I'm worried I will be gaining too much fat with my current eating and am lacking variety and not eating all of the right things

In the past I ate poorly, and then dieted and lost about 32 pounds putting me at 182 and 6"1 a couple months ago. Now I am eating normally and strength training-I am lifting very hard sessions right now and am ravenously hungry on lifting days, but also using a progressive overload program this month and eating a lot more than in the past.

Now I'm beginning to think I need to question what I eat. I weigh 187.5 now but I was 183.5 3-4 weeks ago. I want to gain muscle but I think I'm gaining too fast the past couple weeks to just be muscle. My BF is 15-18%, I don't know. Goals are maximizing strength and eventually lowering BF% to under 10 but that isn't a priority.

supps are BCASs, beta alanine, HRX, glucosamine/chondritin

Here is my diet from a couple days ago, a pretty normal day.

10:30-11am

wakeup
30 minute walk dogs

2 scoop Metabolic Drive
1 tbspoon milled flax
4 oz blueberries
6 strawberries
3 cups milk
1 cup total cereal
4 Flameout

1pm
lifting 2-3 hours (usually 2-2.5)

2 serving Surge

4:00 pm

12 oz chicken breast w/tomato cooked in olive oil
2 cup rice/margarine or pasta w/olive oil
1 serving veggies

flexibility and abs

6:30pm

8 oz steak
1 serving veggies
1 sweet potato

9pm

4 eggs
2 oz smoked salmon
onions and tomato sauce

11pm

2 scoop Metabolic Drive
2 tbs peanut butter
4 Flameout

12:30-1am- sleep

this looks like:

105g fat 364g carbs 378g protein 3800 calories

On one of the shorter lifting session days, I eat around the same amount of fat, a little less protein and less carbs, probably 3200-3500 calories in total. For non lifting days I am eating 2800-3200 calories with much less carbs, under 200 I'd say.

I don't cheat but there are days where I will have extra fat, maybe have steak or beef w/pasta or something PWO meal instead of the carbs and protein. I also have a PB and J sandwich either before lifting or PWO many days.

Also some days everything gets pushed back a little and I end up eating a little more carbs in the morning and just having surge + 3 meals PWO. I also don't have chicken or a large fish serving every day.

Could these little things be problems? I feel I've gained a few pounds of fat lately and I'm just worried im deviating from a normal diet too much and getting caught up in eating to get bigger and stronger, before I was v dieting and eating very small, structured meals so this is a big change over a couple of months.

thanks


-Jeff

wow... I am not superman myself, but,

First off, why the *hell* are you training for 2-3 hours, plus an *additional* session for "flexibility and abs?"
Your training sessions are way, way too long. Are you doing compound exercises? Please post what you're doing for 2-3 hours. Most good programs are about an hour long, 3 times per week.

Also, I don't see where 364 grams of carbs are coming from - even with the double Surge - unless you are eating enormous servings of vegetables.

My feeling is that you need to shorten your lifting sessions and increase the intensity - especially for strength - your body will get stronger outside of the gym. And I bet that your double-Surge and too-long training are contributing to you fat gain. Too many carbs, too low intensity. Not enough focus and recovery.

I may be wrong. Why don't you post your training routine?

Double Surge is too much? I thought I needed more carbs for PWO drink. What should I have instead?

the abs/flex stuff is just like 20-30 minutes total some for support for deadlifting and squat, and the flexibility is just various stretching for ankle and shoulder flexibility for olympic lifting. I want to do a dragon fly some day and it isn't gonna come from nowhere =)

I take 3-5 minute breaks between sets... I'm doing a sheiko style routine but not sheiko. I'm kind of shooting in the dark to be honest, I'm just trying to build size and functional strength in weak areas while strengthening myself through abuse, lol. I have a month before I have a vacation so it works nicely. I am lifting 4 times a week. Luckily my job gives me much freedom right now to wreck myself!

here's what I did yesterday, a back focus day, this took about 2 hours

snatch deadlift

135x4
160x2x3
195x5x2

chin ups 4x6

incline db press 5x5 55's

dips+25 4x6

deadlift conv (clean grip)

195x4
225x2x4
260x2x3
295x4x2

olympic goodmorning 5x5

this was an easier day, often for double deadlift I do cleans or snatch grip high pulls but this day was lower in volume and intensity than normal so I got through it pretty easy

idk if that was neccesary but there you have it

ok, double Surge out, what for....

for the carbs mentioned the rice and sweet potato have a lot, I don't eat enough veggies, the amount is right- I used fitday

here is diet on a recent off day where I woke up at noon.. I sleep 11-12 hours on a day after a hard workout

4 eggs
2 oz salmon
onion and ketchup
2 pears
3 Flameout

2 wheat toast
2 tbs peanut butter
1 tbs jelly
2 scoop Metabolic Drive

light cardio or abs/flex work most days

12 oz steak
veggies and steak sauce
.5 cup mashed potatoes w/margarine and skim milk

12 oz chicken
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
veggies

celery
.5 protein pudding (1 serving= 3 Metabolic Drive chocolate, 2 tbs peanut butter, cinnamon, 1 cup cottage cheese)
3 Flameout

total came to:

108 fat 172 carbs 330 protein 3000 calories

I mostly work and lay around watching tv and eating on my recovery days, don't do any activity many days, so I want to keep the carbs lower and fat and protein around the same I think. I also end up spreading the fat out through the day instead of partitioning, maybe this is bad and I end up having a little more fat.

I really want to eat the "best" diet to fuel my lifting and maximize my progress.

-Jeff

check your margerine for 'hydrogenated'.
It is what i think you called 'Trans' fat state side, i know here in england margerine is terrible for it.

If that word appears on the ingredients, burn it.

I dont know enough about strength training to critique, 2-3 hours lifting does seem slightly excessive though.

Diet wise for strength, protein and fats are you best friends. Include carbs in your diet i say as a diet missing a macro is never perfect in my opinion.

At your bodyweight aim for 300g protein a day, 150 grams of fat and carbs somewhere in the 90-120 range. This will provide around 3200 calories a day.

Keep your carbs for first meal, this should be consumed as soon as you wake up btw.
Pre and post workout.
Try not to mix carbs and fat where possible.
No carbs within 3 hours of bedtime.
Comsume at least 30g of fish oil.

hope that helps, good luck

I agree that your workout may be a little long, but I haven't seen the whole thing performed so its hard to say. I would say that I don't know about waking up and walking the dogs for 30 min before you eat breakfast if strength is your main goal. According to what I've read/experienced, there isn't much (if any) real fat-loss advantage to cardio before breakfast, but there is a disadvantage to letting your body sit in a catabolic state for awhile after waking up. I'd say have that shake upon waking. Also a half hour or so after Surge I'd have a piece of chicken or fish to get a bit more protein available for your muscles after a workout. As far as food choices, it looks good man.

I don't really have a problem with the workout. Lifting lots of big weights until you want to throw up seems to be pretty universally accepted as the standard for a good workout on here, and I've made good progress lately so I'm not gonna try to fix it if it ain't broke.

re: nutrition, I've taken in what people said and read a few articles I found on here

some of the main points I've taken away are

- eat immediately in the morning
- if I wake up (as I do sometimes) eat a little protein mid night to break catabolic state, and take bcaas before sleep and at this point
- I need to be more vigilant partitioning carbs and fat, but especially post workout
- no more margarine. damn.
- post workout nutrition no one seems to have a good idea what they are talking about, lol, but some ideas ive had are:

(1) add dextrose and maltodextrin to one serving of Surge to get enough carbs and eat the normal PWO solid meal??
(2) Dave Barr article:

Post-Workout Time

0 minutes �?? Consume first serving of Surge in 1L of water

25 minutes �?? Sip simple carb containing beverage like grape juice or sugar water

80 minutes �?? Consume second serving of Surge

105 minutes �?? Consume protein and carbohydrate-rich solid meal

I have no idea if this is valid, but taking the 2 servings of Surge and spreading them out certainly sounds like a better idea than what I'm doing currently.

(3) another article http://www.T-Nation.com/...le.do?id=811783 by CT, he says to have a pwo recovery drink and the meal 1.5 hours or so afterwards, and also suggests adding another carbohydrate to meet carb requirements (he says rice) for the PWO drink. I think I might lean towards liking the idea of splitting the PWO drink up and having more because I am so hungry and depleted after my lifting sessions I basically want to eat nonstop for a couple hours, pausing only to catch my breath hah. Perhaps I should try having some sort of protein drink during the workout?

The guideline suggested in CT's article was, only veggies and "free" carbs after the PWO solid meal, which i adhere to currently, with a distribution for all other carbs of

25% breakfast
50% postworkout drink (very high is this right?)
25% PWO meal

combining those ideas, for a day with 400g of carbs, it might be like

pre workout/breakfast (100)
1 serving Surge (50)
rice/other carbs (100)
1 serving Surge (50)
PWO meal (100)

I've read a lot of the discussions on this forum and most don't go into great detail but I'm hoping more people with more knowledge and experienced than me care to give input. It's not like I'm going to log every bite of food I eat to make sure its the correct amount of carbs or w/e, but a general guideline to follow is good

Anyone who made it through these long posts, thanks

-Jeff

Your getting the gist of things mate. Personally, i don't see the need for expensive bcaa's before bed - go with enough no fat cottage cheese to value 40g protein - about 300g i think.

Protein during your workout, im not a fan of this, im not a fan of anything other than water to be honest, when your training, your blood is being forced into the muscle, putting things into the stomach that require digestion will inhibit this and visa versa - alot of people will disagree with me on this, but thats my belief.

<peace>

I've refined my diet since I posted this. I decided I prefer having more fat in the morning. It just seems to last longer and keep me going through my workouts.

Here's yday:

meal 1:

4 eggs with ketchup and 1.5oz 50% cheese
1/2 cup oatmeal w/1 scoop Metabolic Drive chocolate
4 oz blueberries
2 Flameout

meal 2:

2 scoops Metabolic Drive banana
1 banana,
2 tbs peanut butter

meal 3:
1.5 serving Surge, 1/2 pre and 1/2 postworkout

meal 4:
chicken with whole grain pasta, sweet potato and veggies

meal 5:
beef w/peanut oil, rice, veggies

meal 6: salad with avocado, tomato, lettuce, vinagrette, sardines

meal 7:
1 scoops Metabolic Drive w/Superfood and cottage cheese

meal 8 (middle of night): 1 scoop Metabolic Drive
1am-10am sleep

meal x: veggie and fruit smoothie, carrots mixed with celery, greens, apples- more fruit if earlier in day, more veggies if later. I try to have this every day.

estimate using fitday:

3900 calories 115g fat 405g carbs 360g protein

That's a lot of high quality fuel to build that nasty strong physique I'm shooting for! and its really fun to eat

I'm not sure if this is above my maintenance with the current workload but I basically just eat the meals v. frequently when I'm hungry, and as much as I am hungry for, so I probably fluctuate a few hundred calories, I'm guessing its usually lower than this but I don't really keep track of exact amounts of food anymore just a rough estimate trying to take in a lot of clean fuel

any suggestions are welcome! especially for the peri+post workout nutrition where I am very unsure

-Jeff