Ive been hearing more and more about how important it is to eat vegetables as your primary source of carbs. Currently a large chunk of my daily calories come from whole grains, bagels cereal etc. My question is, how do those of you who follow a primarily meat and vegetables diet get enough calories?
I should mention that it is a struggle for me to gain weight and I have generally try to eat between 3500 and 4000 calories a day.
This is a good question. In the course of various diets and goals, I have come into agreement with the general idea of clean protein, good fats, and clean carbs consisting of mainly vegetables and some fruit. I got rid of grains based on many reasons-too high glycemic load, hinders trying to get an alkaline diet, and others. I tend to think I have done better without them, it makes dieting easier.
However, lately, I have been on a gaining phase and I am having trouble (never used to). I believe the answer is unprocessed, calorie dense foods with the better fats. For instance, nuts and peanut butter, The second way for me is eating eggs and leaving the yolks in (a usual no-no). And of course, higher calorie protein drinks like Muslce Milk help.
I hope others post, I’m curious about other ideas. Doc
I used to have troble but you adjust to less dense food. I like occasional moderate gl foods so dried fruit like pineapple,bannana ect. a super easy to get cals in. also fresh bannanas and grapes are easy. But for non carb sources meat of course I can eat tons and easiest way for me to get in a lot of calories is have some nuts after your meal and just little things that you don’t notice like when you make your eggs pour a little more olive oil than usual into them. But the nuts I think are the best specificly pistacios like have your meal then have huge handful of pistacios witch has like 300 colories and barly fills you up.
Sliced almonds real easy to get calories in
If you are going to reduce carbs down to primarily vegetables fat HAS TO be raised. Whole eggs(omega 3s if possible) instead of egg whites, steaks instead of chicken breasts, olive oil on your veggies(this is a big help to me), having nuts after your protein and veggies. High protein, moderate fats, lowish carbs will do most bodies good.
Eggs, nuts, a salad for lunch and dinner, peanut butter.
yeah,. peanut butter helps me get my caloric needs too. I put it in my oatmeal, and grab a spoonful after each meal I don’t feel was high enough in good cals.
S
Come on. This isn’t that hard.
Olive oil. Cheese. Meat that isn’t so friggin’ lean you wear down your teeth chewing it. Eggs.
Example
12oz Ground Beef 90% Lean,cooked - 710 Cals
10 Fish Oil Pills ---------------- 100 Cals
16oz Steamed Brocolli ------------ 80 Cals
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil ---- 360 Cals
TOTAL 1250 Cals
Damnit, now I’m hungry.
Theres plenty of other cheap and tasty carb sources out there… my two favourites at the moment are apples and dried apricots… on top of the usual mountain of broccoli and cauliflower.
I’m finding my 3250 calorie maintenance diet fairly comfortable at present without ANY grains at all =]
And also look into making up some chili - god I love the stuff… my current recipe is the following:
1lb lean mince beef
50g kidney beans
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
20ml olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
dash of tabasco sauce
pinch of salt
per serving: (makes two)
51g protein
10g carbs
30g fat
a tasty and REALLY simple killer P+F meal!
not so much for the carb content are you eating them, but for the micronutrients. pretty much the only carbs in non-starchy veggies is fiber.
chicken legs, thighs, or drumsticks have a higher fat content which is relatively balanced. add a few fish oil and that meal’s protein and fat are taken care of. these cuts of chicken have slightly higher nutrient levels than the white meat.
consider 85% ground beef. the fat is half saturated, half monounsaturated. add walnuts (high in omega6) and some fish oil and fat is balanced.
in general, you will need to eat around the same amount of fat as protein if you are keeping the digestible carbs low. this is actually very easy to do and overshoot as 2 tablespoons of oil have 250 kcal.
at 3500-4000 kcal, you will need to take in up to 250g of fat a day if you are low carbing and bulking. that is 40-45g per meal at 6 meals a day.
an example meal:
6 omega3 or free range eggs (38g PRO, 30g FAT)
30g of cheese - real stuff (9g PRO, 9g FAT)
5-10g butter, EVOO, avocado oil (4-9g FAT)
all the veggies you want. recommended that at least 100g of kale, spinach or other leafy greens is included (cook with butter on low till it reduces and then add other veggies, spices and eggs). total veggies should be in the 300g range.
this will be 600-650 kcal. fiber will be 6-10g depending on veggie choices.
One problem I ran into when eating large amounts of fats is being nauseous from the sense of a lot of bile in my stomach. A large portion of fat was from olive oil and fish oil caps. Anyone know how to counter that, or at least make it a bit more tolerable?
JDK
JDK
You have to gradually adjust your fat intake.
Remember your body needs to adapt.
( You feel nauseous since the macronutrient that takes longer to digest are fats, so add them gradually so your body can adjust to the quantity of enzymes and …, it needs to secrete)
I would suggest trying to get 20 to 25 grams in every meal. Start from there then add some more fat. Just be careful and watch how much fat you ingest close to your bed time you could have trouble getting a restful sleep duo to the digestion of fat.
Good Luck
Jorge
Thanks, that’s good advice. I did indeed up my calories from fat quite a bit in a short period. I’ll scale down and increase more gradually.
JDK