I am very thin (as pointed out already) and feel somewhat weak lately when I've been playing. I know that the weight will throw me off somewhat but I think in the long run it would make me a little better player to have more strength behind me.
If you feel too weak and thin then you should definately add some quality mass!
How much does the quality of calories matter for actually putting on the weight?
Well, quality is very important. If you think of it in terms of fuel into a car it is the same principle - The better the fuel quality you use, the more efficiently it will run.
You get remarkably different hormonal/growth responses if you were to eat 300 cals from a manufactured food than if you were to eat 300 cals worth of a home-made meal of some quality low GI/high fibre carbs, some lean protein and a little healthy fats.
The other benifit of eating healthy is that you also get many more micronutrients than with processed foods. Vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants etc are all vital for health AND muscle growth and these are provided in a much more concentrated form in natural wholesome food sources.
My carbs are also a little higher % just because of the fact that I'm burning so much energy and on low CHO high protein I just feel sluggish and tired. Do you think changing my diet (but keeping cals the same) would help me add mass or is it just a matter of adding calories in general?
I would think that it is a matter of adding calories. This is especially true if your diet is already pretty good and the fact that you are pretty lean. If you had a higher BF% or your diet was well below par then you may have got away with altering your body composition by adjusting food sources....
Also, simply eating more protein is not going to make you 'sprout' muscles, you need the calorie intake to put your body into 'energy excess' so it has excess fuel to go towards building tissues.
To go back to the car analogy again, yes, you do also need WATER (protein) and OIL (fats) the car for it to run efficiently but it is the fuel that is most important if you want to go somewhere.
You obviously need the carbs (fuel) for energy and if you do more moving than the average person you are going to need more carbs than the average person. So for that reason (and for the fact that you FELL sluggish and tired with less carbohydrates) I suggest you should stick with a slightly higher carb content.
Don't get me wrong, protein is very important in providing you with the animo acids for muscle growth - but just eating protein is not the best way to gain mass!! Just make sure you are getting a minimum of 1g/pound body weight (1.2g is probably a good figure) and you will have plenty for your anabolic purposes.
Healthy fats are also essential for overall health, anabolism and nutrient partitioning (helping your body utilise the energy you give if for muscle growth) - so make sure you are getting enough of these as well. I usually use a cut of for fats of 0.3g/pound (so for you that would be a minimum of 35g) with as much of this as possible coming from poly-unsaturated fats (esp omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, walnuts and linseeds/flax).
Don't get me wrong, I eat very well with lots of veggies, tuna, egg whites, oatmeal and chicken spread out 6 times a day but I do also eat some foods it seems people on here totally ban from their diet (granola bars, whole wheat bread, yogurt, apples and oranges).
Ok... First, there is absolutely nothing wrong with eating apples and oranges. Some people take fruits out for fear of 'sugar' but it is really not a problem, esp if you are young, active and trying to grow muscles (It always amuses me when people talk about 'fruit is bad... stay away from sugars' but then they go and add 'dextrose' to their diets
).
Also, if you are doing a lot of cardio fruit is essential in maintaining your blood sugar levels. See, when you are doing long bouts, your muscles tend to use up their own energy sources and also suck up the glucose running around in your blood. So this leaves less for your vital organs. It is your liver that is responsible for releasing more glucose into the blood to supply your brain and organs with glucose...). Fruit is good in that it helps to keep some energy in your liver for this purpose.
Also, I don't think yoghurt (as long as it is fat free & sugar free) is all that bad either.
I do have a problem with granola bars, simply because there is often a lot of highly processed sugary ingredients in them. So I would try to limit these - however, with that said, there are a LOT worse things you can eat... So, are they ideal - no, but you can do a lot worse.
I would probably suggest making your own energy bars with oats, dried fruit, honey, protein powder, nuts etc.... They would be just as easy to snack on and would be a lot healthier for you.
Wheat bread I also have a problem with. In my opinion it is not much better than plain old white bread but for some reason people have latched onto it as a 'good bread'. If you want bread then I would try to get something that is less processed - breads such as sprouted bread and pumpernickel bread (which should have 'grain, water, +/- salt' as the only ingredients) are great choices... Others such as wholegrain sourdough breads, seeded wholegrains and even dense rye breads are better choices than whole wheat as well...
