help with my diet

S

sean

New Member
I'm sorry to be the hundredth person or something to ask this question but I need some help with my diet.

First of all, I'm 16 and trying to gain weight.

Here's what I eat every day:

6: 00 3 eggs, 1 yolk, 1/2 glass skim, 1/2 glass choc. milk, 1 glass orange juice, 2000 mg of fish oil pills

7: 45 about 55 cashews (don't know why but I count them
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) and 1 banana

10: 00 about 15-20 cashews, 1 banana, 1 slice of wheat bread, 3 slices of turkey, 1 can of Ensure

12: 45 varies but usually a 16 oz. container of food like spaghetti and meatballs or chicken and pasta

3: 30 a glass of orange juice, a slice of wheat bread, 3 slices of turkey, and about 15-20 cashews

5: 00 1 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup 1% milk, 23 grams of protein powder, and an apple, 2000 mg of fish oil pills, 3000 mg of flax seed oil pills

7: 00 a glass of orange juice

8: 00 about the same as the 12:45 meal

10: 00 a glass of skim milk, a small glass of 1% milk, 2 slices
of turkey


on workout days (I do normal HST), I add 1 cup of oatmeal to my 5: 00 meal and, during my w/o, I eat 1 slice of white bread
1 day per week I usually have pizza - my only "bad" food I guess?

so how does this look?

I read Bryan's "eating for size" article a few days ago and I want to try to follow that
I just got HSN Primer and Driver....how could I incorporate them into my diet on w/o days?

also, I just bought some flax seed oil (not the pills) and I couldn't stand the taste of it. How can you make it taste better?

Thanks!

Sean.
 
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I just bought some flax seed oil (not the pills) and I couldn't stand the taste of it.
Click to expand...
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How bad does flax oil taste? I take Udo's and actually like adding it to my food. You could mix flax with your drinks and perhaps some half/half cream to mitigate the taste.

Just from a general nutrition view, your diet could use fiber and green vegetables. Otherwise, your diet is solid. The following are more general nutritional stuff . . .

Cashews are fine as long as partially hydrogenated oils weren't added.

If oatmeal is your post-workout carbs, maybe eat a few cups or throw in a few glasses of juice.

You may want to take a lactose enzyme pill with your skim milk to keep gas down.

Take Vitamin E (just a 400 IU pill) with your fish oil and flax oil.

Make sure your fish oil has no cholesterol. This means it's gone through molecular distillation and has no mercury and PCBs. If there's fishy breath / taste, it may be rancid.

Consider adding evening primrose (GLA) to your diet. You'll know depending on how your skin reacts to the fish oil.
 
a cheap way to get flaxseed oil is to buy a small coffeegrinder (around $15) and a bag of flaxseeds... and start grinding... you get a pasty from it, which you disolve in water or add to your protein shake.
The ratio between omega 3 and 6 is about 4:1, where Udo's Choice is 2:1. To get the same proportions add some oils that are high in omega 6, i.e. sunfloweroil, valnut... and you can do it for about 1/100th of the price of Udo's Choice ;)
 
Just to add my opinion....

I think you should increase your carbs...
you seem to have a pretty 'protein-heavy' diet, which means that you end up burning protein as an energy source, when you should be burning carbs, and letting the protein build and repair stuff (muscles/hair/skin etc..)

And carbs are cheaper...

And, as Vicious stated, green veg - the rawer the better (i.e; dont overcook)

Another, common, way to gain weight, is to have a weight-gain shake between meals, (on the principle that they are digested easier than solids.)
Rather than spending a lot of money on the brand names, that can be not much more than expensive sugar-drinks, you could read articles by Lyle Macdonald or Ellington Darden, who suggest recipes for homemade drinks...

Basically; egg whites in milk, with peanut butter, or bananas, or yoghurt, blended into a drink.
You could even add your flax seed oil to that.

The important point throughout, is to take in slighly more calories than your maintenance level, which would generally be 16-20 times your bwt in lb
e.g; your bwt, say 160lb X 18 = 2880 calories per day
(reduce the 16-20 figure as you get older, and your metabolism slows)

Good luck anyway.
Brix.
 
I can't give you the full scientific answer but can give you a few principles. Protien &quot;goes to the muscle&quot; when taken with carbs -- so you want to up your carbs while eating protien.

Primer (with glucose added) (and creatine) if you want directly before the workout.

Driver (with glucose added) directly after the workout.

You could add 3 more eggwhites to your breakfast. And eat oatmeal or cream of wheat as the carb (with cinammon)

There are lots of threads and articals on this but I can't give them off the top of my head --- sorry.

Bob
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Thanks everyone. So, I should I just eat more carbs. And an apple about an hour before working out and primer and some sugar (can I use sucrose or is only glucose good?) 15 minutes before?

To Bob Evans: For some reason, I have problems eating even 3 eggs in the morning. Maybe I should just stuff them down as fast as possible... Should I replace my orange juice and milk in the morning with cream of wheat or add cream of wheat to my breakfast?

Thanks again

Sean
 
I weigh 164 with about 13-14% body fat. And no, I haven't done a calorie breakdown of my diet. Guess I should...
 
sean,

I know all about it being tough to get stuff down. But for my weight I should eat about 8! Try just going for 4 -- use a spoon with holes in it to seperate the yokes. (you only want one yoke) I scramble them in olive oil -- they are less intimidating that way. And yeah oat meal, or cream of wheat is an unprocessed high fiber carb. Cinanamon helps with the insiline part. I would think OJ has alot of sugar (don't know all the details though) But man I hear what you are saying.

Bob
 
alright, I finally counted up my calories. I eat about 3630 calories per day. I eat about 240 g protein, 500 g carbs, 85 g fat. So my ratio is about 25 p : 20 f : 55 c -- I think. This seems like I may be eating too much now. Should I cut a few calories? Should I just eat about 3400 cals and 170 g protein?

I just don't understand that, if I've been eating about this many calories, how I could not be gaining muscle and fat very quickly. Is it possible that I've been eating so much protein that my body spends too much energy to digest it?

Thanks for the help,
Sean
 
----> Here's important advice. &quot;Frontload&quot; your calories (especially the protein) to a few hours before, during, and after your workout.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Is it possible that I've been eating so much protein that my body spends too much energy to digest it?
Click to expand...

One theory suggests that because protein raises glucagon levels, not as many amino acids and glucose gets stored. Ergo, why some people suggest a high C:P ratio. But I don't think this effect is significant. Personally, I'd lower the carb intake a little and increase fat calories.

Wow that's a lot of food. Then again, you're a teenager and your metabolism is probably very high.

Try this for a week or two. If you don't notice weight gain, ramp up 100 calories/week by adding olive oil.

cheers,
Jules
 
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