Standard Gym Bro (Six months to two years of working out)
“Brooooo, lookin huge man!”
Me (Certified Gym Bro for over a decade)
“Thanks man!”
Proceeds to give Standard Gym Bro the bro hug - clap squeeze right hand pull into hug thump three times on back with left hand. Proceeds to say
“I appreciate the hell out of that!”
Standard Gym Bro
“Bro, how do I look like that?”
Me
“Bro! just wear a smaller t-shirt!
Standard Gym Bro
“Ha! I will I will. But for real, how do I look like that?”
Me
Puts on thoughtful thinking face
“Tell me what you eat on a typical day.”
This is generally what a Standard Gym Bro will tell me:
Breakfast - “Bro, I generally have around three or four eggs with a piece of toast and an apple.”
Lunch - “Then bro, I usually have some kind of sandwich. I make sure I get extra meat. Sometimes I have a salad with chicken on it.”
Dinner - “And bro, dinner’s the best. I usually have some steak or salmon with some pasta or a baked potato. I’ll have some veggies on the side.”
Standard Gym Bro looks me expecting praise…but all I can say is,
“Is that it?”
First Step to Not Building Muscle - Under Eating Protein.
If you’re diet looks anything like the above one, in terms of the standard American diet…you’re probably doing spectacular. You’re likely healthy and feeling good. However, if you’re interested in putting on some muscle, then I want to bundle you up in a hug, kiss your forehead, and smack you across the face.
Let’s take a look at Standard Gym Bro’s diet and see if we can do some educated guesstimating just from a protein standpoint.
-Assuming they’re large, 4 eggs is around 24g of protein
-Lets say there truly is a generous helping of meat on this sandwich, lets call that 40g of protein.
-Lets cross our fingers and say the kid made a generous helping of meat for dinner and had half a pound of steak. We’ll call that 50g of protein.
Congratulations Standard gym bro, you had about 114g of Protein from animal sources. We could count the proteins from the grains, vegetables, and fruits, but these are incomplete proteins from an amino acid perspective and are less useful for building muscle than the animal based ones.
Hopefully you already know that you need around 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight in order to grow muscle…so unless standard gym bro is an emaciated 114 lb male, our boy here needs to sharpen his knives and consume some more souls.
Observations From Nutrition Coaching
With the exception of a single client, every single person I have coached from a nutrition standpoint under-eats protein and over-eats fats and carbohydrates.
Any delicious treat you can think of is an overload of carbohydrates and fats.
Pizza? Carbs and Fat
Chocolate? Carbs and Fat
Potato Chips? Carbs and Fat
Cupcakes? Carbs and Fat
Your Mom? Carbs and Fat
Interestingly, there’s no fruit or vegetable or animal that exists in nature that carries a combination of high fat and high carbohydrate. High protein and high fat exist together - think a porterhouse steak, but there isn't a single grain, vegetable, or fruit that contains a high amount of fat and carbohydrate in conjunction. They must be made.
This isn’t to demonize fats or carbs, one needs a substantial amount of both in order to build muscle, but protein takes precedence, and almost everyone I meet in the gym under-eats that vital nutrient.
So here’s some basic advice for the average gym bro looking to build some muscle.
BUY A SCALE.
BUY ANIMAL PROTEINS.
MEASURE SAID PROTEINS ON SAID SCALE.
CONSUME 1 GRAM OF PROTEIN PER POUND OF BODYWEIGHT.
STOP PRETENDING YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT IS WITHOUT A SCALE YOU IMBECILE.
Rant done. I feel marginally better. Till next Wednesday. Toodaloo Mothafuckas.
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Shout out to top supporters
Casey
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Corey.b.black
I'm an engineer. One of my pet peeves is when people guess at something that is very easy to measure, and then KNOW for a fact. Besides your example of a scale, here's another example. Do not guess if your meat on the BBQ / smoker is done. Buy a $10 meat thermometer and measure the internal temp in a thick section. Presto. Now you know, instead of guessing.
JWOD doesn't get a top supporter shout out? Wtf?