Is My Diet In Check?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1 
 Hello, I have a few questions about my diet.  First, I will give you my stats/goals.  I am 16 years old, 5'7'', 123 lbs., and have 13% body fat.  My goals are to get to about 140 lbs with 7% body fat.

Over the past year I lost a lot of weight (I weighed 215 lbs.), but now I have a huge lack of muscle. I want to slowly gain muscle while gaining as little fat as possible. I want to make sure my diet is on track from the get go so I don’t waste any time.

I eat 5-6 meals a day, and about every 2.5-3 hours. My maintenance level of calories is about 1400-1500 calories. I tried 2200 calories, and gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks, but gained a little more fat than I would have liked.

So for the past week I have been getting about 1900 calories a day. Here is an example day, and any comments (neg or pos) will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Meal 1: 7:30 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup blueberries, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup non-fat milk, 1 multivitamin, 2 fish oil caps.
Meal 2: 10:30 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 apple, 2 fish oil caps.
Workout: 11:15-1:00
Meal 3: 1:30 2 scoop whey, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup fat-free milk, 1 tbsp. natty pb, 1 multivitamin, 5 g creatine.
Meal 4: 4:15 1 can tuna, 1/4 cup kidney beans, 2 flax oil caps.
Meal 5: 7:00 3/4 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup fat-free milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 scoops whey, 2 flax oil caps.

2

I don’t think two weeks is long enough to even begin to grasp what a diet is going to really do for you when bulking.

You say you gained 4 pounds… but too much of it was fat, even if all of it was fat thats not much.

Everyone is different so it’s hard for me to really comment, but I don’t think you are getting enough cals from good meats.

You really have to look at your goals I guess. Do you really want to spend the time eating super clean for a few pounds a year or whatever it is you end up with, or do you want to take a chance and experiment a little and jack up those calories and really start to see improvements. I myself like to see results, and in all honesty, it’s so much easier to lose fat than gain a serious amount of mass. The things I have said probably completely contradict what your wanting, but it’s just food for thought. Take from it what you will.

3

Thanks lazyaxus, maybe I will keep the calories higher for a while longer. Any suggestions on meat. I dont have much money so the cheaper the better. Also, how long would you suggest bulking. I want to be lean for the summer.

4

It’s hard for me to say, bodybuilding is such a personal thing. You will want to bulk until you feel you have reached the goals you wanted to achieve during said bulking session.

For me, I might not cut for years… bodybuilding (to me) is so much more about learning to develop your own methods and ideals along with what you read, on this site or elsewhere, and from other coaches and the like. There is a lot to learn from others, but you can’t get too caught up in everything, because there are so many contradicting idea’s.

Go buy yourself a box of hamburger helper and 1 lb of 93/7 ground sirloin. Cook it up, and do your best to eat all of it in a day, everyday. Your looking at maybe $6 a day, at least where I live. You could even save some money and buy tomato sauce and pasta and make your own.

Thats just an easy example that I have done on my own, but I suggest you start reading as much as possible, yet don’t get too distracted by everything. It can seem overwhelming at first. Search the site for diets and choose one that you feel is going to help you achieve your goal.

If you actually do decide to follow up and listen to your body, and learn from this site I promise you, once you start seeing results you will get hooked just like I did, and I’m sure many others.

This is something that I have always thought spelled things out pretty well. I think its from Animal Pak…

"Your training sounds fine. But you’re not gonna add more inches by training any harder. The only way that you’re gonna’ get big is to eat big. Training is the vehicle and food is the fuel to make it run. You need high test fuel for a vehicle to run at it’s best. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work and eating to put on 15 pounds.

For starters, eat a lot of high quality protein, at least 2 grams per pound of bodyweight. Use red meat as your main source, and supplement with shakes if you need to. Just remember, gaining size is about gaining weight. Gaining weight is about eating more. That’s it."

Here are a couple things to check out.

T-Dawg Diet

And a little inspirational thread from one of the members here, Nate Green

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=723187

5

Thanks for the advice. I guess Im going to eat some more meat. Also that quote you gave me really helped me understand.