I've been eating pretty good for a while. But I just wing it. Before each meal I enter the stuff into Fitday, see how it affects my calories and macros, cook it then eat it. It's a bit of a crappy process and it's some what annoying entering food into a website all day.

I've decided it would be better to plan what I'm going to eat in advance (and not just minutes in advance). But what goes into making a food plan? Is it simply a case of working out my daily totals, dividing them by the number of meals, then planning meals based around those amounts.

My current goals are to gain strength and size. Is there anything I can do to tweak it towards those goals? Allowing different macros for different meals? What about this "don't mix carbs and fats" that I sometimes read?

Any infomation would be a great help. Thanks a lot.

I've decided it would be better to plan what I'm going to eat in advance (and not just minutes in advance). But what goes into making a food plan? Is it simply a case of working out my daily totals, dividing them by the number of meals, then planning meals based around those amounts.
That's one way, if you want each meal to be similar in cals/pro/carb/fat/etc. Or just figure out what you want each meal to look like, then come up with the foods for each meal in FitDay. Another option is to download John's Excel spreadsheet which I think is 100 times better than FitDay. Sure, you have to go get the nutrition facts for some foods (obviously custom ones or supplements) yourself, but once you have your "database" built up it becomes very, very easy to work with.

(His spreadsheet is somewhere on his main site.)

My current goals are to gain strength and size. Is there anything I can do to tweak it towards those goals?
Can you show us an example of a day of meals? That may make it easier to make suggestions. Seeing your stats would be useful too.

Allowing different macros for different meals?
Depends. Some do every meal very similar, some don't. Some want a high-carb intake pre/post training. Some like different diets for training vs. nontraining days. Etc.

What about this "don't mix carbs and fats" that I sometimes read?
Again, depends. Some do this and say it's very important, some purposely add healthy fats to all meals and say it's very important, and yet some others say it doesn't really matter much.

Any infomation would be a great help. Thanks a lot.
Again, if you can give us some details on your current diet we can probably offer more tips. :)

Sure, here's more info. I'm 6'3", I currently weight about 188lbs and approx BF% of 15.

A typical day of meals would be something like (in fact I think I eat this almost everyday):

Meal 1
85g Oats
60g Protein Powder
1/2 pint of 2% milk

Meal 2
Baked Potatoe
120g Tuna

Meal 3
85g Wholewheat pasta
200g Bolognese sauce
100g Chicken

Meal 4
Grilled chicken breast
300g veg (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

Meal 5
60g Protein Powder
30g Natural Peanut butter
1/2 milk

PWO meal (usually between meals 2 and 3)
72g Dex
40g Protein Powder
Water

and yeah, having a decent spreadsheet would be great. I've had to enter all my own food into fitday anyway as I needed it in grams as I don't understand cups. I don't actually use any of their information.

Sure, here's more info. I'm 6'3", I currently weight about 188lbs and approx BF% of 15.

A typical day of meals would be something like (in fact I think I eat this almost everyday):

Meal 1
85g Oats
60g Protein Powder
1/2 pint of 2% milk

Meal 2
Baked Potatoe
120g Tuna

Meal 3
85g Wholewheat pasta
200g Bolognese sauce
100g Chicken

Meal 4
Grilled chicken breast
300g veg (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

Meal 5
60g Protein Powder
30g Natural Peanut butter
1/2 milk

PWO meal (usually between meals 2 and 3)
72g Dex
40g Protein Powder
Water
Well your diet looks okay to me. I see some spots we could work with if you're having trouble. How's your progress been though?

and yeah, having a decent spreadsheet would be great. I've had to enter all my own food into fitday anyway as I needed it in grams as I don't understand cups. I don't actually use any of their information.
Pick up John's spreadsheet then. It makes life much, much easier. :tu:

Well your diet looks okay to me. I see some spots we could work with if you're having trouble. How's your progress been though?


It's was going ok. Recently, I've been attempting to start my first bulk. I think I was a little overzealous with the calories some days up and beyond 4000. I put on weight sure enough, but I'm not sure it was the kinda weight I wanted. I've lowered that back down to about 3200-3400 which I think should be ok for me.

I'm not entirely sure on my progress at the moment. I know that must sound odd but I have been kinda jumping between programs. I was doing the Rippetoe Starting Strength at first, I made some good strength gains on that I think. Then when that started to stall I tried ABBH for a few weeks. I didn't really have the equipment for that though. Now I'm using the Bill Starr 5x5 Intermediate. The first thing I noticed on that was that I was not nearly as strong as when I finished Starting Strength. So I guess the answer to my progress would be not great.

If you have any advice about what I can do to improve my eating I'm all ears. I'm just trying to get as much info as I can. However, sometimes it just gets confusing.

It's was going ok. Recently, I've been attempting to start my first bulk. I think I was a little overzealous with the calories some days up and beyond 4000. I put on weight sure enough, but I'm not sure it was the kinda weight I wanted. I've lowered that back down to about 3200-3400 which I think should be ok for me.

I'm not entirely sure on my progress at the moment. I know that must sound odd but I have been kinda jumping between programs. I was doing the Rippetoe Starting Strength at first, I made some good strength gains on that I think. Then when that started to stall I tried ABBH for a few weeks. I didn't really have the equipment for that though. Now I'm using the Bill Starr 5x5 Intermediate. The first thing I noticed on that was that I was not nearly as strong as when I finished Starting Strength. So I guess the answer to my progress would be not great.

If you have any advice about what I can do to improve my eating I'm all ears. I'm just trying to get as much info as I can. However, sometimes it just gets confusing.
I'll try to give more comments on the meals, but without knowing amounts it'll be hard. For example "baked potato" might mean 1 oz., or it might mean 10oz. :)

I like Starting Strength on paper, but I've never tried it. Nor have I tried the other two you mentioned. I think that, regardless, "a few weeks" is not really enough time to tell how effective a program is. JMO of course.

How did the Starting Strength program "stall?" Weight gain just halted? Did you increase calories at all? How long did you run that program, and did you ever end up adding the additional or "optional" exercises that can be added in after a while? I'm wondering - that is since you mentioned enjoying results with it at first and are familiar with it - if you should go back to it.

Or, hit up www.defrancostraining.com (http://www.defrancostraining.com) and check out his programs, which I recommend often and which I feel work very well.

A typical day of meals would be something like (in fact I think I eat this almost everyday):

Meal 1
85g Oats
60g Protein Powder
1/2 pint of 2% milk

Meal 2
Baked Potatoe
120g Tuna

---LIFT WEIGHTS---

PWO meal (usually between meals 2 and 3)
72g Dex
40g Protein Powder
Water

Meal 3
85g Wholewheat pasta
200g Bolognese sauce
100g Chicken

Meal 4
Grilled chicken breast
300g veg (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

Meal 5
60g Protein Powder
30g Natural Peanut butter
1/2 milk
Unless you're training 7 days a week, or slurping down that post-training drink without training beforehand, I assume you've got a different diet for your non-training days, right? What's that look like? The same but just without the dex/whey shake? (That's what I would guess but just checking.)

M1: I see no big problems here. Most people might recommend whole-foods at meal 1, but I too prefer a shake just because, to be totally honest, I feel lazy in the morning and don't want to cook. :) Your first meal looks similar to mine, though I don't drink milk here (I do post-training though), I use less oats (I'm cutting though), and I eat 1 grapefruit or orange at breakfast. Adding some fruit here would be, IMO, a good idea. I would like to see you eating some fruit somewhere in your diet.

M2: Hard to say without knowing the size of the potato, on average anyway, but generally speaking this looks fine (especially since it's the meal before training, which I too like to have carbs with). I would probably add in some veggies here only because I don't see much elsewhere. But then again I don't want your pre-training meal to be too big.

PWO: I'm personally not a fan of dextrose (nothing against it, just have not used it in years), so I'd rather not comment much here because other members would have better advice. I would like to know what you do at this time on a non-weightlifting day. If you are eating/drinking something at this time on non-training days, I'd at the very least drop the dex and go for something like oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, etc. I'd probably also add vegetables.

M3: This looks okay though I'm unfamiliar with that sauce. It's probably fine but I'm just guessing. :) Also, is this meal present on non-training days as well?

M4: Looks okay. Is that chicken breast plain? Or what do you put on it?

M5: This looks good to me.

--

So in general the meals look okay, but if you're having trouble it won't be hard to tweak it some. The problem is - as I know you know - you just don't know if it's working or not. What I would do is pick up John's spreadsheet and start logging things properly. Then pick out the workout routine and get busy. Track your measurements and other statistics for a few weeks, and then decide if adjustments should be made.

I've got to run to the store, but I'll be back on later to see if you have any more thoughts. :)

Awesome, thanks a lot. I've got get to bed now anyway. I'll run through it tomorrow and reply properly.

I'll try to give more comments on the meals, but without knowing amounts it'll be hard. For example "baked potato" might mean 1 oz., or it might mean 10oz. :)

The baked potatoes are about the size of a fist, around 250-300g I would say.

I like Starting Strength on paper, but I've never tried it. Nor have I tried the other two you mentioned. I think that, regardless, "a few weeks" is not really enough time to tell how effective a program is. JMO of course.

How did the Starting Strength program "stall?" Weight gain just halted? Did you increase calories at all? How long did you run that program, and did you ever end up adding the additional or "optional" exercises that can be added in after a while? I'm wondering - that is since you mentioned enjoying results with it at first and are familiar with it - if you should go back to it.

It just got too demanding. Having to increase the weight on the bar every session got ridiculous. I got to 100kg in my squats but could only complete 12 of the 15 for 3 sessions in a row. And my other lifts were getting there as well.

But yeah, I did enjoy it. The Bill Starr 5x5 is almost the same except the programming is slightly different. It has a similar exercise set up Squats, Bench, Rows and DL although it has 45 incline press rather than a regular press. You only increase the weight once a week. So Monday you are meant to build up to a new 5RM. Wednesday is a light day. Friday is like Monday but you go heavier on the heavy set and only do 3 reps. That set will be Monday's new heavy set. They provide a spreadsheet that works out what you should be lifting. Here is what mine looks like: http://fitness.danielwood.co.uk/images/5x5-plan.gif

Or, hit up www.defrancostraining.com (http://www.defrancostraining.com) and check out his programs, which I recommend often and which I feel work very well.

I've looked at that but I don't feel I have enough equipment yet. I just have a barbell, bench and rack. For antagonist sets I'd spend most my time loading and unloading the bar. Also I don't think my downstairs neighbours would appreciate the dynamic leg day very much ;-)

Unless you're training 7 days a week, or slurping down that post-training drink without training beforehand, I assume you've got a different diet for your non-training days, right? What's that look like? The same but just without the dex/whey shake? (That's what I would guess but just checking.)

I'm training 3 times a week so on non workout days I might have a bowl of scrambled eggs (2 whole & 4 whites) with salsa, or 50g of almonds.

M1: I see no big problems here. Most people might recommend whole-foods at meal 1, but I too prefer a shake just because, to be totally honest, I feel lazy in the morning and don't want to cook. :) Your first meal looks similar to mine, though I don't drink milk here (I do post-training though), I use less oats (I'm cutting though), and I eat 1 grapefruit or orange at breakfast. Adding some fruit here would be, IMO, a good idea. I would like to see you eating some fruit somewhere in your diet.

I could do fruit here. I must admit I don't always have fruit in the house but do sometimes have some apples. What type of fruit would you recommend?

M2: Hard to say without knowing the size of the potato, on average anyway, but generally speaking this looks fine (especially since it's the meal before training, which I too like to have carbs with). I would probably add in some veggies here only because I don't see much elsewhere. But then again I don't want your pre-training meal to be too big.

The veg I have in my last main meal has a double portion of veg, which almost covers my whole plate. I could move half of that here to balance things out a little bit better.

M3: This looks okay though I'm unfamiliar with that sauce. It's probably fine but I'm just guessing. :) Also, is this meal present on non-training days as well?

This is the sauce I use: http://www.loydgrossmansauces.co.uk/loydgrossmansauces/products/pasta-sauces/bolognese/ maybe it's not the best thing to have but I can be quite lazy and this meal only takes 5 minutes to knock up.

M4: Looks okay. Is that chicken breast plain? Or what do you put on it?

I usually season the chicken with my blackened chicken mix.

1 tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp. white pepper
3/4 tsp. black pepper

Obviously, that's just the ratio. I don't put all of that on my chicken breast :-)

So in general the meals look okay, but if you're having trouble it won't be hard to tweak it some. The problem is - as I know you know - you just don't know if it's working or not. What I would do is pick up John's spreadsheet and start logging things properly. Then pick out the workout routine and get busy. Track your measurements and other statistics for a few weeks, and then decide if adjustments should be made.

I've got to run to the store, but I'll be back on later to see if you have any more thoughts. :)

So is it normal for a person that is bodybuilding or strength training to eat the same foods day in day out? I've been doing it recently as I'm not that imaginative when it comes to food and don't have a whole lot of dishes I can prepare. I tend to look at food as merely fuel now so I'm not really bothered by how it tastes as much. With the exception of cottage cheese, I tried that it made me gag. Oh well...

Also I have a bag of frozen cooked prawns in my freezer that have been sitting there for ages. I'd like to include them in here somewhere but I don't really know what to do with them. Any suggestions?

Thanks ever so much for your help by the way. I really appreciate it.