Eating More

I try to base my ideas both on theory and the results of my training.  My main goal this year is to add 15 pounds of muscle, and so far my grand increase in weight has been... zero.  I may have added a little muscle and lost some fat, as my weight has stayed the same while my waist has decreased from 32.5 to 32 inches.  But overall, I'm not getting the increase in weight I wanted.

I feel confident I'm getting the growth stimulus through the workouts correctly.  And I'm eating the right foods (Paleo), and getting enough protein.  So that leaves only one other area: total energy intake.

I have for the last few days tried to find reasons not to increase total calories as a way to build muscle.  But I really can't find any.  If anything, I've found more research and anecdotes that show increasing calories is the way to go.

Christian Finn has a good write-up on the subject here.  In short, subjects consuming higher calories built more muscle.  The issue for me is where these extra calories should come from.  As far as protein, research shows after a certain point adding more protein doesn't help build any more muscle.  As far as carbs, the reverse almost seems true, as low-carb diets help retain muscle when on a diet.  You need some carbs for brain and muscle function, but again, after a certain point, I'm not sure where the benefit is.

That leaves fat.  Fat may be the ticket for a few reasons.  Eating more fat doesn't increase insulin levels as extra carbs do, and this may help partition extra calories towards muscle.  Second, eating more fat may be the most practical way to get more calories in.  You can add oil to about anything and it doesn't really affect feelings of fullness that much, at least for me.  Third, fat appears to be anabolic and may raise testosterone levels which helps build muscle.

So it looks like I will be increasing the fat content of my diet, as much as that goes against the outdated and ineffective low-fat paradigm.  Also, I will not be following the bogus six-meals-a-day plan, but instead will just add some more fat to meals and continue along with occassional intermittent fasting.  We'll see how it goes. 

Comments

[Scott]

Just started following yiour blog. I am very interested in your results.I am in the phase of trying to shed very stubborn subcutaneous fat but I have pondered, like you, how to implement at some point "eat big to get big" without stuffing myself and staying paleo/IF.

I too keep coming back to fat. It would seem to me that putting oil (I favor coconut) into the vegegtables can quickly add hundreds of calories to each meal. Putting coconut milk on berries (with cinnamon) is also very good.

I read about something called coconut cream on the Modern Forager blog that is available from Tropical Traditions. So good you can eat it from the jar apparently...so one more avenue for adding tasty fat.

I lean to coconut oil due to its supposed thermogenic properies that should help partition the energy to muscles rather than fat. Wondering what kind of oil you will focus on?

Thanks for being a guinea pig. Good blog, glad I found it.

[Matt Metzgar]

Hi Scott,

I'm definitely big on self-experimentation!

As for the oil, I'm just starting to look into it more, but for now I'm adding more canola oil to things and also eating more eggs. This may change depending on how it works and any other info I dig up.

[Tobias]

Hi Matt,

Interesting post! I've been through similar thought processes, and also tried eating lots of fat to gain weight and muscle. At one point I tried drinking shots of olive oil, but that was pretty disgusting. In the end I found that eating nuts was much tastier and easier - 100g of nuts is almost 700 calories. Also, you can mix ground almonds into a milkshake (non-paleo, I know) for a high-calorie snack. Will have to try the coconut cream that Scott mentioned.