Help Overhaul My Diet

Diet and Nutrition
1

About three months ago I decided to completely overhaul my diet, focusing on being more efficient in terms of supplying my body with nutrients and developing an overall healthier way of eating. After briefly reading over the T-Nation forums, it has become quite clear to me how educated and dedicated the members of this site are, so I am looking for your help.

I am currently 5’11â?? and weigh 165 lbs, with 9% body fat and am looking to gain about 5 lbs of muscle. I lift 6 days a week, going (Chest,Back), (Legs,Abs,Cardio), (Shoulders,Arms), (Rest Day), and then repeating the cycle. Any and every piece of advice on my diet is more than welcome. I have posted a typical day of eating below, so have at it and let me know what should be changed and how to change it.

7:30: 3 Eggs, Oatmeal with two handfuls of blue berries, whey isolate shake

10:30: 2 Turkey cutlets, two handfuls of brown rice, bowl of broccoli

1:30: Skinless chicken breast (2X) sandwich on sprouted wheat bread, peppers, sprouts, onions, and green tea drink

4:30: Banana, whey isolate shake (Prior to workout)

7:30: 2 or 3 tacos with ground turkey breast on corn tortillas, black beans, peppers, organic salsa, onions, avocado optional

*In addition to Whey Isolate Shakes (Isoflex) I take Fish Oil 3X per day, and GNC’s Mega Men Multi Vitamin 2X per day.

2

Without meaning to sound rude - why is you goal so… well, low?

Regardless - what i would do to get the 5lbs would be this:

Switch to a 2 day split done 2x/wk for a total of 4 sessions.

Increase calories significantly.

Increase red meats.

Use PWO nutrition.

Increase simple carbs peri-workout.

Use Creatine.

Train very high intensity, and moderate/low volume.

Give it 4-6 months and you could have 5 natty lbs.

3

No worries about questioning the low goal, I am pretty open and would love to gain more than 5, just thought that it was a reasonable place to start.

For the splits what would you recommend? and what are your thoughts on additions for PWO nutrition? Also, where do most of you get your carbs and cals? just through any foods or do you target specific healthy foods?

4

Thats a really sound diet on paper, if you eat that everyday you will be a healthy mofo, I don’t know if you have a macro breakdown but here is fairly accurate break down I did:

On a workout day if you have one scoop of protein each time you have a shake and each scoop is 35 g protein and oatmeal is 1 cup cooked:

Cals 3100 Fat 96 (not including fish oil) Carbs 272 Protein 308

Your 165 u want to be 170 so 170 x standard 1.5 = 255 so your protein is solid.

You definitly need to increase cals, if you added 1 cup mixed nuts throughout the day, 2 more eggs and 1/2 cup more oatmeal for breakfast that would take you to about 4300 cals which is a great start (you would gradually) have to increase cals).

People generally say for a PWO drink a 2 to 1 carb to protien ratio, iv herd dextrose recommended as it is the fasted absorbed but i would have to double check that.

If you ate like this consistently and hit your legs hard with heavy ass weights you could gain way more muscle then 5 pounds in 6 months, shit man I would say 10 for sure 20 if it all goes according to plan.

Best of luck hope this helps.

5

Thanks Hotch, I really appreciate you taking your time to do the macro breakdown. Seeing the info like that is a great way to see where I need to make some increases, and your advice sounds great.

I will check on the dextrose, lately I have been using fruits and fruit spread as fast acting carbs both pre and post workout boosters to assist with the protein processing. Is that sufficient?

Legs are the truth and I need to get on that, I just find that whenever I want to skip a workout, it’s usually legs, and I need to cut that shit out.

Any other opinions from the street? The advice so far has been epic.

6

Also, pre-workout I have been loading up on steel cut oatmeal with berries, eggs, and a whey isolate shake. Post-workout I usually have a whey isolate shake within 30 minutes of finishing, along with brown rice and some fruit (in an attempt to get both slow and fast burning carbs). Does this sound adequate? Are there any additions I should be making?