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Comment by garraeth | Hacker News Reader

Even if you are operating with a calorie surplus, you'd need to eat an optimal mix of nutrients to maintain extra muscle. Most people (most likely) cannot simply ramp up amounts of what you currently eat.

For example, if you suddenly require 5000 c/day, you cannot simply eat more pizza, MT Dew, etc. You have to eat 5000 c/day of nutrient rich food. Your muscles do not only require calories. This is actually very hard to do (imagine how much actual food volume you have to process)!

You also need many more macronutrients to keep things going (all that extra food needs to be processed), and clean (significantly more waste byproducts produced).

Your cardiovascular system needs to grow in conjunction with the extra muscle -- it must keep up. As does your skeletal (bones, ligaments/tendons).

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There's some truth to this. Junk food is over-processed, doesn't have much in the way of nutrient content, and is usually loaded with too much sugar and salt. Everyone knows that.

But I think this comment is overestimating how many calories you'd need and how concerned you'd need to be about nutrient balancing, even on a fairly intense training program. Most people, in their first few years of weight lifting, aren't going to need much or any increase to their daily calories that they wouldn't come by naturally from getting hungry due to the exercise. For people who want to lose some weight, moderating the size and frequency of meals and cutting out obviously bad food will have the quickest and most visible results.

It's far more important to just hit the weights consistently. That's where you get results. I started about 2 years ago and dropped about 40 pounds without ever worrying about the diet side of things or counting calories. The only real changes I made were to start taking a daily multivitamin and to make an effort to avoid sugared soda, fruit juice (has a ton of sugar), junk food, etc.

"...dropped about 40 pounds without ever worrying about the diet side of things"

"... [I made] an effort to avoid sugared soda, fruit juice (has a ton of sugar), junk food, etc."

Important contradiction to point out there. I'd say you did worry about the diet side of things given the effort to avoid sugar and junk.

It's a common and widely accepted saying that "abs are made in the kitchen." That's to say, if you want to loose weight, you must change your diet. A few days of cardio or strength training per week won't make up for a bad diet. In fact, if all you're trying to do is loose weight, you're better off working on the diet than the strength training. You could end up being very discouraged if you go the opposite route. Ideally, do both and you'll see results very quickly. But think diet for fat loss, strength training for...strength.

Might be unclear wording on my part. I was thinking about the fitness and nutritional sites, forums, etc. you find when you Google on this topic. A lot of them try to persuade you to follow some pretty complicated or restrictive dietary plans, or expect you to monitor every last thing you eat.

When it comes to diet, I am an unashamedly lazy man. Lifting the weights is tough enough as it is. I'm not going to live on oatmeal or kale, count calories, or any of that. That just sounds awful.

What works for me is cutting out things that are obviously bad for you: too much sugar, too much salt, comes in a can or a box with a long list of preservatives, etc. Simple plans are easiest to stick with, after all.

Absolutely agree with keeping the diet simple. People like to focus on measuring macros and get hyper focused on hitting someone's idea of perfect balance that won't make the slightest difference unless you're a high level athlete. The obvious, simple changes are going to make a huge difference for the average person.

At the end of the day, I think it's helpful to remember that this sport consists entirely of picking up heavy things and then putting them back down again.

Just a little joke, there.

I hope HN doesn't mind tangentially related Dylan Moran skits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlLpCh-lE54

Isn't that the same guy who did the Black Books show?

Which nutrients are pizza missing for building muscle? The problem with pizza is that it is way too easy to over indulge, but I don't think it is lacking "nutrients".

Fiber for improved intestinal health, and probably a boatload of micronutrients.

Crust has fiber.

Protein. Pizza is a high carb dish in most cases. If you're getting a whole chicken breast worth of chicken per two or three slices, that's a different story. But in general it's mostly a bunch of white bread with some tasty sauce on it.

Pizza has cheese which has a decent amount of protein in it.

Lots of pizzas also have meat toppings as well.

I think the cholesterol and salts will be bad for your health, no?

No and no. Dietary cholesterol is almost entirely unrelated to blood cholesterol and salt intake only matters for those relative few who are sensitive.

Depending on what kind of pizza you eat, the cholesterol may also not be very high.

> For example, if you suddenly require 5000 c/day, you cannot simply eat more pizza, MT Dew, etc. You have to eat 5000 c/day of nutrient rich food.

Pizza and soda are nutrient rich - macronutrient-rich, that is.

If you're getting the right number of calories, and the correct ratio of protein, fat, and carbs, you can mostly eat whatever you want.

Relevant: "Food Composition (Nutritional Priorities with Dr. Israetel)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwGspJZt1kE

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