# Bulking diet, fat, protein, and carb split?



## xfile384 (Jan 14, 2009)

If your bulking, what is the best split for protein, carbs, and fats? Does it matter? Lately, i've been only eating about 100g of carbs a day and the rest from good fats and high protein. Is this a good idea, or should i have lower fat, high carb? I'm bulking just a little over maintenance and want to gain about 1lb a week...


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## Skib (Jan 14, 2009)

personally I think I'd have a hard time eating above maintenance keeping carbs low... but that's just me... I'm sure other people can do it though... I need something to stimulate more hunger otherwise I'd be unable to cram that much food down my throat...


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## xfile384 (Jan 14, 2009)

Skib said:


> personally I think I'd have a hard time eating above maintenance keeping carbs low... but that's just me... I'm sure other people can do it though... I need something to stimulate more hunger otherwise I'd be unable to cram that much food down my throat...




Honestly, it's easy for me to get enough fat in...I just want to know what is optimal?

If i have to eat more carbs, what kind should i eat? Maybe more oatmeal and double fiber 100% whole wheat bread? (Good on carbs, but good on fiber)


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## Merkaba (Jan 14, 2009)

If youre growing and feel fine then.....???  what???  at your weight 100 grams isnt all that low, for me, .....lol


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## xfile384 (Jan 14, 2009)

Well, on a 2500 calorie day diet, 100g of carbs is pretty low. 

I just want to know in general what the optimal percentage is for people to follow when bulking properly.

40/30/30? Carbs, fat, protein?


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## Biggly (Jan 14, 2009)

Many people will tell it it doesn't make any difference.

I would differ, as it does, IMHO.

I even did an article:

Food Group Ratio

I've set Biggly to automatically change the ratio when bulking to:

30% protein, 45% carbs, 25% fats.

That's not carved in stone and your own peak figures will vary - plus you're human so you won't stick to those numbers exactly. It's a good guide though.


B.


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## Skib (Jan 14, 2009)

a lot of people will want to be vigilant with their diet whether they're cutting or bulking... as for me I'm not as concerned when I'm bulking... cutting for sure though... bulking I just eat... I can't be bothered to count everything... as long as I'm getting in sufficient protein (after a while you just kinda know), eating decent sized meals when I'm hungry, making gains (lifting and body weight gains) and not looking fat then that's good enough for me... that's just me though... I personally find cutting tedious and something I need to be very vigilant with so bulking for me is sort of a break from it all... I can't live my life counting everything I put into my body ALL THE TIME... I usually just track what I typically eat for a few days to get a rough idea then just go with that... my diet typically consists of a lot of the same foods though so it's fairly easy to have an idea what I'm putting into my body...


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## Built (Jan 14, 2009)

Ratio approaches obfuscate the reality of your diet. Quite frankly, the body cannot do math. Anchoring protein, fat and carbohydrate to the total number of calories is doing your body a disservice unless you happen to hit the right targets this way by accident. 

Instead, why not aim directly at what you want? 

Ensure protein is at least a gram per pound lean mass and fat is at least half a gram per pound lean mass. If your protein and fat are sufficient for your lean mass, and your calories are sufficient for growth, you'll grow. 

Frankly, I'm with Skib. Most of us eat a lot of protein and most of us have no trouble adding an extra dab of butter to our veggies or eating a few more nuts or avocados. On a bulk, just try not to gain too fast, to minimize fat-gains. 

If you go lower-carb when you do this, focus your starches to the meal before and/or immediately after you train. I do the same thing as you do, ie limiting carbs even while bulking. If I didn't - and if I didn't deliberately limit my intake - I'd gain 20 lbs a month!


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## xfile384 (Jan 14, 2009)

Built said:


> Ratio approaches obfuscate the reality of your diet. Quite frankly, the body cannot do math. Anchoring protein, fat and carbohydrate to the total number of calories is doing your body a disservice unless you happen to hit the right targets this way by accident.
> 
> Instead, why not aim directly at what you want?
> 
> ...



I learned something new...So, if I'm bulking, i have to make sure i have no more fat than .5lb of LBM mass a day? This would mean only about 66g of fat a day. lol, i have a lot more than that now, because i eat low carb. Time to maybe recalculate my diet?

This would mean on my 2400 calorie diet, fat would be 25% of my diet and protein would be at least 23%. Meaning, the rest from carbs...Would it be wise to lower my carbs and increase fats, or consume 50% carbs? Because consuming .5g of fat and 1g of protein per body weight, would put me in this situation...

See where I'm coming from?

Bottom line, it essentially seems like it doesn't matter...As long as you get sufficient protein, your fine? Although, since you just brought on this new .5g of fat per LBM, I'm very confused. This throws a lot off.


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## Built (Jan 14, 2009)

Built said:


> Ratio approaches obfuscate the reality of your diet. Quite frankly, the body cannot do math. Anchoring protein, fat and carbohydrate to the total number of calories is doing your body a disservice unless you happen to hit the right targets this way by accident.
> 
> Instead, why not aim directly at what you want?
> 
> ...





xfile384 said:


> I learned something new...So, if I'm bulking, i have to make sure i have no more fat than .5lb of LBM mass a day? This would mean only about 66g of fat a day. lol, i have a lot more than that now, because i eat low carb. Time to maybe recalculate my diet?
> 
> This would mean on my 2400 calorie diet, fat would be 25% of my diet and protein would be at least 23%. Meaning, the rest from carbs...Would it be wise to lower my carbs and increase fats, or consume 50% carbs? Because consuming .5g of fat and 1g of protein per body weight, would put me in this situation...
> 
> ...



Nope - if you're bulking, you can have much more than half a gram of fat and a gram of protein per pound lean mass. Those are minimums, at least for "ordinary" dieting. 

And please abandon the ratio approach for your macronutrients.


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## Biggly (Jan 15, 2009)

2400 calories?

Calculating from what you've said, you have a lean body mass of 132lbs, right?

So if you want to follow Built's ratio that's 132 grams of carbs, 66 grams of fat, or put as calories:

528 from protein
594 from fats

Call it 1100, leaving you 1300 to play with (calories, not gram, remember fat is more than twice the calories per gram)

So Built is saying you could scoff another 144 grams of fat each day and it would make no difference. 


B.


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## xfile384 (Jan 15, 2009)

Built said:


> Nope - if you're bulking, you can have much more than half a gram of fat and a gram of protein per pound lean mass. Those are minimums, at least for "ordinary" dieting.
> 
> And please abandon the ratio approach for your macronutrients.



Gotcha, i understand now. 

I'll just focus on getting at least 1g of protein per body weight, but most likely much more. For the rest, I'll adjust calories weekly to maintain desired rate of weight change.


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