[BeaBaby]

Total newbie - starting training tomorrow and this is the eating plan I've built - is this a good clean bulk? My BMR is 2200 if I am exercising 3-5 times a week, and I plan to train, very little cardio, 5-6 days per week. I've lost 60 pounds through cardio alone and my goal is to build mass to get rid of stubborn flab.


Meal 1 - Porridge with semi skimmed milk
Meal 2 - low fat yogurt, 1 banana, 1 glass of skimmed milk
Training
Meal 3 - 2 eggs (poached) on 2 slices of whole wheat toast
Meal 4 - 100g cottage cheese with 30g of sunflower seeds, 1 glass of skimmed milk
Meal 5 - 2 x chicken breasts, 1 portion of broccoli, 1 portion of cauliflower, 1 portion of spinach

Protein is at 129g
Carbs at 160g
Fats at 52g.
Calories are around 1650.

So, if I go by my BMR, I need to find another 600 calories from somewhere? I think my protein needs to be at 140g as I weigh 140 pounds. I don't think I should be over 150 on the carbs so as not to turn into fat. But do I need more fats???

Should I just plonk a few more chicken breasts in there somewhere? I don't eat red meats and am allergic to nuts.

[Depalma]

Easy way to get more protein into your diet would be to add a couple of scoops of protein powder to one of those glasses of skim milk. I usually try to eat whole foods rather than protein powder but when increasing calories, I like protein powder because it increases calories without increasing food volume much. When increasing calories, I don't want to get used to an increased food volume because it makes it much harder psychologically (at least to me) when I need to decrease volume to decrease calories.

I would also try to eat more in the post-workout meal. Perhaps swap meals 2 and 3 and add some protein powder to either the yogurt or the skim milk, or make the entire meal one big chocolate-banana-yogurt smoothie. Fast digesting proteins like protein powder are often suggested post-workout.

Another easy way to add some more fat to your diet would be to go to whole milk while on your bulk. Yes, much of this is saturated fat, but it looks like you have cut out almost all saturated fat in your diet and too little is not good as well. Going to whole milk also provides an easy transition when it's time to reduce calories again. Just transition back to skim milk and you can go back into a deficit without any loss of food volume.

[BeaBaby]

Thanks Deplama - you're so helpful! What kind of protein powder do you suggest??

[Depalma]

personal tastes vary so much here. You might want to search out smaller sample size packages or go online to some of the manufactuer sites such as At Large Nutrtion and ask if they will send you a small sample. So you can try different ones without committing to big jugs of protein that you might not like.

Myself, I like Nitrean, Metabolic drive, or EvoPro for pure protein and Metablic drive complete or Opticen for a meal replacement. Again, my tastes might be totally different than yours.

There are also sites such as Protein factory and true protein that let you customize your protein powder. However, I haven't found this added benefit to be worth the cost to me personally. Others feel otherwise, though, so throwing it out there as an option.