Daily Nutrition Breakdown
I am attempting to standardize my diet plan for the upcoming school year. This will help me save time later on. I will be a bit more creative on Friday-Sunday when I do not have class. If I have time I'll experiment more. I have a 400-500 calorie buffer on every day to get around 3,000 calories. This will allow me to be fairly flexible with whatever I want to eat. If you want to play around with my template, feel free to download the excel link.
Back to School Diet Nutrition Template Excel - UPDATED by JackedRabbit
Here are some PDF print outs for my personal reference that I will put up around my apartment.
Monday and Wednesday Nutrition Template
Tuesday and Thursday Nutrition Template
If you are too lazy to download those links, here are the images. CLICK TO ENLARGE.
MONDAY/WEDNESDAY
TUESDAY/THURSDAY
Mackerel Pike: A little bit of Heaven AND Hell!
This post is an exploration of a previous post I made yesterday: http://yanyanxu.com/2009/08/08/mackerel-pike-heaven-or-hell/
I was at H-Mart, an Asian grocery store, and I found this beauty.
I have no idea what Mackerel Pike is at all. Is it Mackerel? Is it Pike? Is it a crazy hybrid I don’t know about? Or am I just dumb and Mackerel and Pike are the same thing? Either way each can was ONLY $1.29. It gets BETTER. Look at the nutritional profile.
15 grams of good fats and 69 grams of protein! WOAH. This thing is ROCKING. I always buy the canned tuna which is about 20 grams of protein and it costs me around 70 cents at the cheapest. This Mackerel Pike thing can really be a life savor in college when I run out of food or need a quick protein fix. Will it taste good? Who knows, but if it is, I’m going back and buying the whole damn case of cans.
The can is pretty awesomely huge!
No idea what the Korean says, but I think it is letting me know how to correctly open the can.
What better way to celebrate then busting open one of these cans of mystery! So here is a little picture journey on what I encountered today.
Upon opening the can, a bit of the liquid got onto my hand, and it is VERY oily/greasy. What surprised me was that it looks like there were "fish steaks" in the can. At first I thought it was going to be little "salmon steak" looking things but I was completely wrong after I poured out the water.
Yes! It is actually a complete fish with the head and tail cut off. Thankfully, it is completely gutted. HARDCORE! It has the skin, bones, and some even have fins!
If you look at the bottom of the picture, you can see a piece of the fin. That is probably the only part that grossed me out visually. Also I'm not too big of a fan of fish skin.
So how does it taste? Surprisingly AMAZING. I can safely say it is probably the best tasting canned fish I have ever had, if you can get past the visual horror of whole fish popping out of a can. The fish is very oily and light. It has LITTLE to NO fishy smell which makes it very easy to get down. It is definitely a large amount of fish to eat on its own. Personally I feel it would taste great with some rice or some bread. I took it with some Kim-Chi which really complemented the flavor.
What I really enjoyed about this fish is that it wasn't overpowering. The bones and skin are barely noticeable and break easily in the mouth. The fish itself is very soft and really "melts" in your mouth. Overall this was a good buy and I can't wait to go back to get some more so I can gross people out at the University 
. It beats canned tuna for sure.
Final Verdict?
Visually... this is HELL.
Taste Wise... this is HEAVEN. (or as close to it in can form you can get)
Mackerel Pike: Heaven or Hell?
I was at H-Mart, an Asian grocery store, and I found this beauty.
I have no idea what Mackerel Pike is at all. Is it Mackerel? Is it Pike? Is it a crazy hybrid I don't know about? Or am I just dumb and Mackerel and Pike are the same thing? Either way each can was ONLY $1.29. It gets BETTER. Look at the nutritional profile.
15 grams of good fats and 69 grams of protein! WOAH. This thing is ROCKING. I always buy the canned tuna which is about 20 grams of protein and it costs me around 70 cents at the cheapest. This Mackerel Pike thing can really be a life savor in college when I run out of food or need a quick protein fix. Will it taste good? Who knows, but if it is, I'm going back and buying the whole damn case of cans.
The can is pretty awesomely huge!
No idea what the Korean says, but I think it is letting me know how to correctly open the can.
Shoutout to Zachary Savoie (Cyde)
First I would like to congratulate Cyde on winning Bodybuilding.com's Male Transformation of the Week!
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/male-transformation-zachary-savoie.htm
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Before: 230 lbs |
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After: 180 l |
Cyde decided to send me something randomly out of the blue. If you remember last time, he sent me two jars of banana bread... Great tasting and very cleverly packaged.
http://yanyanxu.com/2009/03/23/day-447/
This time again, he kindly sent me even more stuff! I got home yesterday and noticed a package, opened it up and I couldn't be happier.
I saw pictures of the P.B. Loco's Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough on bodybuilding.com and attempted to look for some with that flavor but failed to find it in my local stores. I did find the banana one, but I'm a bit hesitant on having banana flavored peanut butter. It is like Cyde read my mind and sent me the exact thing I've been looking for. I'm a HUGE fan of cookie dough and peanut butter and I have high hopes for this combo.
He also sent me some Rehab-P3 that I will definitely try out when I get back to the University for the pre-class parties .
Ultimately, this note is where I will be going in a few weeks. It is the goal for the next school year... Get bigger, get stronger, and embrace the iron.
Interesting Read on Dieting
Based on the below article and my personal beliefs and experiences with dieting, here is what I plan on doing during my cut.
- 2,300-2,500 Calories (Top Priority)
- 1 Gram of Protein per Pound of Body Weight MINIMUM (Top Priority) - For me this is about 150 grams of protein needed per day, I aim for about 200 grams.
- 50 Grams of Fat (Medium Priority) - I've had lots of success with a fairly low fat diet. I usually get around 60-70 grams a day depending on the type of food I eat. But keeping it around 50 is my ideal.
- Everything Else in Carbs... usually about 250 to 300 grams - Does not matter what source, whether it is whole grain or fried breading... as long as I make sure the calories are below my BMR.
- One to Two Cheat Meals per Week - To keep me psychologically sane and spike calories in my body to reboot my metabolism.
This diet works well for me because it is very easy to keep and does not make me go crazy in trying to keep everything 100% healthy. As long as I am aware of what my body is going through, this diet works for me.
Here is an unconventional diet that TimberWolf (Kane) seems to believe in. I bolded some of the interesting parts of the article and formatted it for easier reading. Source is from his MySpace.
Unless you just have really good genetics or take steroids the only real way to accomplish what you want is to take a 2 steps forward one step back approach. Building a significant amount of muscle without adding some fat is about impossible for most people.
Contrary to popular belief, providing your basic protein requirements are met and you're training, the "composition", "timing", and "frequency" of your diet are not as important as many think and are not as important as your total caloric intake. Let's run through a few myths right quick.
- Eating once a day is worse then eating 6 times a day but there's little if any difference between eating 3 times a day and 6 times a day.
- Whole food meals restore muscle glycogen just as well as postworkout carb drinks. If you have days between intense workouts for a certain bodypart it's not like your body needs to be in a hurry up mode to restore a couple of hundred calories worth of glycogen (energy) you burn up in a workout.
- The only major benefit of food combining is appetite control. How you combine your meals is of little relevance at the end of the day.
- Protein is protein. The majority of differences in quality (and price) can be made up for by quantity. Give me the guy getting his protein from steak and eggs everyday compared to the guy spending $1500 per month on fancy micro-ozone-filtered powders and I'll take the first guy every time.
- Carbs and fats are both sources of energy. Excess energy above and beyond your daily energy needs from either source leads to fat gain. Lack of energy from either source below your daily energy needs leads to fat loss. Whether you eat more calories from fat or more calories from carbohydrate, or less energy from fat or less energy from carbohydrate, energy is energy.
- The most important factor as to whether you gain or lose weight is your daily caloric intake.
- The amount of fat you gain on a bulking diet is primarily determined by your total caloric intake and your genetics.
- The amount of muscle you lose on a fat loss diet is primarily determined by the extent of your caloric deficit and your genetics.
- The body does not suddenly go "catabolic" when no protein is consumed over a few hour time span.
How Important is the Complicated Stuff?
For the most part, whatever complicated nutrition scheme you're on is not all that relevant as to what your body does with excess calories in regard to muscle gain as long as you're eating enough protein. Activity itself along with the total calories that you eat and the endocrine signals your body sends (genetics) are much more important. In order of importance the major factors would be:
- Endocrine signaling (genetics, hormones, etc.)
- Dietary totals
- Activity
- Dietary composition
- Meal timing
A Scenario
If we take 2 twins and they both train the same and eat 150 grams of protein and 3000 calories per day but one eats 6 meals per day and 500 grams of carbs consisting of potatoes and brown rice etc., while the other eats 3 meals per day and 500 grams of carbs consisting of cereal and bread, most would be very surprised of how little difference there would be as far as the amount of muscle and fat they gained.
The main difference between a diet consisting of whole foods and a diet consisting of processed crap is, it's a lot easier to consume more calories on the processed diet and, since excess calories are what make people fat, it's a lot easier to consume more calories and get fat on a junk food diet. Additionally, many people eating the processed diet are not getting the right amount of protien.
Minimums
What are the minimums? Well, there is no minimum level of carbohydrate, - Carbs are just energy. If you wanted to get nitpicky you could say that 100 grams of carbohydrate would be required per day to maintain enough blood glucose to think straight, but that's not necessarily essential.
For protein the minimum generally runs anywhere from 1 gram per lb of bodyweight to 1.5 grams per lb of bodyweight, depending on the total caloric intake and activity. The less calories consumed and the greater the activity, the more protien you need.
For fat intake, fat is also just an energy source, the only fats required are essential fatty acids. You can get those by eating cold-water fish, or supplementing with 6-10 grams of fish oil per day. More essential fatty acids aren't going to do anything anabolically to magically transform your body.
Setting up a Diet Based On Minimums
Say I weigh 200 lbs and I want to set up a diet. Based on the minimums I'd be consuming:
- 200 grams of protein (1 gram per pound of bodyweight for 800 calories)
- 100 grams of carbohydrate (100 grams to fuel the brain 400 calories)
- 6 grams of fish oil caps (60 calories).
That means my baseline diet would be 1260 calories. I would obviously never go under that. From that point I would add additional carbs and fats to get my energy status where I wanted it.
Total Calories
Total calories refers to how much energy you need to take in to meet your daily energy demands. Take in less calories (energy) then you need and your body will either:
A: Burn fat
B: Burn muscleTake in more calories then you need and your body will either:
A: Store the excess as fat
B: Use the excess to promote muscle growth.Partitioning
You create the "stimulus" for muscle growth through training. You provide the raw material (food), for the growth. Once you've done those 2 things the rest is up to your body. How many calories can you direct into the "muscular" compartment and how many calories are directed into your "fat' compartment? We refer to that as nutrient partitioning.
Some people will gain 1 lb of fat for every pound of muscle they put on. Others will gain 3 lbs of fat per every 1 pound of muscle. Others will gain 4 lbs of muscle per every 1 pound of fat. The amount of muscle building in relation to fat building that goes on once you've provided excess raw materials is primarily determined by your genetics and how fast you attempt to gain weight (how much above maintenance you eat). If you don't believe me about the gentics all you have to do is hang around a group of division I athletes for a while - see who has the best physiques then watch those people eat.
Genetics
Genetic expression is 1/2 DNA and 1/2 environment. It can be affected by many things including activity, psychology, nutrition, and drugs but for the most part genetics are genetics. Obviously, there are major differences between different individuals but the ability to cause physique alterations can even change in a given individual over time.
The main thing that changes genetic expression in a given individual more then anything else is not what type of diet they're on, how they combine their meals, or what supplements they take, it is their activity and their age. Activity is obvious and 100% controllable but the only thing that can come close to over-riding the effect of aging is drugs. Go look at the diet and physique of a 70 + yr old bodybuilder like Jack Lalanne and compare it to the diet and physique of a 22 yr old Jack Lalanne. At 22 Jack Lalanne could probably gain 3 lbs of muscle per every 1 pound of fat. At 70+ he probably gains 4 lbs of fat per every 1 lb of muscle. He's still Jack Lalanne, but the difference in response to his environment (training and nutrition) is night and day. Now, put Jack Lalanne on a cycle of testosterone and he could probably come fairly close to duplicating what he could do in his 30's or 40's.
What about fat loss?
Ok. Now, when it comes to losing weight, the example I gave above with the twins also holds true. Assuming one consumes the minimum levels of protein, the amount of fat vs muscle they lose is mainly determined by the caloric deficit and genetics, not nutrient timing or whether they consume eggs, chicken, low carb, high carb, or the $100 protein powder.
Therefore, if we again have two twins wanting to lose weight and they each weigh 150 lbs and require 3000 calories per day, - and we have one eat a 2500 calorie diet with 150 grams of protein and the rest made up of expensive supplements, specifically timed nutrients, and only "health" foods, while the other twin eats 2500 calories per day consisting of 150 grams of protein along with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and crackers, once again there will be very little difference in the effectiveness of either plan since the primary determining factors are the genetics and daily totals, which are the same.
Exceptions
Now, if we take a person who consumes only 30 grams of protein per day and the rest sugar and compare that to a person consuming 150 grams of protein per day and a wholesome diet, then yes, we will see some differences because one guy is only consuming 30 grams of protein thus the minimums aren't being met.
If we take one person dieting on a 500 calorie deficit compared to another person dieting on a 1500 calorie deficit then yes, one will lose a lot more muscle then the other because one is trying to lose a pound per week while ther other is trying to lose about 5 lbs per week.
If we take one person trying to gain muscle on a 500 calorie excess while another person is trying to gain muscle on a 2000 calorie excess, obviously the 2nd person is likely going to gain a lot more fat in the process.
If person A does an Atkins diet while person B does a south beach diet while person C does a Pritikin diet they can all get the same results. The primary difference between them is that some diets make it easier to consume lower calories. A low carbohydrate diet, for example, tends to blunt appetite. A high carbohydrate diet tends to stimulate appetite for a lot of people.
The Real Anabolic Secret
Ok, now having said all that and getting back to your original question, if you're gonna build muscle without getting fat you can either manipulate your endocrine signaling or you can manipulate your dietary totals.
The first consists of taking steroids. The primary benefit of steroids isn't that they allow you to get big it's that they improve nutrient partitioning and allow a person to get big without turning into a fat piece of crap in the process.
Anybody can get big. If you wanna get 250 lbs of muscle all you need to do is train a few times per week with basic movements and eat yourself up to about 400 lbs of scale weight. You'll be fat as heck and look like crap but it's not that hard. Hell, sumo wrestlers carry more muscle then either bodybuilders or powerlifters and they don't even train much less take steroids.
Manipulating Diet
Other options including manipulating your dietary totals. This might consist of:
1. Trying to gain weight very slowly.
Your body can only build muscle so fast. The faster you try to gain the more fat you're probably gonna gain. Eat maybe an extra 100 calories per day and you might gain a lb of muscle every couple of months. Honestly, most people who attempt to do this usually aren't able to build any muscle at all.2. Take a 2 steps forward one step back approach
With this approach you eat and train to gain weight and muscle for a certain number of days and then eat and train to lose fat for a certain number of days. The weight gain phase obviously consists of high calories and the low calorie phase consists of low calories. This is the approach I prefer and is the only way short of drugs once can compete with superior genetics and aging.The number of weight gain days and the number of weight loss days depends onyour metabolism and genetics. The basic tenet is that you put on muscle and accept some fat gain for a certain period of time and then you take off the fat that you gained. At the end of each phase you should be a bit heavier and just as lean.
Some people do well with a 5 day high calorie phase and a 2 day low calorie phase. Others do well with a 7 day high calorie phase and a 2 day low calorie phase. Others do well with a 13 day high calorie phase a 3 day low calorie phase. Others do well with a 2-3 week high calories phase and a 1-2 weeks low calorie phase. How you set it up doesn't really matter.
Here's an example of a 14 day 11 days high/3 days low split:
Mon- full body workout - high calories (maintenance + 500)
Wed- lower body workout - high calories
Fri- upper body workout- high calories
Mon - upper body workout- high calories
Wed - lower body workout - high calories
Fri- low calories + light full body workout
Sat- low calories (maintenance minus 500) interval sprints/cardio
Sun- low calories/ treadmill walking
Mon- Start over with day oneHopefully that gives you some ideas.
Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns Ice Cream Review
I caved in... I've been reading about Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream for a while and I finally decided to pick up a tub and see for myself what all the hype was...
HOLY CRAP, this is GOOD STUFF. The Cinnamon Buns ice cream flavor has sugary cinnamon bun chunks mashed within vanilla ice cream. It is absolutely to die for. I'm going to be pounding a quarter cup pre-workout for the energy boost 
.
