A Simple Guide to Eating for New Trainees | Ray Gillenwater

[stef]

"As a new Starting Strength trainee, one of the biggest opportunities for error outside of the gym is failing to eat in a way that optimally supports the growth of lean muscular bodymass.*.."

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[Travis Reid]

"and your friend that just went vegan because of a documentary she saw on Netflix"

Ha ha!

Well played Ray. Great article mate.

[Carl Raghavan]

1g per pound, ha. I pity da fool.
I challenge you to a death match Ray. To settle our protein requirement differences!

[Brian.Johnson]

Hi Ray.

Thank you for the article. Recently, I rededicated myself to my training and worked to get close to 200g+ of protein a day. My weight went up about 10 pounds which is fine. My concern was the body fat on my scale (Omron Fat Loss Monitor with Scale (HBF 400) provides three key health indicators: weight, body fat percentage and BMI; It does this by using reliable foot to foot bioelectrical impedance) was also going up a couple of points. I started at 27% and was hitting 30% as I hit my new PRs.

What adjustments would you recommend to get the fat % down? I am not looking for a singe digit body fat %, but I would like to drive the number down closer to 20.

Any insight you could provide would be helpful. Thanks.

[Theseahawk]

I decided those scales were a load of rubbish. Mine has two settings; normal and athlete. So after taking the values for the two things it can measure - weight and resistance it runs an algorithm to determine %fat. If it is set to athlete mode, the %fat that it determines is lower than if it is set to normal mode. Well nothing actually changed other than the algorithm, which means its just guessing really. Athlete mode in the instruction manual was for those people who train 5 hours + per week or something like that.

But still, this means that the weight and impedance can be the same in two people, one who has lower %bfat and one who has a higher %bfat. Which also means that you could get heavier from training, while increasing muscle mass and have this change your impedance in a way that makes the scales output that you have gone up in %bfat.

I'd ignore them, I think they're nonsense.

[kris90]

I like the article. Simple and to the point. If you want muscle growth, you need more protein. Protein = mTOR activation.

I think people who have metabolic dysfunction (i.e. metabolic syndrome/diabetes/obesity) will require more protein (especially first thing in morning) to help provide satiety while they work to improve leptin and insulin sensitivity on a low carb diet.

Once you are metabolically optimized, I believe you can get away with less protein, provided you have adequate amounts of fuel from carbs or fats or both. This is because we can stimulate autophagy which allows our proteins to be recycled.

I think it's also worth looking into fat adapted athletes. I consider myself to be one, and I am making rapid gains on a low carb diet. You can check out my log here

[Brian.Johnson]

But still, this means that the weight and impedance can be the same in two people, one who has lower %bfat and one who has a higher %bfat. Which also means that you could get heavier from training, while increasing muscle mass and have this change your impedance in a way that makes the scales output that you have gone up in %bfat.

.

Thank you for the technical detail. Your explanation makes sense.

I am not so concerned with losing body fat, but I wanted to make sure I was not making my fat composition worse. My waist was definitely shrinking, and I was getting stronger.

I will give this a try after Thanksgiving and see how things improve.

[Jap2]

"As a new Starting Strength trainee, one of the biggest opportunities for error outside of the gym is failing to eat in a way that optimally supports the growth of lean muscular bodymass.*.."

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This may have been asked somewhere before but I’m stupid and can’t seem to find the answer. Assuming I need the 6000 calories and am able to drink a gallon of milk a day, is Rips recommendation 6k calories in food alone and then GOMAD in addition to that? Or do the calories in the milk count toward the 6k? Also should you count the calories in things like cod liver oil or if you add olive oil to a meal or focus on meeting the number with just the solid foods and let anything else just be excess above 6k?

[Ray Gillenwater]

do the calories in the milk count toward the 6k?

Yes.

Also should you count the calories in things like cod liver oil or if you add olive oil to a meal or focus on meeting the number with just the solid foods and let anything else just be excess above 6k?

Yes. The purpose of setting a calorie goal is to have a measurement that can be adjusted based on the situation. The measurement is only useful if it's accurate (or as close to accurate as calorie counting can be) and the measurement can only be accurate if it includes all calories consumed.

If you have questions about your specific situation, feel free to post them and I'll reply or I'll ask one of the nutrition coaches to if it's outside of my area of understanding.

@BrianJohnson, I missed your question above when you first posted it. Feel free to post again and I'll keep an eye on this thread if you need any help.

[Jap2]

"If you have questions about your specific situation, feel free to post them and I'll reply or I'll ask one of the nutrition coaches to if it's outside of my area of understanding. "

Thank you for responding to my question. I'm trying to get everything written down and setup so I can start the novice program. I am 27, 5"9" and weigh 150lbs... Do you think it would be excessive to eat 6k calories in solid foods and drink the gallon of milk on top of that to start?