Not Necessary
This typical Bodybuilding Diet is not necessarily the only method to increase muscle mass while gaining or maintaining muscle mass.
Secondly, this is NOT a diet that Bodybuilder's live on all year long.
It is their pre-competition diet.
1) Metabolic Flexibility
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/metabolic-flexibility/[/URL]
This is a good article by Dr. Mike T. Nelson (Intermittent Fasting Researcher) that touches on how one of his students lost body fat and increased muscle mass while consuming some junk food.
Intermittent Fasting amounts to being able to have you cake and eat it, too.
2) High Protein Diets
When it come to maintaining or gaining muscle mass, one of the keys is protein intake.
Research (Drs. Donald Layman, Layne Norton, et al.) determined that approximately 30 gram of quality protein (meats and dairy) trigger mTOR (the anabolic trigger).
However, around 40 gram of quality protein increased the anabolic, muscle building effect, up to 20%. Source: Perfecting Protein Intake in Athletes: How Much, What, and When?
MATADOR Diet Research
This research demonstrated that decreasing calorie intake from a maintenance diet (one that your weight remained the same) for two week, increased fat loss while maintaining muscle mass.
The decrease in calories is around 20% from your maintenance intake.
After the two week calorie deficit, calorie intake is slightly increased.
This had to do with...
The Law of Adaptation (The General Adaptation Syndrome)
This is a survival mechanism. When subjected to stress, disease, etc., one of two things happens; you adapt or die.
With dieting that means your Metabolic Rate will adjust to your new lower calorie intake after around two week. Thus, results slow down and then completely stop.
Increasing your calorie intake for two weeks, elevates your Metabolic Rate.
Thus, after two weeks of consuming an increase in calories, you Metabolic Rate increases.
You then start over with the two week calorie rotation; dropping you calorie intake starts your fat weight loss while preserving muscle mass.
Gaining Mass On The MATADOR Diet
This means that you increase you calorie above maintenance level for two weeks, approximately 20%.
After two week, then decrease calories for two weeks.
It amount to playing a game with your Metabolic Rate, which enable you to increase muscle mass while minimizing fat gain.
Bodybuilding Bulk and Cut
The MADADOR Diet essentially follows the Bodybuilding Bulk and Cut Method.
However, the issue with Bulking Method used by Bodybuilder jacks up calorie too high. In doing so, they added a lot more body fat.
Dosage and Cycle Length
Thing to consider...
1) Starting off with Low Dosage or around 200 mg per week and seeing how it works.
2) Short Cycles
a) Steroids For Health
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.t-nation.com/pharma/steroids-for-health/[/URL]
This is Nelson Montana's (Bodybuilder) approach.
b) Bill Robert's Two On, Four Off
[URL unfurl="true"]https://thinksteroids.com/articles/two-week-steroid-cycle-case-study/[/URL]
Both Montana and Robert have found short cycles to be effective.
i) As with the MATADOR Diet, most gains will occur in around the first two or three weeks. Once adaptation occurs progress slow down then stops.
ii) Short Cycle mean faster recovery.
Thus, in let's say a three week cycle, recovery occurs in approximately three week, as well.
Research with Testosterone Therapy for men with low Testosterone Levels demonstrated cycling on month and then off one month was effective.
It took a few cycles few months for it to work.
A Randomized Pilot Study of Monthly Cycled Testosterone Replacement or Continuous Testosterone Replacement Versus Placebo in Older Men
[URL unfurl="true"]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21865352/[/URL]
Context: Cycling androgens has been reported by athletes to improve physical performance by enhancing muscle mass and strength, a paradigm that has not been studied, and may have clinical value in older men being treated with testosterone.
Results: Total lean body mass was increased and percent fat was reduced after 5 months in TE and MO (P 0.05).
Conclusions: Cycled testosterone improved body composition and increased muscle strength compared with placebo and increased FSR similarly to continuous testosterone. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 96: E1831–E1837, 2011)
Mixed Information
Ironically, many of the post provide some good information combined with misinformation.
Due to your lack of knowledge in this area, it is hard who to believe. However, Nelson definitely has a large knowledge base.
With that said, it you need to...
Do Your Own Home Work
That mean reading the research and gathering empirical data from individual with practical, real world experience.
