Am I Eating Enough?

T-dawgs, I feel like I am eating all day long. I am trying to keep it simple, eat big & lift big to get big. I am 6’1", around 215. I am about 7 months post op from ACL full reconstruction. I just finally squatted the other day deep, with no pain, up to about 225x5.

Anyway, my goal is to add size & strength, then worry about ICY hawt abz later down the road. I’m sitting around 13-15% BF right now, I will caliper tonight for exacts.

I am full all day long, and still not sure if I am eating enough.

Sample from yesterday:

Breakfast 7:30AM
two home made “eggs over my hammies” on whole wheat toast.
multi-V, fish oil & sesame oil pills.

Snack: 10:30AM
two cans tuna on real italian rye toast (made with rye flour not the white crap)
fish oil pills & sesame oil pills

Lunch: 10PM
1 cup kashi honey almond cereal, 2 scoops choc whey mixed in water
fish oil pills

snack: 4pm
two cans tuna on rye
1 large apple
fish oil pills

workout 6pm, home by 8pm
dinner: 3 large chicken breasts
1 giant sweet potato
fish oil pills, multi vitamin

Totals are coming out to around (according to fitday).
2800-2900 cals 40-45g fat (all from fish oil & sesame) 260-270g carbs, 330g protein.

My BMR comes out to around 2150 cals/day, 1.5x for moderate activity (i lift 5 days) so around 3300 it says. I work a computer job, so I lowered them a bit to around 3000.

Should I eat more? What else can I “add” in my meals to up the total. I’m trying to keep it clean, maybe a handful of granola here or there?

well, has your weight been increasing or decreasing on this diet?

my one concern would be your fat sources. fish oil is great, but eat an avocado or some egg yolk once in a while. a lack of a variety of quality fats really sticks out.

Eating engouh depends on your goals.

If you want advice on bumping up cals though, try this:

Try frying lean pork, chicken, or fish/shrimp in coconut oil. It makes eating more calories easier and it’s a healthy fat with MCTs.

How did you determine your BMR? There are multiple ways, but most of them just get you close to what you need. For me, the calculations are waaaayyy off, so I had to find my maintenance the long way.

Anyways, eat what you are eating now for 7 days straight. If you gained about 1 lb at the end of the 7 days, Id say you are on the right track. If you havent gained, add some more cals in, maybe 250 more per day and do another 7 days.

For me, I found that about 1 lb gained per week was about the best I was going to get without dumping on fat. Others may get more, some may get less, but try that.

And until you get used to eating so much, it will feel like you are eating all day, but thats the point. A few more weeks into it and it will just become second nature.

Wheres the BEEF ???

Wheres the chicken? Wheres the pork? Wheres the green veggies? brocolli? you really need to add in some more meat and veggies !!

Other then that… Is your weight going up? if it is, then your eating enough, if its not, then eat more…

Your diet is more like a cutting diet (minus the crazy amounts of bread your eating)… Pasta, meat, veggies, beans… eat more of all of them !! Oatmeal? Eggs?

http://www.johnberardi.com/updates/july262002/na_masscalculator.htm

that link tells you how much you need to eat. I’ve tried it and its true, imonly 164 lbs and i eat 3250 on non-training days and haven’t gained any fat.

here’s some tips Berardi recommends to get eating levels up
Step 1: Continue with Seven Habits.
Step 2: Increase carb energy (+250kcal) in workout and post-workout drinks. (I guess if you follow thib’s peri-workout nutrition you would increase carbs durin the before and during workout phase?)
Step 3: Increase carb energy (+250kcal) in first post-workout food meal.
Step 4: Add carb energy (+250kcal) in breakfast on workout days.
Step 5: Add fat energy (+250kcal) spread out through the day.
Step 6: Repeat Step 5.

Go to his website if all else fails. he has alot of eating outlines and tips to help get your food intake up.

Are you carrying a lot of muscle? 13-15% BF is a lot leaner than an average 6’1" dude would be at 215lbs.

Assuming you’re trying to bulk? Like everyone else said

a) Keep track of your own progress, since everyone’s metabolism will be different than estimates
b) don’t be scared of fat or real meat.

Oh and one more thing use a quality whey protein, if the chocolate whey you have is a cheap bargain brand, youll get what you pay for. That and use a Protein Dextrose Glucose drink around your workouts.

If you can, try to workout in the morning and eat 1/3 - 1/2 of your daily calories during the peri-workout phase. That way if you see yourself coming close to your daily recommended totals, its easier to back off calories per meal towards the end of the day rather than trying to force feed them all before bed. Also it’ll allow more meals to go towards recovery, instead of having one than fasting for 8 hours while you sleep.

If you still can’t reach the recommendations yet because of fullness, set an alarm and wake up mid way through the night and chug a protein glutamine shake.

Thanks guys. This is the advice and criticism I was hoping for.

I used the harris formula for a roundabout number. Came out close to 3300 for maintenance, so I still way off, but I heard that it over estimates how many you need.

I was a big carbophobic for years, so eating all this oatmeal, sweet potatoes and other good carbs is a little weird. I will have to man up and stop being a lil b1tch.

I’ll do a skinfold test tonight to see what my BF really is. Berardi’s massive eating calculator said I should be eating 5000 cals/day. I used 215 as weight, 17% BF, moderate activity, moderate machine training for 60 minutes. God dammmm thats a lot of food.

I do eat omega eggs, chicken and pork. yesterday was a tough day and all I hate was tuna left, and a bag of granola so I started pounding that stuff.

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
T-dawgs, I feel like I am eating all day long. I am trying to keep it simple, eat big & lift big to get big. I am 6’1", around 215. I am about 7 months post op from ACL full reconstruction. I just finally squatted the other day deep, with no pain, up to about 225x5.

Anyway, my goal is to add size & strength, then worry about ICY hawt abz later down the road. I’m sitting around 13-15% BF right now, I will caliper tonight for exacts.

I am full all day long, and still not sure if I am eating enough.

Sample from yesterday:

Breakfast 7:30AM
two home made “eggs over my hammies” on whole wheat toast.
multi-V, fish oil & sesame oil pills.

Snack: 10:30AM
two cans tuna on real italian rye toast (made with rye flour not the white crap)
fish oil pills & sesame oil pills

Lunch: 10PM
1 cup kashi honey almond cereal, 2 scoops choc whey mixed in water
fish oil pills

snack: 4pm
two cans tuna on rye
1 large apple
fish oil pills

workout 6pm, home by 8pm
dinner: 3 large chicken breasts
1 giant sweet potato
fish oil pills, multi vitamin

Totals are coming out to around (according to fitday).
2800-2900 cals 40-45g fat (all from fish oil & sesame) 260-270g carbs, 330g protein.

My BMR comes out to around 2150 cals/day, 1.5x for moderate activity (i lift 5 days) so around 3300 it says. I work a computer job, so I lowered them a bit to around 3000.

Should I eat more? What else can I “add” in my meals to up the total. I’m trying to keep it clean, maybe a handful of granola here or there?[/quote]

you have answered your own question in your question, if your total should be 3000-3300 and your eating 2800-2900, Add red meat, natural peanut butter, potatoes, whole milk, shots of olive oil, protein powder to your daily diet and then tell us you cant add anymore food.

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Thanks guys. This is the advice and criticism I was hoping for.

I used the harris formula for a roundabout number. Came out close to 3300 for maintenance, so I still way off, but I heard that it over estimates how many you need.

I was a big carbophobic for years, so eating all this oatmeal, sweet potatoes and other good carbs is a little weird. I will have to man up and stop being a lil b1tch.

I’ll do a skinfold test tonight to see what my BF really is. Berardi’s massive eating calculator said I should be eating 5000 cals/day. I used 215 as weight, 17% BF, moderate activity, moderate machine training for 60 minutes. God dammmm thats a lot of food.

I do eat omega eggs, chicken and pork. yesterday was a tough day and all I hate was tuna left, and a bag of granola so I started pounding that stuff.
[/quote]

Beef man and or my previous suggestion.

Also, my $0.02 - Omega Eggs are a crock Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

Costco groung sirloin. Frozen 1# chubs in a bag of 8 (or so), works out to ~$2 a pound for ~92% lean beef that tastes great!

Good look BulletproofTiger. I’m gonna get the crate of regular eggs and sirloin from Sams Club this weekend. This should help boost calories up to around 5K and push protein higher close to 400g. I’ve been reading a lot on thibs carb cycling codex, so I’m gonna keep carbs in breakfast, pre and post workout. Other than that, beef, eggs and green veggies.

5000 might be a bit high IMO for everyday, especially jumping right into it. But if the bump is coming mostly from fats like in beef and eggs, you should be able to handle the bump if you do it slowly. maybe try carb and calorie cycling. try 4500-5000 on leg day(s) with most carbs pre workout (start with something modest like 75-100 b4 workout and in the AM), and 3000 on off days low days (make those a low protein day (See CT’s threads about it) too if you’re so inclined – this day could be mostly stir fried veggies with some protein providing the 80 grams or whatever he reccomends on this day. this combo will provide the fat from the oil, preferably coconut top fry in which is cheap if you get it online (check out amazon) or one of those other shopping sites).

2 high days - 5000
3 medium days - 3800
2 low days (one is low protein) - 3000

This averages to 3900 a day, which is ~900 a day more than you currently are at. A noticeable but not too drastic increase that should result in some increase in mass without too much fat gain. IMO this is better than bumping cals as high as you were suggesting. But if you can swing it, then try 5000 and see what happens. Everyone is different. That’s just my .02