thelagger1

How will my body change if I took two protein shakes with four meals daily (2,000+ calories) while cycling heavy? I've been cycling avidly and covering 20 miles per day, or about 120 miles per week. Without lifting weights, will all the extra calories disperse proportionally?

gregf83 

Not sure I understand your question or why you're eating so much protein but from your title I assume you are trying to add muscle? Cycling is an aerobic sport and unlikely to build muscle mass. If you eat more than you burn you'll gain weight.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

2000 calories isn't much for someone who's trying to bulk up. You can eat protein until you're blue in the face and can't pass turf anymore but if you don't have enough calories you can't grow.

Unless you're quite short and thin to begin with I don't think you'd be able to gain on that diet even if you weren't cycling.

chasm54

I think he's talking about eight protein shakes on top of his 2000 kcal per day diet.

OP, as far as cycling training is concerned 120 miles per week doesn't really qualify as "cycling avidly". And if your workouts consist of twenty miles on the bike, then eight protein shakes is ridiculous. All you're doing is stressing your system, especially your kidneys, and consuming more calories than you need. You'll get fat, a 20-mile ride even at high intensity won't burn more than about 700 kcal unless you're very big.

After a hard 20-mile ride one protein shake may be helpful n speeding muscle repair and recovery. Apart from that, eat normally. If you want to bulk up, lift weights.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

Depending in the size and content of his shakes he's still likely to be low for bulking, water and a scoop of protein powder isn't exactly high in calories.

thelagger1

I'm 5' 11 thin who is trying to put on weight.

Then what is considered avidly cycling? The point is not to burn that many calories, because I want the excess to become weight.

16oz. Milk and four scoops, totalling at about 50g protein, 800calories+ per shake

Carbonfiberboy 

Well, 25g is the usual limit for usable protein at one time. The rest becomes fat. If you want to try this, try 15g in water after riding and with every meal, so 60g = 240 cal. on days you ride. Some people put on protein more easily than others. That's just genetics. If you want to ride well, love your thinness: it'll get you up hills a lot faster than bulk will. If you want to change your look and couldn't care less about being fast on the bike, hit the gym 5 days/week and eat enough so that you gain weight slowly. You could also change your look and then pick the bike back up.

"Avidly" is more like 150-200 miles. To build muscle on the bike, climb hills seated in such a big gear that you only turn ~50 cadence. Uphill sprints are good, too. If you're building muscle, your legs should hurt pretty good after a hard ride. You don't want to do that every day, maybe 3X/week, with the other rides being endurance or recovery pace. If you want to improve your cycling, you also should vary the length of your rides, from 20 to say 80 miles. On "hard ride" days, ride hills. On recovery days, ride flats. You only build muscle when you rest.

chasm54

Cycling is great, but it isn't the sport for someone whose priority is to bulk up. Get into the weights room.

See above. More cycling will burn calories, and make you thin. It'll be good for you, but it won't help you bulk up unless you spend most of the time doing strength-specific stuff like seated climbing. Even then, your upper body won't change much.

50g of protein is 200 calories, not 800. But even so, that is ridiculous. Even were you a bodybuilder, there is no way your body can metabolise 400g of protein and turn it into muscle. All you're doing is stressing your kidneys to clear the excess from your system, as well as taking in more calories than you're burning.

thelagger1

I was wondering how the excess calories will disperse throughout my body. I am not going for a sculpted Spartan look... aiming mostly for overall body mass, whether it come in fat or whatever. Thin is good, but 140lbs thin at my height comes with disadvantages in endurance and power.

Here in NYC, our central park's loop includes an insanely steep hill and the other half flat - I'm assuming will make good training ground? Usually sets my quads on fire after the first lap

Oops, I meant 800 calories in total (counting both 16oz shakes made with milk) lol

Carbonfiberboy 

The two best climbers I've ridden with are both about 6' and 145 lbs. Fat is not good. If one lap sets your quads on fire, you need to warm up a lot more and ride a lot more. It's just conditioning.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

So what is your actual goal here? Endurance and power or mass?

Extra mass may give you power but it'll probably be detrimental to endurance.

Honestly though you haven't given us enough info to really help you.

Is your daily caloric intake ~2800 calories? In my experience that won't get someone with your body type anywhere. You're probably gonna need closer to 3500 to begin with plus heavy lifting 3-5 times a week.

Oh, and, Do you even lift bro?

Dunbar

You may add some muscle mass from cycling but if you genetically tend towards the lanky side probably not much. You need to lift weights if your goal is to add muscle mass and the protein shakes should help with that. Most hard core cyclists prefer to be as light as possible so their watts/kilogram is high.

late

Bodybuilding clashes with aerobic exercise.

You need some, of course, but for adding mass you need to
follow a bodybuilding regime. That includes a lot of rest so
the muscles can grow.

My 2 cents.... do what you want to do. You want to be a gym rat, that's
great, I love a good gym. You want to focus on cycling, good on ya...

You can even do both, but don't expect to look like Arnold cycling every day.

Here's a basic program, upper body, cycling medium (speed and distance), lower body, day off, intervals or distance (alternate),
day off.

wolfchild

It all depends on which body type you have and how old you are...If you are an ectomorph ( AKA hardgainer ), then you can eat as much as you want and drink as much protein shakes as you want and still remain lean without becoming overweight...If you are a mesomorph or endomorph then you're going to get fat unless you riding hard and training in the gym lifting weights...If you want to gain some quality lean muscle mass then you will need to include weight training.

sprince

Yes, doesn't matter what body type you are, more protein than you really need will just go to fat or stress your liver/kidneys and have the opposite effect from what you want. If you want to bulk up, hit the weights. Putting on more muscle won't do anything for your endurance (only more miles will do that), but at your weight it won't hurt either. If adding muscle is very difficult, it could be that you need more calories in order to have the energy to work harder.

abrianb

There is a really good program for bulking up/getting stronger, starting strength. There are a few who post on the SS forum who lift to support cycling and the program works. Starting Strength Forums

FLEXjs

LMAO; someone had to say it.


Lots of good advice in here along with some misinformation...

OP: if you want to add muscle cycling alone is not going to do it for you. You will need to do some resistance training with a progressive program and eat a caloric surplus.

There's also no reason you can't cycle while adding lean muscle mass; you'll just need to adjust your caloric intake accordingly to fuel your riding.

As for protein aim for a minimum of 1 gram of protein per lb of lean bodyweight. Then aim for 0.5 grams per lb of lean bodyweight healthy fats, and round out the rest of your macro requirements with carbs.

Weigh your food and track everything; if you don't gain weight add calories.