I Gotta Stop Being a Pecker

Nutrition
1

I always thought I was one of those people blessed with a fast metabolism because I could eat like shit and not gain a pound. My eyes have been opened after reading a few articles and it is clear to me that I was really eating like a bird and just pecking at small meals and occassionally glutting on crap.

I’m 165 lbs, and have been on the AD for 3 weeks now, and I’m having a hell of a time! Eating the macro ratio is no problem, I don’t crave carbs.

I’m having a real problem getting enough calories. I am using fitday to track all my meals, and it seems like I’m averaging 2100 calories a day. Obviously I really need to up this by alot to meet my bulking goals, but I find myself getting nauseated after 3 eggs and 3 pieces of bacon in the morning.

I’m doing things like adding flax oil to protein shakes, and sneaking high calorie fats in where I can, but I often find myself at snack time feeling sick after a single bite of cheese.

Any other former peckers turned into big eaters??? Has anyone had problems eating big on the AD? Does this pass?

2

i was just like you. almost the same starting weight.

i wanted very badly to gain MUCH more muscle, but was a somewhat sporadic eater (small meals, binge once a day). no late carbs, no meal before bed. fact was i needed to add a LOT of calories.

i wanted to stay lean and add muscle. so i looked at the articles here. the first one i read was about carb cycling, and it answered my question in the second paragraph: “if you need to gain large amoutns of muscle (>15-20 lbs) carb cycling isnt for you.”

i would suggest that if you are completely unable to eat enough on your current plan, it may not be right for you. that or you need to start forcing food down. once i started adding a lot more carbs, i gained weight fairly quickly, and got stronger as well.

basically from a lifetime weight of 160 lbs to 175 a 2 month span. no noticable fat gain, as of yet. i also have an active job, so i burn the carbs pretty well during the day.

my only esperience with your sort of diet is from a book called ‘serious strength training’, and they recommended a diet pretty similar. lots of protein, lots of fat, a carb up day once a week, and the minimum of carbs during the week to function (preferably under 30 grams) - they called it the ‘metabolic diet’.

personally i hated it. i understand its much the same thing, but havent read about the ‘anabolic diet’, so i shouldnt comment too much on it, i guess. EDIT after looking it up, they are the same diet - lol i feel dumb

anyway, more carbs and good fats was the answer for me to eat more, but good luck in whatever you choose.

3

I’ve found eating several ounces of mixed nuts every day can bump your calories up nicely as well as giving you lots of healthy fat in your diet.

4

nuts + olive oil + fatty meat (more beef, less chicken/fish)

5

[quote]borrek wrote:

I’m doing things like adding flax oil to protein shakes, and sneaking high calorie fats in where I can, but I often find myself at snack time feeling sick after a single bite of cheese.

Any other former peckers turned into big eaters??? Has anyone had problems eating big on the AD? Does this pass?[/quote]

I’m a former light eater. Once I got serious about getting bigger, I used one of Shugarts articles to figure out that I needed about 4000 cals a day to gain. So, I tried to eat 4000 cals a day. It was a mess. On occasion I got there, but it was a struggle.

I fixed it by cheating and buying weight gainer. People are down on weight gainer because they say it has too much “junk” in it. The stuff I use has a lot of cholesterol, but its the only way I found I could get what I needed. The weight gainer shakes I use now have 800+ cals in them. Three of those a day in between reasonable meals with tons of protein (chicken breast, tuna, etc.) have done wonders for my diet. No problems hitting 4000 anymore and I can really tell the difference.

Others have said I just need to use my regular protein (210 cals per shake) along with some EVOO or natty peanut butter (total about 500 cals with the protein) but I just can’t seem to get to 4000 cals a day with that stuff. Three gainer shakes a day are tolerable. Five protein shakes a day with EVOO and PB is not tolerable. At least for me.

In short, if you just can’t get enough cals using regular food and regular protein powder, maybe go to some weight gainer for a while. I think its better to use something with “junk” like a good gainer to get the cals you need than to not use gainer and destroy any chance you have at all of bulking by being unable to hit your caloric goals.

Suggesting gainer shakes seems to go over like smoking in church in here, but I think it is a necessary evil. Evil is good sometimes.

6

Ditch the flax oil. Flax hulls are good, at least I think that is what Ct and Poliquin say.

I would add nuts, penut butter and instead of the flax oil add olive oil to your shakes. Also add fish oil. 2 -3 tablespoons of this a day will add ~300 cals.

You might want to think about eating carbs. You might be one of the lucky A$$HOLES that can eat them and not get fat…??? Just a thought,.

7

[quote]hypnotoad wrote:
once i started adding a lot more carbs, i gained weight fairly quickly, and got stronger as well. [/quote]

same for me. i have never liked the idea of going very low-carb, especially when bulking!

8

[quote]BillO21 wrote:

You might want to think about eating carbs. You might be one of the lucky A$$HOLES that can eat them and not get fat…??? Just a thought,.
[/quote]

I hate you guys like that. =( But your metabolism might fail eventually. REVENGE!!! REvenge from the FFBS!

9

flightspeed, I don’t mean to hate on you, but just because you aren’t creative enough to make a nice ‘homemade’ weightgainer, doesn’t mean this kid has to go out a buy some.

borrek, sometime when I find myself a little low in calories for the day, I head for some nuts or EVOO. A teaspoon of EVOO is 120 calories. A small handful of mixed nuts (about 1/4 cup) is 200 calories, and they barely fill you up.

Other then that all I can say is stop going online and complaining about it, force the food down until you don’t have to force it anymore. You will adapt to eating more, you just have to push it. Keep a food log with you and even make a list of what your going to eat that day to make sure you get enough, then eat what you plan, hungry or not.

10

[quote]BillO21 wrote:

You might want to think about eating carbs. You might be one of the lucky A$$HOLES that can eat them and not get fat…??? Just a thought,.
[/quote]

yup

11

Pecker. HA! Funny stuff.

Another trick: dried foods. Try beef jerky, dried fruit, etc. A cup of raisins has many times the calories of a cup a grapes but they both take the same amount of space in your stomach.

12

For the breakfast, try ditching the bacon and moving the eggs up to say six.

Bacon is just junk.

Don’t be concerned about “too much cholesterol” from the eggs: it’s just severe ignorance that ever caused the medical profession to warn against this, and it’s been shown that in fact increasing egg consumption improves blood lipid profile.

13

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
For the breakfast, try ditching the bacon and moving the eggs up to say six.

Bacon is just junk.

Don’t be concerned about “too much cholesterol” from the eggs: it’s just severe ignorance that ever caused the medical profession to warn against this, and it’s been shown that in fact increasing egg consumption improves blood lipid profile.[/quote]

Bill Robers,
is there any concern about developing an allergy to eggs?

but then I see you weren’t telling him to have them every day, or are you?

14

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
Bill Roberts wrote:
For the breakfast, try ditching the bacon and moving the eggs up to say six.

Bacon is just junk.

Don’t be concerned about “too much cholesterol” from the eggs: it’s just severe ignorance that ever caused the medical profession to warn against this, and it’s been shown that in fact increasing egg consumption improves blood lipid profile.

Bill Robers,
is there any concern about developing an allergy to eggs?

but then I see you weren’t telling him to have them every day, or are you?

[/quote]

I’m not Bill, but I developed one by using 1-2 cups eggwhites in shakes, plus eating tons for breakfast EVERY day. Six eggs once a day shouldn’t be an issue for a while at the least.

15

[quote]hockechamp14 wrote:
OctoberGirl wrote:
Bill Roberts wrote:
For the breakfast, try ditching the bacon and moving the eggs up to say six.

Bacon is just junk.

Don’t be concerned about “too much cholesterol” from the eggs: it’s just severe ignorance that ever caused the medical profession to warn against this, and it’s been shown that in fact increasing egg consumption improves blood lipid profile.

Bill Robers,
is there any concern about developing an allergy to eggs?

but then I see you weren’t telling him to have them every day, or are you?

I’m not Bill, but I developed one by using 1-2 cups eggwhites in shakes, plus eating tons for breakfast EVERY day. Six eggs once a day shouldn’t be an issue for a while at the least.[/quote]

Thanks!

and how do you know if you have an allergy?

Did you ever have a concern about eating too much canned tuna?

OP sorry for the hijack

16

The other thing you might want to keep in mind; If you’re lifting hard and heavy on the big compound movements, without overtraining, you should have a pretty big appetite. If you’re not feeling like you can always eat something, then i’d look closer at your training and recovery methods.

17

borrek,
Are you taking any supplements to aid digestion?
I am eating big and bulking up at the moment,but I struggled eating all the cals I needed.
I found geting at least one yoghurt every day helped,if it is a probiotic one all the better.
I also take a digestive enzyme tablet every day now,and Milk Thistle to ease the strain on my liver from all the added cals and protein.

18

[quote]imhungry wrote:
The other thing you might want to keep in mind; If you’re lifting hard and heavy on the big compound movements, without overtraining, you should have a pretty big appetite. If you’re not feeling like you can always eat something, then i’d look closer at your training and recovery methods.[/quote]

Agreed for the most part - I think that some people’s digestive system is so unused to high quantities of food that even lifting hard won’t increase their appetite quite to where it should be.

My personal eating philosophy, which only works because I eat clean: Only eat what you feel your body needs. If that doesn’t work and you don’t increase in lifts/muscle, eat a little bit more every day.

Repeat until you see the desired results or start gaining a little bit of fat, which generally means you’re eating a little too much. Other than that, I just make sure I hit 200g of protein a day and a good mix of fat and carbs.

Obviously if you eat calorically dense crap it doesn’t work because you can eat a ton of it and not feel full.

19

[quote]g star 24 7 wrote:
borrek,
Are you taking any supplements to aid digestion?
I am eating big and bulking up at the moment,but I struggled eating all the cals I needed.
I found geting at least one yoghurt every day helped,if it is a probiotic one all the better.
I also take a digestive enzyme tablet every day now,and Milk Thistle to ease the strain on my liver from all the added cals and protein.
[/quote]

I do this too, i incorporate some of that activia yogurt into my breakfast every morning and it helps immensely.

20

Are you lactose intolerant? If not, drink plenty of whole milk, and eat full fat dairy products like cheese, cottage cheese and greek yogurt. Once you go Greek, you’ll never eat regular yogurt again.

Try eating a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. That’s 600 calories right there. Whole grain toast with lots of butter. I like pancakes with butter and real maple syrup. Don’t use the fake shit.

Oatmeal, whole grain breads, pasta.

Eat olives, peanut butter, nuts and seeds.
Put olive oil on your salad and veggies.
Avacado, corn, potatoes, beans, are calorie dense.

Eat beef and pork, hamburgers, Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches, some barbecue now and then. Some homemade macaroni and cheese on the side.

Have some good ice cream or cheesecake for dessert.

If you’re not hungry, then you’re not working hard enough. Or you’re sick, but chicken soup is good for that.

I really wish I had this problem.