[Leafs42084]

Hi, ive been on this forum for a long time and have learnt a lot from a lot of you....

I have a pretty fast ****bolism, and have never been fat. My diet even a year ago consisted of nothing but burgers from pubs, pizza, mcdonalds, wendy's etc etc. I was a really unhealthy eater

Then I started reading up a lot more here and ate clean for about half a year... felt a lot healthier and everything... but took a somewhat break during exam times because I didnt have the time to be bringing 6-7 meals from home lol

anyways... im fairly short, about 5'7, or maybe just under. I always weigh between 130-135 lbs, even when I ate all the garbage and have a small frame.

im looking to bulk up a little bit and needed some advice...

should I still stick to the 6-7 meals a day, low carb, high protein.... but just eat a lot more for every meal?

I dont have a strict daily regiment of what I eat.... but the following are stuff i'll eat when im eating clean. Feel free to add some... or tell me to remove some. I dont eat all of them in one day, i'll mix and match for different days


Bananas
Apples
blueberries, raspberries, black berries, strawberries
hard boiled eggs... or scrambled.... grass fed chickens of course
lean ground beef to make wraps
baby spinach
salmon steak which i'll put in a wrap
chicken breast
cereal (usually vector with skim milk)
a lot of almonds, cant get enough (let me know if eating alot is bad)
raisins
almond granola bar
whole wheat pasta (which I consider kind of a cheat meal... is it not?)

cant think of anything else I eat right now....


any tips on bulking up? what I should / should not be doing?

thanks for the help!

[Leafs42084]

anything bad about brown rice? should I add it to my diet and eat it along with salmon steaks or chicken breasts?

also... should I be doing cardio? I was gonna start running everyday... but not sure if im supposed to if im trying to bulk up a bit....

thanks

[Sonny]

You're on the right track in terms of food choices, those are all really healthy options. Now you just have to make sure you're eating enough of it. For someone like you, you might want to consider eating something every two hours, on top of your basics (meats, veggies) try to eat calorie dense foods like almonds, peanut butter etc. You may also want to consider taking a couple of shakes as well throughout the day.

A before bed meal of slow digesting proteins and some fats is a must IMO. Some cottage cheese with a bit of fruit or yogurt is good, or a casein shake (Muscle Milk or Syntha 6). And on top of that, I know some people who set their alarm to get up in the middle of the night to down some food, not sure if you want to go that route though, personally I like my sleep.

[the_w1se]

yogurt is prettty dense too, theres some good bulking recipes up top in the stickies, some good ones that would definately put some meat on your bones

[Leafs42084]

hey Sonny, thanks for the reply.

Any ideas on if theres anything bad about brown rice? should I add it to my diet? also, im lactose intolerant... do they even have lactose free yogurt? i'll look into that next time I go grocery shopping....

as for shakes... some of the fruit I listed above I put into a shake. My shakes consist of lactose free milk, a little bit of cranberry juice as sweetner, a frozen banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.... I was thinking of adding some whey protein into it.

Any advice on what to do for a workout? should I be doing cardio or no?

thanks!

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Leafs42084

hey Sonny, thanks for the reply.

Any ideas on if theres anything bad about brown rice? should I add it to my diet? also, im lactose intolerant... do they even have lactose free yogurt? i'll look into that next time I go grocery shopping....

as for shakes... some of the fruit I listed above I put into a shake. My shakes consist of lactose free milk, a little bit of cranberry juice as sweetner, a frozen banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.... I was thinking of adding some whey protein into it.

Any advice on what to do for a workout? should I be doing cardio or no?

thanks!

Brown rice is fine, do you mean regular long grain brown rice or wild rice. Wild rice is much better.

Muscle Milk is lactose free and tastes fucking awesome, you should try that for your shakes.

Your current shake looks alright but you might want to add some fats into the mix, peanut butter, almond butter, flax oil, olive oil etc.

As for working out, I would limit the amount of cardio you're doing if bulking up is your goal. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to cut it out altogether though.

[drivesick1]

Sonny has all the answers... I would stress on the protien shakes. Your food choices look great but you may not be taking in enough calories. I'm also guessing you are pretty young, about 18 or so. Just guessing???

When bulking, just eat more and drink lots of protien shakes. Keep in mind that all protien shakes are not created equal. The one's Sonny mentioned are great for before bed but are not best for post workout. Thus the difference with Casein and Whey...

See ya and good luck!

[Leafs42084]

Thanks for the quick informative replies!

As for adding more fats to my shakes.... I would gladly input more fats into my diet, ive been trying to aggressively limit them. Do you mean add fats like peanut butter to my shakes? or my diet in general?

I would have considered a PB sandwich a cheat meal hahaha...

Not sure what Muscle Milk is, but I googled it and it looks like a powder supplement like whey protein, i'll be sure to look for it next time



Drivesick1, I guess im still relatively young... not 18 though...... turned 23 a few months ago. Does that make any difference into what I should be eating/doing?

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Leafs42084

Thanks for the quick informative replies!

As for adding more fats to my shakes.... I would gladly input more fats into my diet, ive been trying to aggressively limit them. Do you mean add fats like peanut butter to my shakes? or my diet in general?

You want to limit bad fats but the fats found in nuts, nut butters, olive oils, cocanut oil, seed oils etc. are good for you. You're already eating salmon on a regular basis so you're getting some healthy fats there. Based on what you've told us, you have a high ****bolism so increasing the frequency and amount of food is key, this is harder for someone with a high ****bolism.

Originally Posted by Leafs42084

I would have considered a PB sandwich a cheat meal hahaha...

PB sandwhiches are great for bulking, stick with whole grain bread though.

Originally Posted by Leafs42084

Not sure what Muscle Milk is, but I googled it and it looks like a powder supplement like whey protein, i'll be sure to look for it next time

Muscle Milk is a casein blend so the protein is slower digesting, it also contains MCT's (healthy fats). This stuff is ideal for someone like you to take right before bed because that's when catabolism can be high. The slow trickle of protein you get will help negate this.

http://www.supplementscanada.com/pop...roduct371.html

Drivesick1, I guess im still relatively young... not 18 though...... turned 23 a few months ago. Does that make any difference into what I should be eating/doing?

No, you're already disciplined enough with your food choices, you just need to tweak it and eat MORE.

There is a plethora of GREAT nutritional advice in this forum and we're fortunate enough to have very knowledgeable posters/moderators here as well. Take some time and look around.

[TimmyTomatoes]

Quick note on the peanut butter, make sure to get all natural, as other brands include partially hydrogenated oils, a big no no.