Diet for building muscle

My day consists of six 400-600 calorie meals with between 25-40 grams of protein per meal. I eat one of the meals every 2-4 hours to keep my metabolism up throuought the day. Think about a fireplace. If you put a giant log on every 5-7 hours, what will be there at the end of the day? Chunks of smoldering wood. If you put on light kinnling every 2 or so hours, end of the day? Ash.

Here is an average daily meal plan for myself. NOTE: Drink at least 1 gal of water per day. Exercising makes your body need loads of water!

7:30am-Breakfast (lots of complex carbs at breakfast are good for all day energy)
-1 cup plain oatmeal (300 cal, 10g protein)
-2 egg whites (90 cal, 12g protein)
-1 (roughly) 12oz glass of milk (150 cal, 12g protein)
Meal total:540 cal, 34g protein Running total: 540 cal, 34g protein

11:00am-Lunch
Tuna sandwich (gotta be toasted )
-2 pieces whole wheat bread (200 cal, 10g protein)
-1 can of tuna (100 cal, 25g protein)
-2 pieces of fruit (100 cal, 3g protein)
Meal total: 400 cal, 38g protein Running total: 940 calories, 72g protein

2:30pm-Pre workout meal. Pleanty of protein here! A few carbs for workout energy, less if you want to burn fat as fuel instead of carbs.
-3 egg whites (135 cal, 18g protein)
-2 pieces whole wheat bread (200 cal, 10g protein)
-1 16oz glass of milk (200 cal, 16g protein)
Meal total: 535 calories, 44g protein Running total: 1475 calories, 116g protein

4:30pm-Post workout meal. Lots of fast digesting protein (eggs, powder, milk).
-1 scoop Optimmum 100% natural protein powder (130 cal, 24g protein)
-1 8oz glass of orange juice (100 cal, 3g protein)
-2 pieces of whole wheat bread. Toast (200 cal, 10 g protein)
Meal Total: 430 cal, 37g protein Running Total: 1905 cal, 153 grams of protein

6:45pm-Post run meal. Some simple carbs like juice to recover are necessary.
-1 8oz glass of orange juice (100 cal, 3g protein)
-1 cup of re-fried beans (200 cal, 16g protein)
-1 16oz glass of milk (200 cal, 16g protien)
Meal total: 500 cal, 35g protein Running total: 2105 cal, 188g protein

10:00pm-A few hours before bed. Small meal with low carbs. The energy from the carbs won't be used while you sleep, causing them to be stored as fat.
-1 scoop protein powder (130 cal, 24g protein)
-1 12oz glass milk (150 cal, 12g protein)
Meal total: 280 cal, 36g protein

Total for day: 2385 cal, 224g protein

Don't forget: WATER WATER WATER! Hope this helps.

 

your broscience is very strong

 

Your fireplace analogy is inaccurate and not supported by well-designed studies. While there are certain times when eating a large meal is disadvantageous, from a metabolic point of view meal frequency is irrelevant. That's not to say that eating 6 small meals a day is a bad thing, but it's very inconvenient for a lot of people and I'd rather not have them feel "fitness guilt" for eating a big meal.

Here is just one study regarding meal frequency/ short term starvation. Generally people subscribing to your school of thought view short term starvation as the devil and something that ends up decreasing a person's metabolic rate. Well, the opposite is true: Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvatio... [Am J Clin Nutr. 2000] - PubMed result

It actually takes about 3 days to reach "starvation mode" as many like to call it.

Also, protein is digested at a pretty set rate for each kind of protein, give or take a couple grams an hour depending on the protein matrix it is in when you eat it. So if you eat a huge steak with 80 grams of protein in it, the protein will digest at ~10 grams/hour until it is gone in ~8 hours. If you eat a 40 gram steak, it will probably be gone completely in 4 hours. Why would it just disappear? Your body is in a state of protein synthesis for 29 hours after a workout (http://jp.physoc.org/content/588/16/3119.abstract), so why would it all of a sudden decide "Oh shit I've had my 30 grams time to make some fat instead!". It's very very hard to each too much protein. Both my doctor and studies not funded by protein shake companies agree on this. The whole "you can't have more than 30 grams of protein in a meal" movement is pure broscience.

I used to believe all of that same stuff, but once I experimented with meal frequency and still got great results, I found it much harder to believe.


Oh, water is great though.

 

You have some valid points, however, I think there has been some miscommunication. First off, I was not claiming more than X amount of protein is bad, rather, you need at least 20-40 in each meal to constantly supply your muscles with protein. I also never claimed that your body makes fat when it has "had enough" protein. I said the if you intake carbs (that convert into energy), and don't use that energy up, it will be stored for reserve energy (fat). That isn't broscience, just science.

I also want to point out that none of the meals I suggested (aside from the before bed meal) were what I would consider small. They are medium sized meals that provide you with what the body needs. That's not to say you can't eat a big meal, I do it all the time. It's just not ideal to eat 3 feasts every 7 hours. With that, the calorie base I used was for someone of around my weight (165), therefore those who weigh less or more should adjust accordingly.

I'll admit, the fireplace reference was weak, but I was fresh off of two steamroller bowls and figured that a simple analogy would do better than an over worded explanation.

 

Fair enough. That is a valid fact. I didn't mean to focus on the wrong points. The 20-40 grams of protein thing is just something that I've heard a lot of people say and I thought you were subscribing to that school of thought. There is nothing at all wrong with the sample diet you posted, so I fully endorse that part of the post... and I mean endorse in the least douchey way possible

 

Hey russia, just curious, are you a member of BB.com?

 

eat 10 cooked eggwhites every day mad amounts of protein and weight gain supplements...and train HARD get some!

 

No, I'm not. I lurk the forums occasionally, but honestly a lot of people there are idiots. There are some amazingly smart people on there too, but their voices often get lost in the crowd. It seems that a lot of the time to be taken seriously on bb.com you have to already be ridiculously ripped, which I'm not; therefore, I'm going to wait to get some more impressive results so that I can post effectively on there.

 

Sorry to derail the thread, but Russia may I ask you something? What are you studying in school and how old are you?


Your intelligence belies your years. It's really quite impressive.

 

I agree with you there. I have been lurking there recently and have actually learnt some valuable information from some of the more experienced members. I have also read a lot of crap from idiots posting about their bicepts.

Op. Drink as much whole fat milk everyday as you can stomach. Try to get down a gallon everyday. You will pack on mass.

 

Thank you very much. I'm 20 years old and studying mechanical engineering. I'm also doing research in biomedical engineering/ nanotechnology, which is practically a second major on its own. I really wouldn't consider myself any more intelligent than any of my peers, but I do think my posts through and try to make sure they make sense. Anyone could replicate my posts if they did the same research (on fitness, not nanotechnology).




With that, let's get back to helping OP get hayoooge. Canada x 420 is right about milk. Personally I struggled to gain mass until I introduced a fairly large amount of milk into my diet.

I think a good way to modify GOMAD would be to reduce the daily amount of milk to however much was needed that day to reach caloric goals. I put on a lot of fat with GOMAD that I think could have been avoided if I used a smaller calorie surplus. I've heard 500 calories thrown around a lot as a "safe" caloric deficit/surplus (in terms of muscle loss/ fat gain, respectively), but it seems like a totally arbitrary number. I think the real number is individualized and might even change from day to day.

 

The best free website ever is Scoobys Home Bodybuilding Workouts. Scooby is a bodybuilder who has uploaded hundreds of workout videos as well as nutrition help. I urge anyone and everyone to see for themselves. Another great workout routine helper is Welcome to Scott Herman Fitness! Let's Reach Your Goals Together!.

 

i can make you a workout plan if you want. just tell me how many days a week you plan on going to the gym. also, the cheapest protein drink is the best. all whey protein is the same. despite what they tell you at the store

 

GOMAD stands for Gallon Of Milk A Day- it's the program Canada x 420 was referring to. It's a fairly popular weightgaining strategy. Speaking of milk- that's pretty much the only other thing I drink postworkout. What you drink immediately postworkout can make a difference, but what you eat in the following hours can be even more important. In most cases, you should try to make your postworkout meal the largest of the day.


I don't know about websites that will create a workout plan, but I know a lot that will give you information that you can use to create a workout plan for yourself. I agree about Scooby's site- that guy is a BOSS and very nice. I don't know much about Scott Herman, but I like the design of the site and I am a big proponent of the TRX bands, so it's probably a good resource.
Here's a few sites:
fitnessblackbook.com
bodyrecomposition.com (very very good articles about nutrition)
leangains.com
Jason Ferruggia's Renegade Strength & Conditioning (this site used to be much better, but there's still some nuggets of information to be found among all the advertising. I don't agree with all his views on nutrition, but he has very good workouts)
elitefts.com
startingstrength.com
relativestrengthadvantage.com (awesome site)
alanaragon.com (great info, but it gets very involved)

There's a lot more that I'm forgetting, but those are some of the main places I started off my research. I'd be careful about going to T-nation or bodybuilding.com, as some of the posters are morons. They do have great resources as well though.

PubMed home
If you have any kind of chemistry or biology background and a lot of common sense, you can look up actual studies on Pubmed. I find myself having to look up every other word just from reading the abstract, but half the time the article becomes entirely clear once you look up the fancy words. This is the most labor intensive way to get information, but also the best because you are reading primary sources. You also will inadvertently learn a ton about the body from all the terms that you look up. If you have common sense, you can judge how well a study corresponds to real life. For example, a very small sample size (<5 people) or unrealistic experimental setup means that you should probably move on to a better designed study. Also, pay attention to who the author is and who is funding the study. If it's a supplement company, move on to a better study.


Good luck, and happy reading.

 

It's hard to eat a lot of healthy food because it typically has a lot of fiber.

Snacks: baby carrots, celery with hummus

For your workout, you should really focus on back. In terms of purely putting on mass, back workouts are the second most effective after legs. Squats and Deadlifts are the King and Queen of mass building... and helpful as fuck for hockey. I'm not sure if anyone has posted Starting Strength or a similar program, but I highly recommend something like that to start off with lifting (you can find a wiki of the program online). You should do any program that you start until you stop seeing gains, then take a deloading week before changing things up. The name of the game is consistency and progress. Don't miss workouts, and push yourself to a new level every workout.
Also, throw in some circuit training and sprints. It's important to train as many energy systems as possible, because you end up using all of them in sports.

 

I generally don't snack on food because, for me, unscheduled snacking leads to grazing. When I do need something small in between meals I go for fruit or vegitables like apples, bananas, broccoli, and like Russia said baby carrots. I eat baby carrots like candy.

Vegetables are such wonderful snack food because you can eat piles of them to fill up your stomach without fattening yourself up.

As far as your workouts go, as Russia said, you must remember to work your back and shoulders. With that, just as important as eating balanced meals is constantly changing your workouts. When I started working out in 2006, I did the same 5 routines, in the same order, every week. After a year of no serious improvement, I decided to take working out more seriously.

Your muscles are very adaptable. After a very short time, they will get used to how you work them and they won't tear as much at the gym. I will work a different muscle group every day throuought the week, but the next week I will do them in a different order. Eg, mon-chest/triceps, tues-back/shoulders, wed-bi's/forearms, thurs-legs/abs, fri-chest/triceps again (but a different workout). The next week I'll do an entirely different order.

Along with constantly changing the order of my workouts, I also never do the exact same workout for any muscle group two weeks in a row. There are enough exercises for each muscle group that you will never have to do the exact same thing. If you can't find another exercise for something, at least change your reps for the next week.

For example, instead of doing 4 sets of 6-8 reps for dumbbell curls two weeks in a row, do a drop set for your first set the second week. A drop set means you do whatever amount of reps with the highest weight you can (we'll use 6-8), then, with no rest, drop the weight 20-30 pounds (or less with low initial weight), and do 6-8 more. Drop 3 or 4 times, then take your break. After that, do two more regular sets of 6-8 with high weight.

Muscle confusion is a very important aspect of weight lifting that doesn't get utilized by many people. I hope I was able to help you out and I would (as I'm sure Russia would as well) love to answer any other questions you have.