Diet Plan/First Cycle

[rickylawsonx1992]

Whats up guys, I just want to throw out my diet plan for my first cycle. Pretty excited to start. Wont be starting for about another 3 weeks because I'm waiting on supps.to to deliver but that's okay. Extra time to go over and over again on my diet, training, and mental preparation. I'm 24, 6', and weigh at 160. Athletic type with good physique and strength. Wanting to put on 30lbs with at least 15-20lbs muscle when cycle is complete.

I usually get up around 9am because I'm a night owl and don't get to sleeping until midnight.

1st meal/9am - 4 eggs, 2 egg whites, good amount of oats, little peanut butter, and bottle of water.

Vitamins and fish oil. 

2nd meal/1130am - Shake meal(right before work around noon) containing whey protein, organic whole milk, peanut butter, honey, and topped with spinach(which surprisingly isn't tasted).

3rd meal/2pm - 8oz chicken breast, cup of rice, and 1-2oz of cashews.

4th meal/530pm - Can of tuna, apple or orange(maybe both), and broccoli and cauliflower.

Snack/730pm - Banana.

5th meal/9pm - 8oz chicken breast/turkey, slice of whole grain bread, and grapes.

I get off around 10pm and I'm at the gym right after around 10:15 and workout HARD til 1145-12.

As soon as I get home(5min drive) I have a pitcher of supplement ready, the same that's used for my 2nd meal, and ill have a big glass of that to end my night.

I have a fast metabolism just to add so I need a lot of calories with my protein and ill also be drinking about 3-4oz of water every hour. I work at Autozone and thankfully they have a drinking fountain.

Sooo, after researching and doing my homework id love to have your guys' advice on all of this. Anything to switch up on? Just to stay consistent though id have to stick to working out at the end of my day because that's what ive been doing the past 6 months. So any other advice from yall would be very much appreciated brothers!

Thanks!

 

[SemperFi]

Thanks for sharing. Its great you are putting a lot of effort into planning your diet. Many of us can and do overlook how important it is.

Based on your proposed diet what do you think your macro breakdown is and total calories? How many calories a day do you think you expend? Crunch the numbers hard brother. For a diet plan to provide you with 15-20lbs of clean muscle on your first cycle it has to be an A+.

I am asking the questions and being constructively critical because I want to see you achieve your goal. This is pure science and is not difficult once you get the hang of it. The amount of effort you put into planning and implementation will directly translate into results. 

Take a peak here and see if this will provide you with additional help-

https://musclegurus.to/forum/training-nutrition-and-diet/diet-and-nutrition/116861-my-current-cycle-clean-bulk-diet

FYI- You posted in the women's diet and nutrition section of the forum.

SEMPER FI

 

[siegmund]

could be one big ass woman , named ricky., that i would hate to be on the wrong side of. ...

or your correct lol

 

[SenseiMiagi]

Agree with Semper above.  Find out your TDEE and calculate calories/macros per meal for goal.  Seems light to me at first glance with a goal of 20 lbs muscle.  Thats a tall order.  What is your training experience?  How mature your muscle is will directly impact how much improvement you can achieve.

At 6 ft and 160 I am picturing a very lean physique.  Cycling with AAS is money and health wasted if your body isnt primed for it.  Be honest with yourself about your commitment, and set a realistic goal.

Good to see you have done some legwork.  Listen to Semper Fi's advice and it will greatly improve your chance of success.

 

[blastthru23]

I really can't much to what has already been said, however, to ensure that you are actually drinking 1.5 to 2 gallons of water daily, I would suggest bringing your own water to work, or a large water container with you. Multiple trips to drinking fountain will likely get old, or forgotten. Water intake is probably the most overlooked practice, yet it is equally important as a well executed diet plan. If feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. A half gallon  nalgene water bottle is pretty cheap on amazon. Get one, and drink up my friend! 

 

[blastthru23]

Btw, if that's your real name, i'd change your handle for safety reasons

 

[rickylawsonx1992]

I realized that after searching for my forum this morning Semper Fi. I'm sticking to it I guess lol but thanks for the info and support guys. Gotta get to work soon, ill reply with the requested information tonight.

Thx again!

 

[Dolf]

Right off the bat I can tell you if you're bulking there are not near enough carbs in your diet. 

You can add carbs by adding oats to your shake in meal 2, adding a carb like sweet potatoes to meal 4 & 5, and changing your snack into a protein and carb meal. Just off the top of my head your not getting more than 150g of carbs per day, and to bulk you need atleast double that.

 

[blastthru23]

Let's take the whole milk and peanut butter out of that shake. Your shake could be 30g+ whey , 1/4 cup of rice four, 1 tsp glucose for your post work out. Your pre work out could have the same ingredients but add 1/4 c oats so as to help maintain energy for the duration of your training session. There are more things that need to be changed as well. However, I'll have to scope the plan you laid out with greater scrutiny at a later time.

 

[rickylawsonx1992]

Alright so after touching up on my homework I'm definitely ready to update the requested information. I have an app called "calorie, carb, and fat counter" and I must say its an amazing app. I put in my entire course of food for the plan and came up with the following information.

I switched to egg whites to decrease the amount of fat grams consumed for the day as well as switching whole milk to 2%.

Each item of food with be combined if its consumed more then once for the day to show the overall amount carbs, cals, and fats.

3 cups of oats - 17.4 grams of protein, 10.5 grams of fat, 84.3 grams of carbs.

2 tbsp. of peanut butter - 16 grams of protein, 32.2 grams of fat, 12.6 grams of carbs.

2 cups of egg whites - 54.4 grams of protein, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of carbs.

2 cups of 2% milk - 13.2 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat, 19.2 grams of carbs.

2 portions of whey protein - 50 grams of protein, 12 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbs.

2 cups of spinach - 1.8 grams of protein, 0.2 grams of fat, 2.2 grams of carbs.

2 tbsp. of honey - 0.1 grams of protein, 0 grams of fat, 34.6 grams of carbs.

2 8oz chicken breasts - 25.2 grams of protein, 0.6 grams of fat, 3.4 grams of carbs.

2 cups of brown rice - 9 grams of protein, 3.2 grams of fat, 91.6 grams of carbs. (holy carbs!)

2oz of cashews - 10.2 grams of protein, 24.6 grams of fat, 16.9 grams of carbs.

1 can of Tuna(water) - 42.1 grams of protein, 1.4 grams of fat, 0 grams of carbs.

1 apple - 0.6 grams of protein, 0.4 grams of fat, 30.8 grams of carbs.

1 orange - 1.3 grams of protein, 0.2 grams of fat, 17.6 grams of carbs.

1 cup of broccoli - 2.6 grams of protein, 0.3 grams of fat, 6.0 grams of carbs.

2 slice of whole grain bread - 8.8 grams of protein, 2.3 grams of fat, 28.1 grams of carbs.

1 cup of grapes - 0.6 grams of protein, 0.3 grams of fat, 15.8 grams of carbs.

2 large bananas - 3.0 grams of protein, 0.9 grams of fat, 62.1 grams of carbs.

Total - 256 grams of protein, 97 grams of fat, and 447 grams of carbs.

Total Calories - 3,627

TDEE - 2,937 calories.

Ill also be taking Vitamin D and fish oil pills.

Thanks for all your input guys. I will also take your advice and get me a nice size jug for the water. For the extra calories I think starting my work out with 5-10 minutes of running?

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

  

 

[blastthru23]

So, these are the foods and the amounts thereof that you'll eat through the day? What does your plan look like? Meal 1, 2, 3...etc? Personally, I think there's too much fruit, but that's just my opinion (too much fructose)

 

[rickylawsonx1992]

This was the breakdown from the post i made. Meal plan is listed at the top.

The following is towards the concern of fructose.

"It’s important to realize that all of this does not apply to whole fruit.

Fruits aren’t just watery bags of fructose, they are real foods with a low energy density and lots of fiber.

They’re hard to overeat on and you would have to eat very large amounts to reach harmful levels of fructose. In general, fruit is a minor source of fructose in the diet compared to added sugars.

The harmful effects of fructose apply to a western diet supplying excess calories and added sugars. It does not apply to the natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables."

 

 

[blastthru23]

Point well taken. I tend towards the all or nothing, to a fault all too often. However, for me, when I dropped fruit, the fat followed close behind. For that reason, I personally keep fruit at a minimum, if at all. But that's just me

 

[rickylawsonx1992]

Thanks guys. So looks good? Ill definitely just stick with water through my entire cycle besides the milk of course so no fruit juice for sure.

I post a in a different forum for when i start my cycle and update every two weeks. Ill be sure to keep the next post out of the women's section

 

[SemperFi]

You can create a cycle log here- http://musclegurus.to/cycle-reviews

Creating a cycle log is a great way to hold yourself accountable, receive feedback and create a personal history for future cycles.

 

SEMPER FI

 

[Mister A]

Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Lawson.

Ricky, great work on breaking down your macros and TDEE. The reason why it's so important to acquire the specificity everyone is talking about is because progress comes from making subtle changes. The only way to gauge what subtle means in this context, is to have a finger on the pulse of your macros, TDEE, BMR, and total caloric intake. When we throw in a handful of this or that without knowing the numbers, we often over or under estimate and end up gaining fat or losing muscle.

My criticism is that you're 80 pounds less than me and planning to eat the same amount of calories as I do most days. Meaning that a proposed 690 calorie surplus to start out with seems a bit high. You have a fast metabolism, but not too fast because 14% doesn't lend itself to being naturally lean. (I'd say those are the guys who never get over 12% no matter what they eat.) So maybe you'll get up to 700 surplus towards the end of a cycle, but starting out at it doesn't seem optimal to me. For starters, the hormones don't necessarily kick in Day One. So despite the drugs being able to help you synthesize protein at a faster rate than normal, they won't be doing that Day One. Secondly, you reach plateaus when you bulk or cut. You eventually need to adjust your calories up during a bulking phase. Have you ever eaten 3600 calories from entirely clean sources before? It's a full time job. Then what do you do when you stop gaining weight on 3600? Up it to 4000? You're not leaving yourself much room here i.e. you're making it much harder for yourself.

In my opinion, all a 700 calorie surplus will do for you is add fat. Unless you're currently in a 500 calorie surplus and staying lean and staying roughly the same weight. Then, yes, definitely bump that up to 700. See - subtle changes.

Couple little things and one big thing:

Two 8oz chicken breasts are not 25g of protein. There aren't any carbs in chicken breast. And there's a little bit of fat. I'd suggest reading the label on your food before trusting a macro calculator.

Can you explain the purpose of eating a banana as a snack? Thank you.

The big thing I wanted to point out is that you stated your goal was to gain 30 pounds, 15-20 of it being muscle. You're indirectly stating that your goal for this cycle is to gain 10-15 pounds of water and fat. Is that really what you want or what you think you need to accept in order to gain 15-20 pounds of muscle? Your actions will acquire only what your mind is willing to accept.

Maybe you want to be a sumo wrestler some day. I don't know. But I do know that we need to be careful what we tell ourselves we're going to do. The mind is a very powerful tool and if we don't gain control of our thoughts, the circumstances life presents to us will gain control of us.

 

[Dolf]

Way too much fruit and dairy brother, and definitely too many calories for a 160lb man.

Your macros should primarily come from these sources

Protein: chicken, turkey, beef, fish, & bison

Carbs: rice, oats, sweet potatoes, yams, and quinoa 

Fats: if needed to hit your total fats you can use olive oil, coconut oil, mct oil, and eat foods like avocado's. Omega 3 fats are what you primarily want.

Veggies: broccoli, asparagus, spinich, & brussel sprouts

Find your daily totals for protein, carbs, and fats. Divide each by 5 or 6 which is how many meals per day you'll eat. That will give you a target for each meal. For example if you target 1.5g protein per pound of body weight you'd need 240g of protein per day. Divided by 5 it comes to 48g of protein per meal for 5 meals. If you choose 6 meals it comes to 240g protein divided by 6 = 40g protein per meal. Do the same for carbs and fats. Off the top of my head 6oz of 99/1 turkey weighed raw, and then cooked = 42g protein or 5oz of boneless skinless cooked chicken breast comes to 40g of protein. Either amount of these would be acceptable for a single meal if you eat 6 meals per day.

 

[SemperFi]

</p><p>The harmful effects of fructose apply to a western diet supplying excess calories and added sugars. It does not apply to the natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables."</p><p>

</p><p>Rudy Mawer is only partially correct. I would like to bring attention to the over use of concentrated fruit juices and the negative effects of the high quantity of 'natural' sugars (fructose) that they contain.</p><p>Great work on breaking down your macros and discovering your TDEE Ricky but double check a few numbers. +2</p><p> </p><p>SEMPER FI</p>

 

[rickylawsonx1992]

Absolutely amazing how informative and helpful you guys are. Its greatly appreciated. Got to go to work soon so ill be touching up again tonight to adjust my diet accordingly.

Thanks again, brothers.

 

[blastthru23]

And to further expand on Dolf's advice, your carbs could be dialed in to 4 meals per day thus dividing your total carbs for the day by 4. Carbs should be included in meal 1, pre and post workout and a meal prior to your last meal of the day, which must contain no carbs save for the incidental fiber in your vegetable of choice.  If remember correctly, you train at 1200. So        meals 1, 2, 3, & 5 would have carbs, while meals 4 & 6 would not. Moreover, meals 1-3 would have no fat, while 4, 5, & 6 would. The reason for this is that fats slow the absorption of protein. Therefore, in your case, total fats would be divided by 3.

On another note, if you decide to use sweet potatoes for your carb source, they must be boiled not baked, nor sautéed. The reason for this is that when cooked in latter two ways, the sugars contained therein are altered thus increasing the fructose content, which we do not want. It also ostensibly changes the glycemic index, again something we don't want.