Opinions please, on my program..

[Riptide]

**Warning, long DETAILED post follows**

I used to weigh 220 lbs and unfortunately it was not muscle.
I started on a 1400 calorie/day diet spread out over six meals. I drank a lot of slim fast shakes, lifted for about an hour and a half each evening, and did 30 mins. of cardio each day. Over 5 months I lost 70 lbs and got down to around 7% body fat.

I have increased my caloric intake to around 2100/day spread over 6 meals. I hit one muscle group each day, 5-6 exercises, 4-5 sets of 10 repetitions. I've been doing that for months now and it doesn't seem to be doing much. I'm still pretty lean but am not gaining much muscle. I kept to about 1 minute between each set and rarely took a day off from working out.

A friend of mine gave me a new program and a set of rules to follow. They are:
1) Drink 1/g or more of water each day
2) Eat 1.5g protein per lb. of body weight each day
3) Do 3-4 exercises per muscle group
4) 5-8 sets w/no more than 6 repetitions
5) 3 minutes between each set
6) Go heavier than I had been (now I'm getting sore! )
7) Increase my calories to around 3000-3200/day
8) Take at least one day off
9) Continue to do cardio, at least once every other day is fine

What do you all think of this? Is it likely to help me bulk up better than what I had been doing? He mentioned it would be OK to gain a little body fat, just to watch it and keep it under control.

A couple things I have noticed already, and I've been doing this for a few days now: workouts take a little longer, w/more time between each set. I am sore more than I had been the next day. The calories scares me a bit since it's right around 500-550 per meal which seems a bit much. But I'm willing to try it as I know how to lose the fat if I need to.

Opinions from you experts out there?

 

[Jodi]

What does your diet look like?

 

[Riptide]

OK, here's my diet:

1) Breakfast is kashi good friends cereal (high in protein, fiber)
w/skim milk. About 500-550 calories at most.
2) Morning snack is a slim fast shake w/EAS carb control bar
440 calories, sometimes add in some jerkey for another 80 cal
3) Lunch is a turkey sandwich w/an apple and some beef jerky
around 500 calories
4) Afternoon snack #1 is another EAS carb control bar w/a slim
fast shake, 440 calories
5) Afternoon snack #2 is another slim fast shake w/some jerky
around 350 calories
6) Supper is a real meal - sometimes a steak, chicken, or even a
bean casserole. I keep this to around 500 calories here
7) Right before bed, I consume about 50-60g of whey protein for
another 300 calories

It's apparent to me that my calories are still not quite as high as my friend suggested, but this is a work in progress.

Feel free to suggest anything, I'm pretty new at this and it's been hard for me to just get a set program going where I stick to a certain amount of calories/protein intake. Habit, habit, habit!

I go at least 2 hours between each meal, sometimes 3.

 

[Jodi]

Your not gonna gain anything on that diet. You have no carbs, no real protein, no veggies, no efa's. You barely eat real food.

I think you should start Here and read some of these threads about nutrition, bulking, carbs, efas etc. When your ready try creating a new meal plan for yourself one with real food and post it and we can give you a hand from there. Reading and learning for yourself is important.

Slim Fast, bars, jerkey etc. thats all crap food

 

[Riptide]

OK, I've been reading through some of the links there and it's painfully apparent that I've been eating WAY to much prepackaged, processed, crap. It's also apparent that the EAS bars have been the cause of my tummy rumblings and (ahem) flatulence that I've experienced for some time now. Great link!

I'm going to do some more planning and continue reading but I can see already that getting rid of the slim fast/EAS bars will not only save me $$$ but will also be a great step forward towards health.

Replacing two of my meals at least with chicken breasts, vegetables, turkey/chicken sandwiches, and other real food is what I need to do. I am going to do some more reading over the weekend and try to get a plan in place and will post it here next week.

For the next several days I will continue with (mainly out of convenience) what I have been doing but it is obvious that needs to change. And it will.

 

[Riptide]

Anyone care to comment on whether that exercise program I posted about in the original post makes sense? That is assuming ofcourse that the diet gets where it needs to be... Thanks!

 

[ZECH]

It's amazing what a little reading can do for ya! Workout looks good. Need 4-6 quarts of water a day. And you may only need to do cardio once or twice a week if you want to bulk. Any more you will be burning muscle.

 

[Jodi]

Originally posted by Riptide
Anyone care to comment on whether that exercise program I posted about in the original post makes sense? That is assuming ofcourse that the diet gets where it needs to be... Thanks!

Sounds fine if it works for you. We each have our own level of what we need to build muscle. Some can do only 6-9 sets and pack it on others need high volume. We are all different. If you notice a bodypart lacking then pick up the volume.