Do u manage to eat enough?

[UKBeefy]

I have recently started to pay closer attention to my diet and follow some of the conventions on protein intake.

For the guys who post on this board who are in the serious bodybuilder category (and please I mean no offence to admirer types but I want advice from guys who have put on alot of good size) is how do you manage to eat enough? Are you literally stuffing urself with food ie ignoring any hunger or lack of hunger and forcing in two tins of tuna or 2 chicken breasts and rice regardless of having eaten something similar 2 hours before...

I am just finding that even with a decent breakfast of porridge(Oatmeal to u guys) and a shake then meals and shakes through the day that I wonder if I am hitting anything like the 1-2g of protein per lb bodyweight day in day out...I eat way more than my contemporaries who don't lift but still wonder if I need to get even more food....are you eating like 1lb steaks or a dozen eggs at a throw? I just think I'd burst if I eat much more particularly if I eat a cooked meal much more than 2 times a day (and shakes and fruit for the interim meals...).

I've never really been close buddies with big guys to actually see how they sort things domestically eg are they literally cooking 30 chicken breasts and eating them within a week?

Anyhow hope this is coherent...

[glammaman2000]

...but I know some who are.It's literally like foie gras.They have to eat HUGE quantities of low-calorie food.One guy I know travels around with a bag of boiled chicken breasts&cold oatmeal&eats it all day.Yum!

[bulkinupbig]

UK,
I can only tell you from experience... that you have to EAT big to GET Big.
You have to make eating a priority. At 281 pounds it is a priority whether I am competing or not. During the holidays, I will most definitely cut loose and deviate from the diet, but then it is back to egg whites, oatmeal, extremely lean beef, chicken, fish, sweet potato, rice, broccoli, protein shakes, etc. in mass quanitities.
Stick to the basics and be consistent.
Bulkinupbig

[brent]

Like Glam, I am far from a bodybuilder, however I always was an advocate for low protein consumption. Protein can be very hard on your kidneys, etc. However, I now think that's why my progress stalled a year ago. So, I'm now really stepping up my protein consumption, and it ain't easy, especially since I'm a vegetarian. Thank God for protein shakes, protein bars, and eggs! Does anyone have any good tips for protein that doesn't involve animal flesh?

[CDNmuscle]

I'm with Bulkin .. the basics ... if it don't Moo .. you don't grow.
Dump any bars, Limit the shakes and work on slowly increasing real food.

You can't just go from 2000cals - 4000cal or yur gona be sittin on the shitter for awhile. Just slowly increase the cal like by 100 per week.
Use the mirror as a judge of when ya start gettin to fat...etc.

[UKBeefy]

Would say one of u post ur typical daily intake? I get well confused looking at some info on the net especially the use of the cup measure. If someone says a cup of rice or oatmeal do they mean of the dry product pre cooking or do they mean literally a cup of cooked rice?

Also i never really know with meat and fish what is actually in them eg protein per g weight. I tend to buy my meat and fish from a butcher/fishmonger so there are no neat labels...Anywhere on the net that tells u 200gms of mince beef (gnd beef to u) gives u Xgms protein...
Do you also batch cook things ? I am finding that often I am wanting to eat something but there is nothign "ready to eat" and I end up with more shakes and bars (easier to take with you if you are out).

I think overal I do okay but really just want to compare to others...

[skumbum]

200gms gnd beef (mince beef to u) gives u 50gms protein

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcom.../hg72_2002.pdf

[UKBeefy]

that looks like a good source of info...many thanks...I've just never seen anyone else measuring stuff out to know what they mean by a certain measure eg rice or pasta to go with a meal and as I said whether all these measures are cooked or uncooked weights. I am always amazed by people who say they eat 3750 calories a day and actually know that exactly and know exactly how to move it up and down ...I would not have a clue...are these people logging stuff in spreadsheets or diaries or eating an extremely limited range of foods in divided up quantities?

[buffdoc]

It is by far the most difficult aspect of training. I am no bodybuilder either but I do keep very careful track of the calories and adjust up and down according to goals. That is key to bulking up or getting ripped. The easiest way is to eat a limited number of foods and build meals using fat/protein/carb content.

[BigLittleTim]

In order to push your body to the next level you're gonna have to eat a whole lot of food, all the time, whether you're hungry or not. Ideally, you should be eating six or seven "meals" per day. I don't think you have to weigh everything, just make sure each meal has a lot of protein, some good carbs (brown rice, yams, etc) and a little fat (olive oil, flax-seed oil, fish oils are best) 'cause you're body does need fats to build muscle.


If you're a member of one of the big body-building forumn, just check out their diet section. There will probably be a million posts about how, what, and when to eat to grow.

As much as I enjoy all the "freaky muscle growth" fantasies, and such, sometimes I get just a little pissed-off at all the "and then the Muscle Genie gave me the magic pill and I got SOOOOO huge and started stomping all the puny jocks" bull shit.

(Is that heresy in here??)

Getting big and muscular is HARD WORK. It is the result of working-out, whether you feel like it or not; eating constantly, whether you're hungry or not; and spending a lot of money and taking a lot of risks using illegal pharmaceuticals to over-ride whatever shit genetics you were given.

You're gonna get exhausted, stuffing yourself with food that does not taste good and which you don't like, 'til you want to puke, squat 'til you want to puke, sore, torn, injured, and spend LOTS and LOTS of time in the gym caring only about what your body looks like in order to feel the envy and lust of people who don't give a crap about who you are as a person, and whom you probably don't care all that much about either.

Sorry to be such a downer for all you who are still waitin' for the Muscle Genie and the magic pill/potion/sweat-pants/computer program/word to make you "fuggin hoooge!"

-BigLittleTim

(Gosh, I'm in a bad mood!)

[CTeen]

Howdy yall,

well, I'm by no means a massive body-builder but I am trying to bulk up a bit myself. I'm 6' and just a bit over 185 now, still fairly lean.

I study Dietetics and Human Nutrition so I have a pretty good knowledge of food. However, we've never really studied much about the principals of training and/or sports nutrition, mostly just clinical stuff and nutrition for the average human being. However, I do a lot of reading and I'm using my own body as my experiment.

I've gained 25lbs in about a year, and maintained the same body-fat levels as before, so I'm really proud of myself. But, I do eat a lot, approximately 3200 - 3500 Kcal per day. I do aim for the 1 g of protein per pound of body weight, but I also have a minimum goal of 2 X body weight in Kgs, which is slightly more attainable and has shown to have about the same benefit.

So, yeah... I do eat a lot, but sometimes it can be hard. I do have to eat at times when I'm not hungry, but lately I've been hungry all the time. I have a vary vast knowledge of food, so I can approximate what kind of nutrients a meal is giving me without obsessing over it. If you're having difficult, a great exercise is to write down what you eat during the course of 3 days, and you may be surprised. Write down everything, including the 1 cookie snack or a handful of chips/crackers.

Not sure what else to say, other than: eat food. And limit yourself to 2 shakes a day... its unhealthy to rely to much on a liquid diet, and there are many physiological benefits to eating real food that aren't present in pills or powders. Not to mention the PSYCHOLOGICAL benefit of not having to choke down another shake.

Best of luck!

[UKBeefy]

Thanks for the advice on here. I think perhaps I worry too much but it does seem more and more as I learn about this sport is that people who do get on are people who are extremely methodical and who enjoy require order in their lives - list makers, measurers, knowledge absorbers. I do some of that but not alot...attempting to rely on my general memory and knowledge and the odd thing I read but it does mean things are more haphazard....
Do many of u make lists/tick things off/line up your supplments etc?

[glammaman2000]

Great to hear somebody lay it on the line!Listen carefully,&adjust accordingly.Personally,I LOVE to train hard,so I do.I'm very protective of my sleep,so I usually get 8hrs.'roids don't agree with me&GH scares me;so I don't do'em.I only worry about diet when a contest is coming up,although I AM much more careful about getting some protein immediately after a workout.So I'm no pro;but I've had some success in amateur contests.You can still be big&get plenty of attention.&be happy!

[brent]

Originally Posted by BigLittleTim

...

Sorry to be such a downer for all you who are still waitin' for the Muscle Genie and the magic pill/potion/sweat-pants/computer program/word to make you "fuggin hoooge!"

-BigLittleTim

(Gosh, I'm in a bad mood!)

I didn't think you were in a bad mood until the end. It's pretty much the truth as far as I can see. However, I'm a sick person that enjoys squatting until I puke, and the tremendous pain of walking for the next few days!

[skumbum]

Originally Posted by UKBeefy

are these people logging stuff in spreadsheets or diaries or eating an extremely limited range of foods in divided up quantities?

A former roommate of mine logged daily calorie / protein intake in one notebook and workout sets in another, to make sure he met his daily quotas of each. I tried it for a little while, it's not that hard. Just look up the stuff you eat (like in that pdf) and write it down, and keep a running total. If you're below your target, eat something more.

[yobdior]

I do think being methodical and disciplined is one of the surest ways to guarantee diet success. And if you struggle to eat enough, consider more calorie dense options.

When I started out I took enormous interest in the calories and protein in each and every item of food I ate.

Over time, I forgot a lot of the exact details on protein, and just remembered approximations (eg 20-25g/100g chicken breast etc).

But I still remember and calculate with every meal I eat the approximate number of calories. And I stick to a certain number for whatever Im doing; eg 4000 when cutting, 6000-7000 when bulking etc etc.

I can go into a restaurant and make pretty good guestimates of calories of everything (if Im bulking ill underestimate, and cutting I usually overestimate).

The point is that once you begin to understand the density of calories in different foods, it becomes immeasurably easier to apply this knowledge to any situation you may find yourself in.

Most importantly though, I keep things as simple and easy as possible. For me this means I tend to eat 3 meals, and drink 3 meals.

However, my protein shakes are more like meals than most people'sl - I use finely ground oatmeal for carbs and fibre (and a little protein), a scoop of cheapo milk protein (casein and whey), semi-skim milk or water, UDOs oil (high omega 3), and sometimes eg banana or berries for flavour, texture and sugary carbs (and anti-oxidants etc etc). I may add a spoon of psyllium husk if I feel i need a boost of fibre (though theres tons in the oats).

Each meal tends to have a portion of meat/fish, a portion of carbs pasta/rice (I usually eschew potatoes since they are not calorie dense enough), and a portion of veg. I usually give it some flavour with a simple sauce.

You can cook most of this in bulk and stuff it in the fridge or freezer, making it harder to skip a meal, since you know its there in the fridge.