Universal Nutrition Forum

Ask "HOWARD" all your Beginners questions and be sure to get an opinionated answer!

Hey Howard are you natural? What sups do you use?

Yep Muscle kid im natural and plan to stay that way.The supplements im using at the moment are
IDS multi whey pro isolate(5 scoops daily)
Cyto gainer(1 serving daily)
Multi-vitamin
Glutamine(3 tsp daily)
Udo's choice[Essential fatty acid oil](4 Tbsp daily)
Isolyze(2 scoops post workout)
Carbolyze(2+1/2 servings post workout)
Vitamin C (3 1000mg capsules daily)

My favorite protein sources
Whey
Eggs
Chicken
Turkey
Cottage cheese
Tuna
Salmon(If I could afford it on a regular basis)

Carb sources(starch)
Brown rice
Oats
Wholewheat pasta
Potatos
Wholewheat bread

Fiberous/complex
Spinach
Broccali
peas

Simple
Banana's
Green apples
Natural yoghert

Fat sources
Walnuts
Fish oils(Oily fish salmon etc)
Natural peanut butter
Udo's/flaxseed etc

hey howard as a high carb bodybuilder, what kida of advice would you give to some on who needed to rip up and didnt want to go the no carbs route? what sort of diet, training and cardio would you lay out.

For bulking I tend to go for and recommend the ratio Protein 30-35% Carbs 40-50% fats 20-30% of total kcal intake.Play around with the ratio's to see what works best.
For cutting start with a 15%-20% reduction of total calorie intake.Higher protein ratio ie. 40% reduce carbs 30-35% and make no change to fat ratio.

Eg.If I require 4000kcal for maintenance and im following a 30-40-30 ratio my requirements would be 300g protein,400g carbs and 134g of fats.
If at that point I decide to cut my estimated Kcal requirements for optimal fatloss ie. 1.5-2lbs weekly would be 3400kcal and I would perhaps work off a 40-30-30 ratio ie. 340g of protein 255g of carbs and 113g of fats.
If something goes down somethings gotta go up - calories are reduced,protein goes up.
The calories I require are based on my metabolic rate, some people may require a similar amount while others may only need half the amount,there is no magic number of calories,protein,carbs or fats thats gonna work for everyone its the ratio's that are important.

With regards to training for bulking,lift heavy,compound lifts and more compound lifts. Try to increase the weight in every exercise weekly tempo 3-0-1 ie.3 sec lowering no pause at bottom or top 1 sec to push/pull.For cutting I usually add in a lot of supersets and I slightly increase the tempo to make it a bit more aerobic.Cardio start with a bout 25-30mins at 70- 75% of my maximum heart rate and slowly increase up to 40 as the weeks go on.

hey well done on getting your own section, keep up the good work.

Cheers man!

Howard puts a lot of effort into his posts and has a lot of knowledge on training and nutrition, he will be answering questions here to help out new comers and teen bodybuilders. listen up to what this guy has to say.

Hi just wondering what you would recomend for loosing weight, you look very cut in your pic.

What foods would be good, are there any supplements i could take? i was thinking about muscle tech hard core fat burner? Do you think if i took this and did some cardo i cuold be ripped for the summer?

Thanks in advance

Supplements or no supplements Frank, a well laid out diet,training reigme and consistancy and you wont believe the transformation you have made by the time the summer has come around.
Whole foods,lean proteins and essential fatty acids ,keeping simple sugars and refined foods to a minimum and you can't go wrong.

First things first planning out an effective diet.First you need to know whats your optimal amount of calories required to lose fat at a consistant rate while maintaining your muscle.
There are 2 ways in estimating this,reducing your total number of calories required for maintance of body weight by 15% is a good start off point or multiplying your body weight(lbs) by 12-15.
Eg.If you weigh 180lbs a good estimate for your calorie intake would be 2160-2700kcal.
Once you estimate the amount of calories you require next you must choose a suitable ratio of macronutrients.I find a 40-30-30 ratio to be efficient for fat loss,so of your total calorie intake 40% protein,30%carbs and 30% fats.
Eg. if you way 180lbs as above and you require 2700kcal thats 1080kcals of protein which is 270g,810kals of carbs which is 203g and 810kcals of fats which is 90g.
In summary estimated requirements for a 180lb individual, 2700 calories - 270g protein,203g of carbs and 90g of fats.This divided into 6 meals so refering to the Eg 45g of protein would be required per meal and the bulk of the carbs should be consumed earlier on in the day.

This is a sample diet
Meal 1
2 scoops of whey protein
1/2 cup of oats
tbsp of peanut butter
1 banana

Meal 2
100g turkey
2 whole eggs
1 cup of green beans

Meal 3
175g chicken
1 cup brown rice
1 green apple

Meal 4
2 scoops whey
1 tbsp peanut butter
walnuts

Meal 5
cottage cheese
2 cup of green beans

Meal 6
Same as meal 4

Postworkout-waximaise product+1.5-2 scoops of whey.

The aim is to lose 1-2lbs per week to avoid losing muscle.If you lose more then this you require more calories vice versa you dont lose anything try reducing calories slightly.
Supplements: Whey protein,Waximaise,glutamine,multi-vitamin,Vitamin C(recovery)essential fatty acids such as fish oils.I've never used a fat burner so cant give you any feedback but I hear the Lipolyze a non-stimulant fat burner by Species nutrition is a good choice.
Hope that will get ya on your way to rippedville Frank let us know how ya get on.

Hey Howard what you think of glutamine? Is it worth the money or do you think you get enough from whey? Im using isolyze but it does not say if there is any glutamine in it.

Most whey products dont seem to contain enough glutamine.Ids multi whey isolate contains a fair amount as far as I know.Studies have shown that in times when glutamine levels are low such as postworkout if you dont consume enough glutamine it goes elsewhere such as the muscle tissue to obtain its requirements.Also proven to increase Growth Hormones,aid immune system and increase protein synthesis.
60 euro for 200 servings from Primaforce cant go wrong 1 serving morning,postworkout and evening and your sorted.

thanks howard, im gona give the primaforce one a try on my next order.

hey thanks for the reply, but i dont think i could eat that much food and get ripped! im not eating that much as it is and i need to cut up! what you think??
i think im endomorphic(not sure if thats right). im about 18% body fat.
thae fat burners i got online are working well i can start to see the fat coming off slowly.

thanks for you help.

The diet and figures I used are examples everybody is different.What will work for me will differ from person to person by some factor.Its a whole process of trial and error finding out how your body responds to various ratio's of macro nutrients and training regime's.
Once you have a solid training programme and have your daily nutrient intake split up into 5 or 6 meals you can play around with the ratio's to see what works best.
Frank,you say you may be endomorphic.Perhaps carb sensitive?
Maybe you may experience better results on a keto diet(no carb)?
If you decide to go down that path it would be no harm having a look at Venom,Jeff or Jimbop's training log as they all are a fan of keto diets and can give you a bit of feedback.