Nutrition Help! Lean muscle.

[Calder Photography]

I just don't seem to be getting enough calories!

I'm 20 years old, about 5 foot 9 and currently weigh around 68/69kg.

Here's A breakdown on my daily meals:

Breakfast: 1 apple/10 mins later 4 eggs fried w/olive oil.

Lunch: Chicken breast with steamed veggies.

Pre-workout - protein shake 1 hour before + creatine 2.5g half an hour before.

Post workout - protein shake + creatine + berries

Dinner - usually protein, (chicken or steak) either steamed veggies or a salad.

Evening meal - bowlful or berries w/nuts and seeds

3 eggs fried w/olive oil.

I also have 3 espresso's a day, and usually snack on nuts and seeds throughout the day.

Accoring to Fitday on a regular day my nutrient breakdown is as follows:

1,621 calories

71.7g fat

10.9 g carbs

223g protein.

The past couple of months I've noticed a growth in muscle and I'm much leaner than I ever have been ( much better ab definition) I'm hesitant with what foods to increase my calories as I don't want to lose my leanness. my apparent caloric needs for increase muscle mass while staying lean is around 3,300. I have no idea how to eat this much.

Any help you guys could offer would be amazing.

Thomas

[Blairbob]

Not a lot of calories but lots of protein. No wonder you're leaning out.

Nuts or fat sources. Milk is easy calories but...

[Joshua Naterman]

I will comment here tomorrow. Just letting you know I saw this. Good question! Short version: almost anything you eat that is non or minimally processed is going to help. The key is avoiding fructose.

[Nicholas Sortino]

You seem to have almost not saturated fats in your diet. Sat Fat = Testosterone = Muscle. Feel free to eat a little more fatty meat, or cook your food in butter (especially grass-fed).

[Calder Photography]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your replies so far!

I've been eating paleo for a few months and it's been the single best nutritional choice I've ever made.

I'm a little hesitant about the butter due to the whole cream aspect.

Would you recommended throwing in a bit of bacon at breakfast for saturated fats?

I want to get bigger but without having to sacrifice my low body fat percentage.

Sliz, I look forward to your reply!

[Razz]

For getting bigger and staying lean, eat high fat and high protein. Eggs and bacon make a good breakfast, obviously unsalted unsweetened bacon would be ideal. This way you can also just fry your eggs in the bacon fat.

[Neal Winkler]

Eat more carbs. Add in some potatoes and more fruit.

[Philip Papandrea]

hi

I'm very interested in hearing Slidzardmans reply also as I am in the same boat. My daily meal plan is about the same as you redlac and it seems at least for me that its hard to eat much more food than this. Where do you add it in???? I have good definition at 142lbs but I just look too skinny in my face. I would like to put on weight without getting fat also. I posted a question like this awhile ago and was told to add some good carbs like sweet potatoes. I added oatmeal at breakfast along with my eggs and a sweet potatoe along with my lean protein and veggies for my lunch meal after a workout. I also added an avocado at night mixed with tuna or sardines or shrimp. This still hasn't been enough to put on weight and i've noticed that i don't feel as good after my meals with starches. I get sleepy a little while later. I just bought some coconut milk but was worried that adding more saturated fat into my diet on top of what i get from the NON Grass fed beef would throw my balance of fats out of wak. Anyway Im done rambling now, just been struggling a little with this for awhile. The only way i've been able to put on weight is if i start eating processed foods and its never good weight that i put on.

[Joshua Naterman]

Ok, let me try to do this without losing anyone lol!

Philip, the coconut oil is mostly SCT and MCT, and that means that you'll digest them fairly quickly. Of the fat in coconut oil, there is nothing that will hurt you, so you don't need to worry about poor health affects from coconut fat. What you DO want to keep in mind is that the coconut milk will get into your system pretty quick, so it works much better as the base for an extra meal than it does as added fat TO a meal because the calories can add up quickly and you always want to stay right around the limit of what your body can process. Of course when time or eating opportunities are limited you should just slam it down when you can, but if it is possible to have a few hundred extra calories from coconut milk and protein powder or something like that as a snack between meals that will do you the most good. For people in a similar situation this is a very good strategy.

Nick is right on, the saturated fats are mostly good for you and have been strongly associated with significantly higher testosterone levels. There are a few to look out for, but even in grain fed beef they are not a large percentage. Grass fed is the way to go if you can, but even grain fed is not a death sentence! That's just keeping it real, my friends.

For those who get sleepy after the starches, you may be eating too much at one time. I'm a big, big guy and I never have more than 60g of carbs at any meal, and usually it's more like 40g. To put that in perspective, every 200g of sweet potato (that's half of a average sized sweet potato, as the average sweet potato is .75-1lb and 200g is .44 lbs) has 41g of carbs, 13 of which are sugars. There is only 3g of fructose per 200g of sweet potato, all the rest is glucose in various forms. That's about as good as it gets in nature! These are great for pre-workout meals and later PWO meals. They digest too slowly to be the first choice in the first few PWO meals as described in my nutrition article.

Quantity and how well adapted, both from environmental exposure (how you eat) and from genetic influence, you are for carbs will dictate how you feel, but usually those who are less adapted simply need less at any one sitting.

Milk is a good idea for growth, but there are a few rules to put in place. You should use the milk in cycles, saying something like " I will use milk until I have gained 2-3% BF, and then I will stop drinking a ton of milk until I am back at the BF % I like." The easiest way to keep this under control is to use milk in ALL of your PWO meals, but use 1%. Yes, the milkfat is good, but too much is hard to digest. If using whole milk, keep it at 8 oz or so per meal to avoid digestive slowdown from the milkfat. Basically, that 3 hour PWO window is when you want all your milk, and you want it in fairly even doses. You can have quite a bit more if you're drinking 1% or skim because there is less fat, and the massive hormonal effects that those have are amplified by the lack of fat to slow down digestion. PWO is the only time you would want that to happen. On rest days you don't need the milk, it will just add unnecessary fat. It is very possible that this tactic alone can nearly completely remove the unwanted fat gain from milk, but it will certainly make fat accumulation much slower.

You want to be careful with the fruit. I would like to go ahead and revise what I said in my article, because after learning about how much fructose is in most fruits you want to make sure that you are not eating too much fruit. Your liver is the first thing that's going to refill with glycogen because that's where the brain gets glycogen so you really don't want more than 15-20g of fructose PWO unless you have done the glycogen depletion calculations and know exactly what you need to replenish. Even then, account for 20% of total liver replenishment coming from glucose. That gets complex and is not necessary to do if you are not trainign to be a professional competitor. For health purposes the article is fine, but I would limit the fruit to 3 pieces total during that PWO window. During random non-PWO meals you'll be best off eating peaches, nectarines, apricots, and anything else with a pit. For some reason these fruits have very low fructose levels and will have the least risk of negative health impact. Of course, fruit fiber goes a long way towards slowing fructose absorption down to the point where the liver can actually use most of it so you don't need to freak out. A half or whole piece of fruit at each meal should not hurt you at all, but having more than that is probably not optimal. The one exception to this will probably be low carb, high fat high protein people because the body can only convert around 100g of glycogen per day from protein. This would seem to suggest that people on this type of diet are always somewhat glycogen depleted, which means that if fruit is the primary source of carbs for these people that the fructose should always be able to be fully metabolized into liver glycogen unless you are really going all out at the fruit stand. However, as far as I am aware and have searched there have been no studies done on the rate of gluconeogenesis (making carbs from protein) in people who have been low carb high protein for extended periods of time. It is possible that the body vastly increases the rate of conversion with time, and there is no data on this currently that I can find. So, at this moment it is fairly likely that very low carb people will be fine with a fairly high fruit intake throughout the day if that is their primary source of carbs.

[Quick Start Test Smith]

Slizzardman, I sent you a PM or two, just so you know. I hate putting this kind of post in here, but if you're forgetting to check your inbox, sending another PM wouldn't do any good! :?

[Calder Photography]

Slizz,

Thanks so much for your detailed article!

I've been eating paleo for the past 3 months which has done wonders for my physique, cutting grains and milk has been the best thing I've done.

I'm still somewhat at a loss for getting extra calories, would you recommend coconut milk between meals? or shots of oil? how much fat is too much fat? I used to never work out, and weighed 100kg (i'm 5 foot 9) so I was pretty chubby. it;s taken me a few years and lots of hard work to lose around 30kg and get fit. since I started gymnastics I've been the strongest ever and I've been extremely happy with the way my body is looking and functioning. I'm telling you this because I know I may come across as paranoid about losing what I've achieved, but it's only because I'm really happy with my progress and don't want to take two steps backwards, you know what I mean?

[Calder Photography]

Here's some more info on my BMR AND DEE:

MY BMR = 1782

MY DEE (daily energy expenditure) = 2851

It works out I would need Around 3050 calories a day to build muscle.

My confusion comes from the fact that It seems I'm not even eating my bmr in calories. but Lately I've definitely seen an increase in muscle and definition. and I've also made awesome progress in my statics and workouts.

Also, should I be consuming more carbohydrates than proteins?

Also, I eat 7 eggs a day. this is 49 a week. should I be eating less?

What am I missing?

[Guest]

Re: the amount of calories that is said to be 'necessary' for maintenance and growth... this seems to be a very hazy subject. Anecdotal 'evidence' suggests that many people have a lower caloric intake than they 'should' according to all kinds of calculations but still they remain healthy, increase their strength and muscle mass etc. I'm sure that these people (I am one of them) could benefit from increasing/optimizing their caloric intake, don't get me wrong. Sticking to a Paleo-type diet and simply increasing the amount you eat should do the trick (I know from experience that 'simply eating more' of the green and healthy stuff isn't that simple, though ).

Don't get too caught up in counting calories. Eating and the resulting maintenance/growth is not just about an energetic equation (calories consumed vs. calories 'burned') but also about the quality of the foodstuffs you consume (2000 kcal a day worth of junk food does NOT equal 2000 kcal a day worth of Paleo food). The presence of healthy nutrients (vitamins, trace elements, antioxidants etc.) is extremely important, as is a ratio of proteins/fats/carbs that ensures optimal hormonal balance (especially insulin). The Paleo diet takes care of this.

Slizzardman's recommendations are good.

Bottom line as far as I'm concerned: stick with the Paleo diet, follow Slizz's guidelines, experiment with eating more of the 'good stuff' and see what it does for you (I'm doing the same right now). But if you find it hard to eat more and you are truly still seeing progress in your strength and mass gains at your current caloric intake, then don't worry about it too much.

[Calder Photography]

Breakfast:

Ham (2 slices) and 4 eggs fried w/olive oil

MEAL 2 -banana or an apple

Lunch: Chicken breast w/steamed veggies (pak choy, brocolli, capsicum, celery, carrot)

MEAL 3- PROTEIN SHAKE PLUS banana or an apple (whichever I didn't have before)

WORKOUT

Post workout - creatine 5g

protein shake

Dinner - Chicken or steak w/veggies or salad

2-3 hrs later - bowl of berries w/mixed nuts and seeds.

On a macronutrient level, it breaks down like this:

PROTEIN - 160G

FAT - 101.7 G

CARBOHYDRATES - 104.5G

what do you guys think? I have no idea how to get more protein in than this.

Affordability is definitely an issue here.

[Joshua Naterman]

Your protein is fine, but if you can get more small meals right after your workout you will do better than one big meal.