Working Out: What should I eat?

[Freakin]

I've been working out the last couple week and I'm mainly focused on building muscle mass.

Everyone says "Eat lots of protein", but seriously, do I just eat a steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I would get sick of steak quickly... I know that health food stores have weightgain 3000 type of protein powder, but is that my only other option?

eat 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. Space it out into approximately equal portions. You also need a fair bit of good carbohydrates like whole wheat bread and oatmeal. Lots of water too.

[Reef]

you actually need carbs as well.. like a 2:1 ratio of carbs:protein for meals after you work out. Tuna is a really good protein source. Any kind of meat is good also.

[edfurlong]

Eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, pork, rice and beans, milk, beef jerky. If you are skinny then just stuff your face, its not rocket science.

should be at least 1.5 of protein etc etc

[diebitter]

What's your body type?

ectomorph - skinny, with defined musculature already
mesomorph - averaage, some muscle mass pre-working out
endomorph - tending to fat


This shapes the answer.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
What's your body type?

ectomorph - skinny, with defined musculature already
mesomorph - averaage, some muscle mass pre-working out
endomorph - tending to fat


This shapes the answer.

[/ QUOTE ]

pretty much ectomorph

[diebitter]

Stuff your face. The harder you work out, the more you need to stuff. Go for highly staggered sets (so say 3 sets of bench press - 15 reps light weight, 10 medium, 5-6 HEAVY (but work up to that for the first few weeks)).

Eggs (big-ass omelettes), steaks, chicken with the skin on, pork, beef. If you do shakes, these are on top of all this.


Don't know if you want exercise advice, so ignore the following if you don't, but:

I'd even say stick to the large body-part exercises, and forget bicep curls etc. Do heavy leg work (squats - and warm up with 20 reps for these), back work (lotsa chinning, lots heavy rows), chest work (benching and some flies, but mainly benching), and shoulder work (mainly shoulder press, the heavy benching/rowing will service the front/rear deltoids). Pullover is a good to add too, but optional - but it must end with a very heavy set.

Forget the biceps/triceps/calves/forearm stuff and put ALL your effort into the above. (but do some lower back/stomach exercise too to stop it getting strained)

Nothing develops you faster, IMHO, than heavy squatting. But you must progress into it (it doesn't take as long as you'd think if you progress steadily and don't go mad).

Oh, and do losts of warming up/stretching before and after all this, especially to warm up your torso/lower back/abdomen

[edfurlong]

[ QUOTE ]
Stuff your face. The harder you work out, the more you need to stuff. Go for highly staggered sets (so say 3 sets of bench press - 15 reps light weight, 10 medium, 5-6 HEAVY (but work up to that for the first few weeks)).

Eggs (big-ass omelettes), steaks, chicken with the skin on, pork, beef. If you do shakes, these are on top of all this.


Don't know if you want exercise advice, so ignore the following if you don't, but:

I'd even say stick to the large body-part exercises, and forget bicep curls etc. Do heavy leg work (squats - and warm up with 20 reps for these), back work (lotsa chinning, lots heavy rows), chest work (benching and some flies, but mainly benching), and shoulder work (mainly shoulder press, the heavy benching/rowing will service the front/rear deltoids). Pullover is a good to add too, but optional - but it must end with a very heavy set.

Forget the biceps/triceps/calves/forearm stuff and put ALL your effort into the above. (but do some lower back/stomach exercise too to stop it getting strained)

Nothing develops you faster, IMHO, than heavy squatting. But you must progress into it (it doesn't take as long as you'd think if you progress steadily and don't go mad).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is very good advice. I would add deadlifts as well but I'm pretty sure that was just an oversite diebitter.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]

This is very good advice. I would add deadlifts as well but I'm pretty sure that was just an oversite diebitter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, deadlifts but you must definitely warm up and down thoroughly. Also try and get a buddy who's at the same level as you (starting out?) interested so you can work together/compete with the weights (don't pick a [censored]!), and can spot each other. (just remember to save chit-chat for after though, less time exercising means more effective results for time spent).


Oh, you may also not like the bicep avoidance advice - big biceps get the girlies moist, after all. But trust me, what I've said above will grow the biceps just as well in your starting phase, and you'll look much, much bigger and better after 4 months on this than doing some tarded aerobic/weights program the gym may advise.

Them big biceps look better hanging off big shoulders!

[Blarg]

Protein powder helps a lot. And it's a relatively inexpensive way to get an awful lot of protein in your system.

The milk that is usually drunk with it sure doesn't hurt, either. But some protein powders taste decent enough, and mix well enough, that they're fine in just water, too.

If you're going to be eating tons of protein, try to get some healthy measure of it in things like beans, chicken, and fish, so you aren't pounding cholesterol into your veins at quite as crazed a pace. A heavy-eating, super high protein can be kind of hard on the body.

And get plenty of roughage, too. Eating all that meat can pack your guts pretty tight, and a little help pushing it all out makes life a lot more pleasant.

By the way, serious bodybuilders are very into eating a huge bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I do that too now, adding in a couple bananas and a couple scoops of protein powder. The protein powder makes the flavor a lot better too. Consider that as well. It'll give you carbs early in the day for sustainable energy, and plenty of time to burn them off. Plus oatmeal is supposedly pretty good for you.

[diebitter]

BTW, if you follow this advice, be aware you're gonna need new clothes (especially tops) in the future, and when you get em, get em loose so you have further room to grow.

[AEKDBet]

[ QUOTE ]
you actually need carbs as well.. like a 2:1 ratio of carbs:protein for meals after you work out. Tuna is a really good protein source. Any kind of meat is good also.

[/ QUOTE ]

Reef is VERY much correct in emphasizing carbs. MOSTLY you are eating carbs, then protein, then fat. something like 50/30/20. The less solid food the better for your skinny ass. milk, protein, etc - the colder the better as well. being cold = hungry

Check out Body-for-Life. All the info you need for nutrition, exercise, and supplements. When I'm on it, it works really well.

ScottieK

[ChicagoTroy]

Chicken and fish are good, too. Just avoid processed foods and drink lots of water. Performance nutrition is not a complicated topic.

You want to eat a slow releasing protein before you go to bed, like milk protein. This is best mixed with a healthy fat to further slow the protein digestion. This will keep nitrogen levels up while you sleep and keep you in a anabolic state. Neglecting this will literally mean losing muscle while you sleep. As an ectomorph our biggest hurdle is nutrition. Quality calories every 2 to 3 hours is what it takes.

There some better tasting protein powders out there if you do not like the standard ones. They cost a little more but help in meeting your protein requirements.

Oh ya, what Blarg said about oatmeal is true. Make sure its old fashion kind. I believe it has the lowest glycemic index of any other food. This is one of the best foods anyone can eat.

[vexvelour]

Organic food.

[jthegreat]

Fish. Lots of fish. Especially fish with lots of good fats like salmon. You can get bags of salmon filets really cheap at Sam's (and probably other big warehouse stores).

[pokerdirty]

Balance bars.

[AEKDBet]

Dietary Protein to Support Anabolism with Resistance Exercise in Young Men
Stuart M. Phillips, PhD, FACN, Joseph W. Hartman, MSc and Sarah B. Wilkinson, MSc

Exercise Metabolism Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA

Address reprint requests to: Stuart M. Phillips, Ph.D., FACN, Exercise Metabolism Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1 CANADA. E-mail: phillis@mcmaster.ca

Resistance exercise is fundamentally anabolic and as such stimulates the process of skeletal muscle protein synthesis (MPS) in an absolute sense and relative to skeletal muscle protein breakdown (MPB). However, the net effect of resistance exercise is to shift net protein balance (NPB = MPS – MPB) to a more positive value; however, in the absence of feeding NPB remains negative. Feeding stimulates MPS to an extent where NPB becomes positive, for a transient time. When combined, resistance exercise and feeding synergistically interact to result in NPB being greater than with feeding alone. This feeding- and exercise-induced stimulation of NPB is what, albeit slowly, results in muscle hypertrophy. With this rudimentary knowledge we are now at the point where we can manipulate variables within the system to see what impact these interventions have on the processes of MPS, MPB, and NPB and ultimately and perhaps most importantly, muscle hypertrophy and strength. We used established models of skeletal muscle amino acid turnover to examine how protein source (milk versus soy) acutely affects the processes of MPS and MPB after resistance exercise. Our findings revealed that even when balanced quantities of total protein and energy are consumed that milk proteins are more effective in stimulating amino acid uptake and net protein deposition in skeletal muscle after resistance exercise than are hydrolyzed soy proteins. Importantly, the finding of increased amino acid uptake would be independent of the differences in amino acid composition of the two proteins. We propose that the improved net protein deposition with milk protein consumption is also not due to differences in amino acid composition, but is due to a different pattern of amino acid delivery associated with milk versus hydrolyzed soy proteins. If our acute findings are accurate then we hypothesized that chronically the greater net protein deposition associated with milk protein consumption post-resistance exercise would eventually lead to greater net protein accretion (i.e., muscle fiber hypertrophy), over a longer time period. In young men completing 12 weeks of resistance training (5d/wk) we observed a tendency (P = 0.11) for greater gains in whole body lean mass and whole as greater muscle fiber hypertrophy with consumption of milk. While strength gains were not different between the soy and milk-supplemented groups we would argue that the true significance of a greater increase in lean mass that we observed with milk consumption may be more important in groups of persons with lower initial lean mass and strength such as the elderly.

Key words: dietry protein, skeletal muscle, muscle hypertrophy, resistence exercise, milk proteins

Abbreviations: MPS = muscle protein synthesis • MPB = muscle protein breakdown • NPB = net protein balance

[AEKDBet]

Glycemic Index (http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm)

This relates to carbs only. Fat is the slowest digesting macronutrient.

Forget the protein, just eat lots of steroids. Or inject if that's your thing.

[Yeti]

On a similar note, someone advise me.

I always have a huge appetite just before bed and tend to eat a plate full of sandwiches. Terrible, I know. What stuff is ok to eat just before bed?

[ QUOTE ]
On a similar note, someone advise me.

I always have a huge appetite just before bed and tend to eat a plate full of sandwiches. Terrible, I know. What stuff is ok to eat just before bed?

[/ QUOTE ]

cottage cheese is the best, anything with casein prot. I usually made a shake out of cottage cheese, choco protein powder, and some fish oil caps on the side.

[Freakin]

Damn, you guys are awesome! Thanks for all the workout advice too!

[ QUOTE ]
On a similar note, someone advise me.

I always have a huge appetite just before bed and tend to eat a plate full of sandwiches. Terrible, I know. What stuff is ok to eat just before bed?

[/ QUOTE ]

The cottage cheese is good. If you really aren't into working out and want to eat like a normal person just stay away from anything that is going to give you a insulin spike. Or something that is high in sat. fat.

If you are overweight eating like this could be the culprit or could lead to some serious health issues down the road. If you just have a super metabolism a turkey(any lean meat) on whole grain bread w/ cheese and mustard or light mayo is pretty good.

[Yeti]

After being rake-like for years, I now have a gut. I am sure this is the culprit, plus obviously lack of exercise.

I'm starting to do something about it but it is so tempting to eat at night, so was just wondering what I can get away with eating.

[turnipmonster]

I wonder about this also as I usually get very hungry before bed.

[AEKDBet]

[ QUOTE ]
On a similar note, someone advise me.

I always have a huge appetite just before bed and tend to eat a plate full of sandwiches. Terrible, I know. What stuff is ok to eat just before bed?

[/ QUOTE ]

Eating before bed is fine, 2 things.

-Food tastes so nice we forget it is simply fuel. How much fuel you gonna need while you are sleeping?........ easy on the calories before bedtime.

-just eat "clean foods". Or cleaner foods would be a more moderate approach. I could list stuff, but its common sense/ ice cream vs apple stuff.

3 things, life is too short, so enjoy those sandwiches (everysooften/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

[DangerGoodson]

Eat These (http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=nutrition&categ ory=abs.diet&conitem=b72a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010c fe793cd____)

[AEKDBet]

nice link, they left out sweet potatoes though.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
Eat These (http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=nutrition&categ ory=abs.diet&conitem=b72a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010c fe793cd____)

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, that's awesome!

[diebitter]

You are what you eat, they say.

I'm a pussy /images/graemlins/grin.gif