Typically my eating goes like this each day, I can never keep it consistent...
Breakfast: Bagel, cold cereal, or 2-3 eggs
Lunch: Chicken breast, turkey wrap, or roast beef sandwich
Dinner: Chicken breast, roast beef sandwich, or whatever is in the fridge
At lunch and dinner I usually have some yogurt(mostly greek) or a granola bar as well, I drink a lot of skim milk throughout the day. I find it hard to determine what is a good portion for a meal, and frequency. Sometimes I skip the odd meal if I don't get home till late at night - is there a cut off time for when you should stop eating?
I don't drink often, but when I do I tend to stay away from beer - I don't want a beer gut. I don't eat out often or get fast food often, if I do, it's typically a wrap or something remotely healthy. I do a lot of walking in the run of a day as well. Like I said, I'm not a fussy eater; so any recommendations/links for filling and protein filled foods will be accepted.
Thank, you guys have been great!
So I calculated your BMR at roughly around 3500 calories. I assumed you train 3-5 days a week and have a sedentary day job. What this means is that if you eat under 3500 cals per day you will lose weight and if you eat more you will gain weight. To make the weight gain muscle, we try to eat clean. That way our body has the best chance at absorbing the food and using it for muscle instead of turning it into fat. With that said, almost nobody I know that is considered big or strong eats completely clean. You get to the point where in order to grow or maintain what you have it becomes necessary to throw in some calorie dense "junk" to reach you set calorie goal. However, you can easily get to 3500 cals with clean food. If I were you, I'd get very lean (8% or less ie full abs and very little fat around waist) before trying to get any bigger. You could do this by starting at 3000 calories per day for 2 weeks and then dropping the calories from fat and carb sources by 300 calories per week until you reach your goal. During this time, continue with your normal training (it should be very intense and centered around compound movements ie dl, bp, squat, shoulder press, ect...) and do 30 minutes of starved cardio in the morning 5 days a week. If you are already this lean, I would begin by eating 3600 calories ed for a month, then increase 100 calories per week until you start to see fat gains. When you start to see fat, go back to the 3000 calores for a week to get rid of the fat then return to the highest calorie number that netted you no fat (ie the week before you saw the fat gains). Stick to this for a couple months and you should see some great gains.
Now designing diets for people is difficult because everyone is different. Knowing your body is the single most important aspect in all of this. Everyone who is big or strong knows every aspect of how their body reacts to things. With that said, here is a sample diet:
Breakfast: 50g protein, 50g carb, 0g fat -----> we don't want fat bc it slows digestion of protein and protein is very impt in morning since you have been starving all night.
Meal 2: 50g protein, 40g fat
Meal 3: 50g protein, 50g carb
Pre workout meal: 50g protein, 50g carb, 20g fat
During/after Workout: 32 oz gatorade
Right after workout: 2 scoop whey protein
1 hr after workout: 50g protein, 75g carb
Before bed: 50g protein, 30g fat
Totals: 350g protein = 1400 cals, 275g carbs = 1100 cals, 90g fat = 810 calories ----> 3310 calories (leaves 200 calories for a little junk).
This diet is far from perfect, but it's a good guideline and lightyears better than your current approach. Hopefully others will chime in and let us know if you have anymore questions.
