[Tim Wescott]

Muscleboy,welcome to the board!!

I have seen your pics,and while you have a good lean physique,you honestly could stand to gain more size........I do not say this to flame you as I know I need more size myself and have taken the necessary steps in that direction........glad to see that you have too!


You should always eat good bodybuilding foods but you should increase either the number of meals or portion size..........or both.

Throw in a couple of cheat days on the weekends for instance where you eat pasta,an all you can eat buffet,pizza,burgers,and then resume your cleaner eating on Monday.

Last year I relaxed my diet too much and I did no cardio off-season......I now regret this and will eat cleaner in the future off-season.

On the other hand,an extreme ectromorph should eat almost any and everything in sight after he ingests his healthy bofybuilding foods.

Due to an ultra-fast metabolism an ecto will burn fuel at a ridiculously fast rate and eating like this is sometimes the only solution to his problem of being a hard gainer and not being able to gain weight.

[Tim Wescott]

Winter.........The Ideal Time To Add Muscle Mass !!
by Tim Wescott

We read so many different articles offering advice on how to lose fat,get ripped,and increase muscularity,that I decided to flip the script and write one about the extreme ectomorph who can`t ever seem to add a pound to his frame no matter what he does, and for the bodybuilder who is looking to add mass this winter to bring up his weak points and complete his physique !

I know when I started training as a kid,although I had no clue as to what I was doing, it took me over a year to go from my starting bodyweight of 98 pounds, to a whopping 106 pounds!!
Hey..........I said I had no clue !!

I am still not a huge guy, but have added over 80 pounds to my frame since I began training............. and most of it`s muscle.
I`ll never be huge, but if I never trained,instead of weighing around 185 as I do today, I beleive I would weigh around 140 pounds just like my father,and that would be 140 skinny and soft pounds to boot !!!
I have some of the worst genetics in history.

With the cold weather fast approaching,especially here in upstate N.Y., it is the optimum time to train heavy,and to add some serious size to your present physical development.

During the hot summer months, we all want to be lean and ripped for the beaches,streets,or the contest stage,but when the winter months roll around,it`s a great time to try to bring up weak points,disproportionate areas of the body,or just increase overall size, in an effort to take your physique to another level. After all, depending on where you live,most of us are covered up with heavy clothes and coats, and we aren`t outside anywhere near as much during the winter months.

This is the perfect time to get a bit bigger until springtime comes, and you lean out once again. No one will see your physique for months, and you can unveil the new you this coming spring, and surprise a few people with your newly acquired muscle mass !!

To gain new muscle size it is almost inevitable that we also will gain a little more bodyfat,but this is OK, as it is often what`s needed to propell the body into new growth. Some people use the archaic term "bulking up"when they talk about adding mass, which is a term I don`t like, as some use this term just as an excuse to eat anything and everything,simply to add new pounds of bodyweight to their frames, regardless of whether it`s muscle or fat.

Others do what they call a "clean bulk", which entails adhering to roughly the same diet they use to lose fat.......containing all clean foods, but in much larger quantities.
I personally don`t do this, as it is a lot of food to try to eat daily, and they are not calorie dense foods for the most part,so I find it very hard to get in this much food every day, and besides that, it`s a very bland way of eating all year `round,as you will have to eat this way to diet down later, only the quantities of the food are a lot less.

In my particular case, it get`s pretty monotonous to eat like this for 16-20 weeks when dieting for a contest, so I try to add mass by following a bit of a looser type of diet. Besides,after getting shredded, and down to a super-low bodyfat percentage, you deserve to live a little, and enjoy eating again.

There is just so long that I can eat a steady diet of plain chicken breasts,brown rice,salad,and water,although I have eaten like this for extended periods of time.


Usually when I diet for increased muscularity my diet consists of very clean, low calorie foods such as:
skinless chicken breast, egg whites, lean beef, oatmeal, yams, brown rice, protein powder, tuna, baked potatoes, fish, sweet potatoes, etc. etc.

I normally never eat bread,dairy products,fruit, or any other calorie dense foods except for the occasional couple of spoonfulls of all natural peanut butter.

When trying to gain weight this winter,I will still rely on the above listed foods, because they are time tested bodybuilding staples, and they produce results, but I will also add to the list,cottage cheese, skim milk, skim milk powder, cheese, all types of fruit, especially bananas, whole grain bread, pasta, peanut butter, and more fats from olive oil and other good fat sources.

A typical days eating when trying to add mass would be as follows:

Meal # 1:
6 whole eggs
1/2 cup of oatmeal with skim milk and artificial sweetener
2 slices whole grain toast with butter spray
8oz. glass skim milk
1 banana or an orange

Meal # 2:
2 tuna sandwiches on whole grain bread,with light mayonnaise
tomato slices
letuce
baked potato with butter spray

Meal # 3:
lean 8oz. steak or lean hamburger 1/2 pound
1 cup of cottage cheese
yams
salad with fat-free,low-sugar dressing
8oz. skim milk

Meal # 4:
8oz. chicken breast
2 baked potatoes
1-2 cups of vegetables
8oz. skim milk

Meal # 5:
pasta with meat and tomato sauce
salad (same as above)
2 slices whole grain bread
8oz. skim milk

Meal # 6:
2 whole eggs and 6 egg whites

I would also have a protein drink immediately after training, mixed with dextrose or some other simple carb, such as white rice,and probably another squeezed in there somewhere.Don`t forget to get in a gallon of water or more, per day at all times no matter what the plan.

This is just a typical days eating plan, and you have a much wider choice of foods to select from as opposed to when you are dieting to become more defined, or to lose some excess bodyfat,where I usually eat around the same thing six times a day with only slight variations. Talk about monotony,but that`s what it takes to get ripped and defined.

If you are an extreme ectomorph, like I always was as a kid, you have to really try to force feed yourself at times. At times it seems that no matter how much you eat, you will weigh yourself and the scale hasn`t budged one iota !!

This can be very frustrating, and I know from first hand experience that you will have to significantly bump up your calories over time to start making some progress.

At first the quantities of food that are required to make some inroads to gaining weight are mind staggering, and you just simply may not have the appetite to eat this way.This is when you start to add in foods slowly over time,and eat 6-8 times a day.
The frequent feedings allow for better absorption,and assimilation,as well as helping to keep the waistline down a bit.

If you normally eat 4 eggs for breakfast,add one egg per week, until you are eating six eggs,and so on, at all your meals with different foods.

Another good thing to do is to get a good book on calories, and chart how many you eat per day, and if the scale still doesn`t budge,add another 500 calories or so per week, until you start making some headway.There are also plenty of good online nutrition databases that can help you do the same thing.
Just do a search on Google and you`ll find a bunch of helpful sites along these lines.

[Tim Wescott]

Cont.

Eat all your meals, and clean your plate all the time, no matter what!! You have to feed the body, and take in those calories to get bigger...............PERIOD!!!

Don`t be afraid to indulge in a bit of junk while trying to get bigger either,regardless of what the gurus tell you,a bowl of ice cream here and there, or some pizza will not kill you, and can actually help at times.
Just don`t become a slob, and use your weight gaining program to just eat any old thing you want to.
Get in all of your good foods first, and make sure you`re getting plenty of muscle building protein before you indulge in any junk!!

You can also hit an all you can eat buffet occasionally,this can be a big help for the underweight person who can`t seem to build any appreciable size. Back in the sixties and seventies,the bodybuilders would often drink up to a gallon of milk a day along with a dozen or more eggs,and lots of red meat.It sure didn`t seem to hurt them,as their was some pretty good sized guy`s stomping around in those days.

As far as training is concerned, when trying to gain weight, stick to the basic compound exercises,and don`t do any piddly isolation movements that will sap your energy, and do nothing for your physique.
You will get bigger if you base your routine around heavy squats,bench presses,incline presses,deadlifts,barbell rowing,barbell presses,shrugs,curls,and lying tricep extensions.

Keep the routines heavy and brief, and always strive to add more weight to the bar in small increments,but never at the expense of good form. Don`t do the marathon routines that you see in all the bodybuilding magazines, as they are meant for the genetically gifted athlete, and not everyone will make progress training on them.

Conserve your energy by limiting outside activities that will drain you, and rob you of the calories you so desperately require.Getting sufficient rest is also crucial, so get a good nights sleep every night, and recover fully from your training, so that you`ll gain size and power.

Sample Training Routine:

Mon.-Quads,Hamstrings,Calves
Squats-5x 12,8,5,5,15
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts-4x 12 (fairly light for stretch)
Standing Calf Raise-6x 20,12,10,12,15

Tues.-Chest & Biceps:
Bench Press-5x 8,5,5,8,10 (after a light warmup)
Barbell Inclines-4x 8,5,5,8
Barbell Curls-3x10,8,6
Alternate Dumbell Curls-3x 8

Wed.-Rest

Thurs. Back & Traps:
Deadlifts-5x 8,5,5,8,10 (after a light warmup)
Barbell Rowing-4x12,8,8,10
Barbell Shrugs-3x20,12,10 (after warmup)

Fri.-Shoulders & Triceps:
Seated Press-4x10,8,6,6 (after a warmup)
Lateral Raise-4x 12,10,8,20
Lying Triceps Extensions-4x12,8,8,10
Pressdowns-3x 12,10,8

Sat.-Rest
Sun.-Rest

You can add in some ab work twice a week if you like,but that`s basically the gist of it, nothing fancy or drawn out, just big basic movements, with the emphasis on adding weight to the bar when possible,and conserving energy,with an emphasis on recovery !!


Here`s a good shake that you can mix up in a blender and drink between meals that is high in calories:

2 scoops of protein powder
16 oz. milk
1 banana
a brick of ice cream
1/2 cup of powdered milk
2 Tbsps. all natural peanut butter
2 Tbsps.blackstrap molasses
2 eggs

Eat big,to get big,this winter............. so you can shock people when you unveil the new you next spring.

Good luck!!

[Maximum6]

:Hilarious:Tim...you forgot to add your 5 raw egg recipe... :Double Puke:

[bodyfx]

Tim is awesome, isn't he!!

I eat 7 meals per day, 7 days per week. This is a total of 49 meals. During my offseason I do a cheat meal on Friday night and Saturday night, but all others are clean. So, 47 of 49 meals each week are clean.

[Tim Wescott]

bodyfx said:

Tim is awesome, isn't he!!

I eat 7 meals per day, 7 days per week. This is a total of 49 meals. During my offseason I do a cheat meal on Friday night and Saturday night, but all others are clean. So, 47 of 49 meals each week are clean.

That`s dedication brother!! :Fridge: :Rocker Dude:

[bodyfx]

Tim said:

That`s dedication brother!!

If I'm going to talk the talk, I have to walk the walk. Can't ask my clients to do something that I, myself do not!

[youngblood]

Not too clean compared to the usual BBing eating fare.
But for me, fairly clean. I'm an ice cream man, and I love KFC too much. :funky chicken: