Properly fuel for morning work outs? Please help!

[alm2]

I've been working out in the morning for years but I'm trying to get my diet on point. I only have the option of working out early in the morning. I wake at 4:30 and down my pre work out and protein shake. I start warming up immediately so that by 5 I'm into my working sets and finish up by 5:50. I down my isolate protein and hop in the shower. Then I eat five eggs (2 whole) and either half cup of white rice or oatmeal. At work by 6:45. Working out at any other time is not an option and getting up any earlier isn't either cause I don't get off work till late and 8:30 is the earliest I can get to sleep. So with my situation how do I make sure I'm not losing muscle or can see the gains desired?

[RaginCajun]

how do you feel during your workouts?

what does the mirror tell you?

do you measure your body fat?

what are your goals?

[alm2]

I feel fine during my work out.
The mirror hasn't been nice to me the last couple years but I've also battled testicular cancer and low t.
Also my diet hasn't been on point at all. My breakfast routine is the same everyday but my lunch and dinner is free game. I make sure I get a lot of protein but that's it.
I don't measure my BF but looking at pictures that give you an estimate puts me at around 25%.
As for my goals... I am trying to put on some size and get my diet on point. I figured after I got my diet on point for a month I want to try a cutting cycle.
Suggestions for fueling for both a cutting cycle and bulking? ive found plenty of suggestions on fueling work outs but it always revolves at least an her before work out but I don't have that as an option.

[RaginCajun]

kudos for you for kicking cancers ass!

My suggestion would be to cut some BF down before you cycle.

are you on HRT?

how about you lay all of your stats out there so we can help.

lay out your daily intake with everything that you put in your piehole. look up cals/macros for each, so that you can see how much you are actually eating

there are many ways to skin a cat so to speak

[Scorpion0922]

It sounds like you're putting away a majority of you daily calories during the 1st 2 hours of the day. You may not be able to digest that much that fast. And I think you need to know that you have to have a more structured rest of the day.

Are you eating small meals 6-7 times a day? You want to consider the foods you eat, the way they're prepared, and especially amounts per meal.

it's going to be all about nutrition for you right now.

[alm2]

I was on TRT gel. They made me wait a year after surgery to see if it would come back naturally. My total test only came up to 110. So they put me on a gel and got my number to 220. Which honestly I didn't feel much but the dr said I was out of the danger zone. Recently my insurance lapsed and they wanted $400 a month for the gel just to keep me at 220ish. So I bought some gear immediately and started before having my ducks in a row (stupid I know).

As for my current food intake... Kinda hard to say cause it varies so much with no rhym or reason. I do eat the same thing as listed above for breakfast every day but lunch varies. I try to eat brown rice or sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner but honestly doesn't happen all the time. I don't eat all lean meats either. I eat anything from chicken breast to fatty pork chops. I also have a bad sweet tooth. I can count my calories for you the next day or two but either way my diet is definitely not on point. I am trying to figure out a diet regime to get me there that also works with my schedule.
I only eat three meals a day. I can do small snack or something quick in between but my work certainly won't allow for multiple meals a day.
I promise I'm not trying to be difficult but this is the schedule I am trying to make the best out of.

[Scorpion0922]

I was on TRT gel. They made me wait a year after surgery to see if it would come back naturally. My total test only came up to 110. So they put me on a gel and got my number to 220. Which honestly I didn't feel much but the dr said I was out of the danger zone. Recently my insurance lapsed and they wanted $400 a month for the gel just to keep me at 220ish. So I bought some gear immediately and started before having my ducks in a row (stupid I know).

I disagree with the Dr. (with all due respect) 220 is not out of the danger zone. Self medication is sometimes the best option. But I never advise one way or the other...it's all up to the individual.

As for my current food intake... Kinda hard to say cause it varies so much with no rhym or reason. I do eat the same thing as listed above for breakfast every day but lunch varies. I try to eat brown rice or sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner but honestly doesn't happen all the time. I don't eat all lean meats either. I eat anything from chicken breast to fatty pork chops. I also have a bad sweet tooth. I can count my calories for you the next day or two but either way my diet is definitely not on point. I am trying to figure out a diet regime to get me there that also works with my schedule.
I only eat three meals a day. I can do small snack or something quick in between but my work certainly won't allow for multiple meals a day.
I promise I'm not trying to be difficult but this is the schedule I am trying to make the best out of.

I hear ya on the schedule and eating. But you HAVE T0 find a way to eat 6 (or so) small meals a day. Keep in kind that the meals will be less quantity and you can put 'em down quickly. I've snuck into the bathroom @ the office and quickly eaten a meal.

Stick to chicken breast, 99% lean turkey, lean cuts of red meat, tilapia (a favorite of mine)

Get some green vegetables in your rotation, too; broccoli, spinach, green beans, asparagus.

You may be one of the few people that I actually recommend uses shakes. Some of those RTD's might be what you need when you're at your job....they could also satisfy your craving for sweets.

How much water are you drinking/day?

[alm2]

Ok, thanks.
Thats probably the only good thing I have going for me on my diet. I only drink a soda about once a month on pizza night. Other than that I only drink water.
So, what do I do about my pre work fuel for working out that early?

[Scorpion0922]

Tell me everything that you eat from 4:30 to 6:45 when you get to work....and your typical training.

[KINGKONG]

I workout in the morning as well I eat 44 grams of egg whites 2 whole eggs 40-50 grams complex carbs oats and I drink 30 grams dextrose with 30 grams of whey during my workout the dextrose gives me the energy to push through hard workouts because the complex carbs digest so slow and I feel depleted after a few hard sets..then I have 50 grams dextrose and 50 grams whey after my workout then a full meal a hour after that at work.. I get half of my daily carbs during those 4 hours but iam fine with that I think my body responds well to that..if iam cutting everything is different though hope that helps

[outofthisworld]

My humble opinion here. You mentioned the mirror not being nice to you these last couple of YEARS.
I feel like you have to structure your diet a little better. I strongly recommend getting into the habit of counting your calories. If you've never done that before it will take sometime before it becomes a habit, but it is the single most effective thing anyone can ever do to manipulate their body how they want it to look. How the body looks is DIRECTLY correlated how much we eat. Plain and simple. Counting calories is what everybody in the entire world who has a body should get accustomed to doing.

I say you go on a cut, get leaner. You will look better, than adding more pounds even if they were lean gains because at this point, the body fat wont let your true muscular proportions show.
EVEN if your off by +/-200. The fact that you are making a conscious effort to count your daily calories will be of so much benefit in the long run. Think about it, go to the kitchen and pour me a 25 gram bowl of corn flakes. do you know how much 25grams of cereal looks like? I didn't when i first started. Now that I've been counting my calories for a month, I have a better perspective of how much food I'm putting in my body. Let me tell you I was way off in how much food I initially THOUGHT I was putting in. Glad I stepped up my game. Im sure you will be surprised too.

[alm2]

Tell me everything that you eat from 4:30 to 6:45 when you get to work....and your typical training.

I tried to log for a couple days for you to give you an idea but it was ridiculous with a buffet (had no choice with work) I have start meal prepping this week though. My thoughts were to keep my calories around 2,500/day and 5 whole food meals is as much as I can get. So it looks like this:
4:30- pre workout + 25g whey
5:50 post work out = 50g whey isolate
6:15 breakfast-
3 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, 2 teaspoons of olive oil & half cup of oatmeal
9:00 snack - 8 ounce chicken breast and 1/2 cup of brown rice
12:00 lunch - 8 ounce chicken breast and 1 cup of brown rice
3:00 snack - 8 ounce chicken breast and 1/2 cup of brown rice
7-8:30 dinner- 8 ounce cod with 1 medium sweet potatoe with skin.
9:00- 25g of casein and 2 tAblespoons of all natural peanut butter.
I've added some raw broccoli to basically snack on through out the day when I can, but I don't count any macros for it.

As for my work out... I switch it up every 3 months. Right now
Mon- chest & back
Tues- arms
Wed- legs & abs + 10 min on rower
Thur- chest & back
Fri- arms
Sat- legs and abs + 10 min on rower

I use the same format for all muscle groups except legs. I work one muscle group at a time. I do 4-6 sets of a compound motion and then I superset the same muscle group with two isolation moves. For example biceps would look like
Barbell curl: 5 sets of 15,12,10,8,6
Superset-
Incline db curl: 4 sets of 12,10,10,8
Concentration curl : same
Then using the same format I start triceps

[alm2]

My humble opinion here. You mentioned the mirror not being nice to you these last couple of YEARS.
I feel like you have to structure your diet a little better. I strongly recommend getting into the habit of counting your calories. If you've never done that before it will take sometime before it becomes a habit, but it is the single most effective thing anyone can ever do to manipulate their body how they want it to look. How the body looks is DIRECTLY correlated how much we eat. Plain and simple. Counting calories is what everybody in the entire world who has a body should get accustomed to doing.

I say you go on a cut, get leaner. You will look better, than adding more pounds even if they were lean gains because at this point, the body fat wont let your true muscular proportions show.
EVEN if your off by +/-200. The fact that you are making a conscious effort to count your daily calories will be of so much benefit in the long run. Think about it, go to the kitchen and pour me a 25 gram bowl of corn flakes. do you know how much 25grams of cereal looks like? I didn't when i first started. Now that I've been counting my calories for a month, I have a better perspective of how much food I'm putting in my body. Let me tell you I was way off in how much food I initially THOUGHT I was putting in. Glad I stepped up my game. Im sure you will be surprised too.

You're right. I started meal prepping this week and learned feral quick I don't know squat about portions and not all calories are equal. It's actually hard to get your calories up when eating clean!

[alm2]

I workout in the morning as well I eat 44 grams of egg whites 2 whole eggs 40-50 grams complex carbs oats and I drink 30 grams dextrose with 30 grams of whey during my workout the dextrose gives me the energy to push through hard workouts because the complex carbs digest so slow and I feel depleted after a few hard sets..then I have 50 grams dextrose and 50 grams whey after my workout then a full meal a hour after that at work.. I get half of my daily carbs during those 4 hours but iam fine with that I think my body responds well to that..if iam cutting everything is different though hope that helps

I've never used dextrose. Might have to look into that. What do you do different when cutting? For fueling your morning work out?

[Scorpion0922]

Ok, thanks for the info.

I am not a nutrition expert and I strongly suggest hiring a qualified nutrition expert. But here's my opinion;

#1 you do have a choice. Your employer is not holding a gun to your head to eat @ a buffet. That's an excuse and a cop out.

#2 your ratios are way off, rice at almost every meal? And potatoes? And THAT much a day in shakes? Plus the olive oil, plus the peanut butter? These are not ways to get lean.

#3 where are your greens? Asparagus, green beans, spinach. You're eating broccoli randomly? You don't "count" it? Everything that you eat counts towards your totals.

#4 You a grossly over training. ONE bodypart per day. 2-3 days on, day off. 2-3 days on, day off. Etc. Why aren't you training shoulders?

Diet, training need to change as needed. Some people need change every 2 weeks, some every 2 months, etc.

From here I (again) suggest getting with an expert. Someone you meet with every 2 weeks or so and have adjustments made as needed.

[alm2]

What ratio do you suggest?

[alm2]

Every where I read it suggest a ratio of 40g of protein/30g of carbs/30g of fat. Or at the least 50/25/25. That meal plan puts me at 2500 calories?

[Scorpion0922]

Bro, read what I wrote; you're eating a TON of rice, shakes, and fat. You're not going to get lean that way.

Did "everywhere you read" analyze YOU? YOUR age, YOUR goals, YOUR food allergies, How YOUR body reacts to certain foods, etc.?

[numbere]

Every where I read it suggest a ratio of 40g of protein/30g of carbs/30g of fat. Or at the least 50/25/25. That meal plan puts me at 2500 calories?

Macros have no meaning unless you're first calculated your maintenance calories.

The number of meals you eat per day doesn't really effect the way you look.

The way you look is mostly influenced by net calories and your level of physical activity.

I need some info in order to approximate your tree.

What are your stats?

How active are you during an average day?

[Scorpion0922]

Macros have no meaning unless you're first calculated your maintenance calories.

The number of meals you eat per day doesn't really effect the way you look.

The way you look is mostly influenced by net calories and your level of physical activity.

I need some info in order to approximate your tree.

What are your stats?

How active are you during an average day?

X2.......very well said

[alm2]

Macros have no meaning unless you're first calculated your maintenance calories.

The number of meals you eat per day doesn't really effect the way you look.

The way you look is mostly influenced by net calories and your level of physical activity.

I need some info in order to approximate your tree.

What are your stats?

How active are you during an average day?

Guys, I apologize for my ignorance. I'm not a newbie to lifting weights but I don't have a clue about counting calories. I wrestled growing up and so I've cut a lot of weight but all I had to do then was cut sodas and junk food and couple months later I was banging on 5% bf. Anyway thanks for dropping some knowledge on me. My stats are...
-30yrs old
-5'9"
-225 lbs
- probably 25-30% bf
- lift 6 days a week
- I sit at a desk for maybe half the day and on my feet walking for the other half.

I'm so new to this I'm not even sure that's the stats you need?

[KINGKONG]

I've never used dextrose. Might have to look into that. What do you do different when cutting? For fueling your morning work out?

No carbs during training and less carbs after usually just have a bannana and a few strawberrys in a blender with my protein post wo..

[alm2]

That is definitely lower calories than what I was eating before. So should I see what that does for me or should I go ahead and cut the carbs and fats some more?
Bud if I could afford professional advice I would. It would take all the guessing out of it. But I can't and there's so many conflicting opinions on how to do it.

[Scorpion0922]

I hear ya, then you're going to have to experiment with some trail and error.