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If you only had 3 meals a day, what would your meals be? I'm just asking because my schedule's changed and now I can't even sneak in a snack between breakfast lunch and dinner, so the whole small meals thing I was doing went out the window. I have a high metabolism, so ever since this new schedule started (Jan 2nd), I've lost about ~4 pounds, and seriously, I'm trying to gain weight, not lose it. Any suggestions for meals that are healthy and wouldn't leave my stomach rumbling an hour later? Thanks, any advice is appreciated.

I would take the 6 meal a day recommedation (a certain amount of protein, a certain amount of carbs, a certain amount of protoplasm), double the amounts and simply eat it 3 times a day.

I don't know what the recommended quantities of each category are. I just have a protein shake and a banana for breakfast. At lunch, I eat 3 - 5 vegetables, sometimes including starchy veggies, sometimes not and for dinner I eat a big piece of meat, a potato or pasta and a couple more veggies.

I have a question too... I'm starting to do the small meal thing, and... so far today I've eaten breakfast (a smoothie), mid-morning snack (an apple and a cup of tea), and lunch (grilled chicken and a spinach salad with balsamic dressing). My last meal was around noon, and it is now 2:17 and I'm STARVING. Is this suppose to happen? I wasn't planning my next meal until like 7:00 (a protein shake) since I won't be working out till about 8:00 or so. Then I'd have my after workout protein shake, and then dinner. I would normally have my pre-workout shake at around 4:00pm because I'm normally scheduled to work out at 5:15pm but today I have an interview at 5:30, so I have to work out after my 7:00pm class..

TXguy1605: you're not getting nearly enough calories. Those six small meals (for a 6-foot tall, 19-year-old guy who's working out) should probably be closer to 400-500 calories, to give you 2400-3000 per day. If bodybuilding is your goal, or even moderate muscle growth, even that's probably not enough.

Your apple was about 80 calories, which, at your age, you probably burned up just by chewing it.

If the chicken breast was six ounces, you got about 300 calories out of it. Spinach has about as many calories as water; if you ate a whole bag of one of those pre-packaged salad bags from the supermarket, you got about five ounces, or maybe 50 calories.

No wonder you're starving!

There's a good program called fitday that you can get online. I think I paid $15. You can use it to track your nutritional intake on a daily basis. I imagine there are probably others (free, too), but I like fitday.

If you can't fit in 6 meals a day I would recomend supplementing with meal replacement bars. Squirrel one in your pocket and eat when you get a chance.

aww

I've tried posting a topic on good recipes that I, a college student, can most importantly afford it but also be able to prepare easily at home; however, I got like two replies total. I'm cooking all my meals the night before so all i do is package them up and take them in a cooler to school. I work on campus, so I can keep it in my office. If I could get a pretty good number of recipes, then it would be easy for me to plan all my meals for a week and count all the calories, protein, etc ahead of time, since I hardly have any time for bathroom breaks during the day.

The protein powder I just started is 100% whey protein with 53g of protein per two scoops.

I'm just waiting to get a reply from chuckystud, lol.

txguy1605: (and the OPer too): for something more substantial than an apple and tea (if you have the time) you could try packing those 6oz no-mess, no-fuss tuna or salmon packages. The salmon one was $2.29 in my supermarket. If you eat the whole thing you get:

180 calories

3g fat
0g carb
42g protein
540mg sodium

If you've got a microwave, Uncle Ben's has whole grain brown rice that you can nuke in 90 seconds. If you eat half the package you get

220 calories

4g fat
41g carb
5g protein
5mg sodium

When I'm home I put the salmon over a plate of mixed greens and sprinkle some of Newman's low fat sesame ginger dressing on it.

how do you compare calories to grams of something? is there a formula? how many grams of fat, carbs, protein, etc translate into 3,000-4,000 calories per day? my goal is definitely to gain weight. In fact, I want to gain like 20 pounds. I signed up for this one site called Gyminee and it calculated something along the 3,000-4,000 calorie range to reach my goal and it would take approx. 18 weeks.

1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbs = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories

and what's the best ratio of carb to protein to fat for a person my size with my goals? should i consume way more than the standard 1g protein per lb body weight?

txguy1605 said

breakfast (a smoothie),

mid-morning snack (an apple and a cup of tea), and

lunch (grilled chicken and a spinach salad with balsamic dressing).

My last meal was around noon, and it is now 2:17 and I'm STARVING.

I wasn't planning my next meal until like 7:00 (a protein shake)

Ok I shall put two posts up here one pointing out the obvious mistakes you are making here and the second pointing out why this obsession with protein makes people go astray

First thing and most startling, but could be depending on what you are putting in your smoothie. You are runing the tank on empty your first portion of starchy carbohydrates is when? Your last evening meal?????????? If your main source of carbs is fruit based its a short lived energy source. Quite simply you have no immediate fuel source to run off, its then switching to your protein and breaking that down as quick as it can, oh and depending if you dont have the consumption level right it will be eating into the glycogen in your muscles too whilst it bridges the gap of energy conversion and release so not good.

Secondly you say you are hungry yet the only true solid you are having untilmidday is an apple, not even a glas sof milk as well you would expect if you were taking in regular small meals as 70 calories alone wouldnt really cut the mustard as an in between meals.

Then again you are stretching out the duration to 5 hours before your next feed and thats just a liquid fom and protein.

So basicaly you need to address your carb defficieny and cut back on the liquids if you dont need the calories.

You also need to plan your meals better getting a good macro split. If you want to eat 6 meals a day the look at it like this: say you are on 3000 calories a day

That will allow you:

3 main meals: Breakfast 500
Lunch: 600
Dinner/Tea: 700
Total = 1800

This leaves a total calorie allowance of 1200

You now want 3 other snacks/meals so that allows you 400 calories per snack

Manfacturing the perfect combustion engine

Think of it like this:


Gas: Carbohydrates
Metal: Protein
Lube: water



Your body already has a basic engine which has been made by the workers (metabolism) Now you want to Pimp your ride and make it supercharged with flashy rims and a big tail pipe. Now in order to do tha the workers need to start the engine running so you need to add some gas. Without gas they cant do anything they cant make it move and they cant see how it needs working on.

Now you can throw as much metal as you can at the workers but they ar piece workers and they dont give a shit, they will work at the same rate regardless, so if they cant use the metal they either have to break it down to gas or store it on a scrap heap along with the spare tyre!

Now there's one more important aspect and thats water, if you dont add plenty of that the whole think will eventualy grind to a halt and only move by momentum.

So start sticking something in your tank or you soon wont be moving anywhere

I feel dumb...this sounds so complicated. grrr. But no, I want to reach my goals no matter what, so I'm all ears...

And yeah, the smoothie was all fruit and some yogurt and some 2% milk.

My problem, it looks like, becomes the amount of calories I have to consume. Honestly, I can't really eat a lot because I get full really fast. So then the problem becomes finding foods that will give me that amount of calories I need without requiring me to eat tons in one sitting.

God, I have memories. With the amount of exercise I'm doing idealing, like around an hour a day, a 3,000 calorie diet is the prescription for me.

Breakfast - Oatmeal, fruit, milk, yogurt.

Lunch - a couple sandwiches and potato salad.

Dinner - one serving of vegies, chicken is the meat of choice, tri-tip steak, filet minon, rice, potatoes.

8 8oz glasses of water a day

Baked foods

Deli on the go.

RJ should have a recipe section....for realz

I really appreciate these nutrition tips explained in a straight-forward manner. I agree that there's so much difficult, confusing and contradictory information out there.

Lots of information is for weight loss, some information is for weight gain, but it seems to me that on many fitness sites it's about changing from having an overweight body to a muscular body.

It's great to have some good info provided on building from a skinny runt to a muscle-hunk.

txguy1605 said

I feel dumb...this sounds so complicated. grrr. But no, I want to reach my goals no matter what, so I'm all ears...

And yeah, the smoothie was all fruit and some yogurt and some 2% milk.

My problem, it looks like, becomes the amount of calories I have to consume. Honestly, I can't really eat a lot because I get full really fast. So then the problem becomes finding foods that will give me that amount of calories I need without requiring me to eat tons in one sitting.

Bulkers need low density high calories, weight losers the opposite, you just need to read up on sites like fitday and see what works for you.

At the end of the day you are slim (no offence) yor stomach isnt used to eating big, but like everything else do it gradual and it will adapt. So increase the calories and portion size appropriatly.

Most make the mistake of going from too low a calorie intake to a whopping 800 calorie plus jump, fact is they would have started adding muscle at an additional 200 calories a day and given their body chance to adapt

txguy1605 saidRJ should have a recipe section....for realz

well as they dont for now go here:

http://www.mansized.co.uk/talk/board.phtml/board39

its a UK site so you will hav to Americanise some of it

makeumyne said

It's great to have some good info provided on building from a skinny runt to a muscle-hunk.

the principles are the same though it just means that if naturaly skinny you are fighting against the creation of a calorie surplus.

In my books there is no such thing as a hard gainer or loser its more like hard eater !

But you may want to google scrawny to brawny

yeah, happened to me when I started to go for gain. Too much too soon.

This was great:

Manfacturing the perfect combustion engine

Thanks bfj1...the UK website you recommended is good too.

DJBens77 saidIf you can't fit in 6 meals a day I would recomend supplementing with meal replacement bars. Squirrel one in your pocket and eat when you get a chance.

I second that. I carry three protein bars with me all day. Works good.

just eat more and maybe some fatty foods. That should help you gain a little weight oh and load up on carbs before you sleep. that should give you more weight to work with. I think y6ou look fine though as it is.

thanks. but my goal is to gain muscle weight, and in the process get more definition. my main concern is my chest, i want to bring that out a lot more. my arms and shoulders are also a problem

thanks everyone for the post (i wish rj would actually let me *know* when someone replies...). I guess the main consensus is don't do it if you don't have to or eat a protein bar (MikeOnMain: can't eat the tuna package, it takes too much time). I guess the trouble is I can't eat a light snack unless it is a protein bar, but even then those things are only what 200 calories? Maybe 300? It seems sorta paltry when I think about it... plus those things are expensive and the only one I've actually liked is Zone perfect. maybe I should just be resigned to losing weight or trying to maintain during this 3 month period.

make your own protein flapjacks far cheaper

Thanks for all the help suggestions and links. I am starting my programme and I want to gain muscle. Many thanks it is very helpful for me

Only 3 meals a day? I couldn't cope with that...

I couldn't do 3 meals a day. Since I have started my training I have gained half a stone so I am chuffed...The only thing I am finding I am getting a bit pudgy around my belly I am doing crunches but I do not know if it is enough....I am doing 100 crunches a day.

I just plan it this way, eat EVERY 2 hours!! I can't do the 3 our thing! Sometimes I'll even do every hour sometimes. Some days I can do 2-3 hours however it's every 2 hours! NO MATTER WHAT!!

Keep a couple of protein bars with you as well as some fruit, maybe some GOOD Turkey jerky or something.

conorourke saidI couldn't do 3 meals a day. Since I have started my training I have gained half a stone so I am chuffed...The only thing I am finding I am getting a bit pudgy around my belly I am doing crunches but I do not know if it is enough....I am doing 100 crunches a day.

nope it means you are eating more calories than yuo need so time to trim it back. It takes something like 200,000 sit ups/crunches to burn a pound of fat

BEER...and lots of it.

VineyardHmo saidBEER...and lots of it.

looks like a beer monster! or is that hunky bear monster