Take a look at my diet/exercise please

scoey

Hi. I'm 21 years old. Male, 6 foot tall and I weight just under 160pounds. I wouldn't class myself as very thin, just "normal". I cycle to and from University everyday. My university is on a big hill far away. It is a 1 hour cycle and 15 minute walk up the steeper part of the hill. The way back is of course much easier/less effort. I have been consistently losing weight since I arrived here just under 2 months ago, although my diet was not sorted then. I wasn't eating crap, but I wasn't eating enough. I'm looking to gain muscle. I'm hoping that those in the know can take a look at my diet/routine(I'm going to post the diet first) and make any suggestions or point out any flaws. I'm currently in Japan until next September, and although the Japanese diet is good at keeping people thin, it's pretty lousy for building muscle I reckon, since it seems to be almost entirely carbs, with a pitiful amount of protein. Whey and such things are hideously expensive here.

All milk mentioned is low fat(due to the fact that it's a good bit cheaper than the normal stuff here)

Here's the way today went, which would be pretty normal,

11am:small bowl of porridge, with milk and a bit of honey.(small bowl because a bag of porridge is costing me 5 euros here, i love porridge though..)

chicken fillet.
an egg

4pm:two very thick(which is the only way bread comes here) slices of wholemeal bread(the stuff that's slightly better than white bread), containing, some tinned fish(usually mackerel,no sauce),an egg, a slice of cheese,butter.

A pint of milk

7pm:250gms of natural yogurt with some raisins mixed in.

10 or 11pm: dinner: a lot of frozen vegetables(broccolli,carrots,etc,I'm pretty sure that's fine and healthy) a potato, a chicken fillet, about 350-400mls of milk.

I do my weightlifting at about 12:30am.

approx1:30am(after weights): pint of milk

I usually go to sleep about 2:30-3am and get up at about 10am...


Aside from that I usually eat a couple of pieces of fruit(apples and bananas mostly) at some stage during the day. I also drink a bit more milk, since i go through 2 litres a day. There's probably another egg in there somewhere too. These are the things that I don't plan... My diet is pretty much free of "junk food", since I genuinely prefer the taste of the stuff I am eating and most junk food just makes me feel like crap anyway.

I'm thinking of putting another 250gms of yogurt in there each day, since I buy it in a big 500gm tub and it would suit me to buy a new one everyday. What time would be good to eat that? In case it wasn't apparent, I love milk and yogurt. Also love cottage cheese, but it's too expensive here.

I'm looking for comments about the diet now really, I think I'll post about the exercise later, but roughly, my exercise consists of the aforementioned cycling, approx one hour to and another hour back from University monday-friday(I usually do as much cycling at the weekend too..), and about 45 minutes of weights 5 times a week. Doing a 5 day split which goes(arms,chest,shoulders/traps, legs, back).

Thanks for any help.

Cinful

More Fish? Add soy? Cheese?

scoey

Cinful wrote: »

More Fish? Add soy? Cheese?

Hmmm. Fresh fish is quite expensive. I'm eating quite a bit of the tinned stuff though. I'm avoiding soy as I've read some bad things about it containing estrogen and lowering testosterone levels. I'm not sure what cheese would add? Half decent cheese is fairly expensive here too and also I'm fairly sure my dairy needs are being met.

How about the quantity of food though guys? Does it sound ok for someone my size trying to gain some muscle?? Or should I eat less??

Colm_OReilly

Given the sheer volume of cycling you're fighting an uphill battle with muscle gain, as all that long endurance cardio is taking it's toll on muscle gain.

You've also a pitiful amount of protein, which needs to be addressed. Also, feed less on carbs. Are nuts expensive over there?

scoey

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

Given the sheer volume of cycling you're fighting an uphill battle with muscle gain, as all that long endurance cardio is taking it's toll on muscle gain.

You've also a pitiful amount of protein, which needs to be addressed. Also, feed less on carbs. Are nuts expensive over there?

Nuts are about the same price as in Ireland I reckon. Actually, today I had a decent sized pack of almonds. The problem with nuts is that I can't really help myself with them, and once I have a bag, I'll keep at it and it'll be empty fairly soon.

Is the amount of protein in what I listed really pitiful? To be honest, I feel like I'm going out of my way to even get that much. 2 litres of milk a day, several eggs, 2 chicken fillets, a tin or two of fish. 500g of natural yogurt. How much more should I be eating?