How do you metabolize more?

[Letsmathdebate]

Hello, this is my first post here . 😊

I’ve been watching YouTube videos about nutrition coming from elite bodybuilders and many of them reference an insane amount of calories. Like 4-6k!

Are they only able to do that because they’ve accumulated so much muscle over such a long period of time that they need that much food just to maintain?

And how do you increase your metabolism? Only by more exercise?

I was thinking about what was the “bottlenecking” in my muscle growth. What was the thing that was limiting me to be where I am now? And I came up to protein metabolism? Like your body can only break down a certain amount of food per a certain amount of time therefore you couldn’t get more protein in to your system for muscle growth. But if you overeat to try and overload that bottleneck and try and speed it up, then that protein ends up getting converted to fat anyways. So is that limiting factor in our muscle growths you think? Curious to hear your thoughts 😊

[Mrpb]

I’ve been watching YouTube videos about nutrition coming from elite bodybuilders and many of them reference an insane amount of calories. Like 4-6k!

Most of them are lying. Like many of enhanced lifters on youtube claiming they're natural.

I was thinking about what was the “bottlenecking” in my muscle growth. What was the thing that was limiting me to be where I am now?

Probably your training. What are your stats (weight/height) and lifts? 5rm bench press, squat, pull ups etc.

[CommitmentRulz]

I was thinking about what was the “bottlenecking” in my muscle growth. What was the thing that was limiting me to be where I am now? And I came up to protein metabolism?

If you are gaining 2 pounds a MONTH and getting enough protein, you are eating enough to fuel all of the NATURAL muscle you can gain as a newbie (even less as an experienced lifter).

What EXACTLY is your workout. Exercises, sets, reps, progression protocol and deload approach.

What do you currently bench, squat, deadlift?

[Heisman2]

As mentioned above, many of them are not natural. When your take vitamin S several organs enlarge, and the organs (primarily the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys) are the main contributors to our BMR. The brain does not get bigger but the other 3 do to some extent (look at autopsies of any of the big name bodybuilders who died over the last few years). This explains the majority of the reason why they can/need to eat so much.

[SuffolkPunch]

Plenty of people get fat when gaining muscle. Digestion is not likely to be the limiting factor for natural lifters unless they have some kind of digestive disorder.

[Letsmathdebate]

I’m 24, 5’-8”, 155lbs. I was always athletic and very active with sports. Ran around 140-150lbs in high school and was lean. Never lifted and never payed attention to my nutrition. After high school I didn’t do much. I got up to 189lbs at the highest like four years ago. That’s when I decided to make a change. I started off just being more conscious about what I ate. Stopping eating when I was full rather than continual eating until I was hurting ect. I also tried pushups/sit ups and occasionally a run. I was only able to do 1 push-up when I started. Could do about 20 sit ups. I got pretty discouraged with how week I was and got discouraged and stopped working out. I was still contious about my weight though so I ate some what decently. Made sure not to overeat. I did that for two years. I maintained 170lbs through that time. I got a new job as a union pipefitter a year and a half ago which is construction and as an apprentice I was used heavily as a go fetch or manual labor. My girlfriend also left me for someone that was jacked and regularly lifted. I decided to make a change and got a gym membership. I started researching about nutrition and lifting and fell in love! This past year and a half lifting and eating properly has been a real passion. I started at the bottom but I’ve made great strides. I dropped from 170lbs to 150lbs in the first six months while eating well, lifting, and cardio. While losing that 20lbs, I made noticeable muscle growth and received so many compliments. Losing fat whole gaining muscle! Woohoo! My job is also pretty physical and I’ve brought my passion from lifting to my job and I hustle harder than all of my co workers. I maintained 150-155lbs for about 6 months. I could not see noticeable fat loss, but I could see noticeable muscle gain. If I’m maintaining the same weight but gaining muscle, I know fat must be being burned. I wanted to stay lean and mean!! These last 3 months I’ve decided to start clean bulking up during the winter. I have stopped cardio and counting calories but I’m making sure I eat about 30g protein every 3 hours. My weight is between 155-160lbs now. I’m seeing good muscle growth but I’d like to see more (who doesn’t)!

I workout about 6 days a week. I do a push/pull/leg cycle. On push day I focus on tricep and chest. I do dumbbell bench, dumbbell incline bench, dumbbell flies, dumbbell military press, sitting tricep extension with two hands, seated dips, tricep pushdown, and cable crossover. In that order. I have been training for hypertrophy and trying to focus on controlled movements. I try and reach 3 sets of 12 for each exercise and then once I am able to, I jump up the weight to the next increment and do that weight until I’m able to do 3 sets of 12 at that weight. If I had to take an average I’d say a good share of my exercises I get 12,10,8.

Dumbbell bench 100
Dumbbell incline 70
Dumbbell flies 80
Military press 50
Tricep extension 50
Seated dips 110
Tricep pushdown 120
Cable crossover 60

On pull day I focus on back and biceps. I started off having to do pull ups with 70lbs assisted

Pull ups 8
Chin ups 6
Seated low row 100
Seated lat pulldown 130
Dumbbell shrugs 150
Cable biceps 40

On leg day I focus on my hamstrings and my lower back. I have problems doing squats. It seems like my hips are unable to drop me down to where I should be. And when I have too much weight on squats my hip flexors get tight to the point I have issues walking. After research it appears heavy squats are not what my body was designed for. I still do squats but I keep it light and focus on form.

Hex bar Deadlift 225
Seated calf machine 100
Squats 155
Leg press 260
Seated hamstring curl 190
Leg extension 140

I mix ab workouts at the end of my workouts every couple of days. I usually spend about 90 minutes in the gym. I take a multivitamin, anti-inflammatory/joint pills, probiotics every morning. Just started taking testosterone support pills this month because they were heavily discounted at $5 a bottle so figured it was worth a trial.

My breakfast is at 4:30am consists of a isolate protein shake and either eggs, oatmeal with peanut butter, or a PB&J or a ham sandwich. I mix a banana or apple in as well.

I try to eat a protein bar about 2.5 hours later to keep me anabolic.

And then I eat lunch about 2.5 hours after that. Lunch is pretty variable on what I eat. It always consists of at least 30g protein. Many times it’s a sandwich and a protein bar.

I try to eat another protein bar 2-3 hours later.

And then another snack 2-3 hours later once I get home. Many times it’s either eggs, oatmeal with peanut butter, a sandwich, Ect. This is my snack before going to the gym. I then slam a creatine HCI and BCAAs as a preworkout shake. And then fill up my water bottle with another helping of BCAAs and go to the gym. After the gym I’ll drink a protein and creatine shake. And start making dinner a little bit after that. Usually chicken and rice or a huge omelette.

And then before bed I try and either eat again or a casein shake. I usually get around 6-7 hours of sleep. I also usually toke up before bed.

I am not gaining the 2lbs per month that is suppose to be achievable. When I add more food into my diet it seems like it just goes straight to fat. That is what sparked my question about metabolism. I try and push my metabolism as much as it can to get as much protein synthesis as I can without adding the fat. During this bulking phase I don’t mind gaining the fat while gaining the muscle because I plan on starting up cardio and paying attention to calories again in a few months after winter is over but at the same time I don’t want to just overeat and gain fat for no reason. I’m trying to stay right on the fence of keeping my body anabolic and cranking out maximum muscle repair while not adding on the extra fat.

I apologize for such a long post but I wanted to be thorough. The more information you have about me, the more you are able to help. I appreciate the responses

[Mrpb]

I
I am not gaining the 2lbs per month that is suppose to be achievable. When I add more food into my diet it seems like it just goes straight to fat. That is what sparked my question about metabolism. I try and push my metabolism as much as it can to get as much protein synthesis as I can without adding the fat.

It has nothing to do with your metabolism. Quit taking all those BCAAs and testosterone pills, they're useless. Read the stickies about nutrition.

You don't need to eat protein every 2.5 hours. In fact it may be better to wait longer.

So you can bench 12 reps with 2 50 pound dumbbells now? How much progress have you made per month?

Do you have a picture of your current physique?