Diet Advice (Pictures)

[cfok]

I have been working out for about 4 years daily, never missing more than a day or two... though up until four months or so ago, I'd been forced to focus on a lot of cardio in my line of work, so weight gain was never a possibility, especially taking my fast metabolism into account.

So here's the basic help I need;

I have been lifting daily for four months, without more than one day of cardio per week, and even that is a light jog for about 2 miles. I want to gain A LOT of muscle, and though I'm making large gains in my lifts, I'm not seeing physically the results I'd want. (I.E. My dumbbell curls have increased from 30lbs/8reps to 50/8reps. Benching I've increased from 135 to 185.) So essentially I want to bulk up A LOT and after discussing with various friends and acquaintances, I wound up here.

I am currently 152 lbs (6% body fat), 5'9, 21 years old and at my 'plateau'. I cannot gain anymore weight no matter how many days I force myself to eat large meals and stuff down terribly-heavy MASS XXX / MASS-TECH 's. By 11AM (when I go to the gym) I will weigh about 156-160 from the meals and water throughout the day however when I wake up - I'm always greeted with 150-152. I can't seem to shake it.

DIET & SUPPLEMENT DETAILS:
6,000 calories (give or take a couple hundred)

MEAL 1 - Toast, eggs, chicken and lettuce, Mass Gainer (1000 cal.)
MEAL 2 - Protein Bar or Nutri-grain bars + Protein Shake
*MEAL 3 - No-Xplode, Amplified Creatine, WORK OUT
MEAL 4 - BIG Meal. Poultry, meat, breads, anything. Protein Shake
MEAL 5 - Mass Gainer (1000 cal.)
MEAL 6 - Meat or pasta. Vegetables.
MEAL 7 - Mass Gainer before bed.

For my diet PRIOR to the past four months, this is a HUGE change / increase. Yet I cannot gain weight for the life of me despite my gains with lifts.

Any advice please? I have included pictures below if they help.

[jamyjamjr]

Welcome to the diet forum....

please take the time to follow these directions, they will better prepair the both of us for the critique and tweaking of your diet..

you need to figure our your BMR (this is the basic metabolic rate of your body... which means if you were to do nothing all day, ur body would burn these many calories)

once u'v figured out your BMR, u need your TDEE (this is your total daily energy expenditure, it's based upon your activity level)


But first things first, please post up your current diet.. you have to be brutally honest about what you've been eating on average for the last few weeks so i know where your metabolism is at..
please include macros

MACROS = pro/fat/cal/carb of every meal and a daily total on the bottom
you can use fitday . com to help you our with this... be as detailed and specific as possible

please include the time of when u eat and the time of your workout

also tell me what your workout reg is...



BMR formula


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



in order to figure out your bmr, you need to know what your lean body mass is.. so, in turn, u need to know what your body fat percentage is...

if you dont know your bodyfat percentage, go to your gym and get tested (please dont use electronic scales to get your bf checked, they're horrible)

if you cannot find a gym to get tested at, please post up a picture for estimates, we're pretty good at it (you also have the option of pming it to me if you have more then 25 posts)

Total weight x bf in decimel form = total bf weight

Total weight - total bf weight = total lean body mass

if your total lean body mass is in lbs, u can divide it by 2.2 to get it in kilograms..

for example..

i am 6'4 275lbs at 14% bf... so i would multiply 275 by .14 (converted from percent to decimal)= 38.5lbs

275 - 38.5 = 236.5lbs lean body weight

236.5 / 2.2 = 107.5 lean mass in kg

370 + (21.6 x 107.5) = 2692 BMR (this is high for the average person, im a big guy)

TDEE

Once u have you bmr, u need to calculate your TDEE, this is simply done with some multiplication...

you can multiply it by an activity number to figure out your daily caloric expenditure, be honest here as this is the very cornerstone of your diet, if you are between two of the below activity levels then just multiply by a number in between them

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:


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 moderatetely 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



Once you have your TDEE, i need you to watch these videos

Milos Sarcev "Secret of the Pro's" on Nutrition

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread.php?t=323516

this video will give you a great idea as to what your diet should be looking like and the foods you should be eating..

it's also very informative as to how dieting works and what you need to be doing..


once you've aquired this vast knowledge and done what i'v asked of you, please post up a new diet for critiquing and finalization...
please include macros and times just as before...


try to remember that dieting is not an overnight thing.. it takes time and patience....

[clancywiggum]

this one's easy: you eat waaaaaaaay too much artificial food!!! aside from meal 6, all your meals contain some form of powdered gainer or pro....

eat whole food instead of all that stuff...instead of the cals from the Mass Gainer (all those "gainers" are crap), eat those cals! Meals 2, 5, 7 need to be completely changed, and made into whole food meals.

I also see you have few EFA sources....a simple change you can make if weight gain is your priority is adding peanut butter to your diet right away

[cfok]

Yes - i've been told that on this forum recently so today I'm going to only have a Mass Gainer before bed - or should I cut that completely?

[_CrossroadS_]

Eat as much meat as you can stomach, and follow it with some whole grains / veggies, EFA's. 6 times a day. This will hold you over until you do everything Jamy's asked of you. There are no shortcuts here...I promise, follow his advice, and you'll be passing knowledge on yourself in no time.

[cfok]

STATS:

BMR- 1734
TDEE - 3295

Here is my revised diet which I have been on faithfully since previous post (see first post for prior months' diet):

----------
MEAL 1 (7:00am):
4 Eggs
2 Slices wheat toast
1 Grilled chicken breast
+ Cut and added to lettuce w/ dressing
1 glass of Milk
1 glass of Pomegranate juice

MEAL 2*(11:00am):
1 Protein Bar
1 Protein Shake
- 280 cal., 1g fat, 60g protein, 8g carbs

MEAL 3*(1:00pm):
1 Protein Shake
2 Grilled chicken breast on Italian Roll (white)
+ w/ lettuce & dressing

MEAL 4(5:30pm):
Multiple plates of pasta w/
-- Sausage and/or chicken or beef
Multiple pieces of bread
Many vegetables (mostly mixed; succotash, corn, peas, etc.)

Meal 5(9:00pm):
1 glass of Milk
1 Bagel w/ cream cheese or peanut butter

NOTE: (* Insinuates supplement use such as; Pre-work out and/or Creatine) Also, I try to eat Nature's Valley bars in between all meals as I get the time.

----------
WORK-OUT REG (Showing 'start date' as today, Monday)

MONDAY
CHEST
Dumbbell Press - 4 sets - 10, 8, 6, 4
Incline Dumbbell Press - 3 sets - 10, 8, 4-6
Pectoral Flys - 4 sets - 10, 8, 6, 6
Cables (Don't know name) - 3 sets - 8, 6, 4

TRICEPS
Skullcrushers - 4 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6
Cables, individual arms - 4 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6
Cables, single bar - 4 sets - 12, 10, 8, 6
Weighted Dips - 5 sets (35-45lb plate) - 12, 10, 8, 6, 4

TUESDAY
LEGS
Squats - 4 sets - 15, 10, 8, 5
Leg Press - 5 sets - 15, 12, 10, 8, 4-6
Leg Extensions - 3 sets - 10, 8, 6

WEDNESDAY
BICEPS
Dumbbell Curl - 4 sets - 10, 8, 6, 4
EZ-Bar Curl - 3 sets - 10, 8, 6
Straight-bar Curl - 3 sets - 8, 6, 4

THURSDAY
BACK AND SHOULDERS
Cable Crossovers - 4 sets
Seated Rows - 4 sets
Wide-arm Pull-ups
Wide-arm Push-ups

Then repeat.


Another note - The only supplements I am on are as follows: Protein, BSN's No-Xplode, MRI's Anabolic Switch

Hopefully this gives you more insight etc. Thank you very much.

[Tigershark]

Can you get Ezekial bread where you live?

[cfok]

Not within over 150 miles, no.

[jamyjamjr]

watch the videos in my post bro... u need to get rid of all that altificial shit.. one shake a day, pwo only... maybe a casien shake at bedtime.. gives u room for 2 a day... protien bars are worthless!!!!!! eat real food.. watch the videos..

[cfok]

I did watch them Jamy, however I have two issues that I forgot to make more obvious;

With my line of work I cannot eat a large second meal - it has to be small and quick. If I choose to eat a larger meal it would have to be later and far too close to my actual work-out time.

Apart from that however - your saying to cut the Protein and Creatine out of my diet? They're my only 'artificial shit' that I take... so I'm not understanding as I thought both are vital for muscle growth...

[eatrainrest]

I did watch them Jamy, however I have two issues that I forgot to make more obvious;

With my line of work I cannot eat a large second meal - it has to be small and quick. If I choose to eat a larger meal it would have to be later and far too close to my actual work-out time.

Apart from that however - your saying to cut the Protein and Creatine out of my diet? They're my only 'artificial shit' that I take... so I'm not understanding as I thought both are vital for muscle growth...

why would you cut protein and creatine out of your diet... he is stating your overuse of protein shakes..... if you can prepack a shake you can prepack food

[C_Bino]

Very first thing I saw...you do 3 exercises for leg TOTAL...Thats 3 for quads and 0 for hamstrings. Yet you do 4 exercises for triceps and 3 again for biceps.

Lacking legs much?

How bout back..what is that, 2 exercises and the other 2 for shoulders.

So they 2 largest muscle groups in the body are the ones you put the least training into?

IMO that's just a god awful training routine.

[eatrainrest]

the split needs to be totalyl rearranged as well...

[cfok]

Thank you everyone - I misunderstood on the 'artificial' part - I'll see what I can do in regards to packing some food.

Also - eattrainrest and C_Bino, any tips on how to rearrange / improve my work out? Specifics will help. (Obviously I'm relatively new to to weight-lifting).

[eatrainrest]

sure this is my devoted link

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread.php?t=385368 FREE TRAINING ADVICE

also, find ronnies slingshot the 1st sticky.. do alot of research and youll understand