Construct A meal Plan For Me

[john voight]

My Habit (Intro)
Skip to the section below, If you want to read what I ask of you, this is just background.

I am 6 feet, and fluctuate between 152lbs and 158lbs. I want to gain weight, (preferably in the form of muscle). I will not work out every day due to an injury. I will attempt to work out the parts of my body that I can. (ripped ligaments in my shoulder, and I think ill let it heal another month before I resume.

I'm a very light lifter; I am not some hardcore savage. I lifted for 3 moths on machines, half assing, and I was extreamly amazed @ my results. Too bad I blew my shoulder.

Anyway, my diet sucks ass. I eat healthy, but often times, the food isn't optimal for weight gain, or often times I simply don't eat enough.

I wake up normally around 12pm, and eat breakfast at around 1pm. Usually this is cereal + yogurt.

Then I may eat a sandwich @ around 4 or 5 pm.

I will then eat a dinner my parents have cooked @ around 7pm. The dinner is very nice: usually a lot of food, and it covers many parts of the pyramid. Very balanced.

I will then usually eat a bowl of oatmeal before I go to sleep. 2 or 3 am

Sometimes, If I did not eat a sandwich during the day, I will eat a second serving of the dinner @ about 12 or 1 am.

That is the jist of my eating habit when I don't go to school. When I do - it is much worse. During summer, I will not be in school, and all my effort will be on developing my body and mind, so I will have plenty of time to eat.

__________________________________________________ __

What I Want From You:

Develop A good meal plan for 1 or 2 days. (2 days so I can alternate).

I am guessing there should be more than 3 meals.

Examples would be:

Meal 1:
Lucky Charms Cereal with half and half milk
Bacon (cooked in butter)
Sprite

Meal 2:
Polish Sausage
Tuna sandwich on whole wheat bread
Chips

Meal 3:
Safeway Brand Yogurt
etc...

Meal 4:
oiuyasd
asodyutusyt
asd asd

As you can see this format is clear in the food that should be consumed. Brand names would be awesome to add as well. Obviously the food I listed in the example is garbage, I just did it for demonstration purposes.

Anyway, even if you can share one meal (such as a good breakfast meal), not 3 or 4 I would appreciate. Hope I didn't ask for too much. Thanks.

[mr_whomp]

at 152-158 pounds and your height you could use another 50 pounds of bodyweight.

The easiest way to get in a lot of calories would be to take them as liquid since it isnt as filling. I think you should consider just continuing to eat as you currently do but drink 1L of milk with each meal and maybe add 6 eggs to your breakfast. Should help you put on some weight.

[chesspain]

[ QUOTE ]
at 152-158 pounds and your height you could use another 50 pounds of bodyweight.

The easiest way to get in a lot of calories would be to take them as liquid since it isnt as filling. I think you should consider just continuing to eat as you currently do but drink 1L of milk with each meal and maybe add 6 eggs to your breakfast. Should help you put on some weight.

[/ QUOTE ]

This can't possibly be good advice. The OP is naturally thin, and he stated plainly that he is not going to be a dedicated weightlifter. Yet, you believe that at 6' tall he should weigh between 200-210 lbs? And your advice for how he should put on weight is to add 3L of milk per day + half dozen eggs. I can pretty much guarantee that the OP will be fat if he manages to eat his way up to 200+ lbs without doing consistent, heavy lifting.

To the OP: Just go to www.menshealth.com (http://www.menshealth.com) for a good first step to where you want to go.

[mr_whomp]

Chesspain:

1) Getting workout/fitness advice from a magazine is a bad idea.

2) Assuming the OP is eating at maintenance then adding 3L milk and 6 eggs a day will give him an extra 1500 calories a day which works out to ~3 pounds of weight gain/week. It might be a bit much, but since he is 150 pounds and 6 foot I'm assuming he's super ectomorph so really needs to up his cals if he's going to put on weight.

[Rearden]

3L of Milk a day..... hello lactose digestion issues. Come on did you pull that figure out of nowhere... should he have a cow move into his yard for the summer?

To the OP:

If you havent already (and I assume you have) get your shoulder checked out and be cautious with it. Shoulder injuries can be a bitch and the last thing anyone needs is a recurring issue with an important joint.

Your machine work strategy very possibly set you up for this injury. Doing machine work may be easy... and its very tempting to load a machine with like 500lbs the first day out and feel awesome that you can do so much and look so 1337.... but none of that matters. Lifting is about proper form period. Weight does not matter unless your form is solid. We're talking all the way up all the way down no swinging your body to cheat, etc. I will tell you right now that if you focus on maintaining solid form you will be head and shoulders above 90+% of your fellow gym goers. A properly executed curl with 50lbs easily beats an 80lb cheat done with 1/2 the range of motion and massive body movement to help. Proper form prevents injuries and truly works your muscles. Think of your body as a machine composed of levers and pulleys and work accordingly as strictly as you can.

In your first three months of lifting you said you were happy with your results. Thats great and I hope that spurs you to continue with it. But... if you decide to half ass this (lifting) and stick with light movements done on machines... you WILL stagnate and most certainly never get as strong or big as you could. This is your call and no one here will be there to force you to deadlift or squat with free weights instead of load up a poorly designed chest press machine with a weight you could never handle in real life (because machine lifting is decidedly seperate from real life)... Im just trying to point you in the right direction here. You state something about not having been that hardcore... ok... then get ready for "softcore" results. The goal in lifting is to force your body to adapt by creating challenges... if you dont challenge yourself you will not progress plain and simple. You sound somewhat on the fence as to your level of commitment. I strongly suggest you check into all of this and examine the resources on this forum, in books, at other websites (t-nation.com go go go) and then adjust accordingly.

As for your diet... at your height and weight I would suggest that your diet is insufficient for gaining muscle mass. Without meal specifics I cant tell what your protein intake is but upping it cant hurt... heck upping carbs and such as well likely wont hurt you. You can add more protein by adding eggs, meat, and yes some dairy (stick with low fat milk... as a hardgainer the little fat wont kill you... and dont drink 3L.. that sounds like some day long milk drinking challenge)

Breakfast:

A couple slices of canadian bacon cooked then diced and scrambled into a couple eggs (go maybe 2-1 ratio on egg whites-whole eggs) for veggies I mix in diced mushrooms, onions, green and red peppers and tomatoes, add a side of oatmeal or a wheat bagel with hummus and youre good to go.

Cereal and Yogurt would be a pretty good snack (assuming we arent talking like coco puffs here) and youll need to eat often to get in all the extra calories you'll need to gain mass.

[qdmcg]

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...e=0#Post9859667 (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=9859667&an=0&page=0#Post 9859667)

This is a meal plan for someone who is trying to lose weight. In all honesty, it will work for you if you add food in at every meal, ie. add 200-300 calories at each meal and it becomes a mass gain diet. Try to work in these types of foods, but hit around 3000-3500 calories depending on whether or not you do cardio.

Another really good way to get those calories is through protein shakes, imo.

120 calories whey protein
90 calories skim milk (1 cup, or whole milk in your case)
then add 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter (210 calories)
80ish calories of bananas\assorted fruit.

Mix this stuff up in a blender. It tastes pretty good and will give you an extra 500 calories.

Given your natural bodytype, gaining weight will not be easy. Eating will become a chore. Make sure you are on a good lifting routine, and eating a [censored] of food. You will slowly gain weight.

[cbloom]

OP, you won't gain significant muscle mass unless you lift hard. If you don't want to lift, then just be skinny. If you lift hard, then yes, go nuts eating protein & everything else you can.

[john voight]

Thanks guys.

I know that to gain muscle, it will take serious work and dedication, this is something I need to work on - I suffered the shoulder injury, and that really broke up my rythem.

Hopefully when I begin lifting, I will lift smarter, and harder, and not focus on numbers as much as I did. Instead I will focus on work. This is a lesson I have learned after blowing out my shoulder lifting. I will not try to over do the upper body though - re injuring my shoulder would be a pain in the but.

Side Questions:

Is it okey to substitute the bacon with a healthier meat? Like can I buy some low fat/low cholesterol sausages instead?

Also, I would like to keep egg yolks down. Possibly 1 a day max (however egg whites are okey, I can eat as many as I want). Heart attack is what I am trying to avoid since all my relatives have them.

I guess I will drink more milk.
Would protein bars/shakes be good to add in (like when driving in car, or going out to movies, etc..)?

Also, is a large intake of water important? Or should I be drinking like 90% milk, and 10% water?

[einbert]

yes. yes.

yes.

yes.

[ QUOTE ]
1-2 gallons of water a day

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't drink more than a few glasses of milk each day (do drink a few glasses of milk each day!). Eggs are gooooood.

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
Hopefully when I begin lifting, I will lift smarter, and harder, and not focus on numbers as much as I did. Instead I will focus on work.

[/ QUOTE ]

What does this mean? If you can't lift more, you aren't any stronger.