Advice on nutrition/supplements/creatine?

joker77

Hi,

I'm doing a lot of training at the moment, and some days am pretty tired. I eat sensibly enough, but at the moment I'm finding that I need to get the sugars in because of the amount of exercise, stuff like chocolate bars, lucozade sport, glucoze+water etc.

My regime goes something like
Monday - cycle to/from work (6 miles each way), gym at lunchtime (45mins upper body)
Tuesday - cycle to/from work (6 miles each way), gym at lunchtime (45mins upper body), football training in the evening (1.5-2 hours)
Wednesday - indoor football at lunchtime (45 minutes)
Thursday - cycle to/from work (6 miles each way), gym at lunchtime (45mins upper body), football training in the evening (1.5-2 hours)
Friday - gym at lunchtime (45mins upper body),
Saturday - 11-a-side football match (90mins)
Sunday - rest

I used to take Liver Tablets, for protein, am thinking about getting them again, but thought I'd write a post to look for some suggestions. Am not really interested in bulking up by taking those big protein powder things, thought about creatine before, want something sensible that will ensure my body is getting enough protein/carbs for the amount of work.

Cheers

livewire99

Hey Joker,
Number of recommendations and questions for you.

1. Firstly using sugar based food is bad. Sugar (Glucose) gives you a instant energy rush because of the high GI (Glyceamic Index) it has but after this initial rush you get a dramatic drop in energy levels. This all has to do with you insulin response etc. to sugar. You need low GI foods for a sustained energy level.

Low GI foods :

Oats
Barley
Brown Rice

Also have a diet in high fiber as this will reduce speed at which sugar is entered into the body.

2. What is you diet? Apart from Chocolate, Lucozade etc.

3. Your excercise regime is all upper body. Do you break your upper body into parts i.e. Chest/Tris one day, back, the other and so on.
You seem to be in the gym four days a week a good four day split would be the following,

Day 1 : Chest & Triceps
Day 2 : Back & Bi's
Day 3 : Off
Day 4 : Legs
Day 5 : Off
Day 6 : Shoulders
Day 7: Off

4. Protein powder won't give you big muscles its not that easy. You should take a Whey protien shake after every gym session religiously. Whey is a fast acting protien which will help repair your muscle and aid in recovery.

5. Think about a meal replacement shake. These will usually contain 40g of protein and up to 100g carbs. This would benefit you alot especially with all the excercise you are doing.

6. What weight are you?

7. Creatine don't worry about creatine yet.

8. Take a good multivitamin, EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids), Vit. C, tons of water you should be drinking at least 5litres a day with all the excercise you are doing.

Any of this help you out any more questions and will try and help you.

Livewire

joker77

Hey livewire - cheers for the reply

I'll respond as best I can:

1. + 2. Average daily diet weekdays - Breakfast 8.30: 2 slices brown bread toast, butter, marmalade, coffee. 11 - tea, sometimes fruit, sometimes toasted ham/cheese sandwich. Lunch 1.30 after gym, either a wrap/bag of crisps/tea or hot dinner from canteen. Mid-afternoon, something sugary/coffee. Evening meal - standard irish meat/potatoes/veg, or rice, or fish. Some evenings I eat again later on, sandwich or something, biscuits

3. For the 3/4 sessions I do in the gym, it's the same for each session - biceps/chest/triceps/shoulders/lats, more cardio than heavy weights

4. + 5. Are you suggesting that after lunchtime gym session have 1 of these shakes instead of or as well as lunch?

6. Weight 12st, height 5' 11''

7. ok

8. Drink lots of water, will think about getting multivitamins/cod liver oil for the mornings


Cheers

livewire99

Hey joker,

Will step through your response as best I can,

1.
Alright bro your diet could be better alot better, especially with all the training you are doing. Here are some recommendation for your diet.

Breakfast

Have this before your cycle into work. This breakfast has plenty of Carbs for energy and Protein for muscle maintainance.

Whey Protein Shake w/water - Fast acting protein because your body is in a slight catabolic state after sleep i.e. Body is burning muscle Not good.
Bowl of Porridge (Low GI - great for sustained release of energy) and plenty of fiber
Fruit - Has some sugar in the form of Fructose (Low GI sugar), Vitamins
Coffee - If you want

Snack
Fruit or some peanuts (Peanuts have some protien but some saturated fat too) so they are good and bad but you are burning plenty of calories

Lunch / Pre Workout

Need to eat something before you train so you may want to have your food before you train i.e. Hour before hand.

Chicken Breast, Veg and Brown Rice for example. Wouldn't eat a big meal keep it relatively small. Or even better make a big meal eat half before training and the other half after training.

Post Workout

Whey Protien Shake w/water- Fast acting protin to repair your muscles
Glucose drink - Luzocade, Gatorade etc. Replenish your muscle glycogen stores i.e. Energy stores within your muscles.

Half an hour to an hour after this the remiander of your lunch.


Dinner
Meat, veg, potatoes etc. Would stay away from too many potatoes or white rich, pastas as these are very starchey whcih is not good for maintaining energy. Have brown rice, brown pasta, wholemeal stuff is far better.

Before Bed

Protein Shake with milk - This is help your muscle repair and be fresh for the morning. Adding milk slows down the absorption of Protein into your body.

Suppliments

My recommendations:

- 3g EFA's with your Breakfast and 3g with Dinner.
- Good multivitamin make sure that it has at least 500mg of Vit C.
- 1-2g CLA with food - Some people swear by this others think its rubbish. Suppose to reduce your body storing fat around the stomach. I take it cause it does no harm.
- Creatine if you desire beneficial if you are training hard with weights
- Buy a 5kg tub of Whey Protien

PM and will recommend a good and cheap place to but suppliments.

2.

Change up your training not good need to break down your muscle groups otherwise you are fatiquing them and not developing them at all. See my last post for example split. Let me know if you want more detail.

3.

Whey is a suppliment so it in additin to your usual diet.

4.

You are a solid enough weight, whats your body fat like? Ask someone in the gym to give you a fat anaylsis

5.

Keep the water intake high.

Hope this helps a little, let me know if you need anything else bro,

livewire99

joker,
if you have a mate who can get you stuff all the better. As regards Whey some protein is lovely some is pure horrible you have to just try a few. I take USN products and they are by far the nicest tasting stuff out there. But again you will just have to find what you like. Falvoured or not flavoured your choice again find out what is nice.

As regards results the first thing first is to get used to the changes you are doing to your diet and training this will take a few weeks, then what you really need to do is fine tune everything then you will see dramatic increase in energy, strenght, stamina etc. but this will take some time so stick with and trust me you will see a difference.


Let me know if you need anything else.