Bulking opportunity: Preprepared Foods Help.

[GREENMACHINE]

Hi bros at the mo I am trying to bulk, add some lean mass. I have recently changed job. This has brought some opportunities as well as challanges to me with regards to diet. Previously I worked shift work days and night and had a 24 hr canteen. The food on nights was to say the least unhealthy and not particularily appetising. So it was difficult to mantain both quality and quantity of calories. In addition I found I had no appetite past 1 am. Now I am working elsewhere, working mornings and evening never working past 11pm. The problem now is no food is served on evenings. I am working monday to friday.

I am entitled to two breaks each day 1 15 min break + 1 half an hour. I think I can consistently consume 6 meals a day I think aiming for 650-700 calories per meal.

Here is what I had yesterday.

6:00 am Meal 1 6oz oats mixed with water and a chocolate yogurt.

9:00 am Meal 2 Branston pickle and cheddar cheese sanwich and
1 Pint full fat Milk.

12:00 pm Meal 3 Lamb casserole and baby potatoes and
1 pint full fat milk.

3:15 pm Meal 4 2 scoops optimum nutrition whey protien with 300 cc FF milk
and 1 medium bannana.

Workout 3:45- 4:45.

5:00 pm Meal 5 (pwo) 44gr whey, 80gr maltodextrin. 300cc Full fat milk.

8:00 pm Meal 6 5oz can of tuna, I pint of milk, I bannana.

How far am I from achieving my target calories does this look balanced in terms of protien/carb/fat brak down. I know I am lacking in veg do you think I could make up for this with fruit and potatoes.

I lam looking for ideas on what kind of food I should prepare at home for when I am on evenings. Ideally something that doesn't take to long to prepare and is balanced. BTW I have access to a microwave in work if this helps my cause.

All comments are welcome thanks in advance bros.

[GREENMACHINE]

Oh i am currently 5' 8 and 148lb and am quite lean. And 1 went to bed immediately after my last meal.

[AandF6969]

You need to figure out how many grams of carbs/fats/protein are in each meal and also how many calories. www.fitday.com has a huge database of all this information.

I'd make sure I have at least 50g protein at each meal... thats about 9 oz of tuna. I don't see any protein in your first meal of the day.

Check out http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi41.htm for a calculator to see how many calories you need to grow.

Ditch the milk for PWO (it will get stored as pure fat) and replace half the maltodextrin with dextrose to spike insulin and make more protein get absorbed.

[GREENMACHINE]

Thanks bro. What do you mean ditch milk for pwo? Doesn't pwo mean post workout.
Not sure I can get dextrose in Ireland Will look into it.

No prob in principal with 50 gr protien per meal. Just have to choose right food.

Now all I need are some ideas on what to pack for work on evenings.

[AandF6969]

Thanks bro. What do you mean ditch milk for pwo? Doesn't pwo mean post workout.
Not sure I can get dextrose in Ireland Will look into it.

No prob in principal with 50 gr protien per meal. Just have to choose right food.

Now all I need are some ideas on what to pack for work on evenings.

PWO = Post Workout, yes.

During your post workout your body soaks up nutrients like a sponge, meaning that if you take in fat (as in milk) it will get stored immediately.

Dextrose - www.kentnutrition.com or www.1fast400.com

Figure out how many calories you need per day here
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi41.htm
Up that number by 500-1000 to get the number you should bulk with.

You can look up grams of protein,fats, and carbs at this site www.fitday.com

These 2 tools will help you create a diet that you can post up here for review.

[GREENMACHINE]

So I should ditch the milk in my post workout shake and use water?

[GREENMACHINE]

It gave my daily calorie expenditure as 3566.

[GREENMACHINE]

Oh do I have to register with fit day to get these charts up.

[AandF6969]

So if your calorie expenditure is 3500 calories I'd up that by 500-1000 for when you're bulking.

[LeanMeOut]

Wow you must be a hard gainer @ 5' 8 and 148lb and needing that many calories. I'm 5'10 @ 195 and for me to gain I only need like 2900-3000 cals a day. IMO it's better to start off lower calorie wise and just keep slowly increasing as you need to. As a good rule of thumb try to gain 1-2 pounds a week.......anything more than that is most likely going to be fat.


Good luck

[GREENMACHINE]

Wow you must be a hard gainer @ 5' 8 and 148lb and needing that many calories. I'm 5'10 @ 195 and for me to gain I only need like 2900-3000 cals a day. IMO it's better to start off lower calorie wise and just keep slowly increasing as you need to. As a good rule of thumb try to gain 1-2 pounds a week.......anything more than that is most likely going to be fat.


Good luck

Thats figure came from the calculator on the bodybuilding.com link provided above.

[GREENMACHINE]

Total calories provided from sample day above. Currently meals are inconsistent. I wanted to see if I was able to repeat this kind of meal plan consistantly, what kind of calories I would be consuming daily and see what kind of percentages protien, fat and carbs I was consuming. For now I will post calories will computate spread later.

6:00 am Meal 1 6oz oats mixed with water and a chocolate yogurt.

Oats 570 kcal
Yogurt 110 kcal
Total 680 kcal

9:00 am Meal 2 Branston pickle and cheddar cheese sanwich and
1 Pint full fat Milk.
Sandwich 520 kcal
Milk 360 kcal
Total 880 kcal

12:00 pm Meal 3 Lamb casserole and baby potatoes and
1 pint full fat milk.

Lamb Meal 400 kcal (est)
Milk 360 kcal
Total 760 kcal

3:15 pm Meal 4 2 scoops optimum nutrition whey protien with 300 cc FF milk
and 1 medium bannana.

Shake 410 kcal
Bannana 100 kcal
Total 510 kcal

Workout 3:45- 4:45.

5:00 pm Meal 5 (pwo) 44gr whey, 80gr maltodextrin. 300cc Full fat milk.

PWO 730 kcal
Total 730 kcal

8:00 pm Meal 6 5oz can of tuna, I pint of milk, I bannana.
Tuna 140 kcal
Milk 360 kcal
Banana 100 kcal
Total 500 kcal

That makes 4060 kcal by my estimate.

[GREENMACHINE]

Bump for ideas on what to bring to work on evenings for my two breaks.

[GREENMACHINE]

Okay bro's I,ve been doing some more reading.
I am trying to work off the idea of seperating carbs from fats.
So meals are either pro/fat or pro/carb.

Here are some pro/carb meals I have been eating
200gr prawns + 125gr white rice.
6 egg whites +1 scoop whey pro + 100gr oats.
2 chicken breast fillets + 2 soft brown rolls with sugar free ketchup
250gr mince (ground beef?) 100 gr mushrooms 1 medium carrot 1 med potatoe

Here are some pro fat meals I have been eating

2 chicken breast fillets and 1 tbls mayo
3 scoops whey protein 15ml flax

I have endless ideas on what I can eat for pro/carb meals.
I am having trouble now coming up with pro/fat meals so any ideas greatly appreciated.

I have still to source from dextrose. I have moved house with the job change and I haven't trained for the last two week so no pwo meals on the above list. Found a gym now to meet my needs joining up next week to get back into my routine.

I am considering buying an atkins book for more pro/fat ideas. Is this a worthwhile investment, i.e are any of the recipes suitable for bodybuilders.
So far the diet has suprised me I have leaned out a little only getting into it this last week. Plus seperating the carbs and fats has left me waiting eagerly for my next meal. Something which I didn't get before when I increased meals or calories, provided I keep this in check I should be able to use this to my advantage. Okay bro's thanks again, looking forward to some more ideas, thank you all for your advice so far.

[GREENMACHINE]

Damm no responce yet oh well here is a proposed diet. Maybe this is what is holding everyone back from giving me more advice. Times will be diffrent because I work a two cycle shift. My normal hours are either 6:30am-3:00pm or 3:00pm-11:30am. Last week my hours were diffrent because I changed jobs and it is company policy to start new staff on 8:30am-5:00pm.

Meal 1. 6:00am 6 egg whites 1 scoop whey protien 100gr oats
54gr pro 77gr carbs 7gr fat

Meal 2. 9:00am 8oz minced beef lean 100gr fried mushrooms and 100gr brocolli
48gr pro 9gr carbs 22gr fat

Meal 3. 12:00am 125gr brown rice 200gr prawns
54gr pro 87gr carbs 5gr fat

Meal 4. 3:15 2 chicken breast fillets (300gr meat only) and 1 tablespoon peanut butter
69gr pro 00gr carbs 14gr fat

4:00-5:00 Workout

Meal 5 5:15 Pwo 40gr whey protien 80gr dextrose
40gr pro 80gr carbs 0gr fat

Meal 6 6:15 1 Chicken breast fillet (150gr) and 125grs brown rice
46gr pro 76gr carbs 4 grams fat

Meal 7 9:00 3 scoops of whey protien + 15mls of flax.
60gr pro 0gr carbs 15grfat

Totals 371gr pro 329gr carbs 67gr fat Total calories= 3,403

Break down by calorific supply of faction above pro43.5:carbs 38.5:fat18
The above are % of calories supplied from my proposed diet.

[GREENMACHINE]

Thanks to everyone who read my thread. Particulary to AandF and leanmeout.
Lean me out I used the Seperation principal of carbs and fats as proposed in your thread from I think July of last year. Still have to do the macros on the above. Have a feeling total calories will definetly be too high as it has more food than my previous sample diet. It the application of this principal, quality of protiens, fats and carbs etc that I want criticed right now also some more pro/fat ideas this is causing me the most difficulty. Notice the absent of milk my my current proposed diet can I include some low fat/semi skim in diet say 500cc for variety or is it best avoided.