new member diet advice please :)

hi all, only just joined the forum and read through alot of the diet threads and people seem to be very helpfull so i thought it would be a good idea to put mine on here to see what people think of it. i'll put abit about me to give you an idea how its going so far:
height: 5ft 11
weight: 93kg
trained on my own for about a year with poor results, never got motivated etc, but got a training partner about 8months ago and have been progressing not too badly, but last month or so gains have slowed down quite alot, not really got a target of what i want to get to as i dont know what would be realistic, would 100kg's by christmas not gaining too much fat if i can help it be realistic? diet as is:

breakfast: 1 sachet of oats so simple, 1 x CNP pro mass

10am: 3 rounds of white bread toast with peanut butter

12.30: extra large brown bread bap with 1 tin of tuna and light mayo, apple and malt loaf

15.00: CNP pro mass

16.00: 2 bananas

17.00: train 1 hour

18.00 CNP pro MR

tea around 7-7.30, kind of resistricted as to what i have here as i still live at home but we normally have some kind of meat and veg's (mums quite good really)

maybe fruit at around 9ish too

any help/advice at all wuld be greatly appreciated

cheers  ricky

Firstly you need to figure out how many calories you need to maintain you current weight with current exercise your doing, basically if you want to put on weight then your going to have to have a calorie intake slightly above your maintenance level.

For example :

Maintenance Level : 3000
Calories Burned in Gym : 500
Calorie Intake Target : +3500

If his maintenance is 3000kcal and he burns 500kcal in the gym, consuming 3500 will not be sufficient for growth.

To the OP:  what is your bodyfat percentage?  If it is moderate (~15%), then I would recommend eating (roughly) 20kcal per lb.  You are 204 lbs, so aim for around 4000kcal a day.  That's a lot of (clean) food.

Looking at your current diet, I would say that you are not eating enough protein form whole food sources.  Shoot for 300g of protein a day, 90g of fat, and 500g of carbs.  See how this helps you gain and adjust accordinly.

sel

ok a few things stick out here:

Too much powder (not enough whole food protein sources)

Some poor carb choices (white bread) - swap to complex
 
Good fats?
 
Fruit?
 
Veg?
 
Protein source @ 16.00
 
Last meal of the day?
 
Some good articles to the right of this page, some containing diets that can be tailored, have a look see.

selector


If his maintenance is 3000kcal and he burns 500kcal in the gym, consuming 3500 will not be sufficient for growth.

To the OP:  what is your bodyfat percentage?  If it is moderate (~15%), then I would recommend eating (roughly) 20kcal per lb.  You are 204 lbs, so aim for around 4000kcal a day.  That's a lot of (clean) food.

Looking at your current diet, I would say that you are not eating enough protein form whole food sources.  Shoot for 300g of protein a day, 90g of fat, and 500g of carbs.  See how this helps you gain and adjust accordinly.

sel

hence the + in front of the 3500 ;)

J K D


ok a few things stick out here:

Too much powder (not enough whole food protein sources)

Some poor carb choices (white bread) - swap to complex
 
Good fats?
 
Fruit?
 
Veg?
 
Protein source @ 16.00
 
Last meal of the day?
 
Some good articles to the right of this page, some containing diets that can be tailored, have a look see.

Agree with all of the above.  I don't like all this powder business, what ever happened to REAL FOOD!  Powders are useful here and there but don't become too reliant on them.


Also not keen on a lot of the carbs coming from bread, especially white bread (UGH!).

hollowBallistix

hence the + in front of the 3500 ;)

Just spotted that , my bad.

I believe a huge emphasis must be placed on caloric excess when bulking.  Muscle gain is not a massive priorty for the body, and extra calories in abundance are very important for most people.

sel

thanks for all the responses guys, going to swap my protein shake in the morning to some poached eggs, and try and make up some better dinners for work with a few veg's in and maybe chicken breasts.  white breads going out the window too, have some wholegrain instead.

to get to 4000kcals a day would it help to have a meal before bed? or do i not want much to eat before bed?

thanks

Ideally slow digesting protein before bed is best, along with slow carbs too.

Cottage cheese on toast is a winner :)

sel