Newbie Diet Help Needed!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I want to start focusing on building muscle. About a year ago I weighed 250 pounds, but after several lifestyle changes and working out I’ve dropped down to 165 which for my height, 6"4, is to damn skinny.

I bought Muscle Revolution and have read through it a few times now. My training routine will basically come straight from the book as I don?t really feel comfortable yet with experimenting and developing my own program until I get more experience.

What’s giving me the most trouble is diet. Even at 250 I didn’t eat that much I just ate the wrong things, and now I have a hard time eating a lot. I read through and did a lot of research on nutrition but most guides and articles fail at delivering good economic foods to eat that stay within the diets parameters.

One thing I want to avoid is recklessly putting on a ton of fat that I busted my ass getting off. So I guess I’m not looking to go on a full out traditional bulk, but something where I can gain good amounts of lean muscle mass fairly quickly with little fat gain. Chad touched on this in his book and he recommends eating 16x your lean body mass.

I decided to go over this some because almost everything else suggests eating a lot more than that.

I plan on adjusting as I go, removing or adding calories if I put on to much fat or don’t gain enough weight.

I just need advice on my diet. Is it good or should I change up the increments or meal composition / proportions etc.

Stats
Height: 6"4
Weight: 165 lbs
Body fat: around 18-20%

Meal 1
6:00 AM
Oatmeal - 54g carbs 6g fat 10g protein
8 egg whites - 26g protein
? grape fruit - 12g carbs

Meal 2
8:50 AM
Tuna can- 18g protein
Mixed nuts- 18g fat 8g carbs 5g protein

Meal 3
11:30 AM
2 slices of whole wheat bread- 38g carbs 9g protein 2.5g fat
1 slice of fat free cheese 3g carb 4g protein
1 1/2 serving of turkey breast 18g of protein 1g fat
2 oranges- 19g carbs
fat free yogurt 9g carb 7g protein

Meal 4
1:00 PM
Tuna can- 18g protein
Apple- 21g carbs

Meal 5
3:00 PM
2 scoops of protein powder 4g fat 4 carb 44g protein
1/4th cup of oatmeal 14g carb 3g protein
1 sliced banana- 23g carb
1 cup lactose free skim milk 12.3g carb 8g protein

Meal 6
5:00 PM
salmon 4g fat 20g protein
spinach steamed +1 tablespoon of olive oil- 15g fat 12g carb 9g protein

Meal 7
7:00 PM
Chicken Breast 27g protein 3g fat
Brocolli steamed + 1 tablespoon of olive oil- 15g fat 10g carb 7g protein

Meal 8
9:00 PM
low fat Cottage Cheese ? 3.3 fat 23g protein 6.6g carb
1 serving of natural peanut butter- 17g Fat 8g protein

Pre workout-
1 scoop of Metabolic Drive- 2g fat 2g carb 22g protein

Post workout- glutamine, creatine,
1 scoop of grow, 2g fat 2g carb 22g protein
1 cup of skim milk, 12.3g carb 8g protein
3/4 cup of frosted cheerios 23g carb

1/2 serving of peanut butter

Total carbs- 239g 956 calories 37%
Total protein- 238g 952 calories 36%
Total fat- 79g 711calories 27%

Total calories 2,619

Lifting days
+protein 56g
+carbs 39g
+fat 13g

calories = 3116

My goal is to put on about 30-40 lbs. of lean muscle mass in 6 months. Is this unrealistic or unachievable with complete dietary adherence and effort in the gym?

2

30 - 40 in 6 months bro thats a ton good goal but that much that fast can be done nut could be messy LOL. The first 10-15 will come fast your very ligth and just get that to be healthy looking but whats the hurry bro this stuff takes time and consistency. concentrate on just slowly making progress adding strength and weight, gym performance and well the size will come if your eating for it.

Diet try it get rolling and be ready to adjust it will take constant adjustment as you go needing more and more to gain. those numbers seems kinda lowe but prob a good start get going and run that until you dont gain for two weeks and bump it again rinse and repeat until you hit your goal.

food in general look good dont be scared to have some junk every now and again go 90% clean and your more than good. Oh and Im hopping 4 grams of fat is a typo on lifting days

Im short put it to action see how it does and if not gaining upp it

Phill

3

[quote]Tilt_ wrote:
I want to start focusing on building muscle. About a year ago I weighed 250 pounds, but after several lifestyle changes and working out I’ve dropped down to 165…[/quote]

Congrats on that.

[quote]My goal is to put on about 30-40 lbs. of lean muscle mass in 6 months. Is this unrealistic or unachievable with complete dietary adherence and effort in the gym?
[/quote]
30-40 pounds of lean muscle in 6 months? I’d say that’s hella-unrealistic. But I also agree with Phill and think you should do as best you can anyway.

I suggest reading through the Quality Mass Diet, it’s all about how to bulk up with minimal fat gain:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1021940

4

6’4" 165 is very skinny. so how the hell are you 18-20% body fat? That doesn’t seem right to me.

5

Actually my body fat is much lower. I just guessed before. I’m lean to the extent that I can see the outlines of veins in my arms and a very faint outline of my top abs.

Thanks for the link to the diet. I’ve been incorporating a lot of the stuff already mentioned there but I will definitely modify it even more within the next week after I see if I’ve gained any weight on my current diet. I’ll post my new diet soon to see if the changes were for the better.

The link was also useful because it led me to the FFB article, which was EXTREMELY enlightening. A big problem I have is excess lower abdominal fat that I cant cut off, which is why I have a skewed view of my body fat% it’s largely disproportionate.

I was trying to get rid of the fat but while doing so I cut to low on my body weight so I had to stop. The article addressed this as an ordinary problem for FFBs so and recommends doing what I decided to do bulking up. I’m just hoping I can get rid of the stubborn fat once I put on some more muscle. Anyone else have experience with this problem?

Yeah I figure 30-40 pounds is really unrealistic now after reading more, but my goal now is just to gain as much as I can, I wont slack off after hitting a certain mark. I’ve been following Waterbury’s ABBH program and did free weight squats for the first time yesterday. My form was terrible but I’m getting better. Doing deadlifts for the first time tomorrow as well.

One problem I have with the squats is that I cant go deep. I don?t think I have the strength or balance to go down all the way. I can get down to parallel fairly easily but beyond that seems like a bad idea at this point. My glutes are pretty sore after doing them though. Does that mean I went deep enough?

I don?t have any soreness in my hamstrings, am I supposed to or do hamstrings receive only minor work in this exercise? I know a lot of people claim that using soreness to evaluate the quality of a workout is faulty, but at my stage I think I can use it to determine if I’m isolating muscles or not.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I have really long legs, size 36 length pants. I heard this effects your ability to squat but I’m not sure how.

I definitely got off subject but I didn?t feel like any of it was worth a new thread.

6

[quote]Tilt_ wrote:

One problem I have with the squats is that I cant go deep. I don?t think I have the strength or balance to go down all the way. I can get down to parallel fairly easily but beyond that seems like a bad idea at this point. My glutes are pretty sore after doing them though. Does that mean I went deep enough?
[/quote]

well parallel is great but so is ATG use then both drop the ego and load and do them maybe think about LOW below parallel box squats also pausing in the hole youll have to droop the load but it will negate the stretch reflex and make you use pure muscular strength as well as get you used to going deep and comfortable down there. Also might try varying your stance try a bit closer when you go deeper and maybe point your toes out.

[quote]
I don?t have any soreness in my hamstrings, am I supposed to or do hamstrings receive only minor work in this exercise? I know a lot of people claim that using soreness to evaluate the quality of a workout is faulty, but at my stage I think I can use it to determine if I’m isolating muscles or not.[/quote]

there getting worked not the prime mover and dont use soreness. If your also DLing then there getting hit, doing direct ham work is not a bad idea though.

[quote]
Another thing to keep in mind is that I have really long legs, size 36 length pants. I heard this effects your ability to squat but I’m not sure how.[/quote]

blaa blaa excuses excuses dont try and give your self an excuse squats in general are hard no matter your leg length. Your just setting up an excuse. and your kegs for your height are not really that long IMO. im 6" so thats what 4" shorter then you and war a 36 length leg as well. GO SQUAT LOL. we all have our lil areas of weakness dont let them be an excuse but a drive to nail that beat it.

Go put it to action bro gain like you said have lofty goal and do all you can to meet and pass them.

Phill