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 carbsrotein 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!