help my diet please.

[aedanman]

I am 23, 6'3, 190lb, unsure of body fat %. Will post a pic up to get someone to estimate this later. Am trying to gain and my calorie intake does not look sufficient from what I can tell other people are eating. Maybe my figures are off.

cal/fat/carb/pro

meal 1:
muesli with low fat milk - 535 , 5, 64.2, 6.8
protein shake with water and 2 raw whole eggs - 298, 8, 4.9, 24.5

workout.

meal 2:
protein shake with low fat milk 242, 2.5, 18.9, 35.2
banana on 2 pieces of multigrain toast - 152, 0.4, 31.1, 1.5

meal 3:
ham and salad on multigrain bread - 324, 15.5, 27.6, 17.5

meal 4:
Chicken breast and salad - 327, 16, 10.9, 33.2
banana - 121, 0.4, 31.1, 1.5

meal 5:
low fat yogurt (fruit variety) - 231, 2.4, 43.1, 9.9
unsalted cashews - 247, 20.3, 12.7, 7.2
apple - 72, 0.2, 19.1, 0.4

meal 6:
chicken with brown rice and vegetables - 453, 12.8, 37.1, 45.3


In total this is 3,078 , 93.7, 349.9, 217.1.

I can fit in another meal after meal 6. Give me some ideas? Also This diet may suck so if you destroy it make suggestions so I can change and learn.

[DV2000]

Hey Bud,

What is your BMR? what kinda of goals are you shooting for? Are you trying to maintain your current weight and cut bodyfat? Your goals will depend upon your diet changes that need to be made, right now i see your taking in to much sugar but let everyone know what your goals are and you'll get great feedback

[aedanman]

My goals are to maintain my bf% and build as much muscle as possible. I used the harris-benedict formula to calculate a bmr which is 3300cal. Unsure if this is the best one to use? I said I am moderately active. Otherwise very active is 3650cal. I go to the gym 4 times a week (weights), do indoor soccer on weekends and have a picking and packing job. I would guess my bf% would be 15%

[Damienm05]

I am 23, 6'3, 200lb, unsure of body fat %. Will post a pic up to get someone to estimate this later. Am trying to gain and my calorie intake does not look sufficient from what I can tell other people are eating. Maybe my figures are off.

cal/fat/carb/pro

meal 1:
muesli with low fat milk - 535 , 5, 64.2, 6.8
protein shake with water and 2 raw whole eggs - 298, 8, 4.9, 24.5No shake, especially if you want to make quality gains without getting fatter. Meusli is tasty but it's higher GI than just plain old oats w/ water. Learn to love em. To recap 2 eggs, 6 whites, 1 cup of oats. Perfect breakfast

workout.

meal 2:
protein shake with low fat milk 242, 2.5, 18.9, 35.2
banana on 2 pieces of multigrain toast - 152, 0.4, 31.1, 1.5No banana or toast. You're getting plenty of sugar from the milk and bread isn't a good PWO carb (or a very good carb source in general, imo). 2 scoops whey in milk w/ 1 cup oats = your ideal PWO shake.

meal 3:
ham and salad on multigrain bread - 324, 15.5, 27.6, 17.5 This meal sucks. Ham is high in sodium. Most salad, while inherently low-cal lacks nutritional value and is a vessel for sugary/fatty dressings. A real power-meal for bodybuilding in your PWO state is something like: 6 oz. grilled chicken (lean protein), 1 sweet potato (40g complex carb), 1 cup green veggies (better than salad).

meal 4:
Chicken breast and salad - 327, 16, 10.9, 33.2
banana - 121, 0.4, 31.1, 1.5 No banana, cut simple sugars in general from your diet. Add a complex carb source to this meal. Oats, brown rice, sweet potato, quinoua, ezekiel bread, spelt bagel, barley, etc (40g)

meal 5:
low fat yogurt (fruit variety) - 231, 2.4, 43.1, 9.9
unsalted cashews - 247, 20.3, 12.7, 7.2
apple - 72, 0.2, 19.1, 0.4This isn't a meal, more like what my 110 lb. girlfriend eats for a snack. Cut the yogurt (sugar) and the apple (sugar) and have a lean meat with your cashews. This is where we'll stop consuming carbs for the day and switch to pro/fat/veggie meals.

meal 6:
chicken with brown rice and vegetables - 453, 12.8, 37.1, 45.3 I'd cut the rice, have 2 cups of your preferred fibrous veggies. Add 1 oz. of cashew/almonds or 1/2 a hass avocado.

Meal 7: eat it before bed. 1 cup of whole milk cottage cheese w/ splenda or 2 scoops casein protein powder in water w/ 2 tbspn. natural peanut butter. Both meals are a good source of slow-digesting "time-released" protein. Basically, this means since you're not eating at night, you still have a steady flow of amino acids being digested to maximize muscle recovery in an otherwise dry period.


In total this is 3,078 , 93.7, 349.9, 217.1. my corrections, once you implement them (and you should, ASAP) will yield much better gains, however your cals will likely be higher once you add up the new macros. That won't be a problem, since at your size, your TDEE is gonna be higher than 3000 (I think) and we've cut all simple sugars and cut off carb consumption before the evening. We have a lot of work to do but you clearly have given this some thought and are dedicated. Please include time of meals when you re-do your diet. Make sure you're eating every 2-3 hours but not more.

I can fit in another meal after meal 6. Give me some ideas? Also This diet may suck so if you destroy it make suggestions so I can change and learn. It does suck but at least you aren't eating unhealthy foods, just a bad bodybuilding set-up.

Gaining mass and not bf% is a slippery slope. It's hard to do right and will require specific, anal dieting. Before you get discouraged, I've done it very successfully over the last 3 months. First, you're BMR is clearly not 3300. We need to figure out an accurate TDEE for you, and set your cals slightly over or 300-500 over depending on your cardio. Eating clean is very important and timing of carbohydrate meals.

First you'll need an accurate body fat % to continue. If you post a pic, you'll have one shortly.

With your bf % in hand, here’s the formula:

BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

Total weight x bf % in decimal form = total bf weight

Total weight - total bf weight = total lean body mass

Now depending on how active you are:
-If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie - Calculation = BMR x 1.2
-If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
-If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
-If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
-If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

That number is the basis for your whole diet. If you eat below, you cut, if you eat above, you bulk. Sure, there's more to it, but it all starts there. Beyond that, it's simply food choices and timing carb meals to insure you don't store unused carbs as body fat. That said, I've critiqued all factors in your diet not related to calorie intake above.

All that said, do you do cardio?!

[aedanman]

Cheers, your feedback has helped me a lot. 2 pics that i took for bf% estimates are attached, one with flash and one without. Mind you the focus on my camera sucks so taking these took me like 10 minutes, haha and that is still the best i could get.

The only cardio I do is indoor soccer for 1 hour on the weekends which is intensive and then picking and packing work, which is not very intensive most of the time, for 6 hours a night during the week.

I will purchase the ingredients I require for this diet tomorrow and begin it.

[Damienm05]

I'd say 18% but you've got a lot of muscle to develop.

Regardless of fat loss, with a solid ab regiment and this diet, you're abs will show through a million times more noticeably. More mass will also = more definition as you make gains everywhere. I'd say you're moderately active. Set your TDEE and do some shopping! I always seperate my meals on paper by ingredient, and multiply the increments by 7. Essentially, I prep all my food for a week at a time after 1 grocery store trip.

Indoor soccer is fun, I play when I can. It doesn't constitute cardio, just a nice supplement to your life that you enjoy among other things. Try to at least alternate high intensity and low intensity (fat burn) cardio workouts 3-5 days a week. It sucks for some but it will give you the leeway to eat more while still losing fat. Starving off every calorie is worse than spending some time on the treadmill.

[aedanman]

yeah, I only started back at the gym 3 weeks ago so I have a long way to go. Did a year of muay thai and lost everything I had gained when I was hitting the gym beforehand. Mainly did lots of cardio, push-ups, non weighted squats, chin ups and non weighted sit ups. All cardio based no weight. Have never followed a proper diet though, which I don't find difficult to do, I was just never commited enough and didn't realise how big a contributor it really is.

Your information has helped me a lot. Your a champion for being straightforward and showing me what I am doing wrong and what I should be doing. I am going to purchase all these ingredients and start as of monday.

Some questions, in my fifth meal you didn't say to cut the salad so should I leave the salad for just that one meal? Also what is the best way to cook the sweet potato? and is there a type and size of sweet potato I should buy or just grab the cheapest? Should I do the cardio session after my weights sessions? My workout session is going to change from after meal 1 to after meal 5. Will I just move my PWO meal to after my workout and shift every other meal back one?

Cheers mate. And thanks a lot for all the help. Now it is time to see some big gains

[Damienm05]

yeah, I only started back at the gym 3 weeks ago so I have a long way to go. Did a year of muay thai and lost everything I had gained when I was hitting the gym beforehand. Mainly did lots of cardio, push-ups, non weighted squats, chin ups and non weighted sit ups. All cardio based no weight. Have never followed a proper diet though, which I don't find difficult to do, I was just never commited enough and didn't realise how big a contributor it really is.

Your information has helped me a lot. Your a champion for being straightforward and showing me what I am doing wrong and what I should be doing. I am going to purchase all these ingredients and start as of monday.

Some questions, in my fifth meal you didn't say to cut the salad so should I leave the salad for just that one meal? Also what is the best way to cook the sweet potato? and is there a type and size of sweet potato I should buy or just grab the cheapest? Should I do the cardio session after my weights sessions? My workout session is going to change from after meal 1 to after meal 5. Will I just move my PWO meal to after my workout and shift every other meal back one?

Cheers mate. And thanks a lot for all the help. Now it is time to see some big gains

I didn't say cut the salad because I didn't know how restricted you were (some people have that meal with their family, aren't willing to eat many servings of veggies, aren't dedicated, etc). Obviously you're willing to follow whatever diet yields the best results - so I'd say no salad, sub green fibrous veggies. Of course, mixed greens like spinach, arugula, frisee are different than basic romaine/iceberg and do have nutritional value. I'd say these are fine choices for salads but they still become a vessel for dressing which makes it a higher calorie food than just steamed/roasted/sauteed green veggies. Ya dig?

Microwavable sweet potatos that are sold in a tight plastic wrap are convenient to just peel and eat. They are sold individually and end up being more expensive than just putting a bunch of sweet potatoes in a bag and paying per lb. Microwave is a good way to cook anything because you'll lose minimal nutrients. Personally, I need taste in my diet so I rub them with salt and evoo, wrap in foil and bake for an hour until they are sweet/soft. Basically squeeze right out of the skin. Boiling is easy as well. They taste great regardless. If you're looking for 35-45g of carbs per meal, I'd say buy medium-large sweet potatoes. The small ones may have as few as 20g of carbs and won't fuel you up as well.

Yes, as for your changing workout time, that is fine. Since you're working out that late, it's gonna be super important to have a shake upon completion and a whole food meal an hour later. The 6-8 hour window following your workout is an anabolic state and you'll seriously hinder your gains if you don't have a steady source of digesting amino acids for your body to draw from during that period. Casein has just become much more important based on that because a shake and a meal just won't do it. At least not for someone who's goal is to have an ideal BB diet. Also, since you're now working out in the evening, I'd cut the carbs out of one of your meal 3. You're energy expenditure won't be nearly as high during the day and you'll have plenty of complex carbs from prior meals to get you through this part of the day sans lethargy. Just make sure to get a full serving of sweet potato in pre-workout! Remember, don't get too wrapped up in the details. Just eat a lot, eat clean, and eat carbs as needed for energy, first 2 meals and pre/post-workout. Not before bed or during sedentary periods.

[aedanman]

No worries mate. Bought all the food today, gonna start tomorrow. Will post up some results I get in the near future. I am still getting newbie strength gains at the gym after not going for so long so will be good to have an even bigger boost.

Thanks heaps for the help mate. It has made my life so much easier to come here and get some help and have a set plan ahead for me to follow rather then hinder my gains with my previous diet. I find it extremely easy to follow a set regime when I have pre-planned it and I never do anything half-assed. I will be sticking around these forums for a long time.