Question re: protein counting / diet critique

[Snatchy McClean]

Something I've never quite got:

When calculating your protein intake, do you count only the protein in "majority" sources like meats, whey, nuts etc, or do you break everything down?

Here's my general diet anyway...

8:

1/2 cup (pre cooking) whole oats

2 x hearty bread + peanut butter and manuka honey

scoop of whey in water (20g protein) (I hate milk)

2 x fish oil, 1 x multi, 1 x glucosamine

10:

baked kumera 150g (no additives)

50g almonds / walnuts

pear

11:

orange

12:

hearty bread sandwich w/ 100g beef or ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo

1:

apple

2:

baked potato 150g (no additives)

50g almonds / walnuts

banana

4:

(counts as my pre-workout as I start around 6)

1/2 cup (pre cooking) brown rice w/ chopped garlic

1 can John West tuna (approx 40g protein)

(NON WORKOUT DAY)

6ish:

scoop of why (20g protein)

sometimes a bit of fruit

(WORKOUT DAY)

7ish:

post workout shake w/40g protein

apple or pear

8-9:

200g chicken breast / steak / fish

half a pack of fresh pasta or 200g potatoes / kumera or cup of brown rice

broccoli / lettuce

couple of chunks of dark chocolate

I don't drink anything apart from water or Loaded during heavy workouts, also take a glucose pill prior to doing weights, as I suffer post-workout headaches if I don't keep the blood sugar up.

Alcohol is minimal. Sometimes a glass or two of red, but no beer or spirits, maybe get OTP once a fortnight.

...this diet never varies except on weekends when I tend to hit the chinese one night and don't eat quite as much.

I train heavy twice a week for 90 minutes, light twice a week for 60 minutes, and play sport for around an hour a week.

92 kilos, 6 foot, BF% around 12 currently.

Mainly concerned with maintanence (ie not getting skinnier), keeping energy up and slowly reducing body fat.

2.5 years ago I was 72 kilos at the same height and lean as, so I'm definitely in the hard gainer category, though I seem to have crushed my metabolism a bit as I can gain gut fat now if I'm not careful.

I guesstimate my calories vary between 3200 - 3800 depending on size of dinner and whether I have a red wine or 2 haha.

I think my diet is pretty solid, but any input would be appreciated =)

[PeterDolan]

Calculate them all. People will argue that protein from sources such as nuts and veges are incomplete but this is only the case when there is the absence of complete proteins. Now I'm not saying you need to consider the 2 grams you'll get from your 100g of potato but it doesn't mean you need to discredit anything that isn't meat, dairy or poltury.

[Snatchy McClean]

Cheers man.

Breads, pasta, rice, oats, beans all contain quite high levels of protein but I wasn't sure whether they count in the "muscle building" world or not.

That answers my question though ...and saves me a load of cash on extra meat.

[Mantis]

I would personally seek another side to this one response mate before being satisfied with the answer. Always good to get opinions from the other side.

Something definitely worth investigating...

[PeterDolan]

I would personally seek another side to this one response mate before being satisfied with the answer. Always good to get opinions from the other side.

Something definitely worth investigating...

So what you're saying is that your body will not use the amino acids found in oats because it is not from a meat source?

[Mantis]

So what you're saying is that your body will not use the amino acids found in oats because it is not from a meat source?

I was merely suggesting that it is good to hear the opinions of others - though I get the point you are trying to make. You say:

People will argue that protein from sources such as nuts and veges are incomplete but this is only the case when there is the absence of complete proteins

.

By complete proteins what do you mean? Foods from animal sources or by combining different non-animal sources to then get a complete protein?

Yes, I agree that the body will use amino acids found in other non-animal foods, but if they are only to be counted as part of protein intake when combined with complete proteins it must be made clear what these types of complete proteins are. Combining different foods from non-animal sources to get complete protein is a difficult thing to do consistently well and if you are not vegetarian I fail to see the point in doing this.

I felt what you said was slightly ambiguous that's all - don't want to confuse the poor chap!

[PeterDolan]

Complete as in the full spectrum of amino acids. I did neglect to mention that while incomplete sources do count, complete sources should make up the majority of the protein content of your diet for a bodybuilder

[poos_n_wees]

There was a discussion thread on this a few years ago that might help:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3930

[Snatchy McClean]

There was a discussion thread on this a few years ago that might help:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3930

Legend =)

you actually answered a couple of other questions in that thread that I was going to ask regarding eating more carbs and/or protein on training days. Noticing the waistline tightening up again lately so I think I need to control my food better... or do the cardio more often :pfft: (very distant option number 2)

[two_phat]

I'm not sure I'd consider you a hard gainer;

you put on 20 kgs in a lil over 2 years which is very impressive and now you're 12% bf at 6 ft....

You sure you're a hardgainer? Perhaps it might be worth reassessing that and designing your diet around that?

(Just a suggestion - I don't have all the facts, you may well be a hard gainer...but just doesn't seem so)

[Snatchy McClean]

^Fair point. I've always considered myself as such because I was always skinny. But then I also did smoke, drink too much and eat terribly (ie not much) for years. May have been more to do with lack of nutrients.

Would there be other ways to work out what kind of [...]morph I am? Or is it just a matter of trying different things until I find what works?

The guidelines for how many calories to ingest seem to vary wildly from author to author.

I'm not wanting to drop to SFA BF% within dramatic time or anything, but can notice a bit of belly fat creeping back lately so would like to slowly chip away at it hopefully to have abs again before summer haha, without starving myself out of energy.