Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You've left out snacks. Most bodybuilders who are looking to pack on muscle snack between meals as well, often times with high protein foods such as nuts, protein shakes and such. You can add protein to almost any meal if you put in the effort. Add a glass of whole milk instead of orange juice for breakfast, put peanut butter on your bagel instead of butter........any number of ways to add in protein to your diet.
Three meals a day isn't going to help pack on muscle if that is, indeed, your goal.
Do I need to completely cut out McDonald's from my life?
The funny thing is that even those high protein foods pictured there, the amount of protein still very low. Funny how many food today can have hundreds and hundreds of calories on a small serving but only have a measly 10g of protein.
Even if I were to snack something with 10-20g of protein, I still need to do better than that if I need to pack on 150g per day. Like I said, this is A LOT harder than you guys think.
And the problem is, I get full easily. Cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, chicken and rice for dinner and small snack in the evening is enough to make me STUFFED for the day. And I'm lucky if all that equals 100g. Where the heck am I going to get the extra 50-60g, let alone have the appetite for it??
The funny thing is that even those high protein foods pictured there, the amount of protein still very low. Funny how many food today can have hundreds and hundreds of calories on a small serving but only have a measly 10g of protein.
Even if I were to snack something with 10-20g of protein, I still need to do better than that if I need to pack on 150g per day. Like I said, this is A LOT harder than you guys think.
And the problem is, I get full easily. Cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, chicken and rice for dinner and small snack in the evening is enough to make me STUFFED for the day. And I'm lucky if all that equals 100g. Where the heck am I going to get the extra 50-60g, let alone have the appetite for it??
Stop focusing on the amounts, then. You're not a bodybuilder--you can increase the amount of protein in your diet without giving yourself an eating disorder obsessing about every gram of food.
I've always struggled to get fit and gain muscle even though I work out and I think the big problem is, I don't get enough protein. I read you need at least 1 gram of protein per pound on a daily basis. How is that possible? Many foods don't really have enough protein. Even high protein foods like peanuts and eggs only have 6-8g of proteins per serving.
Since I weigh 150 lbs, that means I need 150g of protein on a daily basis. So I need 50g of protein for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner?? How is that possible? Most food don't have that high amounts of protein. I'm lucky if you can get 20-25g in a meal.
First, tell us about yourself and your training program and current diet. I was able go through your previous posts and learn that you're a male, which is another piece of information that would have been useful for us. How old are you?
Are you setting you protein intake by total weight or by lean body mass? As other posters have touched on, you want to set it by lean body mass. If you're setting it by total weight you are needlessly increasing your requirements past the level which would be useful. Also, as other posters have mentioned, protein supplements are an excellent way to increase protein intake. A good quality protein shake typically gives 20-30 grams of protein in a 6-8 oz serving.
There are many possible reasons that you might be struggling. Insufficient protein could be part of it, though I think it's more likely that your training program or (and more likely) that you're not getting enough calories either.
Stop focusing on the amounts, then. You're not a bodybuilder--you can increase the amount of protein in your diet without giving yourself an eating disorder obsessing about every gram of food.
Yeah, I'm not looking to get shredded or become a body builder. Just enough muscle to be visible enough to impress the ladies.
Sure you need protein, if your focus is on gaining muscle, you need to consume more calories than you burn off to sustain an anabolic state, especially in the 24 hours after a weightlifting workout.
When you have more calories than you burn, your body will store the energy. After weightlifting, your body is going to store relatively more of that energy via muscle protein synthesis than bodyfat storage. But it will still store some as body fat.
Vs any regular old day without lifting, if you overeat, most of it will be stored as bodyfat.
Contrast that to when you want to lose weight, you want to be in a catabolic state e.g. burning more calories than you consume. You want the majority of that weight loss to come from fat and not lean tissue. So you want to have high protein consumption on the days you are dieting to help promote fat loss over lean body mass loss. And protein is satiating, so helps with hunger control.
Moral of the story, high protein is most important on days you are dieting.
Eat a lot on the few days a week you are lifting, eat less on the other days.
Yeah, I'm not looking to get shredded or become a body builder. Just enough muscle to be visible enough to impress the ladies.
In that case, use some on line calculators to determine the # of calories you need for maintenance and your macros. Average those out, then tweak them as you progress, and depending on your level and type of activity and exercise routine.
You need to build muscle and then use your diet (calories and macros) to get the muscles to show.
It's a slow learning and building process, we are all unique. Getting 1gram/lb won't make you Ronnie COleman so have fun, don't obsess.
But even so, assuming I have meat or fish for dinner, I'll assume that's about 50g of protein for dinner... and I'll be surprised if I even get that much. So where do I get the other 100g?? A bowl of cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch is probably going to be 40g combined. So I'm still running a 60g deficit. I can eat a 20g protein bar and 2 servings of peanuts to snack during the day, but that still puts me at a 20-30g deficit.
This is a lot harder than you think. No wonder why the gym wasn't giving me results.
You don't actually need a gram per pound of body weight.
Do I need to completely cut out McDonald's from my life?
Oddly placed question but no. Having one day per week to "cheat" and eat whatever you want is fine.
I think you need to consider looking at protein shakes. Two scoops of protein mixed with water/juice can be upwards of 50-60g of protein right there. That is one, single shake. Have turkey for lunch with milk, eat some almonds for a snack, have chicken breasts or beef for dinner and then an evening snack with someone else containing protein. Unless you're 250lbs that should be more than enough and isn't terribly hard to do.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
