Lessons from trying to gain lean mass on DIY Soylent

There have been substantial changes in my recipe since posting this back in April. This post is to recommend upgrades to this recipe and associated procedures. It will also go over the motivations for decisions made.

Summary

Bodybuilders and strength athletes have been controlling their diets closely for decades. I am proposing that they take the next step in that process and completely control what they put into their mouths in an easier and more consistent way. Stop weighing cooked chicken breast and trying to guess at approximate nutrition content. Control exactly what you are putting into your body. 

• Mix equal parts (by weight) of masa harina and whey protein for a great weight gainer or general calorie filler powder
• Add in micro-nutrients and fats for a great full diet, no need for "real food" just eat this powder. 
• Mix in other powders to your heart's content
• various amino acids (creatine, l-glutamine, BCAAs, ...)
• vitamin b variants
• vitamin c
• herbal supplements for various purposes 

There is also some commentary on cardio and lifting. This portion is more anecdotal but I find that steady state cardio of 40-60 minutes per day of steady state machine cardio 2-5 days per week is sufficient to keep bodyfat gain to a minimum. I am a powerlifter so my end goal is to lift more at a lighter weight, as such, I am trying to gain lean mass but my lifting routine is that of a powerlifter. There are many routines with different end goals so pick the one that is right for you. 

Sources of Macronutrients - A matter of much debate

Muscle Gravy V2 Recipe - Bulking Edition

Carbohydrate Source

Masa Harina

• Low cost
• Low flavor
• Neutral flavor
• Low micronutrient content
• Low GI/GL Relatively
• Highly developed product (wide consumption)

Masa Harina is a very inexpensive and decent source of carbohydrates. If you are in the US, the most inexpensive source of consumer sized Masa that I have found is Wal-Mart at $16 for a 25 lb bag with free shipping (over 50 dollars) or $5 additional for shipping. Even if you have to pay the shipping, it is still the cheapest source that I have found. 

The main alternative that I see as realistic is oat powder but there are two main problems that I see with this ingredient. First, I find the flavor of oat powder less enjoyable than the flavor of masa. It is more potent and at the same time less pleasant. This is of course, a matter of personal preference. Secondly, oat powder has too much micronutrient content to be consumed in the large quantities that would be required for bulking. 

As far as insulin response goes, Masa has a GI of about 51 quick oats have a GI of about 66 (also). There is some concern about overly spiking blood sugar levels for prolonged periods of time leading to insulin resistance which is why a bulk/cut cycle is encouraged. That being said, insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones in the body so having a good amount of it is not a bad thing as long as it is not for too long of a period. According to this article that is referenced by one above, insulin resistance can occur is as little as 4 weeks.

Protein Source

Whey Protein

• Relatively Low Cost
• Complete Protein
• Highly developed product (wide consumption)
• Well studied
• Mid range insulin response - hydrolyzed whey releases more insulin whereas casein releases less insulin
• Increase insulin sensitivity
• Low micronutrient content

Whey protein isolate has a decent cost per gram of protein metric of about 32.7 g per 1 USD based on $111 for 10 lbs at an 80% concentration (Gold Standard whey). Whey is a complete protein in that it has the proper ratios of all essential amino acids. This cannot be said of vegetable based proteins aside from soy and quinoa. That is not to say that vegetable based proteins could not be mixed to create complete proteins, but their flavor and texture profile tend to be less well developed than the highly developed whey products. Soy may have hormonal effects but, it seems that the scientific jury is still out. A brief search turns up some quinoa protein products but it seems that they are not yet in production. Cricket protein also is a potential solution, as it is an animal protein, it is complete. All products that I have found in this area are still very expensive and the taste is apparently prohibitive. More processing would be required to extract undesirable flavors from the proteins in this source.

Fats and Micronutrients

Flaxseed Meal and Canola Oil

• High amounts of unsaturated fats especially Omega 3 and Omega 6

Flaxseed meal has benefits which are under less fire than that of canola oil. The biggest benefit of flaxseed meal is the high amounts of omega 3 fatty acids. For more information about this see the wikipedia page on the topic which links to many scientific articles and includes a summary of findings.

Canola oil is more controversial but is included to get exposure to omega 6 fatty acids. The main controversy surrounding canola is based on the fact that it is the oil of the rapeseed which is a GMO. This is an argument that I tend to dismiss unless they can show evidence on some other basis that canola oil has negative health effects. The conditions that these ingredients are kept under must be closely controlled as they may become rancid and have to be disposed. This goes for most ingredients but especially the fats and micronutrients.

Relative Amounts of Ingredients

A Simplified Approach to Recipe Construction

1. Add micronutrient ingredients 
1. Add Multivitamin
2. Add Potassium to 100% dv
3. Add Choline to 100% dv
4. Add Alfalfa Powder to 100% dv of Vitamin K
5. Add iodized salt
2. Add fats - Note: The proper ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids is still under some debate but the US RDA of 1.6 / 17 does not seem right to me. I look for about 1/1. 
1. Add flaxseed meal
2. Add canola oil
3. Adjust until the desired omega 3/omega 6 ratio is reached.
3. Add wehy until protein goal is reached
4. Add masa until carb goal is reached
5. Adjust micronutrients slightly to get back near 100% where possible, make sure to stay fairly well under the upper limits.
6. Add any other ingredients 

Bulking and Cutting

My approach is to keep the fats constant. Bodybuilders and strength athletes have used the high carb low fat approach to bulking for a long time. They consider sweet potatoes "clean" food and the GI of cooked sweet potatoes is higher than the Masa Harina in this recipe. Thus, this recipe could by some accounts be considered to be "clean food".

The amounts of fat used in my recipes are the US RDAs for a 2000 kcal / day diet. I keep these amounts constant. The calorie adjustment is done only in the whey and masa amounts. Adjust these amounts by first adjusting the whey protein amount until the desired amount of daily protein is reached, then adjusting the masa amount until the daily amount of carb is reached. 

I recommend changing over from high calorie to low calorie and back instantaneously. In my experience, this shocks the body out of homeostasis and forces change. Being too drastic can be detrimental however. In any one bulk and cut cycle a user should start by bulk being 1.75 * cut calories and cut being 0.6 * bulk calories. I use bulk as double cut calories and cut as half of bulk calories. Making small adjustments here is how a user can gain total calories and total body weight.

Let's say that I currently consume 2000 kcal per day and that is "cutting". Now, let's I double that amount and bulk for 6 weeks at 4000 kcal per day. The bulk went well and I put on 20 lbs. Now, to cut again I may drop to 2100 kcal per day. This may lead to a homeostasis at a hopefully higher level with more lean body mass. Then I may double that amount to 4200 kcal per day, and the cycle continues. This is linear periodization of food. It may very well coincide with volume and peaking cycles for powerlifting.

Workout Construction

On Cardio

Before starting this section, it is worth mentioning that Somatotype matters and depending on your body's propensity to be skinny or fat you will have to do more or less cardio. Some people look at ice cream and get fat while others can eat ice cream every day and not gain a pound. This comment applies to how many calories you are going to have to consume during bulk and cut cycles as well.

Cardio is an extremely useful tool for lean muscle gain during bulking and cutting phases. During the bulking phase, cardio is critical for keeping body fat under control. The high amounts of insulin being released by the body in this phase is very anabolic but it may be used to store fat unless you give the body a good reason to do something else with all of that protein and carbs that you are putting into your body. Lifting is a good partial solution to this but it does not burn enough ATP / glycogen (especially powerlifting) to be effective at keeping body fat in check and must be supplemented with cardio.

So, why not just eat less carbohydrate and just lift varying protein levels for bulk and cut cycles. Gluconeogenesis is the major reason followed closely by insulin levels. Gluconeogenesis is the process by which the body converts some amino acids (protein) into glucose. This may effectively turn the large amounts of protein being put into the user's mouth into glucose. In the presense of high levels of blood glucose and insulin, when the muscles are full of glucose, this glucose will be turned into fat and stored. Keeping insulin levels high is a good thing for gaining muscle and gaining body fat. This gain of body fat can be combated by doing cardio.

During the cutting phase the benefit is obvious. More fat loss. The key is to hopefully avoid metabolizing your hard earned muscle mass from the bulking phase.  

What to do for cardio?

Steady state cardio is an excellent tool in my personal experience and widely used by bodybuilders of the past. The key to burning more calories during steady state cardio is to increase muscular intensity. On a cardio machine like an elliptical this means turning the intensity to the maximum. On a treadmill it is the angle that increases the intensity. When running outside, hill runs have a similar effect. The bike has an intensity parameter as well however I find that calories burned on bikes tend to be computed much lower. I also sweat much less during a steady state bike workout compared to a steady state AMT workout with the same maximum intensity.

If you are trying to gain muscle outdoor running can pose some downsides. One is the impact factor. For a heavy person the joint impact of running outdoors can be a major strain. If this starts to affect performance in the gym, that can negatively impact muscle growth and strength in the legs. Skipping squats due to a sore knee for instance.

The primary downside to the elliptical is the unnatural motion. This is being overcome by some of the newer equipment starting with the Precor AMT 100i followed by the 835. Octane also released the ZR7 and ZR8 which look even more promising for home use to be followed soon by a commercial edition.

Much has been stated about the benefits of interval training but in my experience I have gotten shin splints and knee pain from it. That being said, it is probably my own fault as I do not have a coach. The best form of interval training that I can recommend is real stair climbing. If you can find a nearby stadium or high building with fire stairs you can use, it is an excellent workout with fairly marginal risk of injury. Lots of burpees, wall balls and kettlebell swings can be good high intensity cardio as well.

Lifting

There is an enormous amount of information on this topic so I will keep the commentary here fairly limited. The information seems to boil down to some simple statements. Lifting heavy things with multiple joints (squat bench deadlift etc) puts muscle mass on your frame. Doing 10 rep sets builds muscle, 5 rep sets build muscle and strength, 3-1 rep sets build strength and not really muscle. Muscle size highly correlates with strength. You should be on a program where progress is measured and increasing and not randomly doing things in the gym. There have been many books written on the topic, in no particular order:

1. The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding: The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised
2. Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition 
3. 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System for Raw Strength

These books tend to have comments about cardio as well. The common theme is that doing too much cardio can result in metabolizing your muscles while doing too little will result in excess body fat. In (1) the recommendation is 40-60 minutes a day 4-5 days a week (kindle location 10636) during a cut. The implicit assumption there is steady state cardio.