my semi planned out bulking diet

[thrtytwo]

hi all, I'm 6 foot 3 and weigh 78kg, looking to weigh 85 and get a lot more muscle, i know it wont happen overnight so im trying to take the right steps.

I did want to just work out and try to loose fat (the little i have on my belly) but from my reading on the net it looks like i have to gain before i cut. So im going to eat pretty relaxdly (try to carb load) for 8 weeks and try to put on some mass then stop the carbs and cut until im happy. then maintain.

heres what ive started doing this monday gone.

6am:
started eating 2 eggs for brekky, boiled, fried, scrambled, just whatever (is any way better than any other ?). sometimes have a small serve of cereal aswell, crunchy nut cornflakes. I also had a cut up small chicken breast in with my eggs this morning, is this needed or is 2 eggs enough ?

~8am:
between brekky and lunch i have a muesli bar and/or a piece of fruit
(will probably start adding in some natural yoghurt) any other suggestions ?

10am:
roasted chicken breast with salad/rice and veggies
(will start mixing that up with a rice and tuna combo aswell, yay/nay ?)

~12am:
about a cup of mixed nuts, thinking maybe i should have less as this is about 800 calories ? also been chewing on a few sugar snap peas or something of the sort

2pm:
nothing really solid here yet, dunno what to have ? im leaving work by this point but dont want a huge meal as dinner isnt far away, any suggestions ?

~5-6pm:
dinner, havnt been too strict here, usually chicken or beef with rice or veggies, not too worried if its just a normal meal, but not eating crap, stir fry, bolognese or whatever is fine, should i lean this up a bit ?

between now and bedtime, 10:30-11:10, i dont really have a solid meal, what kind of good snack could i have ? or should i have another meal of some sort ?

~10:30-11:30
bedtime, a few times had an egg or two, but nothing solid. just started having a glass of milk and im going to buy some cottage cheese today to try. if i dont like the cottage cheese is egg and milk ok ?


I've been working out mon/wed/thurs and just bought some protein powder with creatine today so will start having that an hour before and immediatley after a workout (1 scoop)

should i also slot in a protein shake at some points through the day?

any tips or suggestions would be great cheers, jamie

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Since you want to "get a lot of muscle", you need to have a caloric surplus. That means you need to take in more energy than you spend just staying alive and working out.

So that means many people when "bulking" have lots of sources of carbohydrate. For example your "small serve of cereal" at 0600 would become a "big serve of cereal." I find that a full cup of dry oats swells up to a huge breakfast and fills me up well - tastes bland, though, so add in honey and milk or something. Oats are also 17% by weight protein, more than other cereals.

I would probably swap around the nuts and the chicken. With the chicken have plenty of bread, pasta, rice or spuds.

At 1400 have some nuts and/or fruit.

At the 1200 and 1700 meals with vegies, make sure the plate is piled high with vegies. Seriously, you cannot have enough of them, the worst that'll happen is you go to the crapper an extra time a day. Vegies are like adding nitro to your dragster's fuel

All that said, the timing of meals also ties in with your workout. Most people need 1.5-2hr between a big meal and a workout. Digestion takes a lot of blood, but pumped muscles also take a lot of blood, so if you have a big meal and then work out hard you may find yourself doing 5x Chuck-Ups, great ab exercise but not very pleasant. But some fruit or nuts or milk are fine, those digest quickly.

Protein powder before and after workouts is good, but add in some carbs. This gives you energy for the workout, and supplies fuel to replace that burned during the workout; it helps growth and recovery for the next workout. You can get dextrose cheap from the brewer's section of the supermarket, just mix in the same amount as you do protein.

However, I am too lazy and cheap so I just make a workout drink -

- 500ml milk, 3 eggs, 100g skim milk powder -​

which give more than 70 grams of protein and 70 of carbs, and 44 of fat, altogether 1,000 calories. You are a taller guy than me (6'3" to 5'10") so you might need more, maybe another 500ml and another egg or two.

Since you want to bulk, if you ever feel hungry then you are not eating enough! At some point it stops feeling like a "meal", and more like shovelling coal into an old steam engine - not food anymore, just fuel for the Muscle Machine.

With that in mind, if you feel you need another protein/carb drink during the day, go ahead and have it. Nobody can lay things out for you exactly to the gram, you just have to get basically the right approach and then go by how you feel.

Good luck! Others will add their comments, listen to all and decide what makes sense to you!

 

[thrtytwo]

thanks for the reply mate, very indepth haha yeh im frightened of feeling hungry now, jut think of muscle wasting away >_<

i might have to try some oats aswell, thanks for that

 

[thrtytwo]

Started eating cottage cheese at night, couldnt swallow much of it on its own without gagging so blitzed it up with equal parts low fat yoghurt and a few straberrys for colour, pour it over some fresh fruit, much better although still a tad sour lol, might try some splenda in there, seems to be what everyone else puts in it !

 

[upg]

blend with milk man
masks the taste i reckon

can skull it in 15 seconds

eat more eggs i reckon
4-6 eggs should do it

 

[lucku]

Started eating cottage cheese at night, couldnt swallow much of it on its own without gagging so blitzed it up with equal parts low fat yoghurt and a few straberrys for colour, pour it over some fresh fruit, much better although still a tad sour lol, might try some splenda in there, seems to be what everyone else puts in it !

mix it with tuna...
u will be surprised by the taste

 

[katie]

Hi there,

The biggest thing I can see in your diet is that your breakfast is VERY small.

Breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day (along with your postworkout meal).

After 8 hrs without eating, your body is in a catabolic state so you need to give it a big meal, pronto. There's no point in having protein shakes with creatine etc etc if you're not feeding your body appropriately and at regular intervals.

I'm shorter AND lighter than you by 18kg and if I only ate 2 eggs for brekky I would be hungry 30 minutes later.

Here is a typical breakfast for me
1 glass milk
2-3 eggs with tomato
125g - 250g cottage cheese (depending on how hungry I am)
oats/muesli

Get the picture?

 

[katie]

Hi there

I've had another thought about your diet. I've compared it to mine and I honestly believe you eat less than I do at every meal.

I eat 6 times a day, each meal has at least 20 grams of protein in it (aiming for 30).

For my midmorning meal... if I ate muesli bar + fruit it would not fill me up (also it doesn't have much protein). Try adding some cottage chesse mixed with yoghurt there.

For my midafternoon meal... you've written nothing really solid here, because dinner is not too far away. I reckon you are still eating 3 big meals a day and 3 little snacks, you might want to even them up a bit more so that each of your 6 meals are decently sized. For example my mid afternoon meal today is 1/2 of a 425g tin of tuna (ie. 30 g protein) mixed with chopped tomatoes.

Your metabolism might be slowed down right now because you're not eating much, but try eating more and very regularly during a day (don't go without eating for 3 hrs).

Let us know how it goes

 

[thrtytwo]

Thanks for the reply Katie. Some good food for thought there. At the moment I'm trying to eat every 4 hours. It's just a lot more practical for me with work and stuff. So I'm eating a meal at six. Having a healthy snack 2 hours later. Eating a meal at ten. Having another healthy snack around twelve. I'm starting to eat a meal when I get home at 2:30. Usually a protein shake and an egg sandwich. Maybe I should have a salad and some meat instead. But then I eat again around 6:30 for dinner. And at around 10 I have my fruit and cottage cheese. I guess I should try something more substancial at that time though.

Also I there on gym days I have a shake 1 hour before and immediately after.

I'm being carefull enough to measure my meal sizes. Maybe I should start :S