Hi guys! Im new here but Ive been reading tnation articles for a while. Naturally, i am familiar with the importance of periworkout nutririon.
I have been lifting weights for a few years now. I am fairly satisfied with my looks but i wouldnt mind looking a bit stronger. Im hardgainer and i know how important is to eat like a beast to gain mass.
So, recently, i had this idea. And i guess some may think this was an idiotic idea, but anyway, i had to try it. I had very hard time eating all those amounts of food, especially all the pasta and rice. So i decided to switch pasta and rice for the greater amount of vegetables, and to compensate that, i drank all those carbs pre, during and post workout in a form of a dextrose mixed with a whey.
So, roughly, my eating schedule was:
Breakfast - whole grains with one banana and spoon of honey
Lunch 1 - protein with veggies
Lunch 2 - protein with veggies
Preworkout - 100g dextrose with whey
During workout - 100g dextrose with whey
Dinner - protein with a piece of fruit (like a banana) and some nuts
Please, tell me your opinion on this. And no need for insults if this was awful idea… i would like consctructive criticism so I could learn.
Oh yeah, and i am 2 kilos lighter than usual at this point of training. Im not sure wheher its muscle or fat that is toned down
Thank you for you replies!
Hey bodlee I like your nutrition plan. Love the vegetables especially. Not many realize that cruciferous vegetables actually help lower estradiol which is a female hormone. Obviously we don’t need female hormones in our system when we are trying to gain muscle, that is to say too many female hormones as we already have some.
You mentioned that you are a hard gainer and I wonder if cutting out all breads, rice and simple carbs is a good idea. Maybe you could add a bit back prior to a training day.
Other than that it looks like you are eating clean and healthy and in the long run that will pay huge dividends.
There are some good ideas at play, like protein plus veggies and carbs right around work out, but it’s really difficult to take a little snapshot like that and say “Yeah, that’s great” or “No, that doesn’t work”.
Well there are 2 ways to do this. Lose fat or gain muscle. Since you have stated you are a hardgainer I assume you are trying to put on mass? Since your meal plan has you losing 2kgs I’d say it’s not very effective…
Thank you for your replies so far!
So, to clarify some things i didnt mention in my original post. I lift weights to look good and masculine, to feel better about myself and to attract girls. Im dont want to be enormous or drag too much attention to myself. That is why i have winter pause every year where i lose about 10kgs. When I start lifting weights in late winter or early spring, I get to my gym weight in 2 months and i gain those 10kgs back. I usually get to this weight which i feel is my plauteau due to my financial restrictions and my restricted knowledge. This year, I started weightlifting in february and got 8 kilos quite fast. But now i feel this is my new “plauteau” which is slightly lower than it was before.
And this time, i used nutrition plan i stated in my original post. So now im not sure if this new plan is worse than what i had before, or if I’m doing wrong something else. And ok, I can increase my calorie intake and surely i would grow. I just wanted to know if this way of feeding is ok. I want to make sure its not hurtful to my health. Can i get diabetes if i take 200 grams od dextrose in one hour? Is it healthy and functional to take most of my carbs that way? Why am I slightly lighter than i usually am with the same calorie intake? My strength also plauteaud. Should i just increase calorie intake?
