A little help with my diet please...

[benP]

Hi, I'm pretty new here but have been working out consistently for the last 2 years.
I have a pretty big frame, and am trying to eat to gain some mass. I'm 6'0 and weight 195 pounds.
Right now I'm trying to consume at least 300 grams of protein every day with food and a shake, and try to eat really clean carbs, like oats and whole wheats. What should I be eating and in what quantities to maximize my gains at the gym?
Any help would be really appreciated, Thanks in advance.

[Talo]

3000 cals could be low. How long have you been eating this amount ?

Can you give an example of what you would eat in a day ?

[benP]

Allright, thanks for responding so quickly btw.
I try and eat every 3-4 hours just so you know how my meals are spaced out.

I used to wake up and eat half carton of egg whites with some chicken or beef mixed in and some yogurt, but after getting a blood test the doctor told me my cholesterol was getting high and I should cut the eggs out. Right now in the morning I'll have some leftover meat from dinner, (usually chicken or lean steak) some oats or bowl of cheerios with 1% or skim milk and some yogurt and 2-4 pieces of toast with natural peanut butter.

After that I'll have something like a whole wheat sandwich with turkey, spinach and cheese and sometimes a smoothie with a scoop of whey, half a banana, a tsp of all natural peanut butter and skim milk.

Have a snack of some yogurt or some cereal, usually cheerios or vector.

Before dinner I'll have some leftovers from dinner the night before, (usually chicken or beef) and something on the side like some triscuit crackers or something to that extent.

Dinner consists of alot of chicken, steak and sometimes pork in a whole wheat wrap or I'll make 2 meat sandwiches. I have alot of complex carbs at dinner too because I go to the gym after that and i need the energy.

After my workout I mix a scoop of whey, a scoop of a maltodextin/dextrose mix and some milk.

I'm always really hungry after my workouts so I'll eat another meal really similar to dinner, almost the exact same thing.

Another snack before bed, usually yogurt, cereal or sometimes another whey shake but I want to get some cassein protein before I start having protein before bed now.

I think that pretty much sums it up, if I left anything out I'll add it in.
Again, thanks in advance.

[jamex]

your doctor thought your cholesterol could be linked to egg whites? maybe time to shop around for a doc that knows what he's talking about.

diet looks decent enough, but you should try and calculate out the actual macro weights per meal. So weigh your meat so you know you're getting your 40-50g protein. A turkey sandwich would have to be pretty damn thick to get 50g of meat in if that was your only protein source. Tracking the carb and fat intake is just as important if you're trying to change your diet around because you haven't been making the gains you'd expect. Looking above it would be hard to estimate if you're getting 3000 calories or not which as mentioned above would probably still be quite low for someone your height\size.

[Delt King]

Well it looks like you're eating a lot of food. However it seems that because it's inconsistent day to day and you haven't calculated the macronutrient breakdown there really isn't any way to track your progress.
Guys that are really dedicated to gaining mass or losing bodyfat are going to design out a meal plan that they basically can follow daily.

[benP]

Thanks for all the help already.
What's the best way to start keeping track of all the macronutrients, and what would be a good amount for me to be trying to consume every day or meal based on my goals?

[Dryvrgrl]

just to give you a bit of a scale...
I'm also currently trying to gain mass... 5 foot 3.5 128 pounds femals eating 4600 calories a day. IMO, you aren't eating enough.

[benP]

what quantities of fats, proteins and carbs would you recommend i have at each meal?

[Talo]

fitday.com is a great place to put your food.

Your going to want to weigh or measure out your food so that you can know exactly how much your putting in your body.

[L3]

what quantities of fats, proteins and carbs would you recommend i have at each meal?

50p/40c/20f

[stacked]

50p/40c/20f

I think you made a calculation error on the above.

[stacked]

IMO I would say that for a bulk you should be eating approx. a 20f, 45c, 35p mix. I don't think you need 50% protein like many diets suggest when you are eating 4000calories a day. That would mean that you are eating 500grams of protein per day. Not only is this expensive to do but you are not going to be able to process all of that food.

My suggestion to you would be to add 400 calories a day to your current 3000 calories and then increase 200calories a day when you plataeu at this weight. I like the idea of a lean bulk but if you really wanted to add some size and did not care about fat you could add 400calories a day if you plateau and weight yourself once a week.

I would suggest doing the macro split I had above.

35p = 297.5g protein
45c = 380 g carbs
20f = 75g fat

Total Calories 3400.

I would start with that because with the inconsistency in your diet you are not sure you are actaully getting 3000 calories a day. You have to keep track if you want to be an actual bodybuilder. It is all about dedication. I would add 30g carbs, 30g protein and 5g fat every week if you plateau or stick to the macro split and recalculate every time you increase your total caloric intake.
1g fat = 9 calories
1g carb = 4 calories
1g protein = 4 calories

Hope this helps!

[O-Train]

A lot of "actual" bodybuilders don't count calories. Even if you try it's just a ballpark figure.

You just gotta eat. Protein needs are not high when bulking because of all the extra calories coming from fats and carbohydrates. There are way too many small guys who nit-pick about diet and never grow. Try eating 500g+ of mainly complex carbs/day and train heavy. Examples would be oatmeal for breakfast and after the gym, have a shake then within an hour have a huge plate of pasta with lots of ground beef.

The year I grew the most I was in University and had no money for food. So I would make huge pots of pasta with ground beef, beens etc... and just eat as much as I could. You get kinda fat but that's what the scale and the mirror is for. To let you know what and how to change things.

[rickyboy36]

What i suggest is make sure you have 50-60grams of carbs per meal(except your last meal should be veggie carbs..or none at all),along with 50 grams of protien per meal and eat 6 meals that have about 650 cals on average.Your post workout shake have about 75-100 carbs in it.

This should be your starting point.Its hard to say what you "burn" in a day so everyone i this regard is different.You should go by strenght in the gym,and by weight on the scale and the mirror and figure out if your gaining or not and if so is it muscle or fat.If you are not gaining,i would not change the proteins,but rather up the carbs and total calories during the day.If you are gaining fat,bring down your daily intake by 250 cals and remove it from fat.

You really need to try things out.Ive been doing this for 8 yrs or so and i still havent pinned pointed exactly whats best for me.

And like O-Train said,some dont count calories.Some go by hunger and knowing "somewhat" the amount of macros in their food.Just make sure you dont eat till your full,and eat good clean carbs and dietary fat

Goodluck

[LonelyBedouin]

Yupp. I agree with not counting calories. The only thing I watch is to make sure 50g of protein each meal. And eat till Im full/satisfied depending on if its carb/pro or fat/pro meal. Eat every 3 hours until you go to sleep.

And for pwo shake what I do is bcaa and maltodextrin. Then within a hour its my pwo meal is another 50g pro and 75g carb.

O and listen to this everyone is different...

You really need to try things out.Ive been doing this for 8 yrs or so and i still havent pinned pointed exactly whats best for me.

[benP]

thanks for all the advice everyone. im gonna try some of these ideas out for a while and see which works best for me.