Help/Critique with Diet/Training Plan

Omega28

Thanks for taking the time to read this

So I've been going to the gym now for sometime and I'm struggling to make any real gains. My goal is build muscle and be really toned/ I went from 68kg to currently 75kg since Feb but that's where it stopped with a BF % of 9.8.
I'm 6ft tall with a body type thats somewhere in between an ectomorph and Mesomorph body type but leaning more towards ecto, so my metabolism is sky high plus I'm in my mid 20s. I'm not looking to hit a particular weight as such but I'm looking to get more full and less skinny looking.

My training:

I go the gym approx. 5 days per week, I'm on a 5 day split, 2 days on, 1 day off. I'm off college its something to do. I would spend approx. 1hr 30mins/40mins in it.


It would usually consist of the following. 5-10 active warm up on either a bike or stepper. Then depending on the day, I might do back/biceps/ abs or legs/abs etc depending on the day. I would do some drop sets/supersets in there with 1 warm up set and 3 working sets per exercise so lets take back/biceps for example, I did around 25 sets today with moderate intensity, never really going to failure.

I would do abs nearly every single time I went to the gym using weights (10/15/20kg plates) and some leg raises on the pull up bar so I would do abs for approx. 15/20mins doing 4 exercises with 3/4 sets for 25 reps, then a cool down of 10/15 mins cardio, so around 20 mins in total per gym session.

My Diet:

I would consider it very clean, with room to eat more.

Breakie: Cup of oats with 15 or so blueberries, every second day I would have 1 egg and 2 egg whites. But I eat porridge every single day for breakie.

Lunch: Tin of wild salmon, avocado, spinach, quineoa. Or sometimes I cook 3 pieces of haddock/cod, just plain, no crumbs.
Along with probiotic yogurt, around 150grams of it, banana, apple two rice cakes with organic natural almond/peanut butter.

Dinner: Fish/Chicken/Steak with dark greens, half cup brown rice or sweet potatoes. I'd eat a good half cooked chicken or two pieces of salmon or a 8oz steak

Bedtime meal: Another cup of oats with strawberries/blueberries, yogurt, peanut butter rice cakes

I'd snack on rice cakes with almond/peanut butter, dry nuts and fruit plus lots of water, green tea.

The last two weeks I've went OFF bread/pasta, they were making me feel very bloated.

So am I eating enough to make decent mass gains? My energy isn't great to be honest, sometimes I feel I'm lacking something.

My sleep routine is a joke, I'd be doing well to get 5 hours of solid sleep a night, I know sleep is key for recovery/growth.

On my rest days, I would do some walking a brisk pace for 1hr/1hr-30mins

Thoughts/Advice would be greatly appreciated:)

Transform

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to read this

So I've been going to the gym now for sometime and I'm struggling to make any real gains. My goal is build muscle and be really toned/ I went from 68kg to currently 75kg since Feb but that's where it stopped with a BF % of 9.8.
I'm 6ft tall with a body type thats somewhere in between an ectomorph and Mesomorph body type but leaning more towards ecto, so my metabolism is sky high plus I'm in my mid 20s. I'm not looking to hit a particular weight as such but I'm looking to get more full and less skinny looking.

My training:

I go the gym approx. 5 days per week, I'm on a 5 day split, 2 days on, 1 day off. I'm off college its something to do. I would spend approx. 1hr 30mins/40mins in it.


It would usually consist of the following. 5-10 active warm up on either a bike or stepper. Then depending on the day, I might do back/biceps/ abs or legs/abs etc depending on the day. I would do some drop sets/supersets in there with 1 warm up set and 3 working sets per exercise so lets take back/biceps for example, I did around 25 sets today with moderate intensity, never really going to failure.

I would do abs nearly every single time I went to the gym using weights (10/15/20kg plates) and some leg raises on the pull up bar so I would do abs for approx. 15/20mins doing 4 exercises with 3/4 sets for 25 reps, then a cool down of 10/15 mins cardio, so around 20 mins in total per gym session.

My Diet:

I would consider it very clean, with room to eat more.

Breakie: Cup of oats with 15 or so blueberries, every second day I would have 1 egg and 2 egg whites. But I eat porridge every single day for breakie.

Lunch: Tin of wild salmon, avocado, spinach, quineoa. Or sometimes I cook 3 pieces of haddock/cod, just plain, no crumbs.
Along with probiotic yogurt, around 150grams of it, banana, apple two rice cakes with organic natural almond/peanut butter.

Dinner: Fish/Chicken/Steak with dark greens, half cup brown rice or sweet potatoes. I'd eat a good half cooked chicken or two pieces of salmon or a 8oz steak

Bedtime meal: Another cup of oats with strawberries/blueberries, yogurt, peanut butter rice cakes

I'd snack on rice cakes with almond/peanut butter, dry nuts and fruit plus lots of water, green tea.

The last two weeks I've went OFF bread/pasta, they were making me feel very bloated.

So am I eating enough to make decent mass gains? My energy isn't great to be honest, sometimes I feel I'm lacking something.

My sleep routine is a joke, I'd be doing well to get 5 hours of solid sleep a night, I know sleep is key for recovery/growth.

On my rest days, I would do some walking a brisk pace for 1hr/1hr-30mins

Thoughts/Advice would be greatly appreciated:)

everything works but nothing works forever

what are you currently squatting and deadlifting? What can you weighted chin and dip?

Re nutrition - double everything at most meals.

Omega28

My strength isn't great it has to be said, for squats, I put 50kg on the bar for 6-8 reps. For deadlifts, its not far off that. I would like to increase my strength but finding it very hard

Transform

Not a hope in hell you are going to hit your goal unless you get significantly stronger

Omega28

any tips for trying to get stronger or is it just a matter of eating more, light heavier with less reps

colman1212

Eat more. Eat all the eggs, not just the whites, and have them every morning.
Weight yourself every week and keep adding calories until your weight is going up.
Get a more structured training plan.
Focus on the big lifts (squats, deadlifts, bench, weighted chins/dips).
Keep adding weight to the bar every week.
Sort your sleep out. If you are just lying there not sleeping, try adding some magnesium to your diet. Sleep is as important as diet and training.
Fish oil and a multi-vit is a good idea too.
As for the walking, You are burning off all those calories you need to get stronger. Cut it out for a while at least until you see where you are. Slow intensity cardio is a tool used to burn calories when someone is trying to cut weight.
If possible, get your bloods done to see where your at. It will identify any lacking areas.

Transform

get a coach to look at your entire program and technique.

Also look at at least 1-2 years as a good training cycle

Omega28

colman1212 wrote: »

Eat more. Eat all the eggs, not just the whites, and have them every morning.
Weight yourself every week and keep adding calories until your weight is going up.
Get a more structured training plan.
Focus on the big lifts (squats, deadlifts, bench, weighted chins/dips).
Keep adding weight to the bar every week.
Sort your sleep out. If you are just lying there not sleeping, try adding some magnesium to your diet. Sleep is as important as diet and training.
Fish oil and a multi-vit is a good idea too.
As for the walking, You are burning off all those calories you need to get stronger. Cut it out for a while at least until you see where you are. Slow intensity cardio is a tool used to burn calories when someone is trying to cut weight.
If possible, get your bloods done to see where your at. It will identify any lacking areas.

Thanks for the advice.

I'll start eating full eggs from now, but will that raise cholestoral levels?

It's hard to keep eating and eating, I do be so stuffed.

I'll stick the compound exercises and add more weight from now on, what if I add more weight and can only can get 3-4 reps?

Is there a good multivitamin and fish oil you recommend? Or are they all the same?

Yes my sleeping routine is a joke, going to sleep at 2/3am, waking up at 5am, then sleeping from 6-10am, a broken 5 hours sleep.

What does magnesium do?

colman1212

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

I'll start eating full eggs from now, but will that raise cholestoral levels?

It's hard to keep eating and eating, I do be so stuffed.

I'll stick the compound exercises and add more weight from now on, what if I add more weight and can only can get 3-4 reps?

Is there a good multivitamin and fish oil you recommend? Or are they all the same?

Yes my sleeping routine is a joke, going to sleep at 2/3am, waking up at 5am, then sleeping from 6-10am, a broken 5 hours sleep.

What does magnesium do?

I've had 6 large eggs for breakfast every morning for the last 3 years. My cholestrol levels are perfect. Eggs are high in good fats, not bad fats. Check out the difference between HDL and LDL if you are concerned.

Maybe start out at a weight you can lift comfortably for 6 reps on the big lifts. Then add weight each week. After 12+ weeks if you end up at a one rep max, thats fine.
Yeah just get a basic multi-vitamin and fish oil, I can't remember what brands we have in ireland. I'm in oz and use the swisse range but they are all similar.

A lot of people that have problems with broken sleep are deficient in magnesium taking a supplement will generally help. Obviously the best thing to do is get a blood test, but if thats not an option, try magnesium.

Mellor

You've added 10% to your body weight so far. So the diet that worked at 68kg is not going to continue to work unless you are increasing the food in tandem with your weight.

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

Then depending on the day, I might do back/biceps/ abs or legs/abs etc

Why no chest, triceps or shoulders?
That's a pretty imbalanced program. You havent listed the exercises you currently do, but based on everything else, chances are they aren't chosen very well.

runawaybishop

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

It's hard to keep eating and eating, I do be so stuffed.

I didn't see milk in your diet plan - start drinking lots of it.

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

My training:

I go the gym approx. 5 days per week, I'm on a 5 day split, 2 days on, 1 day off. I'm off college its something to do. I would spend approx. 1hr 30mins/40mins in it.


It would usually consist of the following. 5-10 active warm up on either a bike or stepper. Then depending on the day, I might do back/biceps/ abs or legs/abs etc depending on the day. I would do some drop sets/supersets in there with 1 warm up set and 3 working sets per exercise so lets take back/biceps for example, I did around 25 sets today with moderate intensity, never really going to failure.

I would do abs nearly every single time I went to the gym using weights (10/15/20kg plates) and some leg raises on the pull up bar so I would do abs for approx. 15/20mins doing 4 exercises with 3/4 sets for 25 reps, then a cool down of 10/15 mins cardio, so around 20 mins in total per gym session.

Your routine seems a bit ad hoc and you are concentrating a lot on your abs. Do a simple program to build strength, like stronglifts or starting strength, that focuses on big compound movements adding weight each week in a linear fashion. Spending half your gym time on abs/cardio isn't going to help you get bigger.

colman1212

I did the whole starting strength, GOMAD deal.
While I think it is great for putting on strength, it also leaves you with imbalances all over the shop. Weak upper back, rear delts, weak glutes, hamstrings, calfs, arms. Massive quads though lol.

runawaybishop

colman1212 wrote: »

I did the whole starting strength, GOMAD deal.
While I think it is great for putting on strength, it also leaves you with imbalances all over the shop. Weak upper back, rear delts, weak glutes, hamstrings, calfs, arms. Massive quads though lol.

If you were drinking lots of milk and putting on weight why did you stop drinking it? If you find you cant put on muscle you need to eat more. You said you struggle to fit any more food into you, milk is a lot easier to cram into you when you are full.

I'm not really sure why you think moving from squats, deadlifts, bench, press and row to back and ab work is a good thing and not at all imbalanced.

SS/Stronglifts are good core programs, if you want to do gunz and abs afterwards for assistance then do so, but dont do gunz/abs as your core workout.

Go back to stronglifts/SS, drink milk.

Mellor

runawaybishop wrote: »

If you were drinking lots of milk and putting on weight why did you stop drinking it? If you find you cant put on muscle you need to eat more. You said you struggle to fit any more food into you, milk is a lot easier to cram into you when you are full.

I'm not really sure why you think moving from squats, deadlifts, bench, press and row to back and ab work is a good thing and not at all imbalanced.

SS/Stronglifts are good core programs, if you want to do gunz and abs afterwards for assistance then do so, but dont do gunz/abs as your core workout.

Go back to stronglifts/SS, drink milk.

That's not the OP.

runawaybishop

Mellor wrote: »

That's not the OP.

fml

Heat_Wave

Mellor wrote: »

That's not the OP.

runawaybishop wrote: »

fml

LOL

Omega28

Heat_Wave wrote: »

LOL

Lol I was wondering what you were on about but thanks for the advice guys

I've started to drink milk from today, a glass with lunch, a glass with dinner and ill have a glass with cocoa powder mixed in before I hit the hay tonight. The only thing with drinking milk with my meals though, will it make me feel sick and ill be unable to finish my dinner because the milk is making me bloated?

Sorry just to confirm my 5 day split consists of all body parts, legs, shoulders, arms, chest, back, abs and cardio and I'd do a lot of compound exercises, just not with heavy weights. For example just to give you an idea of the weights I'm using, for dumbell chest press I'd use 22.5kgs for 6-8 reps. Incline dumbell press id use the 20kgs for 6-8, comfortably, not really killing myself here.

How do you guys find the time to cook so many meals and prep them? Can one of you guys kindly post your eating schedule and let me compare it with mine?

I just can't seem to get stronger or put any weight on, I've plateaued and it's hard to keep motivation up when you don't see results!

I got myself a multivitamin and some fish oils there yesterday and iv started them today.

My sleep is still awful, I'll need to improve on this, too much laptop before bedtime I think.

Transform

your sleep is NOT the limiting factor

Your lack of food prep and willingness to push hard in training is your limiting factor.

i know you're not looking to be a powerlifter but sometimes vids like this help you to understand that there is no easy way - just work your fu@king ass off on the basics, expect to be sore from sessions and if you are not enjoying the process then be happy at where you're currently at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_LQtc0ALQ

amazingemmet

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

How do you guys find the time to cook so many meals and prep them? Can one of you guys kindly post your eating schedule and let me compare it with mine?
.

Right firstly f*ck milk it'll work against you in terms of physique and digestion. if you want high calorie cans of coconut milk and some protein are a better choice.

For food prep you need to firstly start cooking in batches not just single meals. Here's a link to get you start http://www.silverhydra.com/2011/10/meat-slop/

Also just finding short cuts in food prep, say you want to eat 300g of beef every day. Then you could cook fresh everyday or just roast a joint of beef once and cut it into portions.

Realistically it only takes 20-30 mins to prep meals in the evening. Quicker if you have things prepped.

Blacktie.

amazingemmet wrote: »

Right firstly f*ck milk it'll work against you in terms of physique and digestion. if you want high calorie cans of coconut milk and some protein are a better choice.

Why is this? I've started to bulk up so I've added a pint of milk to my meals instead of water. It's an easy 700 extra calories I figure. How will this work against physique and digestion? Because of it's macro profile?

amazingemmet

If you can get your hands on raw milk, then go for it other wise just don't use milk. Its not that high protein, its got loads of sugar in it and a whole host of other reasons. I've never had a client not respond well to ditching pasteurised homogenised milk.

http://www.bant.org.uk/bant/pdf/BANTnews/articles/WHY_A2_MILK_HAS_ENTERED_BRITAIN_BANT_NEWS_JUL2013_ISSUE_50.pdf

brian plank

Blacktie. wrote: »

Why is this? I've started to bulk up so I've added a pint of milk to my meals instead of water. It's an easy 700 extra calories I figure. How will this work against physique and digestion? Because of it's macro profile?

Sangre

amazingemmet wrote: »

If you can get your hands on raw milk, then go for it other wise just don't use milk. Its not that high protein, its got loads of sugar in it and a whole host of other reasons. I've never had a client not respond well to ditching pasteurised homogenised milk.

http://www.bant.org.uk/bant/pdf/BANTnews/articles/WHY_A2_MILK_HAS_ENTERED_BRITAIN_BANT_NEWS_JUL2013_ISSUE_50.pdf

Off topic but finding your contributions to forum on your return really interesting. Hope you stick around and keep posting.

Ant11

Sangre wrote: »

Off topic but finding your contributions to forum on your return really interesting. Hope you stick around and keep posting.

Yep +1 Emmet

amazingemmet

Aww you guys

Sangre

/no homogenised

Transform

Sangre wrote: »

/no homogenised

that was LMFAO and add my two cents to say im not a milk fan either but BIG butter fan

Heat_Wave

How much milk per day is too much?