Diet and Calories Check-up?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hi guys!

After reading a lot of Berardi’s articles, i’ve been dieting massive-eating style for about a month or so. I am 195 centimeters tall, 86 kilos (6.5", 189 lbs), 24yo. The body fat level is something which is not clear for me. My AccueMeasure caliper shows only 6mm (1/4 inches) on my abs. I couldn’t make the figure go more than this; while body impedance method showed 16% BF. I doubt latter, since i’ve taken the test in the middle of the day, so it is not so accurate. I don’t know, maybe i have more, maybe less. My current goal is to gain maximum lean body mass with minimum fat gain. The same importance is to be as energetic as possible, avoiding any fatigue.

I consider myself a mix of endo and meso, and because of that i decided to minimize the amount of no-no carbs, which means i only have during and after workout shakes with content similar to Surge (2:1 Protein to Carb), then in 60-90 minutes i have a meal with starchy carbs, like Oats (steel cut or raw), Barley or Buckwheat with some berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries), having 1:1 ratio of starches to berries. After that, in 2-3 hours i have a meal with veggies and some beans, again with 1:1 ratio. I may have some pumpkin in he PWO meals also.

With each meal i have some protein, coming from turkey, fish, chicken, beef or eggs. I may add whey protein in the second PWO meal (the one with starchy CHOs), so it would make about 25-30% of calories from protein in that meal.

The rest of the time i am eating P+F style, having only 10-16 carbs in a meal, which come only from: cabbages (chineese, savoy, red), cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, lettuce, all colors of sweet pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers.

The main sources of fat are: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, filberts, brazil nuts, egg yolks, olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, fat from lean beef/chicken/fish. Used to eat flax oil, but ditched it off because of its phytoestrogen content (although some say it is rather good, since it blocks production of endogenous estrogen… i decided not to play with estrogen).

On my workout days, the breakdown looks like this:
Type F / C / P
P+F 28 16 53
P+C (Peri Work Out):8 102 66 (During and After)
P+C 7 64 38
P+C 3 40 45
P+F 28 8 46
P+F 32 8 50

I wake up at 8 am and hit the gym at 11 AM.

I do taper off amount of carbs on second PWO meal on purpose, limiting it to around 40 grams and ingest ~60grams on the first PWO meal, assuming, that insulin sensitivity is going down while with time.

On my non-workout days, all the meals are P+F, and consist of Fat - ~20 grams, carbs - ~15 grams and protein - ~42-45 grams. I used to have two P+C meals in the AM and then the rest would be P+F with 8-10 grams of carbs, but now i am spreading all the allowed carbs during the day and i upped my fat intake for non workout days to meet calorie needs. As you can see, 100g of carbs on non work out days come from veggies.

I do cycle calories and carbs on work-out and non-workout days:
Work-out - 3000 calz, 105F, 240C, 280P (43%,15%, 45%)
Non-Workout - 2600Calz, 130F, 100C, 280P (38%, 31%, 31%)
On average, this makes about 2800 calories, which is i believe my maintenance level.

My supps are: BCAAs (30 grams on WO days, 20-25 on Non-WO days), creatine, ZMA, enteric coated enzymes, Flameout, Multi Vitamin, Vitamin C pre and post workout, Vitamin E, Power Drive, Greens+.

With this, i have a few questions to you, guys:
1 - What do you think of my food choices and the meal plan in general?
2 - I wake up at 7-8 am, and in the afternoon, after i begin feeling very tired and low on energy, like i am having some chronic fatigue problems. I am tapering off my caffeine intake, since i used to drink green-tea all day long, and maybe it is the reason. But i think, that the reason may be in low energy intake. Currently i am doing the second week of Chad’s ABBH, and the second eek promises to be harder than the first, since the first week was more on adjusting poundages, etc. Now, i want to start adding some calories into my diet until i start gaining fat, (by adding 250 calz per week) and the question is, how do i do it? Should i do it by upping my fat and protein intake, or just by upping my fat? Or should i do it by spreading 250 calories evenly between all macros?

I would really appreciate any input!

2

[quote]Zluke wrote:
Hi guys!

After reading a lot of Berardi’s articles, i’ve been dieting massive-eating style for about a month or so. I am 195 centimeters tall, 86 kilos (6.5", 189 lbs), 24yo. The body fat level is something which is not clear for me. My AccueMeasure caliper shows only 6mm (1/4 inches) on my abs. I couldn’t make the figure go more than this; while body impedance method showed 16% BF. I doubt latter, since i’ve taken the test in the middle of the day, so it is not so accurate. I don’t know, maybe i have more, maybe less. My current goal is to gain maximum lean body mass with minimum fat gain. The same importance is to be as energetic as possible, avoiding any fatigue.

I consider myself a mix of endo and meso, and because of that i decided to minimize the amount of no-no carbs, which means i only have during and after workout shakes with content similar to Surge (2:1 Protein to Carb), then in 60-90 minutes i have a meal with starchy carbs, like Oats (steel cut or raw), Barley or Buckwheat with some berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries), having 1:1 ratio of starches to berries. After that, in 2-3 hours i have a meal with veggies and some beans, again with 1:1 ratio. I may have some pumpkin in he PWO meals also.

With each meal i have some protein, coming from turkey, fish, chicken, beef or eggs. I may add whey protein in the second PWO meal (the one with starchy CHOs), so it would make about 25-30% of calories from protein in that meal.

The rest of the time i am eating P+F style, having only 10-16 carbs in a meal, which come only from: cabbages (chineese, savoy, red), cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, lettuce, all colors of sweet pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers.

The main sources of fat are: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, filberts, brazil nuts, egg yolks, olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, fat from lean beef/chicken/fish. Used to eat flax oil, but ditched it off because of its phytoestrogen content (although some say it is rather good, since it blocks production of endogenous estrogen… i decided not to play with estrogen).

On my workout days, the breakdown looks like this:
Type F / C / P
P+F 28 16 53
P+C (Peri Work Out):8 102 66 (During and After)
P+C 7 64 38
P+C 3 40 45
P+F 28 8 46
P+F 32 8 50

I wake up at 8 am and hit the gym at 11 AM.

I do taper off amount of carbs on second PWO meal on purpose, limiting it to around 40 grams and ingest ~60grams on the first PWO meal, assuming, that insulin sensitivity is going down while with time.

On my non-workout days, all the meals are P+F, and consist of Fat - ~20 grams, carbs - ~15 grams and protein - ~42-45 grams. I used to have two P+C meals in the AM and then the rest would be P+F with 8-10 grams of carbs, but now i am spreading all the allowed carbs during the day and i upped my fat intake for non workout days to meet calorie needs. As you can see, 100g of carbs on non work out days come from veggies.

I do cycle calories and carbs on work-out and non-workout days:
Work-out - 3000 calz, 105F, 240C, 280P (43%,15%, 45%)
Non-Workout - 2600Calz, 130F, 100C, 280P (38%, 31%, 31%)
On average, this makes about 2800 calories, which is i believe my maintenance level.

My supps are: BCAAs (30 grams on WO days, 20-25 on Non-WO days), creatine, ZMA, enteric coated enzymes, Flameout, Multi Vitamin, Vitamin C pre and post workout, Vitamin E, Power Drive, Greens+.

With this, i have a few questions to you, guys:
1 - What do you think of my food choices and the meal plan in general?
[/quote]

It doesnt look horrible from what you gave, the info. Can you log a day or two so we can actually see what you are eating. I think personally you may be limiting the carbs a bit much for someone of your height and weight. P=C etc is GREAT but many go a bit over board with not combining P+F. Meaning something like an apple and peanut butter is a LOT different then a doughnut. You may need to go a bit more balanced in some meals and make the final meal/s of the day a bit stricter P+F. That should give you some nice sustained energy.

Your goals are pretty open ended as well. Try and put something a bit more concrete to them. Even if not competing and simply going for body comp you need to have actual goals and steps things to aim for. EX. Adding 10 lbs. in 10 weeks. Now go do it. What is it going to hurt if you gain a LIL bit of fat if you gain say 6-7 lbs of muscle. Your still adding more LBM then fat mass. Your making steps to the Ultimate goal and can then later cut that small amount of fat off.[quote]

2 - I wake up at 7-8 am, and in the afternoon, after i begin feeling very tired and low on energy, like i am having some chronic fatigue problems. I am tapering off my caffeine intake, since i used to drink green-tea all day long, and maybe it is the reason. But i think, that the reason may be in low energy intake. Currently i am doing the second week of Chad’s ABBH, and the second eek promises to be harder than the first, since the first week was more on adjusting poundages, etc. Now, i want to start adding some calories into my diet until i start gaining fat, (by adding 250 calz per week) and the question is, how do i do it? Should i do it by upping my fat and protein intake, or just by upping my fat? Or should i do it by spreading 250 calories evenly between all macros?

I would really appreciate any input![/quote]

Just add it. I would honestly add it early in the day and around training by the way of carbs mostly. Eat BIG in the morning and after training. You need to feed the furnace after training as well upon waking. In both times you’ll be burning much of the intake to fuel rebuilding and life processes. Create energy for you.

Fear not the fruit. Load up post training. Get in the gym kick some tail get out eat, rest and grow. Start slowing upping your intake try and strike a nice energy balance. See what makes you feel good. Evaluate your progress of late HONESTLY!! are you have you been making gym and physique progress?? When did you lose this energy etc etc

Cheers,
Phill

3

Phill,

Thanks for taking time to answer this looong post.

I saved my sample menu as a screenshot of FitDay. This is what i typically eat on workout days: http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3650/menuez6.jpg

There are some Russian words in this screenshot, but i hope you won’t get confused, because these are just brand names. Fish Oil Salmon refers to fish oil capsules (1 Flameout + one generic brand).

As for goals - i would agree with you. Being too afraid to put on some fat i hardly put on any muscles. There is some progress in terms of more muscular look and hypertrophy of some parts (traps, arms), but the scale stays almost the same. Because of this, i would say that i am at the maintenance level.

I’ve tried experimenting with spreading carbs on off-days and it seems to work better for me. I mean that all my meals are basically p+f, but i add 15-16g of carbs per each meal in form of veggies. Feel little bit better.

Phil, what is the maximum amount of carbs you would recommend for last two meals? It sounds like a good idea - spread most carbs among first 4 meals and the least among last two. So, more energy during the day.

But i know, that if i up my carbs some more, i will start gaining more fat. I am not just so much tolerant :frowning:

Would you guys recommend switching to a low-carb diet (AD, maybe?) and becoming fat-adapted? Because i am not sure which is my body’s first energy source at this moment… and if it is protein, than it is no good.

Thanks!