I need help planning my diet

[plattinum]

Hey guys I'm new, I found this forum about 2months ago and I've spent countless hours reading it. This forum is an awesome source of accurate information and that's great because alot of people I talk to at the gym seem to be wrong about so many aspects of bodybuilding. Now to my question. I work for a pop company building displays (im a carbonated beverage architect... sort of) and the job is very strenuous. Is there any way for me to calculate the amount of calories I burn in a day in order to eat enough to gain weight? I have a couple of friends who put on a lot of muscle with juice and they had no clue what they were doing. PCT? NOLVADEX? They knew nothing. But the fact that they got bigger proved it is possible. Im 21 years 5'9'' and about 160 lbs. I had trained for about year but over the last few months I have really slacked off because I was discouraged by my lack of progress. I read the gaining weight sticky which basically said im doomed because I dont have enough time to recover and grow. This is my first post so I hope I dont sound like an idiot. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys

 

[jminis]

Bro if any of us are to help you we need a lot more info. Like whats your split look like, diet etc...

 

[plattinum]

Here is my diet for today:

morning:
2 slices of wheat toast
6 egg whites
16oz of 2% milk

mid morning:
1 can of tuna
1 cup of yogurt

lunch:
1 cup of extra lean ground beef
2 cups of carrots
2 cups of 2% milk

Pre-training:
1 cup of cottage cheese

Training:
Water mixed with 1 serving of Nectar

Post training:
1 serving of nectar

Late afternoon:
2 cheese cubes
4oz of peanuts

Dinner:
2 chicken breasts
2cups of brown rice
2cups of broccoli
2 cups of 2% milk

Before bed:
1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
2 cups of 2 % milk
According to fit day this is about 4000 calories with a 30carb/30fat/40protein split. I know I need a lot more calories but what type of calories should I add carbs? fats?

My training split:

monday:
back, tris

wednesday:
chest, biceps and tris

friday:
legs, shoulders
Cardio tuesday,thursday,saturday 30mins. Abs mon-sat.
I have swolev2 but I dont want to take it until my diet is proper. Sorry about the long post hopefully this will help someone help me.

 

[csakiges]

Like Jminis, there are alot of people on here that are willing to help. I would definitely always recommend a good multi and flax seed oil as a staple to your diet. I think there is a calculator of calories burned somewhere on this forum, I just don't have the time to find it. It will give a good idea of what you need to eat to be above, below or a maintenance level. I would say with your activity and your weight and this is entirely just a guess, your calories burned a day would be roughly about 2400, it may be more depending on how strenuous your work is. If you get your heart rate up during work, I would just take that as cardio and not do any at the gym. If you are trying to bulk, you want to cut out cardio as much as you are comfortable with. I completely cut out cardio, but others don't like to cut it out entirely. So if that is the case, 4000 cals. seems to be a good start for bulking. Foods look good, I am sure other may tell you to add or take a way, but for a beginning diet, it looks as if you have done some research. I will let the others take it from here. Hope this helps.

 

[drfly]

diet looks pretty good to me, i would say go ahead and take the swole v2. u might wanna drink mroe water throughout the day unless u just didnt list it or something. also, i would look into a new training regimen. read through doggcrap and iron addicts posts on here, and look through other stuff in the exercise and training forum. other than that, it looks pretty good.

 

[scotty2]

Diet looks OK, along with your ratios. However, your timing is a bit off IMO. Need more than 1 cup cottage chees pre WO, try some oatmeal. I prefer to take in all my protein PWO, I've tried both, and prefer all my protein PWO(add some dextrose). The meal after training, or snack, is lacking. YOur body's looking to fill up and you're giving it nuts and cheese. Eat the chicken breast meal in it's place at that time. Lose the cheese and add some flax. Definitley add some flax to the meal at night.

 

[plattinum]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I started taking the swolev2 yesterday, im going to cut the cardio in the gym and make some adjustments to my diet based on what scotty2 recommended. This is the first time I have recieved detailed and specific advice. Hopefully these changes will produce results.