Good call not “hitting the needle”.
While that is a judgement call for an individual to make, you would’ve wasted it anyways. With this being your first real routine and no diet knowledge, injecting test would be like gassing up a car and letting sit on idle.
There are many diet plans and strategies out there, I think for you as a beginner and not someone trying to shed that last ounce of fat or what have you, a well balanced diet of whole foods and lots of protein will be good.
I recommend using an energy expenditure calculator to get a basic idea of caloric needs. I won’t link another site but they can be googled easily. Find one accounting for body weight, height, exercise and general activity. Plug in your stats and it will give you an estimate of calories burned, this is your maintenance level. You will need to eat above it to grow. I would suggest starting 500 cals above for a few weeks and see how you’re doing.
Fill your calorie requirements with meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains even if they aren’t trendy. Odds are you aren’t gluten sensitive.
Protein powder is helpful to increase your protein intake for sure but so is beef. Powder is hyped like magic fairy dust but it is just dehydrated milk in most cases. It is excellent if you’re trying to lose weight and maintain muscle as you can keep your protein high while cutting calories but don’t get hung up on it.
Read some nutrition articles, keep the objective of the article in mind as you do though and start learning the why behind the what.
