A Bunch of Food Questions

[Plaidboy]

Hi. I'm just starting out in the Bodybuilding thing. I have no plans to become a competitive bodybuilder or anything, I just want huge arms and huge pegs, and huge, well, everything. You know the feeling, otherwise you wouldn't be here. I'm sick of being a skinny kid. I have a great frame, that I know, and I would like nice with a big body. I just know it. Anyway, I'm very intimidated by the amount of information that's out there about building muscle/losing fat, etc. Here's a bunch of questions that I have. Man, I wish I found this webpage a year ago.

1. What carbs are "good" to eat? I have read that it's good to eat carbs after a workout, so should you avoid them during the regular ol' day?

2. What is the difference between simple/complex carbs? Which is better for me?

3. Working out: I'm too self-conscious right now to actually join a gym, but I have a nice bench with a bunch of weights at home. Will I be able to get any serious growth with an at home workout? Or do i need to go to a gym to achieve such a thing? By serious growth I mean, adding a few inches to my arms? Right now they're scrawny, about 12" flexed.

I'll think of more questions later. I'm currently about 6'0, 145 lbs, with a 30.5 waist. If anyone who started about this size has had serious growth, or knows a way I can change my body, please email me at [email protected] and like say "This is exactly what you need to do..." That's what I need. Cause I start reading articles and I just get overwhelmed and stop reading.

[buffdoc]

Good questions. Maybe we need a FAQ on this topic....but as a basic overview:

1. You need to eat to gain size. It's a simple law of physics...you can't make something out of nothing. You need FOOD to grow. Figuring out how much to eat and when to eat it is where most people get overwhelmed. In the beginning, you will gain with simple changes to your diet and regular training. Try Whey protein protein 1g/per lb of desired body weight everyday.

2. Carbs are a mixed bag. To gain mass, you will need carbs. However, too much carbs and you will get fat. The basic story is that carbs can be classified into those which are quickly are broken down into sugar after consuming and those that are not. Two things can effect the rate of carb breakdown--the nature of the carb itself (e.g. fruit vs. oatmeal--oat has alot of fiber) or what the carbs is eaten with (e.g apple with peanut butter, fats slow digestion rate). Good carbs don't cause huge spikes in insulin--the best are oatmeal, brown rice, wheat pasta, and fibrous veggies. Bad carbs include refined starches like potatoes, white bread, standard pasta, and white rice. Fruits are OK if eaten in moderation. Figuring out when to eat carbs is easy. After workouts, you want fast acting carbs to spike your insulin levels and help build muscle. Insulin is quite anabolic. So have a Gatorade, a bowel of fruit, or have a dextrose shake. The remaining times of day/non-workout days stick with slower acting carbs. You can lookup the glycemic index of foods to get a more quantifiable measure of this concept.

3. You don't need a gym membership to get big or look good. Alot of people don't want to look like bodybuilder and most couldn't even if they were committed to training at a fully loaded gym regularly . A good book that is designed for people who work out at home is called the Body Sculpting Bible for Men. It is designed for beginners, has sample diets, graduated exercise tracks, explains proper form, and shows you how to train effectively using a bench, barbells, and dumbbell set. I used it to plan my workouts when I started to lift 3 years ago. I gained 15 pounds following the basics in that book. My baseline build was really similar to yours at 6"2' at 170 lbs so you may find it helpful.

Trust me in the beginning almost any training with a reasonable diet will produce gains. Beginners gains are often dramatic and once you start to see changes your motivation will become self reinforcing. As you learn more about training, you will also become more advanced in training techniques and diet. The important thing is to start and train consistently. Do not expect to blow up over night. Weight training is really effective but the effects are gradual and cumulative. I really recommend you snap photos of yourself with a digital camera to track your progress at regular intervals--it helps you maintain perspective and can help you define training goals.

[Plaidboy]

Thanks, man! That really helps!

On my web page I have a link to a database that lists the nutritional value (calories, fat content, etc.).

Go to http://www.LeatherGryphon.com and click on "Bodybuilding" there's a link to the USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) Nutrient database in there, among other things.

Talk about information overload! This database is chock full of information. Sorting through it is relatively easy though.

Once you get to the USDA site through my link, use their first link at the top of the page to access the database and try the "Search on-line" link.

I haven't examined all the possibililties, but searching the data on-line is probably the easiest way to get useful information from it. Try searching for "eggs" and see what you get.

Other options are to download the database itself and some software onto your machine to do the search locally. The database itself is available as raw ASCII files or in Microsoft Access database format. They provide software to interpret the raw ASCII files. If you have MS Access you can use its query language features on the downloaded database to do complex professional searches


-- LeatherGryphon --

Oops, I have two links on my page to the USDA database site. The first one gets you to a simple search, the second one gets you to more detailed information about food composition. It was the second link I described above, but either link is useful.

-- LeatherGryphon --

[Plaidboy]

Thanks Leathergryphon. Btw: great site, nice pics.