"Hard GainZZz or Easy Mistakes"

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Doctor,

Again, much appreciated for all your work.
I have a question about gaining muscle mass and avoiding gaining inches on the waistline.

I’m 39 years old, 5’4", 151 lbs, and have been training for about 1 year.
Started with NLP then BBM templates. Doing hypertrophy I now for the 2nd time around.
My starting weight was 125 or so—super skinny and untrained.
I’ve gained substantial muscle & fat mass over this year, and would like to continue to gain muscle mass and strength.
Having passed the easy gainZzz, the lean mass gains are more difficult now and the fat gains are easy.

However, I’ve noticed my waistline growing faster than anything else.
I have a waist measurement of 33", where there’s a bit of a pot belly emerging.
Actually, even though I was always skinny, I’ve always had a bit of extra fluff in the waist and gut,
as I was able to eat a lot–probably too much.
My family genetics seems to show that the men gain fat in the waist
rather than more evenly distributed throughout the body.
Skinny legs and big guts.

The question is:

In terms of nutrition (vegetarian), would it be wise to cut back on carbs
while maintaining or increasing protein (about 140g/day)?

Is it wise to first lose the gut, then attempt to eat at a surplus to focus on gaining muscle mass?

Thanks again!

2

David,

Thanks for the post and I hope you’re well.

I think that the your protein should be somewhere between 140-170g per day. I don’t know if you need to cut back on the carbs just yet, but I would make sure you’re getting 35g fiber per day. I’d also make sure you’re getting in recommended aerobic training each week. Overall, I would be looking to gain ~0.5-1lbs a month or so. If your waist goes over 34" I’d probably start losing weight at that point.

-Jordan

3

Thanks very much, Doctor, for the quick response.

I’m probably deficient with the aerobic training and didn’t think about the fiber…
The realistic weight gain # helps too.
I’ll work on it!