Heres the dealio:
Height : 5'10 1/2
Weight : 157
Body Fat % : 8.4
Sport : Track & Field (Sprints, 400 hurdles and open 400 specifically)
So I'm and athlete at a very good Track school down south, but unfortunately we are in the process of replacing our team nutritionist and stuff is a bit out of order right now. So I've come to tap into the infinite knowledge pool of my UG brethren (but really, you guys/gals give great advice....most of you). Down to the point : I need some dietary advice (maybe what kinds of things i should be sticking to? anything you deem helpful really). I pretty much eat whatever I want and I was blessed (or cursed) with a crazy fast metabolism but I know to get every ounce of performance out of my body I could be eating better. We have a good lifting program so I dont really need much advice on that front but if you have tips, feel free. I just really want to maximize my strength gains in the weight room by eating healthier. I want to gain weight (only muscle, anything else would slow me down). Ideally I want to weigh around 163-170. Any help appreciated guys! Thanks in advance.
Forgot to add some info that might be helpful. I currently take creatine (starting up beta alanine soon too). Any supplement advice is welcome too. Heres what I ate yesterday as an example of what i eat (Don't make fun, I know nothing about diet).
Breakfast : 2 bowls of Cap'n Crunch (fuck yea, whole milk btw)
Snack : Powerade Protein Milk Beverage (We get them for free in the training room so I drink these alot. 360 calories and 29g of protein)
Lunch : Some pasta, rice, chicken
Snack : Another powerade thing
Dinner : Panda express...
Before sleep : 4 applesauces, 2 clementines, a beer
ttt
Not sure if you'll be cooking your own food or not. My suggestion is to eat whole food and avoid processed food. For example, skip the cereal, protein drink/bar and pasta. Instead eat baked potatoes, steamed or roasted veggies, salads and meat (not breaded). Limit your intake of liquid calories.
First thought is that you only have 1 and a half meals/snacks that are real food. No matter what you do, if you are a scholarship athlete with a meal plan it is going to be difficult to eat healthy. First and foremost, my suggestion is to eat natural foods whenever possible. As Eel mentioned, potatoes, veggies, meat, fruit, nuts. Here are some other suggestions:
1. Your breakfast is shit. Goal number 1 for you should be to get 3 meals with REAL food. If you really want, keep your bowl of cereal, but add in 4 eggs on the side. Eggs are cheap and easy to cook, so no excuses. When I am in a hurry, I scramble up a few eggs in the microwave. Takes about 3 minutes and they actually come out pretty fluffy.
2. Get some greens and healthy nuts in your diet. Most decent universities will have a decent fresh salad bar. Grab a salad with a mix of greens, some almonds or walnuts and add on some chicken or other meat.
3. Drink tons of water and add in a fibre supplement. You are eating a lot of processed food, and by the sounds of it you are consuming very little fibre. You want to make sure your body is constantly flushing itself out to get all of that garbage out of your body.
I wont get into programming, or your lifting routine, but could you advise what your lifting/running schedule is like on a weekly basis? Would be able to give a little better advice knowing the basics around how much and what type of training you are doing.
Voted up! Thanks for the advice. I do drink ALOT of water (I carry a gallon around with me to class and drink more throughout the day.) I also eat a good amount of broccoli since I have a weird obsession with it. Do you recommend any sources for fiber over others?
My schedule looks a but like this:
Mon-Fri - Practice at 4. Its fall (offseason) so we have hard conditioning until Jan. We don't even touch the track. Examples: Stadiums, Hills, Med Ball, circuit training, all that fun stuff.
Saturday we have hills at 8 am. Its like a 300m uphill sprint, we do like 6-8 repeats, nothing too bad.
We lift Mon Wed Fri.
Thank alot for the advice, I really appreciate it!
Oh and Eel mentioned I should skip the Powerade Protein Milk. Mind giving me the reasoning for that? They just have refrigerators full of Boost, Muscle Milk, Powerade Protein Milk and all those for free. I would assume the athletic department wouldn't supply us with this if it was bad for us. Not questioning you guys, just wondering, thanks again!
breakfast needs some eggs, bacon/sausage, etc...ditch the cereal, save that for PWO snack.
snack on some eggs and tuna, I buy a 2 packs of boiled eggs(4 eggs) for $2 and one of them little bags of tuna
lunch...need some green veggies here, if you have a salad bar somewhere, load up on that shit. plenty of protein/fat..maybe a chicken breast or something, and some good carbs.
snack before practice, quick carbs, just something to get the juices flowin
same after practice, only this time, throw in some extra protein
dinner, go big on veggies, big on protein, light on carbs, maybe some brown rice or something.
late snack...BIG GLASS OF CHOCOLATE MILK...quick calories lol
I'm not a nutritionist, but i've had to eat good on a budget for a looong time. you Track dudes burn a lot of calories, so a little sugary junk won't hurt you one bit.
Leigh - Take them and sell them. Eat natural food, not processed supplements.
Believe me, already thought of that haha. But it would destroy my eligibility. But again, whats the reason behind not drinking these? They have like 30g of protein, its 52% milk anyway. I just want an explanation for why they are bad for me. Thanks for the responses
Good stuff with the water. Broccoli is great and will provide you with quite a bit of fibre. If towards the end of the day I feel like I didnt consume enough fibre, I will often have a bowl of All Bran with some unsweetened chocolate almond milk. It actually tastes decent and has a ton of fibre.
Looks like you have tons of training volume there, which can be good, but it will make it hard to build muscle. I would approach your coach and see if you can reduce your conditioning volume and add in another lift every week. You run 400 metre durations or less, so conditioning should take a back seat to power and speed development at the start of your off season. Conditioning wont make you faster, improving your explosive strength will.
As for the "Powerade Protein Milk" drinks, I will disagree with Leigh and Eel here (even though they are right). They are right in the sense that you should be looking for more natural forms of food, but in your situation I would even consider adding in another one. Your current diet seems low in calories and protein for the work you are putting in, and running around between classes and training sessions no doubt makes it very difficult to keep providing your body with super clean and fresh foods. My priority #1 when working with D1 athletes is to make sure they are consuming proper amounts of macronutrients. Once you have a handle on the macro's, start fine tuning and cleaning things up.
LiftStrong - Good stuff with the water. Broccoli is great and will provide you with quite a bit of fibre. If towards the end of the day I feel like I didnt consume enough fibre, I will often have a bowl of All Bran with some unsweetened chocolate almond milk. It actually tastes decent and has a ton of fibre.
Looks like you have tons of training volume there, which can be good, but it will make it hard to build muscle. I would approach your coach and see if you can reduce your conditioning volume and add in another lift every week. You run 400 metre durations or less, so conditioning should take a back seat to power and speed development at the start of your off season. Conditioning wont make you faster, improving your explosive strength will.
As for the "Powerade Protein Milk" drinks, I will disagree with Leigh and Eel here (even though they are right). They are right in the sense that you should be looking for more natural forms of food, but in your situation I would even consider adding in another one. Your current diet seems low in calories and protein for the work you are putting in, and running around between classes and training sessions no doubt makes it very difficult to keep providing your body with super clean and fresh foods. My priority #1 when working with D1 athletes is to make sure they are consuming proper amounts of macronutrients. Once you have a handle on the macro's, start fine tuning and cleaning things up.
Thanks again Liftstrong. I just call it fall conditioning but most of the exercises we do (by 'we' i mean the sprinters) involve explosion so I'm sure we aren't getting over conditioned or anything, we're doing the right stuff. Ill definitely take your advice with the All Bran and almond choco milk (love that stuff btw). I'll try to take all the advice you all have given me and start having a more complete (and healthy) diet. I'm looking for a nat'l championship this year so everything helps :D. Its my second year and I'm already weighing 10 pounds more than i did last year coming into the fall so I know that'll help with power (I never lifted in high school).
Lol, when I heard conditioning I was picturing long runs and situps... I have definitely seen some goofy stuff from sports coaches. Good luck with your season and let us know how it goes!
LiftStrong - Lol, when I heard conditioning I was picturing long runs and situps... I have definitely seen some goofy stuff from sports coaches. Good luck with your season and let us know how it goes!
Thanks LiftStrong! Will do.