I am 20 years old and am 185 pounds with an 8.8 percent bodyfat. I am really trying to stay on the zone diet and exercise, but it just doesn't seem to be working for me. I can't seem to gain any weight? I am eating about 26 blocks a day and so that isn't getting me enough calories, so i am trying to supplement the calories with strictly mono and polyunsaturated fats, (like those found in nuts and olive oil) but this is doing nothing but make me break out in acne. I don't see how you can eat enough calories on this diet to make it work for lifting. Does anyone have any suggestions, i am really in need!!!

[quote:3f4c08bfeb="ricky1194"]I am 20 years old and am 185 pounds with an 8.8 percent bodyfat. I am really trying to stay on the zone diet and exercise, but it just doesn't seem to be working for me. I can't seem to gain any weight? I am eating about 26 blocks a day and so that isn't getting me enough calories, so i am trying to supplement the calories with strictly mono and polyunsaturated fats, (like those found in nuts and olive oil) but this is doing nothing but make me break out in acne. I don't see how you can eat enough calories on this diet to make it work for lifting. Does anyone have any suggestions, i am really in need!!![/quote:3f4c08bfeb] IMHO, 8.8% body fat does not seem low for someone who is working on building massive muscles. Depending on the specifics of your body build, it might even be a bit high. BTW, how did you measure the body fat percentage? Many methods are only approximations. This is an issue I have brought up before, but have not received proper understanding from others. The fat one has is around the internal organs and under the skin. Extra muscle does not have much fat in it. The ideal amount of fat for a "normally" muscled man would be 12-14% or 16 to 18 pounds of fat. Now if this "normal" (lets say 150 pound) guy decides that he wants to work on developing his muscles and adds 35 pounds of muscle, does that mean that his internal organs have gained a need for more fat around them? Has his skin suddenly developed a need for more fat? In this example, our "normal" guy would have gone from 12% to 9% fat %. Perhaps we could make a case for a small increase, but surely not in direct proportion to the added muscle weight. That is why various athletic "professions" have different body fat percents listed by Dr. Sears. Each profession is characterized by a different type of muscular development beyond the "normal" person. I suspect the ideal body fat is actually pounds of fat based on the frame size of the person (i.e., the volume of the person measured by their skeleton). However, I am not aware of any studies that have looked at the best way to measure the ideal amount of fat. So to further answer your question, you may need to look at the pounds of fat that would be ideal for you. I suspect that your body is self regulating your fat to the ideal for you. Eat the least number of calories that will maintain (not increase) your ideal pounds of fat. You might also consider what your goals are for following the Zone lifestyle. Is it for correction of a particular problem? General health? Long life? Eating the least calories to maintain a healthy life results in the longest, healthiest life. A certain amount of exercise is also beneficial, but requires more calories. There is an optimum amount of physical development, but beyond that, the additional benefits of increased muscles are outweighed by the detriment of processing additional calories. I have no idea where that optimal point is. I can only guess that it is somewhere in the "everything in moderation" zone. Another area that begs to be studied.

[quote:e9b921d484="ricky1194"]I am 20 years old and am 185 pounds with an 8.8 percent bodyfat. I am really trying to stay on the zone diet and exercise, but it just doesn't seem to be working for me. I can't seem to gain any weight? I am eating about 26 blocks a day and so that isn't getting me enough calories, so i am trying to supplement the calories with strictly mono and polyunsaturated fats, (like those found in nuts and olive oil) but this is doing nothing but make me break out in acne. I don't see how you can eat enough calories on this diet to make it work for lifting. Does anyone have any suggestions, i am really in need!!![/quote:e9b921d484] Ricky, can you give us more info on yourself? - What is your height, waist and wrist measurement? - Desrcibe in more detail your current workout/training regimen. - Are you trying to gain more fat weight or more muscle weight? - 26 blocks seems like an awful lot of blocks. Your wrist measurement must be quite large. - Also give us some detail as to how you calculate your blocks and an idea of your macronutrient content and breakdown... (i.e. what carbs you're eating, what sources of protein, etc...) - Do you take any kind of supplements? You may wonder why, but in "troubleshooting" any specific problem having the most info possible can help people give you a better answer and I don't mean to insinuate that you don't know what you're doing, it's just that [i:e9b921d484]we[/i:e9b921d484] don't know. Also, it's not like eating "in the zone" would not be condusive to gaining LBM or fat therefore you need to switch to a different macronutriend composition (i.e. AHA diet, Atkins, etc...) to help you move forward with your goals. The Zone is a range and can help you achieve any goal you set for yourself. You just need to find [i:e9b921d484]your[/i:e9b921d484] zone. Pat

I am 6'1". My wrist measurement is 7 1/4". My waist is about 30". I am naturally lean, and I am looking to gain about 25 pounds of LBM. As far as I know, I need to eat about 3000 calories a day. On the zone this is very difficult, because you can't have lots of carbs. The reason i chose so many blocks was because I wanted at least 2700 calories to even have a shot to gain masss. I weight lift twice a week. My upper body workout is Dips, Row, Overhead Press, Crunch. External Rotator work. My lowerbody workout is Squats, Stifflegged Deadlift, Sidebends, Calf Raises, and forearm work. I tried to add a lot of fat in my diet because that does affect my insulin, but that just made me get more pimples. Is this all the info you needed?

Hi Ricky, I'm very sorry, but IMO you can't expect to gain 25 lbs of LBM working out only twice a week. You have to exercice your muscles much more in order to build them up. And it also takes time. I think you can expect to see your first results in about 2-3 months when you lift weights at least 4-5 times per week. Don't be worried about the calory intake. Your body will adapt to a low-calory diet. What is important, is that you have the correct protein intake for your activity level. ciao Paola

Hi Ricky, See the "budybuilding" discussion lower down in this same thread. Pat gained 25 pounds in 7 months, working out only once every 2 weeks. Give a look. I've started doing it like Pat said, and my results mirror his, but I haven't been doing it as long. Bob

[quote:537e50ba17="ricky1194"]I am 6'1". My wrist measurement is 7 1/4". My waist is about 30". I am naturally lean, and I am looking to gain about 25 pounds of LBM. As far as I know, I need to eat about 3000 calories a day.... The reason i chose so many blocks was because I wanted at least 2700 calories to even have a shot to gain masss. I weight lift twice a week. My upper body workout is Dips, Row, Overhead Press, Crunch. External Rotator work. My lowerbody workout is Squats, Stifflegged Deadlift, Sidebends, Calf Raises, and forearm work. I tried to add a lot of fat in my diet because that does affect my insulin, but that just made me get more pimples. Is this all the info you needed?[/quote:537e50ba17] Sorry about the delay, I did not get a chance to reply in the past couple of days... Well, it's a great start. What other exercise do you do (if any) the other 5 days a week. Also, do you take any kind of supplements? Did you measure your 30" waist line at your belly button or at the actual waist? Because when I put the numbers 185, 73, 30, 7 in the body fat calculator, I got a fat % of 4% and if I put 7.5 for your wrist, I get 0% body fat... Of course this is approximate... Also if I put "Elite Athlete" which usually means someone training hard 6 to 7 days a week, the maximum number of blocks it gives me is 26... In any case, at 6'1" and a lean 185lbs you are quite muscular and bigger than the norm, that's for sure. I must point out that eating more fat will not help you gain mass. As far as advice, it is Dr.Sears' best advice that you should be eating the least amount of calories per day to maintain you current LBM and maybe 1 or two total blocks extra to account for new muscle growth. Here is what I suggest: - As Bob (fatboyslim) mentioned, you may have hit a plateau working out and you could consider the Static Contraction training or Power Factor training methods to ensure progressive overload on every workout which breaks most plateaus people hit... Are you stronger at every single workout you do? If so, how do you know for sure? With the Power Factor and the Static Contraction, you take the [i:537e50ba17]time[/i:537e50ba17] factor into consideration and it give you a very accurate measure of true intensity so you can know if you really are stronger or not. Without it, it is purely guess work. This is a very scientific method of measuring progress and letting you know if you're better off taking some more rest time or if you're workout schedule is good. At your size and weight, you should be working out [i:537e50ba17]less[/i:537e50ba17] than twice a week not more, I am sure. - For the food, stop eating so much. Remember eating fat will not help you gain lean muscle mass. Having pimples is inflammation of the skin and may in part be due to over eating calories (I had a BF % of like 9-10% and I started to eat a lot more fat which made me break out too - now I want to stabilize my fat around 12% so I reduced my fat quite a bit and the pimples have reduced considerably although not gone...). My fat accumulation was slow and I got pimples before any significant fat % increase. Some people do not accumulate fat as proficiently as other and it may be that your reaction to a much higher caloric intake results in pimples first before an actual fat gain (kind of like it did for me)....... In any case I think that you do not necessarily want more fat, just more muscle, right? - Try to eat the least number of calories that will maintain your LBM. Measure and weigh yourself frequently (the only measures you will need to verify often are [b:537e50ba17]waist at the belly button[/b:537e50ba17] and your weight) to make sure you are not losing LBM. Keep following the Zone and try eating "only" 24 or 25 blocks and see if your LBM remains the same or slightly incrases as you work out. If it does than stay there until you see any significant LBM increase then increase a bit. The reason I say reduce your blocks to find your zone is that it is not necessary to over eat big time to make sure you gain muscle. This is very sensitive and eating like crazy is not the answer. As you decrease your blocks you may find yourself feeling better, stronger, having less inflammation and then focus on your workouts by following the advice given in the "budybuilding" thread. - One more thing I need to say is that you need to remember the way you were born, with your bone size, your structure, etc. you can possibly only do so much to gain a huge amount of muscle beyond a certain point. I mean someone who is 6'4" with wrists like 8.5" may be able to reach 250lbs with a very low BF %. However, a 5'8" guy with 6.5" wrists will probably never be able to reach 250lbs with a very low BF % (naturally)... In your case at 6'1", 185lbs, 7.25" wrists, hoping to reach 210lbs with a BF of 8% or less -naturally- may be possible but would take some time at the very least....... If you take steroids, all this advice goes out the window and I would say you're on your own because this is all about balance and steroids simply are not...... - So, eat a little less and monitor frequently. Increase only as needed not to lose LBM. Train smarter by considering PFT or SCT or even conventional full range training until you plateau again but measure the time to ensure progress every workout. Be proud of where you are now and be patient for your progress because healthy progress is usally a little slower. Pat P.S. Bob (and others) I need to adjust what I wrote as I re-did my calculations (I had not measured accurately...). When I had written the 25lbs, I was just elated and looked and felt great. I was actually a little "bloated" from vacationing, and eating very approximately zone like for like a couple of weeks. As I am back to my normal life and proper food and block calculations, I took my measurements more precisely and my gains are actually 18lbs of muscle ( which I am still elated about!!) and 4lbs of fat for 22lbs total in a little over 7 months and a total of 20 workouts. I am sorry for the lack of precision in my earlier post.

This is an older "Ask Dr.Sears" which is relevant and gives insights of how delicate changes need to be (rather that eating like crazy or being drastic with changes...). However, I think that people are able to gain more than 1lb of muscle per month even though 1lb per month for most people is great. "Creatine" Dear Dr. Sears, How does creatine fit in with the Zone Diet? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mike, There is scientific proof that consuming 20 grams or more of creatine monohydrate a day can help build muscle. Creatine is one of the few supplements that appears to be beneficial, at least in strength athletes. However, the doses at which the effects take place are very high. But here is my basic rule on supplements: take them as directed for two weeks. If you see a positive benefit, then keep taking the supplement. If you don't see benefits in two weeks, then it probably won't happen. If you are using creatine, the Zone Nutrition Program can help you build new muscle mass by adding one extra protein block (balanced with a carbohydrate and fat) each day. Building one pound of new muscle mass per month is a noble goal. One pound of new muscle equals 454 grams. But muscle is 70 percent water, which means that one pound of new muscle contains about 136 grams of protein. Divide 136 grams by 30 days, and you get 4.5 grams of extra protein per day required to build new muscle. Taking in one extra block of protein (7 grams) a day (balanced with a carbohydrate and fat block, of course) is more than adequate to achieve new muscle growth. Dr.Barry Sears

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their imput, it was deffinitely something that was benificial to me. I am going to try working out (one upper-body workout and one lower body workout) every two weeks to see if my gains increase. The one main difference I heard in this post vs. normal online bodybuilding forums, is that you really seem to only need like 2100- 2200 calories to gain some muscles vs. the 3000 or more suggested elsewhere. I have just finished a liver cleanse, and a colon cleanse so I think that this is going to help me injest and assimilate the calories that I do take in. I know that Dr. Sears has some information on training athletes on the zone, but that was only a little bit of what kind of success they had. Also he said, I believe in his first zone book, that the Stanford swimmers ate the protein and carbs that were zone balance, but that they got all of their extra calories they needed from fat. First off, how many calories were they eating, and did they break out at all? Second, the L.A. Raiders team was on the zone and saw some awesome results. Did they increase their fat at all, and how many blocks were they on? Another question, do you think that meal replacement shakes (if balanced out) can replace meals affectively? I know that they have a greater surface area and therefore are absorbed quicker, but I need to eat every three hours to get the required blocks in anyway, so that doesn't really bother me. I am considering a couple supplements, and I was wondering if i could get your feedback on them. The first one is some form of a liver aid (high cholestorel runs in our family) and the second one is pantothenic acid (B5). I want to take the B5 to help with the metabolising of the fats mainly, to give my liver a break. Do you think that these are a good idea? Thank you once again for all of your help, I am a personal trainer and massage therapist and the personal training information on dieting is so contrary to what the zone says that I want to have the information on the zone so that i can talk intellegently about it to my clients. I have personal known and practiced the zone diet for about 6 years now, since i was 14. Your responses have been and will be appreciated.

[quote:9ece14d26f]First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their imput, it was deffinitely something that was benificial to me. I am going to try working out (one upper-body workout and one lower body workout) every two weeks to see if my gains increase.[/quote:9ece14d26f] Well, start by taking 2 weeks off completely, rest and then go back to the gym to see yourself break pleateaus. Over time the rest period between workouts will be determined by your precisely measured progress, not just a random rest period... [quote:9ece14d26f]The one main difference I heard in this post vs. normal online bodybuilding forums, is that you really seem to only need like 2100- 2200 calories to gain some muscles vs. the 3000 or more suggested elsewhere. I have just finished a liver cleanse, and a colon cleanse so I think that this is going to help me injest and assimilate the calories that I do take in. [/quote:9ece14d26f] Each person or athlete's calorie requirement is dependant on their fairly precise measurements and activity level. There is no one set amount of calories for healthy weight gain or weight loss or anything. It varies for each person. [quote:9ece14d26f]I know that Dr. Sears has some information on training athletes on the zone, but that was only a little bit of what kind of success they had. Also he said, I believe in his first zone book, that the Stanford swimmers ate the protein and carbs that were zone balance, but that they got all of their extra calories they needed from fat. First off, how many calories were they eating, and did they break out at all? Second, the L.A. Raiders team was on the zone and saw some awesome results. Did they increase their fat at all, and how many blocks were they on?[/quote:9ece14d26f] That is why I asked what other activities you do during the days you don't work out. These athletes were not trying to build new muscle as a primary focus, they were training aerobically and cardiovascularly with intense daily training. Lots of daily calorie burning therefore they need more fat to sustain what they burn every day. In your case you want to build muscle and eating more fat will not help you do that. Having lots of muscle does burn a lot of calories even at rest so you probably need a little more fat than most to keep you BF% where it is but it is not a requirement to build new muscle. [quote:9ece14d26f]Another question, do you think that meal replacement shakes (if balanced out) can replace meals affectively? I know that they have a greater surface area and therefore are absorbed quicker, but I need to eat every three hours to get the required blocks in anyway, so that doesn't really bother me.[/quote:9ece14d26f] Meal replacement shakes or smoothies are great as long as they are balanced and contain a somewhat favorable carb source (i.e. fruits...) if you make them or are the Dr.Sears shakes... [quote:9ece14d26f]I am considering a couple supplements, and I was wondering if i could get your feedback on them. The first one is some form of a liver aid (high cholestorel runs in our family) and the second one is pantothenic acid (B5). I want to take the B5 to help with the metabolising of the fats mainly, to give my liver a break. Do you think that these are a good idea? [/quote:9ece14d26f] I can't really comment on these specific supplements but I can tell you that the one supplement I would (obviously) recommend is ultra refined fish oil. You can also try a magnesium supplement with a little (200IU) vitamin E daily. [quote:9ece14d26f]Thank you once again for all of your help, I am a personal trainer and massage therapist and the personal training information on dieting is so contrary to what the zone says that I want to have the information on the zone so that i can talk intellegently about it to my clients. I have personal known and practiced the zone diet for about 6 years now, since i was 14. Your responses have been and will be appreciated.[/quote:9ece14d26f] That's great! Continue showing your clients the light about true healthy nutrition - not "carbo loading"... Pat