male only Question for lifters: How are you increasing your caloric intake?

[BigViffer 3,544]

For those of you that lift heavy or train hard, how are you getting in enough calories to fuel your activity? I peaked a few months ago on my major lifts and I just cannot make any gains. Everything I am reading, and the professionals that I have spoken to have said that increased food consumption is the only thing I am not doing. I cannot build muscle if I am burning everything I am taking in.

I have my 2 year follow up appointment with my surgeon coming up next month and I plan on asking him about Gold Standard Pro Gainer:

http://www.optimumnutrition.com/en_US/products/pro-gainer

The nutrition label is pretty good and not loaded with unnecessary carbs. 60grams of Protein in one scoop is impressive to say the least. But the healthy fats and needed carbs push up the caloric value much higher than just my normal Protein powders.

Does anyone have experience that I can take to my surgeon as a discussion topic?

[simpsongrad 85]

I just bought the gold standard Protein powder myself. it is the regular type not for muscle building per se. i am only a few months out but train really hard doing cross fit and then coming home to jump on my elliptical for another 40 minutes every morning. I feel like I am not losing as fast as i should be and i think part of it is because I am working out so hard and not being able to fuel my workouts appropriately. Will be interested to see what other say.

Good Luck!

[Webapprentice 36]

It is so nice to find people who lift weights after surgery. I am currently working on getting approval for a march surgery. I work out for about 1 1/2 every other day but it is mainly weightlifting. I am worried after surgery I will not be able to hit the weights like I do know but it sounds like you do not have any issues. Thanks for the post.

[BigViffer 3,544]

@Webapprentice Oh I have some issues, but I am trying to be positive and work through them. I cannot lift like I did before my injuries of course, but right now the problem is lack of building material post workout!

If you go through some of my old post though, I talk about how weak and puny I was when I started going back to the weight room post WLS. Literally using 10lbs dumbbells. So yes, I have made progress. But I would still like more.

[Webapprentice 36]

I will review your old post. My wife keeps assuring me that there must be guys like me out there like me. I know i will not see my max bench of 425 again for a while but I am starting to look at the less weight more reps. I have also invested in some bands for my initial post surgery workouts. I hope I will have the energy. Anyway enough posting on this post as this was meant to be a post on getting enough calories for workout which I will be interested to see what people recommend.

[RJC5197 282]

It is my understanding that to gain muscle, there must be a surplus to build new tissue with. I find that determining the maintenance level and adding a few hundred or so cals in Protein and cals works well. Too much, even Protein, will cause excessive fat gain.

When I was lifting heavy for body building, My best results came from following the right macros and volumes. Yes I did gain some fat with muscle, but kept it to a min, then had to cut for competition. (This was many years ago)

I found a great resource in the book and series "Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle " and follow most of its diet directions today and can see my fat reducing slowly, while making small muscle gains.

Because we have had overweight issues and had WLS, it is important to target our plan to us. For me I have to stay lower carb (Under 60 grams a day) while losing fat. Anything higher, I stall or start gaining fat weight, not muscle.

Good Luck and have fun.

[BigViffer 3,544]

Thanks for chiming in @@RJC5197, no issue with anything you said. I am a fairly dedicated lifter and there is no way I could continue with only 60 grams of carbs a day. I would literally be on the verge of fainting during my workout when I was that low. I had to up my carb intake to about 30-35% of my total caloric intake. Protein is about the same, most times a little higher. Fat I keep pretty low.

I am not concerned with my macros, I keep track of them better than probably better than anyone else on this forum. My sole question for this thread was for lifters who needed more calories for to build the muscle. Did they use "weight gainers" and if so, how were the results?

[JerseyJules 862]

On 1/12/2017 at 3:40 PM, BigViffer said:

For those of you that lift heavy or train hard, how are you getting in enough calories to fuel your activity? I peaked a few months ago on my major lifts and I just cannot make any gains. Everything I am reading, and the professionals that I have spoken to have said that increased food consumption is the only thing I am not doing. I cannot build muscle if I am burning everything I am taking in.

I have my 2 year follow up appointment with my surgeon coming up next month and I plan on asking him about Gold Standard Pro Gainer:

http://www.optimumnutrition.com/en_US/products/pro-gainer

The nutrition label is pretty good and not loaded with unnecessary carbs. 60grams of Protein in one scoop is impressive to say the least. But the healthy fats and needed carbs push up the caloric value much higher than just my normal Protein powders.

Does anyone have experience that I can take to my surgeon as a discussion topic?

Add nut butters like almond and Peanut Butter to your diet, small portions and high in calories and Proteins. But get the natural stuff with no sugar.

[BigViffer 3,544]

I am already fairly liberal with my use of peanut, almond, and cashew butters. But I do not want to over do them since they are so very high in fat.Yes I realize that they are healthier fats, but the thought is still in my head fat+bad! It's easy for me to tell people not to sweat the fat content, but of course hard to follow the same advice.

I will look into nuts as a caloric boost a little more seriously. I have already had my appointment with my surgeon, so I won't be seeing him again for at least a year.

[Berry78 4,261]

This is a good question for a nutritionist, more-so than your surgeon.

Something to try:

5 meals a day, each meal containing:
20-30g of Protein (400-600 cals)
30g carbohydrate (600cal)
10g-20g fat (450-900cals)

This would get you to 1450-2100cals.

Compared to this, how much are you eating now?

[BigViffer 3,544]

I've pretty pretty vocal about my disdain for the NUT that was part of my surgical team. My surgeon does not even care for her opinions. She was completely unprepared at the three appointments I had with her and she consistently ignores things that were told to her either in writing or mentioned at the previous appointment. Things like food allergies should be front and center and she always forgot them.

However, if I ever run low on printed out smoothie recipes, she'll be the first person I think to call.

I am eating 2000-2500 calories a day and averaging 150 grams of Protein a day. My surgeon is also into weight lifting as is one of his PA's. That is why I was going to discuss the product in the original post. Based on my workouts, he said I could go as high as 3500 calories a day, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I was wanting to use that product on the days I was hitting 2000.

I am good on my macro's and eating patterns. I even have an example for people to review:

Thanks for the advice, but I'm good.