[johnnyairwaves]

I want to gain mass but not fat as I am still working on losing a little bit of belly fat. I am currently using Optimum Nutrition 100% whey. I see that the top gainers like BSN True-Mass and Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex Gainer have high Fat Calories and Saturated Fat.

Any recommendations on products? or if these products are good? along with a strict low-fat diet, cardio and of course

[Zack]

I've gotta once again say RussianBear5000. It's got a lot of good fats (even though they say there's no fat in it Multi-Chain Triglycerides are fats), has 184 g of protein and a ****load of carbs if with water. If with milk it has almost double everything.


Buuuuut the guys around here are big fans of ON products so just go with what you think is best from the information everybody gives you. They're all pretty knowledgeable in their respective fields.

The only other thing is that I've your trying to gain mass, you're going to gain some fat regardless of anything else. It's just not gonna happen that you're gonna gain mass without some fat. So keep that in mind too.

[RAGEN2008]

How many servings per container? I mean if you have to dump a cup full of the stuff to get 1200 calories, it goes pretty quick and the dollars add up fast to keep using it.

[Zack]

5 servings, but it's about 5 scoops a day.

You can gain on just 3 and make it last longer.

With water and 5 scoops throughout the day it's 2600 calories. So that's pretty significant. It's just a hard supp to find being that not many people know about it or use it.

[AVFullBack32]

i love cytogainer taste good and works GREAT
a good 30 servings per tub or something around there

[KM]

Originally Posted by AVFullBack32

i love cytogainer taste good and works GREAT
a good 30 servings per tub or something around there

Cosign, I'm a fan of this stuff as well. Works great. Mint-Chocolate Chip is delicious. Give this a try bro, if anything.

[johnnyairwaves]

[QUOTE=ZackKnight;506516]I've gotta once again say RussianBear5000. It's got a lot of good fats (even though they say there's no fat in it Multi-Chain Triglycerides are fats), has 184 g of protein and a ****load of carbs if with water. If with milk it has almost double everything.QUOTE]

I can do half the scoops of BSN True-Mass(which is won the award for 2007's best gainer) which is 3 scoops and comes as 5.75 Pounds for $46. In a serving it has fraction of the Calories and Carbs. Its Rich in BCAA's and other highly essential and non-essential Amino Acids. After this research it seems True-Mass comes out ahead on building muscle mass. For the sake merely gaining weight RussianBear would definitly do it but one thing concerns me is that the Cholesterol is not listed. Seems to be for someone underweight, younger and with a higher metabolism. Overall my goal is to gain as much muscle mass as possible while losing about 5-7 of body fat.

I did see that CytoGainer comes in a close second behind BSN's True-Mass.

[Tall HardGainer]

This is the thing, gaining mass while cutting weight is almost impossible, this is the reasonw why, when you bulk you eat more calories in order to get stronger, pushing more weight, and using the extra calories to help you recover faster. Going this way you tend to gain a little bit of extra fat because your intaking more calories than your burning throughout the day. When you cut you try and get your calories burned to be greater than how much you take in without damaging your muscle mass (i.e more protein and lower carbs in order to make sure the muscle have enough protein to sustain themselves while your taking away some carbs, which are used more readily as energy than protein).

However, this isn't to say that it is completely impossible to increase lean mass while dropping fat, but what you SHOULD NOT do is take a gainer trying to do this because of the higher fat content, sugars and carbs. What you should do is increase your protein intake and slightly decrease your carb intake. Remember protein is the building block of muscles, not carbs, but carbs do play a role in absorbing protein into the muscle, but not that many carbs are required. So aim to get 55% of your calories from protein, 35% from carbs and 10% from fats, this will help you drop the fat (assuming you are also doing your cardio you should be doing to drop fat, if your not, better start) and doing cardio after your workout will also allow your body to deliver more oxygen into the muscles you just worked and also deliver more nutrients once you take your post workout shake.

Instead of the weight gainer, use 100% Whey (most people including myself prefer the ON brand, so what I am recommending are all ON products unless specified), Casein protein, BCAA's, MultiVitamin, creatine and glutamine. Aim to eat every 2 hours, this will allow your body to metabolize faster and burn more calories but give your muscles enough protein in order to grow and sustain. The creatine and glutamine will allow your body to help sustain strength and prevent muscle breakdown, and yes you can take creatine and cut weight successfully. So by increasing your protein intake you can increase your lean muscle mass, but don't look to put on a lot of muscle while cutting fat, because the diets to do so are different. So chose which one you want to do and go that way.

Enjoy!

[johnnyairwaves]

"but don't look to put on a lot of muscle while cutting fat, because the diets to do so are different."

Thanks. So Basically pick one over the other, cut or gain mass. I guess take the true bodybuilders method of bulking then cutting later. If so, what is the recommended timeframe for bulking? I would like to look more impressive by summer(June) , so should I Bulk up until May and then start cutting all summer...make my fall-winter-spring the "Off Season"?

[johnnyairwaves]

I agree with the ON 100% Whey. Been using it for a while and is great but its not giving me the size I want.

Supps Currently Used:

ON 100% Whey
BSN NO XPLODE
BSN CELLMASS
MULTI VITAMIN
GLUCOSAMINE CHONDROITIN

[Tall HardGainer]

How much body fat do you have? To only leave 1 month to get shredded is not a lot, most people are starting now to cut for June time, but if you are already at 8%bf or so you only might need 1 month to get down to somewhere like 5%bf, but if your over 10% bf I would probably recommend starting to cut soon, becuase you are going to have to get used to adjusting your diet and start doing cardio.

The supps you are using are fine, just remember there is no miracle supp that is going to make you huge in a short period of time, even if you used steroids and didn't diet right you wouldn't get huge gains, you would get minimal gains because there aren't the nutrients to support it. Aim to consume 1.5-2g protein per lb you weigh while cutting, in order to offset the carbs you are going to be cutting, this allows your body to still get enough protein to help build lean muscle and cut the bodyfat, the excess protein will be used as energy instead of having energy come from carbs.

Right now I am cutting, and increased my protein intake, cut carbs and fats and am doing cardio, I dropped from 250-230 now, my weight has stabilized there for the most part and I am still losing fat, but I am consuming enough protein to add a little extra muscle and still lose the excess fat, which the the goal ultimately. Not to mention you will look bigger even though your lighter then when you bulk because your muscles have nice shape and you can see the definition, splits, etc... its a nice optical illusion

[johnnyairwaves]

"will look bigger even though your lighter then when you bulk because your muscles have nice shape and you can see the definition, splits, etc... its a nice optical illusion"

Awesome Thank you! Thats exactly what I want. My body fat is about 16%. I want the mass but I just dont want the a fat belly but I assume the cardio would prevent that.

[Tall HardGainer]

well your going to lose fat all around the body, if your around 16% I would start cutting now, drop some carbs and fats, aim at higher rep workouts, throw in supersets, and do cardio 4-5 times a week post workout, HIIT seems to work the best, for about 30-45 minutes.

[johnnyairwaves]

Thanks, been doing all that - I run for 30 minutes and do supersets every other week to keep the muscles guessing. I want size and wasnt getting it. I just got back from the Vitamin Shoppe and picked up a big tub of BSN True-Mass. My overall concern was adding more fat to the belly as I have been successful sliming down their. In the end by throwing on a lotmore protein is the trick as you have been saying, My workout has been intense I am just not feeding the muscles enough to gain the wanted mass.

[Tall HardGainer]

honestly I would drop the truemass because there are too many calories from carbs and fats in it and are going to slow your progress. Save it for later, and concentrate on consuming your whey and casein protein.

[johnnyairwaves]

BSN's True Mass proprietary protein matrix blend consists of Ultra-filtrated Whey Protein Concentrate Extremely Rich In Alpha-Lactalbumin, Micellar Alpha And Beta Caseins And Caseinates, Microfiltered Whey Protein Isolate full In Whey Isolate Peptide Fractions, Egg Albumen, Calcium Caseinate and Milk Protein Concentrate. Each of these proteins found in True Mass offers a completely unique and complementary profile of amino acids and amino acid absorption rates. Using True Mass in between or alongside meals completely ensures that your muscles never run out of protein building blocks (amino acids) and stop growing.

It was the Weight Gainer Of The Yeear for 2007, designed to effectively support and enhance higher caloric intake in order to maximize lean mass accrual and long term sustained Increases in Muscle and Blood Amino Acid Levels. Their No Xplode and Cellmass hasnt let me down so I confidence this will not either. ON 100% Whey has been good for me for while but I want to put more size on.