GOMAD Alternatives

[Tobman]

I am the quintessential skinny guy. I've been lifting for several years now and pushing it hard, and for the life of me I so far have not been able to put on much muscle mass, some tone yes, but not mass. Through FitDay I've seen that I really am not eating as much as I should, so I am working on that. I started 5x5 a week ago, and am working on increasing my calories with healthy food. I tend towards vegetarian, vegan even for health and other reasons.

I want to try GOMAD, BUT I cannot fathom the thought of drinking a gallon of milk a day. My biggest issue is that I have a genetic high cholesterol issue. Drinking a gallon of whole milk a day is folly for me, not healthy.

Are there alternatives?

Regards, Toby

[wbradley1372]

Are there alternatives?

Eat more. Lots more. In fact, if you eat well, that may be better than GOMAD in the first place.

If you're vegetarian/vegan, double-check your protein intake (I don't know if FitDay can help there or not). Personally, I find it hard enough to hit 1g/lb/day as it is, and that's while eating meat.

[eLvarouza]

There are some recent blog posts that deal with this.

http://stronglifts.com/gomad-alternativ ... ht-gainer/
http://stronglifts.com/gomad-8-common-m ... ust-avoid/

Basically, you can do other stuff but it won't work as well. Also, dietary cholesterol is not bound to blood cholesterol.

[Tobman]

So based on what I've read here, there is no substitute for GOMAD. Not doing GOMAD or doing just LOMAD helps, but does not get the same results as GOMAD. I get it.

I gather GOMAD is only a temporary method of weight gain, yes? Is it to be followed only during the first 12 weeks of the 5x5 program? What happens after that?

[Alyion]

I suppose you could just eat a lot of steak/eggs - but that would knock your shopping bill through the roof

[scottyc]

Gomad can be done as many times as you wish as people go through different bulk stages through their training. Milk is the easiest and most efficient method to gain. I don't really understand the science behind cholesterol and why it's such a problem but if you're full of muscle mass with a healthy body fat % I don't think there's anything to worry about.

You can get away with so much more when you're skinny so just eat eat eat. If you like the idea of a shortut by doing junk food, atleast go down the route with food with some decent nutritional values. As much meat as possible.

But yeah, a LOT of milk a day is just by far the easiest.