Hello.
I recently got serious about losing fat and gaining muscle. I am curious of a mass builder like true mass will help me get the muscle mass and lose the fat or if it will work against my fat loss. I did a search but my search fu is not strong.
Thanks.
I would suggest only use those if you can’t get all your calories from whole foods. Whole foods are always better than supplements. I would try for 500 calories above maintenance.
Big exercises burn big calories. Pick up Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-3rd-Mark-Rippetoe/dp/0982522738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336090505&sr=8-1 and follow his program. You’ll be squatting 3xweek and deadlifting 3x every 2 weeks. As long as your diet is in check you’ll lose BF and gain muscle.
You’re better off getting a proper diet and excercise routine before you start introducing supplements. They’re called supplements for a reason!
I’ve been researching a lot on these forums as of late in my quest to learn as much as I can while budgeting to buy my first AR and I came across a post (by rob_s, I believe) that talked about how you should use your new AR factory (without accessories) for a long time to establish a base. From there you can then start exploring other options and you will be able to compare results.
Same goes with supplements. They can be additive, but results vary big time from person to person, situation to situation. I think you’ll be plesantly surprised by your results as you find your base!
If you’re looking for “diet” advice, check out some of the advice here:
http://www.wannabebig.com/forums/showthread.php?141719-How-to-setup-an-initial-diet
and here:
http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/the-dirt-on-clean-eating/
As far as getting supplements. Id just start with whey protein, multi vitamin, and fish oil.
Thanks for the advice guys. I checked out both of those links and they were awesome. I’m trying to get out onto patrol from the jail so I am trying to make considerable gains in strength before I have to go toe to toe with Americas finest so that’s why I’m trying to get max results somewhat quickly. I’m more concerned with the building muscle. I wish I hadnt dropped the ball on working out before lol. I am taking GNCs Men’s multivitamin and jack3d and I’m loving the results so far.
The most important thing is to figure out is roughly how many calories to eat to gain muscle but not get to fat. Keep a journal and track everything you eat, weigh/check body fat and adjust accordingly.
I’m not much into the mass building shake stuff, chicken/eggs/steaks work just the same and taste better.
U don’t need a mV if u have a good diet. Take whey protein and manage ur diet. If u want fast results u need to get on a program like p90x and push it every day
Start with something you can maintain and push yourself with. Instead of supplements, most of which are BS, spend the money on a personal trainer or a group class to get you started. With a good diet you shouldn’t need supplements.
You can decide on supplements when you figure out what you need. I take Optimum Pro Complex protein powder to bolster my protein intake when I can’t get it, creatine which I cycle to improve my weightlifting and occasionally a NO2 or caffeine something or other when I’m not feeling motivated to lift hard. That’s what works for me and that’s about all you need.
Thanks for all the advice I bought some BSN syntha 6 protein I figure that’s a good place to start. Now what do you mean you cycle the creatine?
Ha funny. Dude you shouldn’t start supplements until you start getting your diet and routine in order first.
The natural proteins you get will trump any benefits you’ll gain from a synthetic if your diet isn’t squared away to begin with.
By cycling creatine they mean using creatine for a while then tappering off of it. Not sure why that recommendation would be given though, since there is no need to get off and then get back on creatine. Creatine does not alter your hormones or any other physiological properties like an anabolic or growth hormone that would need to be monitored. If you want to go the creatine route you’re completely fine to take it as recommended and not cycle off and then back on.
Just keep in mind … creatine is water weight in your muscle. Fake gains.
My diet is mostly squared away. I notice that between work and everything else I am not eating enough protein that’s why I’m looking for a shake. I’m down 7 pounds in the first two weeks so I’ve got my diet mostly in order. Fruits and veggies eggs(which I despise) every morning for breakfast. Alot of grilled chicken and brown rice. So creatine doesn’t actually help build muscle?
Put simply creatine makes more energy available to the muscle. Creatine does draw water into the muscle which may make you look bigger without true muscle gains. I was able to increase my exercise intensity with creatine and helped me through a couple plateaus. In that sense it does help you gain muscle. If you take it without exercise anything you see in gains is water and will go away when you stop it.
You don’t need to cycle creatine, it’s true. I personally like to stop it for a month or so simply to see where I am without it.
Creatine helps rebuild the muscle fiber after tearing it (working out). You have already received a few good post here so instead of trying to explain the purpose of protein, I will suggest my favorite. My favorite is natural food. Nothing beats it for pure protein. As for a supplement shake in between hectic lives I go with Gaspari’s Myo Fusion.
My protein intake is 2x my body weight in grams a day. So if I weight 200 my protein intake is 400 grams a day. I use creatin in my post workout shake along with glutimine.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2
Here is my take …
Snake Oil = equals most supplements… They will bankrupt you before you will get want they say on the package.
With not knowing your age, height, body weight, body fat etc etc and with me not wanting to sound cliche and asking for your stats.
The goal of losing fat and gaining/keeping muscle will happen with the guide below.
Diet
Workout plan
Consistency of both diet and workout plan
equals success…
Supplements =/= quick fix
Marginal improvements at best to an already-optimal diet and workout plan.
Outside of real steroids most folks aren’t going to cut fat and gain muscle at the same time in any worthwhile quantity. Pick a goal: gain muscle or cut fat. Do one first then the other.
23 5’ 8" currently 215. I don’t know my BMI. See there’s no way I could get 400 grams of protein without supplementing it with a shake. My main concern is increasing my defensive tactics abilities versus looking good so I would have to say building muscle is more important.
If you’re looking to increase your defensive abilities maybe a program looking simply to build muscle isn’t the way to go. I recommend exercises to increase overall power and explosiveness and work cardio. When it comes to a fight the faster guy with a bigger gas tank will have the edge. I imagine you’ll have some self defense training of some sort. I’m a huge fan of wrestling and ju-Jitsu as they can be used to effectively control larger opponents and training is a great workout itself. In this context size isn’t everything.
l’m guessing defensive tactics abilities = fighting. If thats the case take some classes and start sparing. Lifting weights doesnt do much for your ability to fight. In my opinion the most usefull are muay thai, bjj, wrestling, judo- all of these activities are great total body workouts, better than lifting weights for just about everything. lf you just want to put on mass or want to get into power lifting type stuff then weights are the way to go.