Need Advice From Knowledgable Bro's PLEASE

Hey guys,

I'm in a little debate with someone about the following. I would appreciate some responses and opinions about it.

Here is the situation:

An 18 year old wants to "Slow down his metabolism to gain weight".

First.... what would you suggest or what would your response be to that?

My opinion was that it was a dumb idea to try and eat less and slow down his metabolism... Essentially going Catabolic when he's trying to put on lean mass....

I recommended he eats tons of protein and high fibre/energy carbs, sticks with a solid diet, lifts heavy and sleeps lots.

One guy is hell bent on having him do a calorie restricted diet to "Prime his body" for gaining weight. He told him to go on a calorie restricted diet for a couple weeks then start eating more. I figured this would just put his body into a catabolic state and he's trying to gain weight. Why start off cutting!?!? Makes no sense to me. Tell me if I''m nuts...

This is what he said

"do a simple dumb search entering the words "caloric" "restriction" "LH" and "ACTH" and you'll see a shitload of references supporting my claim. Using a calorie restricted diet, the fact there is a DECREASE in androgens allows androgen receptors to become less occupied and 'primed' when it comes time to boost androgenic hormone profiles through increased caloric consumption. If you don't have the background to understand the restults of the search, I'll be glad to give you a tutorial in receptor pharmacology/physiology and endocrine pharmacology to get you up to speed."



Um. So what do you all think?

Well, I kind of see where the other guy is going with this, but doing it for two weeks is going to do much in terms of a rebound effect. He would be much much better off using your approach. He just needs to realize that there are no tricks to gaining weight. All you need to do is eat more calories than you burn. It's as simple as that. Tell him to eat more protein, carbs, and healthy fats. Focusing on a big increase in protein, carbs, and a moderate increase of healthy fats would make a huge difference.

i agree with bigger here. its all math...eat more and grow.

2 weeks of priming? all that is gonna do is make him drop MORE weight and rebound with more fat gain when he does start eating more.

is the guy that recommened this a personal trainer? sounds like a guy who sees it on paper and therefore it works...but we all know that paper doesnt equal actual results in this game.

totally agree with the above responses. If he wants to gain fat, in theory this could work but why would he just want a beer belly??? seems like the idea of slowing down his metabolism has been mistaken for a way to put on quality weight which it clearly is not if anyone knows a grain of salt worth of info regarding bodybuilding.

i wrestle in college ....let me tell you something about starving your body down. I know what the books say and i know how the philosophies go.....you stop eating and your metabolizm shuts down...and your fatloss decreases..I have cut nearly 20lbs+ in a matter of days....alot of that is water weight.....but when i rebound i never get back to full steam by anymeans....of that 20lbs....i bet 10lbs of muscle and fat stays off....(8lbs muscle/2lbs fat!!!)

caloric restriction will lower his metabolism....but it's already hight right? So you know what is going to happen there is that this bro is going to lose a tremendous amount of weight to drop his metabolism down a few notches and put himself at a very catabolic state......People that have high metabolisms have them mostly because of genetic makeup....his metabolism will rebound stat, and he will have lost muscle and felt like shit for virtually no reason at all. You have it hear bro....he wants to gain weight.....he seriously has to just beat the numbers......your body sets a bar for calories it will burn....if you want to be successful with gains then you have to get your diet to where calories in are higher than calories burned. No more to it than that

I completely agree with the above responses. He definitely should not try to lower his metabolism or go on a calorie-restricted diet.

Bignick said:

i wrestle in college People that have high metabolisms have them mostly because of genetic makeup....his metabolism will rebound stat, and he will have lost muscle and felt like shit for virtually no reason at all.

Click to expand...

Bignick you hit it on the head.... your genetics is what determines the person body type and your metabolism! Work with your body type not against!

Now...

What if I was to say instead of 2 weeks of a calorie restricted diet he goes on calorie restriction for 3 days....

Any change of opinions or anything?

Crank said:

Now...

What if I was to say instead of 2 weeks of a calorie restricted diet he goes on calorie restriction for 3 days....

Any change of opinions or anything?

Click to expand...

dont think 3 days will make a difference either way. It wont slow his metabolism and he wont lose much muscle/fat so its pointless as well IMHO.

I agree with everything stated thus far. If he wishes to lower his metabolism, I have read that Soy protein will help with that, as well as EFA's. I would tell him to smack down the calories eat lots of nuts/ EFA supps/ salmon or catfish and switch to some soy protein.

I don't really disagree, but I have noticed that my metabilism does adjust.

When I was dieting to lose weight and training to run in a marathon a few years ago, I found that my metabolism adjusted to the lowered input and increased output and I stopped losing weight.

Similarly, when I am bulking, I make most of my gains in the first month or so and then struggle to keep it going.

So I would agree that your body does adjust your metabolism. A thousand years ago, this is how our body responded to famine and feast.

But the approach described here doesn't make a lot of sense, unless he has fat to drop. And then, I would take some AAS to make sure he doesn't drop muscle.

I dissagree with everyone, you guys don't know shit!

JK< nothing to add, carry on gents...lol