A new approach to fueling the beast
-Wayne Nilsen
Credit for the seed of this idea is attributable to Rob Rinehart and Soylent. Other disclaimers at the bottom of this article.
Stop eating food
While often delicious, traditional foods are unnecessary and the human body can thrive on a diet comprised entirely of powders, pills, oils and water. This is a controversial statement of opinion that has not been evaluated for truthfulness except by a niche internet community of experimenters who know the concept as “DIY Soylent”. As most athletes know, the key to changing your body is through consistency over time which is exactly what this approach allows you to accomplish with very little effort. I have eaten limited amounts of food since January and I am feeling great.
Benefits for strength athletes
- Complete control all macro/micronutrients in your diet
- Stop feeling shitty when bulking trying to eat traditional foods in the 5000+ calorie range can be a very unpleasant experience.
- Guaranteed nutritional completeness no vitamin/mineral deficiencies or overdoses.
- Idiot proof compliance it will be very clear when you violate your diet and when you do not.
- Easy to make and consume no more cooking or plastic containers, blend premixed powders in seconds.
- Low price my recipe costs just under $10/day or around $310/month.
A full day of nutrients
This recipe is based loosely on work done by max originally in his very popular recipe People Chow. My weight gain version may be found here and below. Copy and modify this recipe or any other to fit your personal needs. It can be easily modified for a ketogenic diet. Many popular ones are created by QuidNYC.
- Nutrient Breakdown, 3771 Calories
- 480.7 g Carbohydrates
- 290.2 g Protein (1.38 grams/lb of weight currently)
- 79.19 g Fat
- 11.01 g Saturated
- 21.86 g Monounsaturated
- 12.68 g Polyunsaturated
- 1.61 g Omega-3
- 19.04 g Omega-6
- Ingredients
- Egg (white + yolk) 3 portion – consumed separately
- Masa harina 350 g – This is essentially dried and ground corn
- Maltodextrin (from corn) 100 g
- Soy Flour 25 g – for micronutrients
- Canola Oil 21 g
- Olive Oil 20 g
- Iodised Salt 3.85 g
- Banana 2 portion – mostly for flavor
- NOW Foods Vitamin k-2 1 pill
- Target Men’s Multi 1 pill
- Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Natural 100% Whey - Vanilla/Strawberry 300 g
- * Nature Made Potassium Gluconate 5.2 pill (0.468 g)
- * Choline bitartrate 0.17 g
- Procedure
- pre-measure powders into daily portions 7 days at a time works well
- consume eggs and pills separately
- add 16 ounces of water to the bottom of a blender
- add powder, bananas and oils to blender
- add 16-32 more ounces of water and blend until smooth
- recipe yields approximately 2.1 liters of thick liquid which I distribute between three 1 liter Nalgene bottles in 700 ml portions.
* I do not use this ingredient but it exists for the sake of nutritional completeness.
Yes, all ingredients are in grams, get a cheap food scale. Volumetric (cups/tbps etc) measuring is inconsistent and inaccurate.
How to modify a recipe
- Determine your desired macros, the IIFYM Calculator is a decent tool for achieving this goal if you do not already know this information.
- Identify the main sources of protein, carbohydrates and fats and adjust these according to your macronutrient goals. In my recipe these should be apparent.
- Add/remove/change other ingredients so that each micronutrient is not over the daily upper limits and not under the daily recommended allowance.
Concerns and criticisms
As a strength athlete I was concerned with some features of max’s recipe on which mine is based such as the exclusion of cholesterol which in theory helps to boost testosterone production. This lead to the inclusion of the daily eggs. I was also concerned with the general lack of the community’s concern with glycemic load/index and insulin response to food in the body, it may be desirable to have more careful control of such information. Low protein levels in the original recipe were also obviously a concern at only 87.58 grams.
Reddit user TestUserD: Macronutrient ratios and fat types
- IMO, the macros are off. I would drop the protein to about 150 grams, drop the carbs down to about 400, and make up for that in fats. Saturated and monounsaturated fats are the best source of excess calories for bulking up.
Also, the fat breakdown is pretty bad. Replace the canola oil with a healthier fat, like butter or coconut oil and consider adding an Omega-3 supplement. The Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio in your formula is really unhealthy. Your opinion is a very popular one and quite traditional, often reflected by those outside of the bodybuilding or strength athlete community. My goals with this recipe are to gain muscle mass and fuel high exertion full body workouts and recovery from those without gaining much fat. The macro ratios that I have chosen are in line with opinions of many of the most successful strength/bodybuilding athletes.
Glucose/ATP levels lost in the muscles must be refueled by very high levels of available carbohydrates, higher levels of fats would IMO just encourage more fat storage. Of course my “base” dietary needs/levels of fats are being met with the quantity of fats in this recipe. I quote Arnold from The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding but there are many many anecdotal examples like this one. Of course I am not Arnold but there is a middle ground, my current recipe is Protein 30% Carbs 50% and Fat 20%.
Kindle location 10130: According to the McGovern Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, Protein 12%, Carbs 58%, Fats 30%. In my own career I usually found myself eating a diet balanced quite differently: Protein 40%, Carbohydrates 40%, Fats 20%
To speak to your comments about fat breakdown, I am very interested in learning how best to meet fat ratios and I do not know enough about it for sure. I have done some investigation but a good conversation about optimal omega ratios (4/1 or 5/1 omega6/omega3?) and how best to acheive this in a cost effective way is long overdue. I am not sure why including more saturated fat via something like butter would be helpful but if you could provide some justification for that I would be interested. I will also most likely be adding medium chain triglycerides (MCT oil) in the next iteration as a source of fat. It seems that fish oil is the best source of omega 3 but it is very expensive for volumes offered 500 mg/pill and having to take something like 12 caps seems unappealing. I’m sure /u/QuidNYC could speak to this issue.
In terms of Canola oil being unhealthy, I still have it in my recipe because it is inexpensive and I cannot find any reasons why canola oil which is stored in the proper temperature and lighting situation is unhealthy other than the fact that Rapeseed is GMO which in and of itself has not been shown to be a real problem (obviously correct me if I am wrong).
- IMO, the macros are off. I would drop the protein to about 150 grams, drop the carbs down to about 400, and make up for that in fats. Saturated and monounsaturated fats are the best source of excess calories for bulking up.
Rob has cataloged an intelligently written collection of many other criticisms with replies for a broader audience.
Disclaimers
- I am conducting this as an experimental nutrition plan on my own body. I did not consult a doctor before my experiment but you should. Of course saying this is a matter of covering my/our ass.
- I am not claiming to have invented/created this idea or approach to nutrition, just that I have applied the approach for my own nutritional needs. For more information on the origins see Rob Rhinehart’s blog especially his first post How I Stopped Eating Food.
- This article is largely my personal opinion and experience not backed by the scientific method.
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