I get this question all the time. It’s actually quite simple, so I’ll clear it up once and for all here.
I already have a FREE calculator that will tell you:
How Much Protein To Build Muscle
How Many Calories To Build Muscle
Here is the online version of the calculator. You can also download the free program here – I’m so good to you guys 😉
On The MANS Diet you eat a low-carb diet for 5 and a half days a week.
That’s 30g net carbs per day.
There are 4 Calories in a gram of carbohydrate so that’s 120 Calories.
So here’s what to do…
(1) Calculate how many total Calories you need per day to build muscle
(2) Calculate how many protein Calories you need per day. There are 4 Calories in a gram of protein so multiply your gram figure by 4 to get this
(3) Subtract your protein Calories (2) from the total figure (1)
(4) Subtract your Carb Calories (120 Calories) from the answer to step 3
The figure you are left with is the Fat Calories you need per day.
There are 9 Calories in a gram of fat, so to covert this to grams, divide this figure by 9.
Now you have how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you need for the low-carb portion of the MANS diet. Easy!
Scared of eating fat? You shouldn’t be.
And you definitely shouldn’t be concerned about fat consumption when your carbs are low.
I’ve covered it to death on this blog. Here’s some links to previous articles if you want to know why fat is good and healthy on a low-carb diet.
Saturated Fat: Not Guilty As Charged!
The Saturated Fat & Cholesterol Myth Destroyed!
Is The Atkins Diet Safe? The Answer May Shock You!
Will A Low Carb Diet Raise Or Lower Cholesterol?
Enjoy Your Steak, Guys! 😀
Mark
Can’t believe I don’t know about the calorie and protein calculator until now! downloaded. Thanks Mark!
Got it loud and clear Mark 🙂
INFORMATION VERY INFORMATIVE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
THANKS ALOT
Thanks for all the useful info you provide year round Mark! I have been visiting your website since the beginning of 2010 when I started lifting at 17.
I figured you had a body I’d like to have and were clearly not a user.
Anyway I wanted to let you know I really appreciate all the work you have done over the years. I will continue to spread the word about musclehack, I think it deserves more attention than it gets.
After all, your knowledge is the reason I can efficiently bulk while being sub 10% bodyfat constantly 😉
I did this, and came up with a horrendously high amount of fat. Unless I start drinking 2 quarts of oil per day, I don’t see how I can manage it.
So, my question is this: is the protien value an UPPER limit, or can I increase my protien intake to get to the total calorie requirement and avoid drinking oil ?
@Jim. How high was it? The low carb portion of MANS is a high-fat diet. Enjoy your full fat milk, full fat mayo, cheese, nuts, cream, eggs with the yolks, red meat etc. 😀
Well, I weigh 255 @ 33% body fat, giving me 77.7kg lean mass.
that leads to the following
total cal: ~3000
carb: 30g (120 cal)
protein: 213.5g (854.25 cal)
leaving 2025.75 cal to come from fat (225g, or half a pound/day)
So, I am eating as much fat as protein, and 2/3 of my calories are coming from fat. At some point, my concern shifts from getting fat to dying from heart disease or a blocked artery.
It is hard to find sources of fat that aren’t also sources of carbs. And I have to eat 7.5 times as much fat as carbs. I like mayonnaise, but I’m not going to eat it by the spoonful. A cup of milk has about 13 g of carbs, and not nearly that many grams of fat, so I’m not going to get much mileage out of that. With egg yolks, I get about 5 g of fat and only 1 g of carbs, so that is getting me closer. But when I eat red meat, I just don’t like the fat. I mean, I know that is what makes the meat taste good, and I’m not totally averse, but a big old slab of beef fat just doesn’t appeal to me.
So, am I really doing myself a disservice if I increase my protein while keeping my carbs under 30 g and making sure I get enough total calories?
Hey Mark, got a quick question, it’s obvious that this anabolic diet (cyclical ketogenic) works, however, doesn’t your testosterone levels lower though, during the 5 days of eating less than 30-40 grams of carbs a day? Is this true.
@Jim. I ate over 200g of fat every day for years on MANS. Read the articles I posted above, there is no concern about heart disease. Most people in the know, now realize that it’s the carbohydrate in the diet that causes these problems. If you’re still not comfortable with it, don’t do it.
@Mark. No, that’s when your levels would be highest actually.
Love ur work Mark.. Thankx a lot for this , much needed
the mans or anabolic type diets don’t seem very natural at all, surely the whole point of fat or stored calories is as a back up? and surely it’s better on your health consuming mainly carbohydrates rather than putting your body through some sort of shift where it needs to change to fats as it’s primary energy source.
Mark, shouldn’t you use height also into consideration when calculating the daily caloric requirement? How are you calculating BMR and TDEE?
@John. No, height doesn’t need to be taken into account directly. It’s the person’s overall lean body mass that counts (height of course plays a role in that).
RMR = 370 + (21.6 x lean weight in kg)
@michael. I suggest you read the articles I referenced. For a start, fat was the main energy source for our ancestors. There’s plenty of studies showing better improvements in health markers with a high fat/low carb diet than a high carb diet.
Sorry Mark I just read the articles and take back what i said, it’s quite clever with the way the diet optimizes the use of our hormones and i think i might give it a go for a couple of months, i’m just a little unsure on the MANS diet on how to keep to 30 grams of carbs for the first week when surely the small amount of carbohydrates in the low carb meals will rack up throughout the day? so it must be hard to be precise about things 🙁
Having low carbed most of my muscle hack days I can definitely say, that if anyone is worried about the fat in this diet, just relax. Health problems comes down to the carb intake, not the fat. I wrote a small article on MANS for the musclehacker.com blog a year or so ago.
Quick question Mark since we are on the subject of health. Why is it that the carb up period is not detrimental to health? You said yourself the body sees the carb up period as a time of stress in one of your articles. Is it just not frequent enoughto do any damage?
I truly believe MANS is the best diet in the world. My net carbs are at 35g, protein is at 155g (just 2 grams higher then my exact requirement), and fat is at 271g. I have a physical job so this is what I need on work plus exercise days. My diet contains beef, chicken, eggs, cottage cheese, almonds, heavy cream, olive oil and more. You can use a digital scale and do some simple math.
Mark, thank you for everything that you do. It’s all perfect. My question is on polyunsaturated fats, apparently high amounts can lower testosterone. However, my thought on this is that MANS testosterone boosting effects would negate the effects polyunsaturated fats would normal have on testosterone . Is this correct?
Thanks Mark, I’m one of those who asked this before.
On the average, I eat butter by the spoonfuls (6-10/day) and drink whipping/double/heavy creme (100-200mL/day).
Does it matter where the fat sources come from? I hope not, since, heavy creme is the easiest/quickest meal I’ve ever had. Great for quick snacks and quick breakfasts. Thanks for your work! 🙂