How important is diet?

[TheAg]

I'm new to the whole dedicated working out thing so I'm not all that well informed. I was curious as to how important your diet is?

I keep reading about people who eat like 5000 calories a day and eat a meal every 2-3 hours. Is that what most people do? How are you able to plan your life around meals? Much less afford it? (that's 8 meals a day at about $4 a meal, and that's a cheap estimate). I don't want to be Mr. Buff or anything but is that really necessary to get good gains? Or can I do well enough on 3 (sometimes 2 dependent on class schedule) meals a day + whey after working out?

 

[suncloud]

4 meals at the minimum is what i would say. diet 50% of bodybuilding.

 

[carpee]

i would honestly say diet is more like 80% of bodybuilding. you cant get gains if you dont have adequate nutrition. you wouldnt buy a lamborghini and then try to run it off of sewage instead of gas would you?

 

[brownstown89]

I think the average person would be able to eat 1500 to 2000 calories a day from eating. Make those food choices healthy choices, High protien foods. Add a bannana yogurt nuts etc.. to each meal that should easily bump u up to 2500 calories a day and a decent amount of protien. Combine that with 2-3 shakes a day u should be at like 3000-3500 calories and 200 grams of protien and just make sure u get carbs with every meal. Also think the more u workout the bigger u get the hungrier u will get. When i weighed 135 pounds and worked out hard i never thought id eat as much as i do now. Now im thinking damn i dont eat enough i need more food.

Anyways that wat works for me Lean Cousine warms up quick, hell throw a piece of chicken on a foreman grill jump in the shower by the time ur out its done. anyways thats wat works for me its pretty easy honestly. I have a life outside lifting and eating and it always leaves me room for some ice cream candy etc.. if need. ha.

 

[RedwolfWV]

I think the average person would be able to eat 1500 to 2000 calories a day from eating.

:thinking:

 

[crader]

It depends how serious you are. Diet is the hard part of bodybuilding. It determines your leaness and your gains. You could use shakes to fill in some of the meals but solid food is always best.

Most of us cook ahead of time so we just have to heat it up or use a foreman grill to save time.

 

[ba0412]

Yeah man you get most of your gains in the kitchen. you got to fuel your body and be in a caloric excess to grow

 

[briancogs888]

I don't think I know any body builders that would miss a meal before they miss a workout. That shows the importance right there.

 

[TheAg]

It depends how serious you are. Diet is the hard part of bodybuilding. It determines your leaness and your gains. You could use shakes to fill in some of the meals but solid food is always best.

That's kind of where I'm lost here. I don't know the 'seriousness' of this forum: how dedicated ya'll are and to what level (do you want to look like Mr. Universe or just fit?)

I want to just look fit and have a decent amount of mass about me. I'm 6', 150, 21 years old and I look scrawny. Was looking to gain weight (through muscle mass) and get a bit more buffed/ripped. Was wondering how crucial me eating 4 more meals a day is to that.

 

[briancogs888]

Yea, you need to eat. As a nutrition major, if I were in your shoes, first I would examine my diet now. Track everything you eat and how much for 3 or 5 days. Analyze it for how man cals, protein, carbs, fat, good fat, omega-3s, vitamins, minerals, phytos, get all the info you can about where you are now. Then start making the adjustments. I can gaurantee you are gonna add a lot of cals, and probably protein. I would add 1000 cals or so, depending on what you find, and run that for a week or two. Keep track of your weight. If you are responding to the extra 1000 thats cool, but I would be willing to guess that with your body type you are gonna need to up that some more as your body adapts to the extra cals. You will want creatine as well, however the creatine is going to add water weight, so you have to be aware of the water weight and not mistake it for gains. Again, I am telling you what I would do. You can get a Nutritional analysis program for your comp, I think they are fairly cheap.

 

[jakellpet]

That's kind of where I'm lost here. I don't know the 'seriousness' of this forum: how dedicated ya'll are and to what level (do you want to look like Mr. Universe or just fit?)

I want to just look fit and have a decent amount of mass about me. I'm 6', 150, 21 years old and I look scrawny. Was looking to gain weight (through muscle mass) and get a bit more buffed/ripped. Was wondering how crucial me eating 4 more meals a day is to that.

You have a science background mate - you'll pick it up quickly. Get on the net - there are plenty of nutrition-related sites that can help you calculate and plan.

For you at 150lb eating 4-5 protein-rich meals a day will be crucial.

Planning is the key.

You don't have to spend a bomb. You should have a fair idea about nutrition already - clean foods - stay away from empty calories like sugar. Plenty of quality protein. Tuna is cheap. Eat as much fresh vegetables are possible.

Look at it as snacking throughout the day, but each snack is a small balanced meal.

Good Luck :bandit:

 

[BoyFromAus]

It depends how serious you are. Diet is the hard part of bodybuilding. It determines your leaness and your gains. You could use shakes to fill in some of the meals but solid food is always best.

Most of us cook ahead of time so we just have to heat it up or use a foreman grill to save time.

most definitely... we only workout let's say 1 - 2 hours a day. Sometimes we're inadequate, sometimes we do a good workout.

But diet is something that we need to maintain 24-7 and is very easy to screw up. Especially when ppl bombard us with bullsh*t foods that do much more bad than good.

 

[suncloud]

That's kind of where I'm lost here. I don't know the 'seriousness' of this forum: how dedicated ya'll are and to what level (do you want to look like Mr. Universe or just fit?)

I want to just look fit and have a decent amount of mass about me. I'm 6', 150, 21 years old and I look scrawny. Was looking to gain weight (through muscle mass) and get a bit more buffed/ripped. Was wondering how crucial me eating 4 more meals a day is to that.

in your case - being skinny and trying to bulk, its as important as your training. i speak from experience gaining size on a frame that doesn't want to add mass (the ecto frame) requires you to be more stringent on exceeding your caloric needs - the upside, is you don't have to worry too much about fat gain.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/training-forum/99607-gaining-mass-nutshell.html

 

[HooRah66]

diet = very important.

 

[bigthick44]

diet = most important

 

[Swoldierboy]

you dont get big in the weight room, you get big in the kitchen

 

[Joshua86]

diet = most important

Wrong.

It's most important = diet, not diet = most important.

Jeez, when will people learn!!!

 

[carpee]

Once you start making it a habit or lifestyle, your mindset just adapts. I used to be the same way when i started, never thought to plan ahead and wondered how people did it. Then you start learning what works for you. I take hard boiled eggs and nuts in tupperware and eat between classes....bring some gum so my breathe doesnt stink like egg haha.

but more importantly just get started...it gets easier as you guy. read labels, read servings per container and you will start seeing how you can save money by comparing that kind of stuff. know your grocery store, and check it often...i go to kroger like every other day because they have 94% lean beef that goes on sale to like 3 dollars for 2 big patties.
2 meals wont be enough, and you dont wanna rely on shakes. yea they are convenient and I'm sure we all go through ruts where we rely on them too much, but there are better ways.

 

[lonewolf0420]

Your diet will make or break you.

 

[spres444]

Like everyone has said before me, diet is huge!

I at first did not get the concept, just ate whatever I wanted and hit the gym. It makes it much easier to buy food in bulks, and cook it up at the beginning of the week. small meals in small tupperwares are a good way to get your food for the day

 

[Teg]

I'm new to the whole dedicated working out thing so I'm not all that well informed. I was curious as to how important your diet is?

I keep reading about people who eat like 5000 calories a day and eat a meal every 2-3 hours. Is that what most people do? How are you able to plan your life around meals? Much less afford it? (that's 8 meals a day at about $4 a meal, and that's a cheap estimate). I don't want to be Mr. Buff or anything but is that really necessary to get good gains? Or can I do well enough on 3 (sometimes 2 dependent on class schedule) meals a day + whey after working out?

Eatting IMO IS the most important part!

From my personal experiance and long road of learning being 6'1 and going from 140-175pds in 3yrs(with ALSO having Crohns Colitis). How much and what your eatting is what will decided how fast or slow you will gain mass. Now mass can be a bit of fat and muscle or can be more muscle and very little fat! The better(cleaner) you eat the faster you will improve with your strength and "mass". If your on the "See Food" diet, gains typically are a lil slower over all, but you will fill out, just not LEANED out!

Since you just want to have a FIT body, not a BB. Then its even HARDER IMO to achive what you want cause you HAVE to watch what you eat so you have that "FIT" type body, thats if you always want to have that as you gain more mass. If not, just BULK until you get to weight you think youll be happy with, and then Start cleaning up your "diet" and throw in a just a lil bit of cardio. Theres a few different ways to go about getting the type of you want to achive, but its all about how fast you want to get to it and what youll accept to achive it.

Also theres a reason why we plan ahead and eat every 2-3hrs. Keep the body fulled! Just like a truck that has a 10gal tank and only gets 5mpg! You have to keep it full of gas so that it runs properly and at its best!

Go and read up Sunclouds thread(he posted a link above) Itll help ya alot!

Im with ya man, like i said im 6'1 and an ECTO as well and i have to eat 4ish+ cals to gain! Been there done that 3 times, and im STARTING OVER @ 145pds again from getting sick and loosing it all!

GL and listen to these guys around here, they know there ish mang! any more ?s post em up!!!!