Critique My Diet

Diet and Nutrition
1

So, this is where I stand. I went from 230 to 180 after a serious injury. Currently, after 3.5 months of lifting I’m up at 207 at 6’1, 22 years old. I’m just starting to lift legs again, so I’m sure I’ll gain a significant ammount of weight once that picks up.

However, my current diet is atrocious. I’m getting my strength back, but without a shirt on I don’t look that great. When I was 230 I looked even worse. I’m looking for a way to change my diet that a) will make me look better without a shirt on b) allow me to gain muscle while burning fat c) allow my strength gains to continue without turning into a little bitch. Trust me, I don’t want to be skinny.

That said my average meal plan for a day looks something like this.

Wake up: 2 scoops of regular Grow! mixed in 16 ounces of whole milk. (Sometimes, maybe once or twice a week, breakfast is bacon and three slices of french toast with three glasses of whole milk)

Two-Three hours later: A cheeseburger or two, plain, with ketchup. 2 glasses of whole milk.

One-Three hours later: 1 scoop of Grow! mixed with a glass of whole milk.

Half Hour later: Large bowl of angel hair pasta with olive oil.

Dinner: Double cheeseburger. Two glasses of whole milk, maybe some pasta on the side.

Post-Dinner: Maybe some oatmeal with 2 scoops of Grow!, or just two scoops of grow alone. Sometimes I might go out for some fried chicken or pasta too.

Pre-Workout: 2 Scoops of Grow!
Post-Workout: 2 Scoops of Surge

Obviously, there’s a lot wrong with my diet. Am I not eating enough? Am I eating the wrong things and not enough? Also, on a side note, it’s possible I eat more or less than this. Sometimes I’ll eat a ton of fried chicken in a day, but usually it’s three large meals, consisting of cheeseburgers, pasta, or fried chicken. I also snack on whole wheat bread and pb&j sandwiches on occasion. I also binge on chips or cookies in one sitting maybe two-three times a week. As you can see, I also consume no fruits or veggies. God help me…

I know what it takes for me to gain weight, but it certainly isn’t good, attractive weight.

2

[quote]Blemming wrote:
Obviously, there’s a lot wrong with my diet. Am I not eating enough? Am I eating the wrong things and not enough? Also, on a side note, it’s possible I eat more or less than this. Sometimes I’ll eat a ton of fried chicken in a day, but usually it’s three large meals, consisting of cheeseburgers, pasta, or fried chicken. I also snack on whole wheat bread and pb&j sandwiches on occasion. I also binge on chips or cookies in one sitting maybe two-three times a week. As you can see, I also consume no fruits or veggies. God help me…[/quote]If you know what’s wrong why are you asking for help?

You have to make some big changes. Follow this.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

3

First off, I know there is, in fact, something wrong with my diet. However, it’s a conglomeration of things. Changing one part of my diet won’t magically reap me the results I want.

I know I need to eat smaller meals and more of them. However, I’m looking for constructive answers. For example, what I should cut out of my diet and what I should keep in it. I don’t want to start hacking things out of my diet haphazardly. Also, diet plans are informal. They need to be tested and subjected according to each individual. And, aside from testing each one myself over the course of a lifetime, I would rather ask well-informed, experienced T-nationers what their experience was like and how they would tweak their diet.

That said if anyone could give me more detailed criticism concerning how I might think about altering certain meals or frequency it would be greatly appreciated.

4

Ok well I can make some recommendations for small changes:

Make sure your beef is lean
Rolls are whole wheat (the rolls your cheeseburgers are on is what I mean)
Add more veggies in your lunch or dinner for a while and then keep increasing it
Try some fruit in the morning with your breakfast until you get used to it

Those are some small changes that you can make that will make a good difference :slight_smile:

5

Blemming, I’d be glad to help out, but you’ve got to take a stab at things. It doesn’t really help to post your bad/old diet. If you read some of Berardi’s or Lowery’s articles and put together the basic structure of your plan, I’ll help you dial in the numbers.

In general, what you’re trying to do is replace bad food choices with better food choices. So you might be doing things like changing fried chicken for chicken breasts. You’d be changing french fries for brown rice. You’d be changing Cokes with sugar in 'em for diet drinks. You’d be changing out fruit juice for real/whole/fresh or frozen fruit.

Since you’re young, why don’t you commit to eating clean Monday through Friday and loosen up a bit on the weekends. Make sure you weigh and measure once a week (every Friday morning). If you’re making steady progress towards your goals and have good energy levels and like what you see, you can stick with it. If you’re not, we either need to make a few slight adjustments to your diet during the week or “relax” the dietary reins a bit less on the weekend.

Go do some reading, and send me a PM when you’re ready!!! (grin)

6

[quote]Blemming wrote:
First off, I know there is, in fact, something wrong with my diet. However, it’s a conglomeration of things. Changing one part of my diet won’t magically reap me the results I want.
[/quote]

That’s why you change one part at a time.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1495468

Week 1: Replace fried chicken with grilled chicken.

Week 2: Replace calorie containing drinks with water.

etc etc.

[quote]Blemming wrote:
I know I need to eat smaller meals and more of them. However, I’m looking for constructive answers. For example, what I should cut out of my diet and what I should keep in it. I don’t want to start hacking things out of my diet haphazardly. Also, diet plans are informal. They need to be tested and subjected according to each individual. And, aside from testing each one myself over the course of a lifetime, I would rather ask well-informed, experienced T-nationers what their experience was like and how they would tweak their diet.[/quote]

The article has advice that is applicable for anyone wanting to clean up their diet. Read the article and follow the 7 rules.

[quote]Blemming wrote:
That said if anyone could give me more detailed criticism concerning how I might think about altering certain meals or frequency it would be greatly appreciated. [/quote]

If people spoon feed you an answer you won’t learn a thing.

  • Do your research
  • Make the obvious changes that you already know you have to make
  • Come back and ask when you have SPECIFIC questions
7

I think most people’s bodies do not like to do two different things at once. Ie) Gain muscle, lose fat.