Hey,
I was just having a look through the fitness forums here. I am not diabetic but was interested to see the difficulties and issues people with diabetes may have.
I take for granted just being able to go to the gym and do what I want when I want.
Anyway, I do not have advice specifically for someone with diabetes, but if you are unable to consume much more carbs, look at your other macronutrients. We consume three micronutrients:
-Protein
-Carbohydrates
-Fats
Back to basics: To gain muscle mass, we want to be eating more calories than we are using up, It is the basis of energy balance. Our body will only invest in adding more mass if it knows we are getting enough food. Muscle uses energy even when sitting still so it isn't something the body is all that keen to put on as our body wants to conserve energy.
To tip the energy balance, we just have to eat more calories. To do this, we want to eat calorie dense foods (calorie density refers to the relationship between the weight of the food and how many calories it has). So butter is an example of a calorie dense food because 10g of it has about 70 calories whilst 10g of spinach has only 2 calories approximately so spinach is clearly not calorie dense.
So eat more calorie dense foods.
Since ice-cream is also a calorie dense food, it is always good to clarify that the foods should ideally be nutrient dense ( basically foods that have a lot of nutrients but relatively few calories).
Because increasing carbs is tricky for you, look at protein and fats.
Protein has 4 calories per gram.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram.
Fats have 9 calories per gram.
As you can see, fats have more than double the calories of carbs and proteins, so to cut to the chase, try increasing fat consumption, assuming you don't have any cardiovascular disease, etc. At the same time, it would be good to increase protein intake, as most sources recommend at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight. So, for someone who is 150lbs, they should eat at least 150g protein per day, and I usually allow myself to go 20-30g lower if need be. So you want to increase calories eaten to create a positive energy balance and you also want to eat more protein as these are the building blocks for building muscle, and by eating more protein, you will be eating more calories anyway. You can go for fattier cuts of meat too that way you get protein and fat together. Protein powders are good, but are no better than eating meat or fish or eggs. Once the protein is broken down and the break down products reach the blood, the body is unable to tell whether the protein is from a protein shake or from steak. I personally prefer eating real solid foods for my protein.
To put on muscle, we need to eat more calories that we use up per day. For this, try googling 'TDEE' calculator. This calculates the calories we need per day to just stay alive and adds takes into account the calories we burn when moving around and being active. Then you need to eat more calories than that per day (so add 300-500 calories on top of your TDEE) to gain weight. These formulae are approximate and a lot of the time everyone needs to experiment a bit themselves.
I hope that all makes sense. I have not included anything diabetic related there, it is all general advice. I am a final year medical student and currently undertaking Precision Nutrition 1 level certification (sports and exercise medicine nutrition).
The amount of muscle mass gain Torq claims is physiologically and naturally impossible to do in such a short space of time. Some of that weight gain is likely water, perhaps some fat. But looking at the picture, it looks like he has done a great job putting on mass. Putting on muscle inevitable comes with some fat gain because our body inevitably diverts some of the excess energy into fat storage but you can minimise that. If he was previously very muscular he may be able to put on muscle quicker due to muscle memory. I don't know, but I am just pointing this out so no one new to weight lifting expects to gain muscle that fast.
