The best times to eat, if this matters?

[rich_89]

Good evening gentlemen,

I've posted a couple of times, and am not seeing gains at the gym (natural training). I've posted here and tried to vary my workout, and it worked slightly, but not enough to say it worked (if that makes sense). So i've concluded it must be my diet thats not quite spot on.

Now i'm a nut allergy sufferer, and i don't like eggs or fish (which is quite annoying), but other than that i'm sure i eat the right things: chicken, lamb, beef, brown rice, brown pasta, cous cous, salad, veg, protein shakes (morning, after training and before bed) and obviously the occasional pizza and fries lol (who doesn't truthfully). I think it may be my meal times thats the issue, so i'm looking for advice here.

However, i'm obsessed with weight gain (unhealthy fat weight gain) as i worked hard to lose weight after being quite large, so now i'm slim, but out of shape and flabby . I'd hate my hard work to be undone. So i hate eating loads, when it's not showing in ther gym with gains.

Help!!

 

[guerbear]

Don't stress too much about it man, you'll be worse off. First of all take a breather and take a good look at your diet, training, and sleep schedule.

Diet: To put together a nice diet plan I would start with reading a few of the stickies on here. In summary they will show you how to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)and from that it will show you a couple of formulas for calulating your "maintenance calories" which is what your body will use for calories on a daily basis in regards to your activity levels. If you are looking to gain weight but are worried you might put on fat, start out slow by adding only a few hundred extra calories to your maintenance calories. If you notice good results, try a little more. No need to jump into something you aren't comfortable with. If you are looking to lose weight, do the opposite and take off a few hundred calories at a time. These are just basic caloric goals. Next you will be concerned with is Macronutrients; Protein; Carbs and fat. If you are trying to gain weight but are scared gaining some fat, you can do a lean bulk, which takes a lot of dedication, by keeping your macronutrients in pretty strict ratios of 40%/40%/20% Protein/Carbs/Fat. Although you'll have to do some trial and error to see if these ratios work for you. Anyways, I got distracted. You can get all this information on the stickies.

Training: What are you doing for training? Strength training, hypertrophy, split training, just throwing weights around ect... What about cardio?

Sleep: Are you getting at LEAST 8 hours of sleep. This is a very important part of seeing gains; your muscles won't grow if they don't have time to recover.

Hope this helps man, Let me know if you need anything else.

 

[rich_89]

I basically just do my arms (with a good workout suggested by a member of these boards) and then potter around the weights area lol. I try to vary it, but it never seems to take form. (I have been told thats a good thing, but it is hard to keep track sometimes)

I also struggle with how much to lift. I like it to be heavy and test me and make me ache like a bitch after, but then i struggle to finish sets. But any lighter and its too easy and i don't feel tested.

Oh and just a quick question again bro, do meal times affect weight gain and lean muscle gains, or is the time of eating irrelevant? (with respect to training, and in general)

 

[guerbear]

Meal Timing is irrelevant man, At your stage just focus on the amount of calories consumed daily.

Another peice of advice, don't work on just your arms. Why are you doing this?

 

[rich_89]

Right, i'll lay that demon to rest. It's been bothering me for a while, obsessing about when i should be eating lol.

I do it (work on arms) because in my view in the mirror, my arms are smaller in proportion to the rest of my body, so i want to 'catch them up' as it were. I do try to hit other muscle groups as well, but mainly its arms and chest i work on.

 

[guerbear]

Don't worry your arms will catch up. Try doing some compound exercises to get your strength up (bench press, squats, deadlifts, military press ect..) By doing these your arms will have no choice but to grow because of the heavier lifting. Just know you don't have to work your arms directly for them to grow. You can do curls all day but you'll hit a point where it won't do a damn thing until you learn a good full body workout.

 

[rich_89]

Your advise is invaluable to me mate. I'm going to take full advantage of your knowledge, if thats ok with you of course lol. Would you please read below and see what you make of it.



I've attempted to sort my diet since all this information was given to me and i've been doing the above arm workout, twice a week, and working on legs and back and chest alternately in the other training session (3 times a week training, but this rarely takes form), 2 times a week cardio training.

Since i last posted fully i've gained about a stone in weight. I've gained about an inch around each arm, which i'm kinda happy with, but since i stopped running loads ( i was an endurance runner), and eating more, i've gained weight around my middle and am at about 19% body fat now. Now this confuses me because i really do try and eat the right things. here's a typical days food. Oh and please bear in mind, i'm a nut allergy sufferer, and can't eat eggs or fish, which is very annoying, but i just can't make myself like them.

Breakfast:
Bowl of cereal, two slices of wholemeal toast with low fat margarine
Assortment of fruits: Oranges and Banana usually
Protein shake (35g serving)
Yoghurt

Snack
More fruits

Dinner:
Salad, with a chicken breast and brown pasta, drizzled in extra virgin olive oil

Main Meal
Steak (or red meat in another form, maybe stewed)
Boiled potatoes
Brown Rice
Vegetables and lots of em. Can't get enough.
Salad

Snack
Tub of Cottage cheese, handful of mangetout, pint of milk

Supper
Protein shake, yoghurt usually a flavoured one, but still probiotic and natural

Plus a Protein shake after training.

I drink my Protein shakes with milk, so that also adds to calories, and the Protein i use is whey and complex carbs, so its around 400 calories per shake, by my calculation.

I do sometimes cheat and eat maybe a bag of crisps, but surely this shouldnt be so detrimental. . and increase my body fat so much.

Chest gains are non existent practically, but this makes no sense to me as i ache like hell after my chest workout.

Could you suggest a training regime bro? One that i can follow that will get rid of all this bloody fat, and slap on some lean mass?

 

[guerbear]

Looks pretty solid. Have you calculated the macros for these foods? Try going to a website like fitday or livestrong (google them) and input those foods into a nutrition log available on those websites. The nutrition log will automatically calculate your protein/carbs/fats to make sure you aren't eating too much fat or not enough protein ect...

 

[rich_89]

I'll have a bash at calculating the macros.

So whats the best compund muscle builders?

Bench Press, Military Press, Squats, Deadlift, and what else? Any other good ones i should definitely do?

 

[guerbear]

Try Rippetoe Starting Strength. It's a great program that will help you learn all the compound lifts. Rememeber the key to gaining size is always in the diet.