First AAS cycle. Input and personal opinions much welcomed!

[Grizzlyadam3000]

To Times Roman's specific advice on a couple foods, I have to offer a rebuttal. First and foremost, to say that wheat bread is over processed and not a complex carb leaves much to be expounded upon. If a wheat bread product simply states "wheat bread", very often it is nothing more than white bread with the addition of caramel for coloring, and in this aspect you are correct. However, if you look for a product that states "100% whole wheat" or "100% whole grain", you do in fact have a complex carb on your hands, and a food that should be included in the diet.

Secondly, on the subject of white rice, this is still a complex carbohydrate. What makes white rice different from brown rice is simply that the bran has been removed, and therefore the fiber with it. Otherwise, this is still a complex carbohydrate.

Thirdly, in regards to potatoes, this is a complex carbohydrate also. When you compare a sweet potato to any of the several types of white potatoes, the primary difference is that the flesh of a sweet potato has much more fiber than the whites, whereas in white potatoes, the peelings contain most of the fiber. Otherwise, we are still dealing with a healthy carbohydrate. We actually learned this in grade school, but luckily for me I have a girlfriend who is one of the leading registered dietitians in my area. There is a great fallacy out there when it comes to foods that are "anything white", that being that they are simple carbohydrates, but this simply is not the case at all.

And finally, yes, lactose is a simple sugar, but milk contains essential amino acids, not to mention milk is an important source of nutrients that our bodies requires from the very first day of life post-womb. Do we require milk for good health later in life? Absolutely not. But milk is by no means necessarily bad for us, quite the contrary, there are many benefits from consuming milk in correlation with a good diet. If you want to stay away from simple carbohydrates, you need to stay away from refined sugar and most importantly, high-fructose corn syrup.

That is one thing that threw me for a loop is the rice, potatoes and skim milk theory. I've always kept all three in my diet even when cutting, and I've been down to 4-5% on a few occasions for weeks on end. And I should have stated before that the bread I eat is 100% whole grain. But hopefully your right about the rice because I'm not too huge a fan of brown rice. Oh and for what its worth I started mixing in black beans with my rice everyday for a small boost in caloric intake.

[BBrian]

That is one thing that threw me for a loop is the rice, potatoes and skim milk theory. I've always kept all three in my diet even when cutting, and I've been down to 4-5% on a few occasions for weeks on end. And I should have stated before that the bread I eat is 100% whole grain. But hopefully your right about the rice because I'm not too huge a fan of brown rice. Oh and for what its worth I started mixing in black beans with my rice everyday for a small boost in caloric intake.

Worry not my friend, this is information from published dietetic textbooks. And I'm glad you brought up black beans; black beans and other legumes are good sources of many nutrients such as Omega 6, proteins, and folates. Folates, or folic acid, are essential to all new cell production in the body, and consequently essential to creating new muscle fibers. Interestingly, antacids and aspirin very effectively prevent folates from doing their job, so it's important to be wary of taking too many of these things if you are working to put on lean muscle mass. I know I'm going off topic a little here, but I thought it was interesting information to share.