Diet/Training Program

K09

Hi,
Looking for some advice on diet. Am I eating enough for my training? I want to maintain current weight and build more muscle.
How could I improve my diet and what else should I be eating? Find myself lacking energy at times too. Is this down to diet?

Thanks!

Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 12stone
Aims: Build strength/muscle. Increase fitness & stamina

DIET:
9am: Porridge with full fat milk and banana
11am: brown bread toast with butter and jam, and tea (no sugar)
12pm: orange(small)
1pm: Lunch - 1.5brown bread sandwiches with chicken/cheese; or pasta; with glass of milk.
2pm: Apple
3pm: Organic Low Fat Yoghurt 125g; Orange(small)
4pm: 2rivita crackers with low fat cottage cheese, and tea (no sugar)
8pm: chicken stir-fry with rice or noodles or cous cous; or pasta with chicken; or omelette(3egg); or fish with baked potato; or chicken curry with rice
9pm: rivita cracker with hummus and green tea
10pm: 700g Casein with low fat milk

** on gym days I eat a chocolate bar (mars/snickers) before gym. (go to gym before eat lunch)
** drink 3litres of water daily. 4 if training
*** supplements: cod liver oil - 1 each morning

TRAINING:
Mon: 7mile run
Tue: Rest
Wed: Football or Run - 1hr
Thurs: Gym - weights - lower body
Fri: Gym - weights - upper body
Sat or Sun: 8-10 mile run

Mellor

K09 wrote: »

Hi,
Looking for some advice on diet. Am I eating enough for my training? I want to maintain current weight and build more muscle.

Putting on muscle means putting on weight.
You might want to cut fat to get back down later, but in the short term you have to increase.

10pm: 700g Casein with low fat milk

70g I hope

** on gym days I eat a chocolate bar (mars/snickers) before gym. (go to gym before eat lunch)
** drink 3litres of water daily. 4 if training
*** supplements: cod liver oil - 1 each morning

Seriously a mars bar before gym, do you think thats the best option?

TRAINING:
Mon: 7mile run
Tue: Rest
Wed: Football or Run - 1hr
Thurs: Gym - weights - lower body
Fri: Gym - weights - upper body
Sat or Sun: 8-10 mile run

If I was lookign to bulk up, I'd rather do more weights and less long runs.
I prob swap the monday run for a weights session.

Also, 'lower body" and "upper body" means nothing. You could be wastign your time altogether in there. What exercises exactly are you doing.

gymsoldier

K09 wrote: »

I want to maintain current weight and build more muscle.

Just as "Mellor" mentioned.

K09 wrote: »

DIET:
9am: Porridge with full fat milk and banana CARBS
11am: brown bread toast with butter and jam, and tea (no sugar) CARBS
12pm: orange(small) CARBS
1pm: Lunch - 1.5brown bread sandwiches with chicken/cheese; or pasta; with glass of milk. CARBS, LOW PROTEIN
2pm: Apple CARBS
3pm: Organic Low Fat Yoghurt 125g; Orange(small) LOW CARBS
4pm: 2rivita crackers with low fat cottage cheese, and tea (no sugar) CARBS, LOW PROTEIN
8pm: chicken stir-fry with rice or noodles or cous cous; or pasta with chicken; or omelette(3egg); or fish with baked potato; or chicken curry with rice CARBS, LOW/MODERATE PROTEIN
9pm: rivita cracker with hummus and green tea CARBS
10pm: 700g Casein with low fat milk PROTEIN

Your diet is mainly carbohydrates, and needs a major overhaul.
Check the stickies for ideas.

K09 wrote: »

** on gym days I eat a chocolate bar (mars/snickers) before gym. (go to gym before eat lunch)

Your joking yeah?

K09 wrote: »

TRAINING:
Mon: 7mile run
Tue: Rest
Wed: Football or Run - 1hr
Thurs: Gym - weights - lower body
Fri: Gym - weights - upper body
Sat or Sun: 8-10 mile run

As "Mellor" already highlighted, if your goals are building muscle, then your training is crap. Again search the fourms.

K09

That bad!?

Well my aim is

Aims: Build strength/muscle. Increase fitness & stamina

So doing running to increase fitness and stamina.

I go to gym @lunch so feel a little hungry beforehand. What should I eat before gym? Don't want to eat a sandwich or pasta as feel it would come back up in gym!

Thanks.

metamorphosis

If you want to build muscle and increase your fitness it does not at all require you to do a 7 mile run, a 10 mile run and another hour of cardio on top of that.

Read the stickies in diet and nutrition, seriously a mars bar ! If you're hungry have a banana/apple/small natural yogurt but if your diet is decent it should be fixed around your training.

If you want to build muscle-overhaul your lifting - maybe full body M,W,F and a little cardio T,T and S with sunday as a rest. By a little cardio i mean 30min and if you're sore go easy on the intensity. There's millions of much better options to gaining your aims that are better than what you are currently doing.

have you read the stickies?? And read the stickies in nutrition and diet too?? These will narrow down what you are asking essentially.

Like asked - what exercise are you actually doing in your upper/lower split?

Your goals are in the short term conflicting with each other. How you approach them will change your programme. Which is the most important of;

Weight Maintenance?
Strength Building?
Stamina & Overall Fitness?

rate them in terms of short-term importance and also long-term importance.

You're eating junk for most of them though.

K09

Is cottage cheese not high quality protein? and hummus?

My gym session is...
Lower: split squats, step-ups, calf raise, leg raise(hamstrings), romanian deadlift
Upper: Flat Dumbell Press, Incline Dumbell press, Flat flys, chins, seated row, close grip pulldown

3 sets of each.

Mellor

K09 wrote: »

Is cottage cheese not high quality protein? and hummus?

Cottage cheese is a good source of protein. It's basically caesin.
But you are eating a tiny amount of it, its almost irrelevant. Even if you are smearing two ryvita crackers in it, its prob only 50g of cottage cheese, which is about 5g of protein.
carbs
Chicken or fish is good too. But you aren't eating much of it.

Hummus its mostly starchy carbs with some protein. Not really worth counting. Everything else is carbs, a lot of which are sugars.

The protein source should be the main part of every meal, with a small few carbs added in. Your doing the opposite, each meal is carbs, with a bit of protein on the side

Satanta

on top of what everyone else has said, I would stop doing the back to back gym sessions. Try spreading them to different ends of the week. Train intensely during these sessions and you shouldnt be able to go and do the same the next day. The next day you'll need to eat lots of protein to recover

K09

Mellor wrote: »

Cottage cheese is a good source of protein. It's basically caesin.
But you are eating a tiny amount of it, its almost irrelevant. Even if you are smearing two ryvita crackers in it, its prob only 50g of cottage cheese, which is about 5g of protein.
carbs
Chicken or fish is good too. But you aren't eating much of it.

Hummus its mostly starchy carbs with some protein. Not really worth counting. Everything else is carbs, a lot of which are sugars.

The protein source should be the main part of every meal, with a small few carbs added in. Your doing the opposite, each meal is carbs, with a bit of protein on the side

An egg is only 5g too but eggs very good source of protein??
How much chicken/fish should I eat?

I eat lot of carbs as thought I need them when doing lot of training - gym and running. If I don't eat carbs I feel very hungry. Apparently have a high metabolism

You are addicted to carbs, thats why you feel hungy.

Most people not paying attention to what they eat are addicted to carbs. There are genuinely withdrawal symptoms when cutting down on them, hunger pangs are expected, but they are a false pang from memory.

Get your kcals from Proteins and fats, and supplement your training with some carbs. The only time you need carbs is after training to replenish what you've taken out. That being said, you don't need much at all.

Eggs are protein rich as 1 large egg contains ~ 100kcals, and ~ 6/7g of protein and fat in there too. Approximately 16kcals per g of protein.

Hummus contains 4g of carbohdydrate for every g of protein, and has ~30kcals per g of protein ingested.

With respect to "how much of x can I eat", the answer is and always will be "it depends". You need to work from your maintenance calorie point, discover how many calories you should be eating to do x (where x is lose weight/maintain weight/put on weight) and then eat that many calories while carefully balancing the requisite proteins/fats/carbs.

A balanced diet is not 60%+ carbs. If you eat approx 1.5g-2g protein per kg of bodyweight a day, that is a good start. Then try and take in 1g-1.5g fat per kg of bodyweight a day, and then see what calories are left, there should still be considerable leeway to eat more proteins and more fats than this, and also to have some carbs (inevitable).

Use something like www.fitday.com or mynetdiary iphone app to track everything you eat for a while at least, you will learn a hell of a lot about what you put into yourself.

Satanta

Everyone that posts here is going to tell you you need to eat more protein, and reduce your carb intake. They are posting that because it is a tried, tested and proven formula. They all know this from experience. You should listen.

Mellor

K09 wrote: »

An egg is only 5g too but eggs very good source of protein??
How much chicken/fish should I eat?

1 egg is 5g, 1 eggs isn't enough protein for anyone.
Good source does not mean good quantity.

Lots of chicken and fish and red meat. Seriously.
At 12 stone, aim for 170g of protein a day a day.

3 eggs = 20g
240g chicken = 60g
250-275g Steak = 70g
100g Cottage Cheese = 10g

That's 160g, you'll make up the rest with the other stuff in your day. That's not even close to the daily calories you need, so you have room for carbs on top if you want.

I eat lot of carbs as thought I need them when doing lot of training - gym and running. If I don't eat carbs I feel very hungry. Apparently have a high metabolism

Protein gives you energy too.
If you cut out carbs only, of course you'll be hungry. As you'll be under eating.
Cut some carbs out and replace it with protein and you won't be hungry.

Look at it this way;
A mars bar
50g Plain Pasta (this is a tiny portion - no sauce or meat added)
240g chicken breast

All have about the same cals, which do you think is more satisfying?
Which is more filling? Weigh out 50g pasta to see how little it is.

Most people who think they have a high metabolism aren't eating enough. There are countless threads where they say "I eat loads, must be a high metabolism" or "i'm a hard gainer, I eat loads of protein".
They're wrong, they simply don't eat enough.

K09

Hi,

Attached is details of yesterdays diet. I have started to log on myfitnesspal.

I played game of football yesterday so should I be getting more calories in?? Guess I could add scrambled egg in at breakfast and more milk??

I would like to increase my strength as well as get really fit but this not possible? Or is it a case of eating lots more? Gym trainer told me I should be eating between 3-4k in calories. He right?

Thanks for the help!

Mellor

Yeah he is about right.
you around 80kg right? Which means maintenance is about 2600 cals, add in your training, and then some extra cals to build muscle and 3000-4000 is spot on. closer to 4000 on training days.

A few comments of your food diary. There's not need to go for low fat milk, and low fat yogurts. First of all dietary fat doesn't cause body fat. 400 cals of yogurt is all the same no matter if its fat free or 5%, you want calories in, 4000cal isn't easy, its harder if you are eating fat free versions as you need to eat more.

Breakfast looks good, lunch could do with some more, its only 350cals, that's a weight loss lunch, not a muscle building lunch tbh.
your total cals is wrong btw, its more that 2100 or so. For a start, you have 1oz of chicken in your dinner, that's like 1 forkfull. You prob had 6-8 oz. Watch for that. The total on fitday is only helpful if portions are accurate.

This might also apply to the fruit. to me it looks liek you are afraid of putting on fat, lots of low cal snacks, the type women eat to be "healthy", ryvits, fat free yogurts etc. Scre that. You need calories. Hand fulls on nuts, peabut butter, fill that lunch pizza with mayo and avocado.

K09

Hi,

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated!

I am currently 76kg and trying to build strength and get to over 80kg.

Based off the attached details of my diet I need to increase my daily calorie/protein intake.

Breakfast seems fine - some mornings I have salmon and plan to get up earlier to cook scrambled eggs.

Lunch can really be improved. But I don't know what to add other than sandwich. Should I be targeting 1000calories here? Any lunch meals/sandwiches that you can suggest? I have also been drinking glass of full fat milk at lunch so probably can increase this.

Any other suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks!!