Looking for honest advice

[RottenWillow]

ok great. Here's my two cents.


the dietary stats you list appear to include incomplete proteins in your protein total. I wouldnt do that. You might want to do an Internet search to find out more about protein quality. I would only count the complete protein sources, like your eggs and your meats. That would bring you down to about 90-100. Something I learned from MS who used to post here is that there has been research that confirms your body can actually use significantly more protein for muscle building purposes at breakfast than any other meal of the day. Your listed breakfast might be 15 g of complete protein. I'd at least double that. I'm not a big person (see my avatar) and I'm eating 4 jumbo whites and two jumbo wholes for lunch today. A general rule of thumb for moderately intense progressive resistance weight training is daily protein grams should equal your lean body mass (LBM) pounds. You're 151 and let's say 20% bf. That means you're carrying about 30lbs of bf. So your LBM would be roughly 121lbs. So you're complete protein grams should be about 120. I used 20 because that was an easy number to work with. Please dont use a Tanita scale to estimate your bf. they are wildly inaccurate sometimes. Have a trained person use a high quality skin fold caliper, or if you have the bank perhaps hydrostatic measurement.

If you've only been training hard for 7 months you are still enjoying newbie gains, but means you can actually gain significant amounts of muscle while losing fat, but that wont last. At some point you'll need to specialize your diet and training for one or the other, muscle building or fat loss. This means if you want to continue to add muscle your calories must go up or caloric expenditure must go down.

training advice...as you're already discovering you will absolutely get conflicting ideas. the single most important thing for you to do is test new training techniques in a scientific fashion. Keep a training journal and record not only objective stats, but how you felt that day, if your energy level was low that day, or motivation was poor. learn to be the expert of you! Also, never change more than one element of your workout at at time, otherwise you wont know for sure what accounted for the change you observed, or didnt observe. Example: your biceps dont grow. You change your bicep routine, and they still dont grow. But you also added a new back exercise and increased total sets for back. So now you could be overworking your biceps and it may not be the fault of that new biceps routine at all. Keep that training journal and dont be afraid to try new techiques, just do so scientifically.

 

[FlyBrownChick]

Thanks Bunny

Nikkita - Right now I take a multivitamin, fish oil, whey, and redline. My energy is good, even when I do not take the redline....but I am sure the redline helps A LOT.

I've been working on reducing bodyfat. I didn't want to do an official cut because I didn't want to risk losing what little muscle that I have. I've been slowing gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time...making slow, but good progress. I am hoping that the redline will assist a bit more in this as well as the calorie cycling.

I agree with you on the training. Unfortunately, I do not have a training partner and that really forces me to lower the weight and use good form. My diet is usually perfect. I make and pack my meals the day before so that I don't get off track. If I do get off track, it is because I have a scheduled cheat meal or because I have not eaten in too long of an interval. I drink at least a gallon of water per day.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[nikkita]

Thanks Bunny

Nikkita - Right now I take a multivitamin, fish oil, whey, and redline. My energy is good, even when I do not take the redline....but I am sure the redline helps A LOT.

I've been working on reducing bodyfat. I didn't want to do an official cut because I didn't want to risk losing what little muscle that I have. I've been slowing gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time...making slow, but good progress. I am hoping that the redline will assist a bit more in this as well as the calorie cycling.

I agree with you on the training. Unfortunately, I do not have a training partner and that really forces me to lower the weight and use good form. My diet is usually perfect. I make and pack my meals the day before so that I don't get off track. If I do get off track, it is because I have a scheduled cheat meal or because I have not eaten in too long of an interval. I drink at least a gallon of water per day.

Thanks for your advice!

For your supplements you may want to include:
Vit C 500mg
Vit E 400ui (morning&night)
Calcium
-->the multivit take it every day

Regarding reducing bf It is difficult to gain muscle and reduce fat at the same time so don't worry all at its due time, hold to the cardio. I would make some observations to your diet, in general remember that it is not what you eat but the quality of the food that helps you achieve your goals. In this regard:

1/ meal 1: I would change the fat free cheddar and bran muffins for some other carb such as oats
2/ in meal 3 you are not adding any carb, why is that?
3/ i would change the cottage cheese for something such as chicken breast or tuna... combine it with a salad and change the peanut butter for early hours
4/ try adding foods with more content of fiber, I notice that you are not including any fruit
6/ I see that you're relying too much on oats... why don't you try rice instead for some meals?

 

[FlyBrownChick]

Nikkita - I forgot to include that I take calcium + magnesium every night with my last meal. I'll definitely look into those other supplements. In regards to your comments:

1/ meal 1: I would change the fat free cheddar and bran muffins for some other carb such as oats

I vary the carb source at meal 1. Some days it's oat bran, some days it's sprouted grain bread. It all depends. The bran muffins are homemade...4 egg whites and .5 cup oat bran.

2/ in meal 3 you are not adding any carb, why is that?

I don't eat carbs at meal 2, 3, or 6 because I won't be using them. I eat carbs around my training and first thing in the morning...when my body needs them most. Very Berardi...I know.

3/ i would change the cottage cheese for something such as chicken breast or tuna... combine it with a salad and change the peanut butter for early hours

Why do you suggest this? I thought that casein + fats was the preferred meal before bed to stave off starving at night? And wh y save the peanut butter for early hours?

4/ try adding foods with more content of fiber, I notice that you are not including any fruit

I do eat fruit most days. Usually, I will have fruit in the AM and sometimes around my training...it all depends. I had been staying away from certain fruits due to the fructose/liver glycogen issue. I can definitely add some low fructose fruits in, though.

6/ I see that you're relying too much on oats... why don't you try rice instead for some meals?

I'm unsure about this. In your first point you said that I should eat more oats, but here you say that I eat too many oats. Can you clarify?

 

[Miss24k]

For your supplements you may want to include:
Vit C 500mg
Vit E 400ui (morning&night)
Calcium
-->the multivit take it every day

Regarding reducing bf It is difficult to gain muscle and reduce fat at the same time so don't worry all at its due time, hold to the cardio. I would make some observations to your diet, in general remember that it is not what you eat but the quality of the food that helps you achieve your goals. In this regard:

1/ meal 1: I would change the fat free cheddar and bran muffins for some other carb such as oats
2/ in meal 3 you are not adding any carb, why is that?
3/ i would change the cottage cheese for something such as chicken breast or tuna... combine it with a salad and change the peanut butter for early hours
4/ try adding foods with more content of fiber, I notice that you are not including any fruit
6/ I see that you're relying too much on oats... why don't you try rice instead for some meals?

I agree with most of what you're saying. But why do you think she should change the cottage cheese? And why have the peanut butter earlier?

 

[nikkita]

>>I'm unsure about this. In your first point you said that I should eat more oats, but here you say that I eat too many oats. Can you clarify?

Is not that you need to eat more oats, but try to include them in your breakfast since some days you don't. On the other hand, I see you are already eating almost all day... that's why the recommendation of varying the carb source.

>>I don't eat carbs at meal 2, 3, or 6 because I won't be using them. I eat carbs around my training and first thing in the morning...when my body needs them most. Very Berardi...I know.

It is recommended to have a regular intake of proteins and carbs every 2-3 hours, otherwise your body relies on your muscle and stores more fat. It is true that your body takes more advantage of carbs in the morning and around training, but it also needs regular inputs of carbs during the day

>> Why do you suggest this? I thought that casein + fats was the preferred meal before bed to stave off starving at night? And wh y save the peanut butter for early hours?

Also it is to have a protein shake in the bedside table... IMO protein source is better from chicken or tuna, or even a protein shake than from cottage cheese because at least from my point of view they give more quality nutrients. Peanut butter gives more energy in the morning or early evening, at night I think it give a heavy load on your stomach.

>>I do eat fruit most days. Usually, I will have fruit in the AM and sometimes around my training...it all depends. I had been staying away from certain fruits due to the fructose/liver glycogen issue. I can definitely add some low fructose fruits in, though.

You didn't mentioned them in your diets

 

[FlyBrownChick]

Rotten - I just saw this post...strange. Anyway...

I understand on the incomplete protein, but don't other proteins complete the incomplete proteins?

In regards to newbie gains...you are correct. Right now, I am still benefiting from this and when I was eating higher calories, I was gaining fat...NOT desirable. Once my progress begins to slow, I will make necessary changes to caloric intake. Right now, I am still gaining LBM and losing fat. I do keep an online training journal and play with techniques as necessary.

 

[FlyBrownChick]

It is recommended to have a regular intake of proteins and carbs every 2-3 hours, otherwise your body relies on your muscle and stores more fat. It is true that your body takes more advantage of carbs in the morning and around training, but it also needs regular inputs of carbs during the day

I do eat protein every 2-3 hours...usually every 3 hours. But why regular carbs all day? I'll just be filling up muscle glycogen and not using it...risking the chance of spillover. That's not good...right? I have fats at the meals that I do not eat carbs, which your body also uses as fuel. I'm very curious to know your reasoning on this. I'm not trying to cause confusion, but I am interested to hear your view.

Peanut butter gives more energy in the morning or early evening, at night I think it give a heavy load on your stomach.

I've never heard this before...this is interesting. How does your body know "morning" or "evening?" And how would it know to use the peanut butter as energy in the morning or evening?

You didn't mentioned them in your diets

I apologize. The diet that I listed was a typical diet for 3 seperate days. It's not always that diet...it all depends on what I have at home and what my mood is like that day.

 

[RottenWillow]

Rotten - I just saw this post...strange. Anyway...

I understand on the incomplete protein, but don't other proteins complete the incomplete proteins?

possibly, but not neccesarily. And even if they do, you'd need to eat a much higher volume of food to get a substantial amount of complete protein. for example, rice and red beans do make a complete protein, but you'd need to eat a fricking punch bowl full of it to get the same amount I'd get from 2 whole jumbos, and 4 whites.

 

[FlyBrownChick]

possibly, but not neccesarily. And even if they do, you'd need to eat a much higher volume of food to get a substantial amount of complete protein. for example, rice and red beans do make a complete protein, but you'd need to eat a fricking punch bowl full of it to get the same amount I'd get from 2 whole jumbos, and 4 whites.

I completely understand. I guess my real question is...even if I am getting some incomplete proteins, they are being made complete...so do I still need to eat more protein?

I agree with you on the rice and beans...no thanks!!! That could get pretty nasty!