New Diet for 5X5 gains

mrpink6789

Lads and ladies,

I've always been on this site harping on about low fat this and low fat that, thankfully I have gotten down to a weight I'm pretty happy with. My issue now is gains in Stronglifts 5X5. Have been doing 5X5 for 12 weeks, currently on a 2 week break.

Current stats
Weight 87kg ish , 19% body fat (tape test)
Squats 105kg
Deadlift 125kg
OH Press 42.5kg
Bench 62.5kg

I failed so many times on Bench and OH press, primarily because I was on a calorie deficit.

My diet is usually...

Pre workout - Protein + Creapump, Hydroxycut, Fish Oil tablet, Multivitamins
Post workout - Protein
Breakfast - Porridge(30g) with 130ml Milk + Honey, coffee
Mid morning - 10 Hazlenuts
Lunch - 2 slices of brown bread, ham, butter, lettuce, cucumber + homemade salad, fruit yoghurt + homemade veg soup
Mid afternoon - 10 Hazlenuts + can of tuna
Dinner - usually 2 chicken breasts or a filet steak with some veggies, fruit yoghurt

This is the diet for 5 days a week, weekends change up a bit but generally try and eat decent.

Putting this in fitday...

cals - 2,300
fat 78g
Carbs 160g
Protein 227g

Everything but the bread is generally "good carbs" so not worried too much about that figure.

My maintenance according to the stickies is 2,800 cals. I want to get good gains now, especially on the OH press and Bench so what should I tweak in order to achieve this? I am going to add some creatine maybe but would rather get the diet sorted then rely on more supplements, not going to use the creapump anymore because i dont think it did anything for me!

any ideas on how to tweak it would be appreciated cheers.

boomtown84

it's very hard to increase your strength whilst in a calorie deficit so just up your kcals.
in your case i'd up the carbs as your protein and fats are high enough.

on the training side of things just keep at what you're doing.....with enough kcals you should see results.

deadlybuzzman

if it was me-id def throw in more carbs preworkout-more protein of some description mid morning and ditch the soup n replace it with an serious amount of meat to go with the bread-most peoples idea of a ham sandwich is a couple of slices which is fine for most people but ya gotta think n eat bigger to get bigger

Mellor

If you are trying to add mass then you need to eat above your maintenance.

deadlybuzzman

wow just after seeing your calorie total-thats way way too low, incrementaly increase your cal intake by 300 every week for 12 weeks and see how you like the gains.
2300 cal is one big dinner not a days total when gaining.
also swap the fillet steak for a sirloin etc thats bigger. damn, gettin hungry again now!

eroo

The OP is referring to making gains in the lifts and not adding size to his body if I'm not mistaken?

A good way to up your calories to your maintenance level would be to add a pint of low fat or full fat milk to your breakfeast or lunch and dinner. That is roughly an extra 640 calories. Remember to account for the calories used during training.

Mellor

I assumed that they wanted to remain at this weight, but get leaner (which means increasing muscle mass, cutting fat, and repeat). Maybe not.

To make gains in lifts, you need to lift more.

mrpink6789

Mellor wrote: »

I assumed that they wanted to remain at this weight, but get leaner (which means increasing muscle mass, cutting fat, and repeat). Maybe not.

To make gains in lifts, you need to lift more.

Remaining at the same weight is fine, give or take a few pounds. Ideally I'd like to drop the bidy fat and increase the muscle mass!