LiE's Diet and Training Thread

[LiE]

I posted up some images and details about my diet in the Gym rats thread and it was suggested that it may be a good idea to create a separate thread for everything. The purpose of this thread is to show you roughly what I eat and do training wise. I'm not the most anal person when it comes to macros, I make sure I eat enough protein and have increased my fats.

I'm currently 12st 9lbs and 5' 11". My aim is to increase mass to 13st 3lbs where by I will tweak the diet to strip some fat.

I do have quite a few supplements which are used to break things up and make up the numbers.

I eat this diet Monday-Friday and on weekends I will usually relax more and try to eat enough. So this is more realistic for someone to keep this diet up. I live with my wife so having a fixed dinner isn't an option neither is trying to hit meal times on the weekend. Again probably more realistic for most people.

Here is a spreadsheet which contains a breakdown of the diet. It doesn't contain dinner as this is a unknown variable. I know that it will likely be about 400-500 calories which means I'll be hitting 3000 calories on off days and 3300 on training days.

Spreadsheet: www.mattmccann.co.uk/docs/Diet_v2.xlsx

The Diet
---------------------------------

Water
I have a 1.5L bottle of water on my desk which I aim to have almost completely finished before 4.30PM. I think hydration is very important when training. Before any workout I always need to pee and it's always a good sign if it's as clear as possible. I'd be worried if it was quite yellow.

8:15AM - Pink Porridge
1 sachet of oats, 1 scoop raspberry whey, 200ml milk, walnuts and a banana.
I like this breakfast because it has nice texture from the bananas. I find dry breakfast hard in the morning like toast/peanut butter due to my mouth being dry.

10:30AM - Chicken & Nuts
250g chicken with sauce and 50g of Almonds.
Chicken is cooked on a Sunday evening in a Reggae Reggae sauce. Good amount of protein and fats here.

1:00PM - Shake
500ml semi skimmed milk, 2 scoops rasperberry whey and 2 scoops ultra fine oats.
This shake is a great thing to take to boost macros, I have one of these a day even on weekends.

3:00PM - Toast & Whey
Thickly spread Peanut butter on wholemeal toast with a dash of nutella. 250ml semi skimmed milk with 1 scoop rasperberry whey.
Peanut butter is great for calories and fats. I have another scoop of whey here to keep protein up without haven't to try and eat more. I'll be quite full at this point and used to eat a tin of tuna which only just has the same macros as a whey shake.

04:30PM/4:50PM - Supplements
2 scoops purple wraath and 1 scoop white flood with 2g of creatine monohydrate.
The purple wraath goes into my water bottle at 4:30PM and I drink 400ml, top it back up with water ready for drinking during training.
White flood is taken at 4:50PM just before I leave to go gym.

5:15PM - TRAINING!

I've just started a new split that looks like this.

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Shoulders/Core
Thursday: Chest/Triceps
Friday: Back/Biceps

6.30PM - Recovery XS
This post-workout supplement has a great blend of protein and carbs with some creatine and glumatime mixed in. 2 scoops immediately after a workout with the remaining purple wraath.

8:30PM - Dinner
This can vary quite a lot from pizza to 400g of steak with veg.
Here is a typical dinner of thai curry.

10.00PM - Snack
This isn't included in the spreadsheet but sometimes when I'm still hungry after dinner I will have some cottage cheese on rivita.

-----------------------------------

That concludes my current diet, plenty of room to tweak macros if needed. I'm always open to suggestions/improvements.
If you have any questions about that or my training let me know.

 

[LiE]

Training
---------------------
I've just started a new split which looks like this.

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Shoulders/Core
Thursday: Chest/Triceps
Friday: Back/Biceps

So far I have done legs which looked like this.

Legs
Squats
Reserve DB Lunges
SLDL
Leg Extensions
Calf Raises
Calf Presses
Goblet Sqauts

 

[LiE]

I find too much water can make me bloated, especially as I'm having about 1L of Milk. Around gym time I will probably mince through another 1L of water too.

 

[LiE]

Yea ice, will keep things in here as I do like to spam the gym rats thread. I am determined to hit some milestones next year.

 

[LiE]

I couldn't be that strict steedie with the diet, especially on weekends. If I was single it wouldn't be a problem.

Shoulders/Core tonight, here is what I have.

DB Should Press
Lateral DB Raise
Front BB Raise (I like to go light on this and hold at the top while trying to force the bar apart, immense burn)
Reverse Cable Flyes
Arnold Press
----
Hanging Leg Raises
Plank
Lying Leg Raise
Romanian Twist (game over obliques)

Any suggestions/improvements?

 

[LiE]

Shoulders/Core

Doing shoulders and core worked well today. I got some incredible pump on my rear delts that was very uncomfortable but typical of my shoulder workouts. I like to go light for most of the lifts and concentrate on the contraction at the peak of the movement, this seems to work really well.

Workout:

Spoiler

DB Shoulder Press
17.5x10, 27.5x10, 32.5x10, 32.5x10
Lateral DB Side Raises
15x10x3
Front BB Raises
15x10x3
Reverse Cable Flyes
15x8x3
Arnold Press
20x8x3
Hanging Leg Raises
8x3
Plank
3 sets held for long as possible
Lying Leg Raise
8,7,8
Romanian Twist
20x10, 20x 11, 25x8

 

[LiE]

As long as it needs
I'm in no rush so I'll weigh myself every week and keep an eye on things to make sure I'm progressing and not staying at the same weight. I've always done things slow and steady which I guess is why I have stayed on the leaner side since starting.

 

[LiE]

Tonight's dinner was takeaway. Not a strict meal but this how I roll. Plenty of carbs, fat and protein from a buffalo burger. Ate about half the chips.

Excellent thread, really put things in perspective.

How much do you spend on food a week? Is it alright to substitute "meals" for whey if I can't afford "proper"food?

I think it's important to get a good balance of real food and whey.

My weekly shopping budget is £80 for myself and my wife. My meals probably cost about £20 a week.

 

[LiE]

I make sure I hit good macros in the day which means I don't have to worry much about what I eat for dinner. Whatever I do eat for dinner is normally meat and carbs anyway.

 

[LiE]

Thought I'd make a separate post about the barbell front raise I now do for shoulders. It's pretty insane how much it hits the shoulders and the burn is pretty intense. So normally you'd raise the bar up and then lower back down to complete the rep. In my case I lower the weight (15kg I use currently) and tweak the movement.

As you raise the bar image your trying to pull the barbell apart into a rear fly movement, keep this tension on as you raise the bar. Now at the top of the movement hold the bar for 2 seconds while also putting maximum effort into trying to pull the bar apart. Slowly lower it back down and relax before doing the next rep.

Feel the deep burn!

 

[LiE]

£20 will cover the food part (listed in the shopping list part of the spreadsheet), you'll need to factor in supplements too if you want to go down that route. If you don't have someone you eat with each night then you'll also need to think about what to eat for dinner each evening. If it was me I'd probably eat steak with a ton of veg and a little rice.

 

[LiE]

Not a fan of your dinners and your supplement intake... but will be reading with interest nonetheless.

whey is essential for me because there is no way I could replace it with actual food and manage to eat it all. The supplements I take around gym time I like to take simply because I am of the mind that I want to make sure my body has everything at it's disposal during my training time to maximize any gains.

The pre-workout stuff I will be coming off soon and going caffeine free for several weeks.

 

[LiE]

No creatine in my pre-workout supplements, I actually add 2g of creatine to white flood to give a bit more creatine. I think 5g is about right so you need to look at how much is in jack3d, I think recovery xs has about 3g.

 

[LiE]

Time for a good stretch before a hardcore thurs/fri workout then chill out for xmas.

 

[LiE]

Weighed myself this morning and strangely it said 12st 11lbs, so I must need to go for an epic bathroom break or something
My core is feeling nice DOMs as are my hamstrings. Looking forward to chest/triceps tonight, not sure if I will focus on strength or aid my growth with some mass.

 

[LiE]

Will weigh myself over the next few days at the same time to find out my actual weight. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning after going for a pee.

 

[LiE]

Chest/Triceps

I can understand weight during the day, but mine is done at the same time under the same conditions...

Had a beast of a chest/tricep workout today. Focused on hitting a decent amount of reps rather than going heavier. Surprising how quickly strength drops off after each exercise.

Spoiler

Bench Press
60x8, 100x10, 120x8, 120x7(8)*last rep spotted
Incline DB Press
20x8, 40x8, 40x8
Dips
BWx8, +20x8, +20x8, +20x8
Cable Flyes
25x10, 30x10, 30x10
Cable Bar Push Down
25x10, 35x10, 40x8
Cable Rope Extension
20x8, 20x8, 20x8
Cable Kick Back
6.25x8, 6.25x8
Front Dips on Racked Smith Bar
BWx8, BWx8, BWx8

Off out in a bit to eat some frankie and bennys

 

[LiE]

12st 12lbs this morning.. must be holding onto a decent amount of water with the creatine. It'll be interesting to see my morning weights on the weekend when I don't train or eat as much.

Went out for a bite to eat last night at beefeater, ribs and chicken

 

[LiE]

Here's the Back/Bicep workout I've come up with, bring on the pain.

Deadlifts
Lat Pulldowns
Seated Rows
Seated Rope Upper Back Rows

Chin ups
BB Curls
DB Seated Curls
Cable Hammer Curls

FF would be proud of the immense bicep workout.

 

[LiE]

Back/Bicep

OK so I think I need to rework the back/bicep workout, my biceps just aren't up to much after the back has been done.

Kept things on the lighter side tonight with deads which highlighted a potential flaw in my form. When I return the weight back to the floor I may be loading up my lower back with most of the weight, I got a serious amount of lower back pump tonight! It's probably worth mentioning that my core is still tired from Tuesday.

Anyway, here's how it went down, biceps couldn't keep up so will rework things.

Spoiler

Deads
70x8, 110x10, 140x8, 140x7, 140x6, 160x2
Lat Pull Down
50x10, 75x8, 85x8, 85x7
Seated Rows
42.5x10, 50x10, 50x10, 50x10
Seated Rope Upper Back (thinking I'm going to drop these)
25x10, 30x10, 30x10
Chins (biceps died)
9,7,6
BB Curl (kept it light and strict)
20x10, 20x10, 20x10
Cable Hammer
6.25x10, 6.25x9

Next training session will be Tuesday, so got a nice big rest