Diet Advice

Hi folks,

After jumping on earlier than most people agreed with, I learned from my mistake and want to wait a while before deciding to jump on again (currently 22).

Instead, I'd like to exhaust my natural gains for as long as I can. In order to do this I think I need to improve my diet and get some advice from you guys who have been around this longer than me.

Currently, around 206lbs. I've dropped some LBM and gained some bf due to finishing university and partying a bit too much after I'd finished.

I've been using My Fitness Pal to track my macros, but I genuinely think its off, as I get conflicting results from other websites. I'm consuming about 3300-3500cals per day.

I'd like to know whether I should bump this up, and how I should go about doing this, because I don't wanna go with the dirty bulk route, as I'm sitting at about 17% bf right now and would rather not go too much higher if possible.

Current diet:

Breakfast: 850~ cals
90g Morning Harvest ceral w/ 175g greek yoghurt
2 scoops whey w/creatine
1 Large banana

Rivalus Clean gainer: 500~ cals

Lunch:
3 chicken thighs
100g rice (or large 300g sweet potato)
Usually assorted greens, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or a mountain of spinach/peppers/cucumber/walnut salad with Balsamic dressing (made at home not the fatty store bought ones)
1 Pint of 2% Milk
25g Cashews

Dinner: 800~
180g steak
(Sometimes lean ground beef sauce with 100g pasta)
100g rice (or sweet potato)
Salad/brocoli same as above
Dessert: often have a small pot of cottage cheese, or greek yoghurt with granola, or a banana.

1-3 hours before bed: 500~
Rivalus clean gainer w/creatine


I'm wondering where I need to improve this in order to take my progress on my physique further!
Any help would be greatly appreciated fellas

does the above come to 3000 plus calories? from the food alone I would be surprised?
if it was me i'd drop the cereals and go for oatmeal or eggs or a combination of oatmeal and eggs (mostly whites watch them fats)
I wouldn't rely on the weight gainer powder for your calories I would look to fill up my calories with good whole foods and supplement my protein intake with whey when needed, a lot of people get confused and think protein powder is muscle growth its not. carbs are.
Its good that you have a quality creatine in there if your staying natty
what time do you train? ensure some carb intake before and shortly after, if your chasing size your gona want to beast it and you will need to fuel that.
remember carbs are the building blocks, what is your macro split?

Doesn't look too bad. I would get rid of the weight gainer. Make sure the rice is brown rice. And It's not really necessary to count calories. Portion sizes is better.

Are you bulking or cutting? I can't tell by your post. That diet don't look like 3k+ calories you me. I'm leaning towards 2000-2200. That's just what it looks like.

Breakfast -
8-10 boiled eggs
1 cup oats
12oz whole fat milk

Snack -
Half cup almonds

Lunch
12oz chicken
1 cup white rice
Large portion of leafy greens

Pre workout snack -
2 packs instant oatmeal
8 oz juice

Post workout snack -
50g protien shake with 8oz milk and 8oz water

Dinner -
12-16oz lean beef
1 cup green beans
2 medium baked potatoes

Pre bed snack -
1 cup Greek yogurt or 20oz whole fat milk

That's roughly 3000 calories and is a typical day for me while adding mass. As my weight goes up, I add more calories to adjust my TDEE to my new weight. Usually I'll add about 200-300 calories a day after about 2 weeks, then in another 2 weeks I'll add another 200-300 calories per day. I usually will stop increasing calories once I hit 3800-4000 calories. For one I can't afford to eat that much and for two, I don't want to. It's so hard to eat once you get to the 3500 calorie mark. For me anyways. I know everyone is different when it comes to appetite. When I maintain my 200-205lb weight, my calories stay at 2800 daily, and that gives me a lot of forgiveness in my daily diet. Some days I'll splurge a lot, while other days I struggle to eat. But in doing so, I can easily maintain my size.