Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

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Re: Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

Postby WSEV12 » Mon May 31, 2021 6:04 am

I don't think trying to force ourselves to eat more calories than we need is healthy. Just eat as much as satisfies you. I have been following the McDougall plan for 6 years and have been gaining a lot of strength on the program. I usually eat only when hungry and then only eat until I am slightly full.
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Re: Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

Postby Doug_ » Thu Sep 01, 2022 8:29 am

I have been on a McDougall style diet for 8 years now. I'm 37. This year for the first time ever I started resistance training consistently. I take no protein supplements and don't focus on consuming high-protein foods. I eat very easy to prepare, simple meals like Jeff Novick recommends.
Here is seven months of progress since I began resistance training. I'm 6'2" and have put on 16 lbs of something in these 7 months. Some of it seems to be muscle. I have supplemented creatine which probably accounts for a few pounds of water weight, and I might stop the creatine soon. I don't supplement anything else besides B12, and the creatine I've been taking this year.
Last edited by Doug_ on Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

Postby DanTheYogi » Wed Sep 07, 2022 8:58 am

Doug_ wrote:I have been on a McDougall style diet for 8 years now. I'm 37. This year for the first time ever I started resistance training consistently. I take no protein supplements and don't focus on consuming high-protein foods. I eat very easy to prepare, simple meals like Jeff Novick recommends.
Here is seven months of progress since I began resistance training. I'm 6'2" and have put on 16 lbs of something in these 7 months. Some of it seems to be muscle. I have supplemented creatine which probably accounts for a few pounds of water weight, and I might stop the creatine soon. I don't supplement anything else besides B12, and the creatine I've been taking this year.
Upper body shirtless progress photo: https://i.imgur.com/C4PKoYj.jpg


That is impressive progress Doug, especially over only 7 months. Congrats!

I know you said you don't focus on protein. Did you focus on consuming more calories in-general? Did you include more nuts/seeds/avocados or dry/processed grains? Tilt more towards starches over non-starchy veg?

I'm also curious what your routine looked like. How frequently do you workout? Are you following a specific plan?
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Re: Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

Postby Daydream » Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:57 am

Doug, I agree with DanTheYogi that you have had impressive results with your resistance training. Keep up the good work!
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Re: Bodybuilding on a the McDougall diet?

Postby Doug_ » Wed Sep 07, 2022 7:29 pm

DanTheYogi wrote:I know you said you don't focus on protein. Did you focus on consuming more calories in-general? Did you include more nuts/seeds/avocados or dry/processed grains? Tilt more towards starches over non-starchy veg?

I'm also curious what your routine looked like. How frequently do you workout? Are you following a specific plan?


I've intentionally eaten a little more than I'm hungry for based on bad original information. Which in my case at least was a mistake. Even though I eat very much on program. I probably eat 75% starches by visual volume. And just ate a bit more than I wanted. Totally unecessary. Greg Doucette suggests there is no need to "bulk" and you definitely don't need to gain fat along with the muscle. So I'm going to eat the same food and only to appetite from now on. Might lower the starches to veg/fruit ratio a bit to balance my overeating period.

I did not include more nuts/seeds/avocados. I typically have a little flax on my oatmeal, and a small handful of walnuts a day. Don't eat avocados much at all.

Routine: For the first two months or so I did all major compound lifts for upper body, twice a week. I already had a strong lower so I didn't focus on that. Since then I've done full body 5x per week (a Jeff Nippard program). But usually only 3 sets per muscle group per day. Shooting for 15+ sets per muscle group per week. But I am now going to switch to 2x per week with six sets or so per muscle group per session. Around 12-15 sets per muscle group per week. I think I might have done a little better all along doing that.

Just try to train harder than last time and be consistent.
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