Any Nutrition Experts or Personal Trainers?

[frisca2004]

erm .. well I do have a diet which I took and lost 8 kilos in 10 days u know

[Spud Striker]

Well, you asked for an expert, and I'm certainly not that. Its my third year in college double majoring in Food Science and Nutrition, and here is what I got for you.

The Zone diet has been a fad for quite some time, but not really proven to be better than the government Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution (AMDR).

Originally Posted by Stryker

...I will probably add another protein shake, and creatine into the mix soon...

Protein:

For endurance athletes, the requirements for protein are to consume about 1.2-1.4 grams protein/kg body weight(Williams). For your weight of 190 lbs (87.7 kg), you would need 105-122 grams protein a day. You are currently consuming nearly double this. Although you're doing quite a bit of strength training, I do believe that your protein levels are quite high compared to your total caloric intake.

Creatine:

This substance has been of large controversy for quite some time now. Many are convinced of its weight gaining muscle building theories, however I am not. It's exact mechanism is still unknown, but the main cause of weight gain is believed to be due to water retention. It's safety has come under question many times, and is banned in some countries for that reason.

Overall Suggestion:

Up the Calories for sure. A moderately active 20 year old male has a recommended Calorie intake of 2800 per day. I would say with your workout routine you could easily be using around 3200 Calories per day, and thats a pretty low estimate. To increase calories I would recommend increasing with carbohydrate rich foods. Incorporating pastas or rice would be an easy way. It would also probably be smart to throw in something like a Gatorade after your workout. It would help with your carbohydrate deficit, and has been shown to help the body recoup for the next day of exercise. Skip the protein shakes and creatine, you're already high enough in protein and the creatine will just mess up your water balance. Also, how about some meat in the diet? It could easily replace the protein from those protein shakes, and also up the overall calories. Maybe incorporate ham or bacon into your omelettes.


Williams, Melvin H. “Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport.” Eighth Edition. McGraw Hill. 2007.


Now, on a completely random side note: You are 9 days older than me... and I think there is some resemblance:

[Stryker]

Thanks to Hotei, MB and Striker

Striker, you are type of person I was looking for, someone who is studying nutrition. The main goals are to gain lean muscle while dropping body fat %. Ive read just about everything you can over the last few years, I just never implemented it for longer than 1-2 months at a time. I read that the normal bodybuilder should consume 1-2 grams per pound of bodyweight, so Im still not where I want to be quite yet in that respect.

Im consuming a very high amount of water, I would guesstimate 1-1.5 gallons per day via water alone, not counting water gained from fruits and other sources.

Frisca - I weighed 210 pounds my 5th grade year, at which point I got fed up with being overweight, and dropped to 160 pounds by the end of that following summer. Im not worried about losing weight, but rather adding lean mass

MB - I do split up the muscle groups into three, working each set twice a week, leaving plenty of time to rebuild

Striker - Thanks for the gatorade suggestion. Im currently drinking a Lipton's green tea during workout, and then refill it with water from the water fountain a few times before I am done that day, but I will consider getting some gatorade; I read that suggestion before but dismissed it.

Atm groceries are costing $60-80 a week, so adding more meats would be killer to my budget, but I will grab some rice the next time I go by the store. What about my sodium intake, upwards of 3k mg per day; should I stay here, or try to eliminate bits here and there? Thanks again for the replies guys

[sirlobo]

omfg Sryker,
stop before its too late.
Wanna a right diet ???

Come in Italy and if you stop lifting weights for 7 days youll be my guest.

[Hotei]

Striker... with the "I"

I do hear ya on the 40, 30, 30 thing that it has never been proven. However from personal experience, I did have more energy. At the time i was competing with the university of cincinnati and the us national team. Where my races were in the pool 1500m, and in open water 25k. If it can do that for someone training (at the ultimate most 100k meters a week) it has my vote for a pretty darn good program Just thought i'd share, if i was studying that stuff, at the least i'd find it interesting.

Best of luck to you in school brother.

Stryker with the "Y"

1500-2400mg I believe is the daily recommended amount of sodium. It tends to raise BP, I don't see how it could hurt you if you drop it a bit (but i look forward to seeing what Striker has to say)

Cheers m8s

Hotei.

[sob]

why dont you get Ido to fix you up?

(sorry for the off topic)

im not a professional or a perfectionist...but when i was training, me and my friend (he works at a gym) had a good tactic for gaining musclemass. we did not go on a diet, however we made sure to eat relativly healthy. we were drinking about 4L of water everyday and went to the gym 3-4 times a week.

we had one program for each day and we had detailed logs containing repetitions, weighs, bodyweight ect and i have to say that was a big motivatior to see the progress!
the "tactic" we used was to use middle/heavy weight and do repetitions until we were totally worn out. ill give you an example:

in our program one exercise was listed like this: 3x12 - biceps curls - 20kg
first round i would lift as many lifts i could do, so usualy it would be about 18. we always helped eachother for the last 2-3 lifts when you cant get the weight all the way up. in other words we made sure to give everything + alittle bit more, every single round.
then the second round i would usualy get the amount i had in my log, so 10-15 lifts depening on weight.
the last round i usualy managed to do 8, max 10, always getting help for the last 3~ lifts.

we followed this routine every time and each day was split up so the muscles got alot of rest (like you are already doing).

i used to go to the gym for 2 years straight previous to this, and i have to say it made a huge difference working out like this. the progression was amazing and i gained alot of muscle mass without a diet.

however we did use creatine and it seems to add water to your muscles (they will still get hard tho hehe) but the biggest difference is your stamina/endurance when training like this. i have tried creatine before without any effect, but training like this with creatine really helps. i tried this program without and i would say overall my perfomance was down atleast 20%, if not more. mainly because of the burning sensation in your muslces when you drain yourself like this (we call it milk acid in norwegain). i think its lactic acid in english?

to summarize: find someone to work out, drink alot of water, max out/drain yourself every single round and log as much as possible to see your progression.

i hope this made any sense. it worked great for me. and if you add a diet to this....

too bad i didnt keep it up after moving to sweden and ireland. after only 2-3 months in ireland i have agained atleast 10kg. :cusse: @ irish food (and all the icecream my gf feeds me

ps: like etopia said, dont forget to listen to your body. working out like this is very tough on your muscles.

[Sirhc]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Atm groceries are costing $60-80 a week, so adding more meats would be killer to my budget, but I will grab some rice the next time I go by the store. What about my sodium intake, upwards of 3k mg per day; should I stay here, or try to eliminate bits here and there? Thanks again for the replies guys

While I don't work out these days when I used to I would only eat good carbs. Brown rice, Whole wheat breads and pastas. Make sure you read the ingredients if it says enriched it usually means its been refined and white flour and white rice might taste better but they are worse for your system. 100% whole wheat or a good multi grain is the way to go. It might be a little more expensive but these food will give you more energy and keep you feeling full longer while the refined versions might give you an immediate boost you will feel hungry more often.

I am not totally sure about the sodium intake that might take going to the doctor and having a metabolic blood test to see if it is affecting your blood pressure. I know I have low blood pressure even for being a bit overweight and sodium is not an issue with my blood work. I know it differs from person to person.

When I used to work out hard core a few years ago I would eat a banana and a bowl of oat meal before every work out for energy. I stayed away from Gatorade because of the sugar intake (empty calories) but these days there are other sport drink options and at the rate you are working out it might not matter. I live in the desert so I drank lots of water but find a good balance to much water can be a bad thing as in the case of that Marathon runner who drank so much water she imbalanced her system and died. I would have to think that was alot of water though.

The biggest thing my trainer told me was no carbs after 8pm or roughly 4-5 hours before you go to sleep. That was when I worked out between 4pm-6pm and had my last meal with carbs around 7pm-8pm. It just depends more on when you go to sleep. So if you go to sleep at 2am everyday you just adjust the schedule. For some reason your body will store carbs while you sleep if it has them.

From what I can tell it looks like you are on the right track. Most gyms have onsite nutrionists who will give some free advice now and then. If you have the cash the doctor's visit can be eye opening too and it might keep you from eating the wrong things or taking the wrong supplements depending on what your bloodwork shows.

Good luck

Chris

[SODERD]

diet and workout is NOT friends... If you dont eat enough and healthy you will destroy more muscle mass then you will gain by training.

eggs are good... there is a saying.

have breakfast like a king, lunch like a knight, the meal between lunch and dinner like a farmer, and dinner like a beggar.

all meals should include sallad

sleeping 8 hours every night. And that means everynight... not 2-4 nights a week.

sleeping and eating are just as important as training.

im working out 4 days a week and sometimes im running on the 5th day.



my new after newyears life!

here you have some info on my schem but it isnt up to date realy...

im separating biceps from triceps

brest/biceps
shoulders/triceps

leaves you with more energy for one muscle in the arms.

Pm me if you got any questions

i also got a healhy food something friend who got a degree in that subject
im testing her methods
if you want me to ask her something

[Aliana]

I'm not an expert, but I have a tendency to hang out with one. My approach is over the top natural. So much so that I won't overwhelm you with too many disciplines.

While you're in the process of tweaking. Take a close look at that multivitamin you're taking. How much your taking means nothing. It's all about absorption. With multivitamins, as a general rule, most of it's flushed out of your system. It's all about size. The smaller the molecules the more you absorb. Colloidal is better, but angstrom sized minerals are even smaller than colloidal. Vitamins are built from minerals so proper mineralization is key.

You may find removing the multivitamin all together a better choice, opting for MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) instead. MSM is a sulfur based food supplement that potentiates all other nutrients. By incorporating MSM into your diet, you will absorb more nutrition from the food you're already eating and nutrition that comes naturally from your food is best. You can look here for more information on MSM. Usually I add the powdered form to our bottled water rather than purchasing the tablets.

MSM also helps to build collagen and lubricate the joints which will help you maintain flexibility. For more lubrication of joints, which is good for getting a deeper stretch in and helping with the buildup of lactic acid which causes cramping, consider getting a juicer and have celery juice before working out. Celery juice has a wonderful blend of sodium and potassium and would be much more in line with what's naturally good for you than Gatorade would.

Keeping a decent calorie count is important when building mass, but those calories should still provide as much nutrition as possible. Look into superfoods. Things like blueberries, goji berries, bee pollen, spirulina and even chocolate (if it's not over processed to the death of it and infused with hydrogenated oil). Although is can be more costly, organic fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients than conventionally grown.

Above all, Etopia is right. Nutritional guidelines are wonderful, but we are each built differently. What is right for one person, may not be right for you. Try the suggestions that sound reasonable to you and see how you respond. Listen to your body and build one discipline upon the next.

Hugs,
Aliana

[sob]

Originally Posted by SODERD

diet and workout is NOT friends...

you couldnt be more wrong. when you workout the diet can have a huge impact. im guessing when you say diet you mean a "weightloss program" or something. you can have a diet that makes you build muscles with exercise

a diet means what you eat within a regulated selection of food. when you are on a diet you stick to a certain program. it could be only vegetables, a 40/30/50 diet (carb/fat/prot) or a fluffy sugarcoated sugar and chocolate diet.

eating right and working out right are both equally important if you want good results.

and yes, sleeping right is also very important.

not to mention alcohol. my ex gfs brother was somewhat a bodybuilder, and he said that drinking alcohol can bring down your overall improvement by 50~ % for two weeks straight after a night out.
so if you want to be really serious, dont drink!