I’ve just started to workout. I’m 17 years old, I will be 18 in September. I’m 5’7" tall and weigh about 103 lbs (I’m very scrawny) and I’m looking to bulk up a bit. How does this diet sound?
Current Supplements:
Vitamin B6 (taken everyday)
Centrum (taken everyday)
ON Serious Mass
ON Whey
11oz RTD Muscle Milk (230 calories, 21g protein)
Muscle Milk Powder (350 calories, 30g protein)
Off day:
M1: 1/2 cup traditional oats (not steal cut) with 1 scoop ON Whey (170 calories, 29g protein?) or Cytosport’s instant oatmeal (300 calories, 30g protein) or Dunkin Donuts’ Reduced Fat Blueberry Muffin (400 calories, 45 calories from fat, 8g protein)
M2: PB+J Sandwich or Turkey Sandwich on whole wheat bread
M3: 1 scoop ON Whey (120 calories, 24g protein)
M4: Some kind of lean meat/fish/chicken with vegetables
M5 (pre-bed): 1 serving (2 scoops) cytosport muscle milk (350 calories, 32g protein) or 11oz RTD Muscle Milk (230 calories, 21g protein)
And for a workout day, I would replace M4 with 1/2 serving of Serious Mass as PWO and keep everything else the same.
I’ve read stickies all over and I’ve been having a hard time formulating my own diet plan.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Take what you have there, and multiply it by 2-3x, then you will be eating like an average adult male should.
You seem to be aiming for too many calories from supplements, try to add more from solid food and supplements should be just that.
Sample:
M1: 1 cup traditional oats with 2 scoops ON Whey, 1 cup mixed berries and 6 whole eggs + 2 glasses of milk
M2: 1 PB+J Sandwich AND 1 Turkey Sandwich on whole wheat bread + couple of fruits + 2 glasses of milk
M3: 1 can tuna, 2 slices bread, 6 whole eggs + 2 glasses of milk with 1 scoop protein
M4: 500g some kind of lean meat/fish/chicken with vegetables + 2 glasses of milk
M5 (pre-bed): 2 servings protein powder + 2 glasses of milk + PB & cottage cheese.
Add fish oil 10g+, flax seed & olive oil to meals and that will be a decent start in my opinion.
Getting your calories from natural food sources is always better, however, it isn’t always practical. Obviously, if you aren’t used to eating that much, you won’t be able to for a while.
So, mix some protein powder with some milk and have that with your eggs and oatmeal. That helps to increase calories without making you feel like you just ate at the all you can eat buffett.
Make sure you are getting some good fruits and vegetables, your healthy fats with your meals and keep working out.
Rsg gave you some good ideas. You can modify them to best suit your eating habits but you don’t need to incorporate the serious mass. A good diet will do the same for you.
You weigh 100lbs, I think a diet of around 2500kcal will have you gaining weight, but everyone is different and it depends on your metabolism.
Start at 2500kcal, and see if you are putting on weight after the 1st week, if not then increase it by 500kcal and see if you are gaining. If you are, keep it at that level until you stop adding weight, and then add more calories.
Remember, if you are - and you should be - working out you will be burning calories too, so on workout days you can aim for at least 3000kcal.
Also, avoid cardio as much as possible and make sure you are getting enough sleep.
Eat as much as you can right now. If that means washing down a meal with a protein drink, so be it. Eat more than normally, and then slowly increase the amount of calories you take in until you start seeing gains.
Do you have an idea of what you want to do with your training?
P.S. If you must go to Dunkin’ Donuts, get a breakfast sandwich instead of a muffin.
[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Eat as much as you can right now. If that means washing down a meal with a protein drink, so be it. Eat more than normally, and then slowly increase the amount of calories you take in until you start seeing gains.
Do you have an idea of what you want to do with your training?
P.S. If you must go to Dunkin’ Donuts, get a breakfast sandwich instead of a muffin.[/quote]
I don’t quite understand what you mean by what I want to do with my training. I’ve become very weak and scrawny over the last year from dieting without knowing anything about it. I started at 216 lbs and now I’m around 100 lbs.
I’m looking to build muscle and strength, basically to become athletic and develop a nice physique.
For breakfast, I enjoy Dunkin Donut’s reduced fat blueberry muffins, they’re quite tasty and they’re not too bad nutritionally, in fact, for muffins they’re quite good.
The breakfast sandwiches don’t appeal to me too much, the only thing I would get is the egg and cheese on an english muffin but even the egg they use has like 15 weird ingredients. Do you have any other recommendations for breakfast? Thanks for all your input.
Ah, so you aren’t naturally scrawny. That gives you two advantages. One, you probably don’t have a lightning-fast metabolism so you probably don’t need to eat quite as much as some of us do. Two, you used to have a lot more muscle mass so you should be able to rebuild it much quicker than if you were trying to build brand-new muscle.
Still, the basic stuff holds. Eat a lot, eat every 2-3 hours, eat whole foods, make sure each meal contains protein. Get plenty of sleep and follow a solid lifting program. You will see progress.
I would say at 103lbs eating anything would help you. My god man eat something, with that weight I’m amazed no one has sent you to the doctor thinking you have a eating disorder.
Yeah, my initial thought after reading your follow-up was “jesus.” I remember being 118 lbs at your age (same height) and I was TINY. I don’t know what kind of habits got you to 200 lbs in the first place, but you will want to be careful not to repeat those same mistakes.
At your current weight, eating enough calories is going to be your first step, but make sure to focus on protein consumption as well. You don’t want to turn back into Joe Squishy. I can’t see this being much of an issue until you get closer to 150 lbs though, as long as you make sure to work out effectively and not eat garbage foods containing mostly carbs + fats.
I’d be interested to see some before pictures and current pictures to know exactly what we are dealing with. This site tends to be a pretty good place to get information, assuming you stick mostly to the articles and avoid the forums where smaller guys tend to get ass-raped by the angry bigger guys who can’t find their necks and want someone to take it out on.
yeah man it seems like a lot at first but when I started drasticalyl raising my caloric intake, i eventually got used to it and now I feel prefectly normaly eating 3000-4000 calories per day.