Nutritional Advice needed

[ASAC]

 

Hi all

Im looking to build a bit of muscle whilst trying to reduce a bit of belly fat as well. (I've heard its hard to do both)  Ive been trying to do this for quite a while and have had very limited success.  I go to the gym most morning before work and have a very knowledgeable instructor and training plan which makes me think the problem lies with my diet.  As they all say I eat a pretty healthy diet but for all that I dont seem to be putting on the muscle Im looking for.

Im in my 40's am 6"5, and weigh 107 kg.  Im looking for a meal plan that is going to get me results but is not going to result in me cooking steak or chicken all hours - it needs to be convienient and simple.

Currently my meals arent to any plan but breakfast after the gym is porridge and 6 eggs white and a protein shake, protien shake and 4 corns htins for morning tea, lunch is a couple of roast beef sandwiches, afternoon tea is a tin of tuna and corn thins and a protein shake and  dinner is whatever the family are having.

 

my gym programme is usually half cardio and half wieghts and I go to the gym about 5 times a week.

 

Any ideas?

 

cheers

[Pseudonym]

Gidday ASAC. Sorry it's taken a while for you to get a reply.

 

Essentially it looks like you've got the right idea. But I think at 6'5" and 107kg, it's going to take you more food than most to gain muscle. Currently what you're eating will be going straight to maintaining your current mass - and TBH I wonder if you're even eating enough for that. How lean are you at present?

Also, just to make sure your workout routine is in the clear, maybe detail exactly what you do for weights training?

[Flex]

Im looking to build a bit of muscle whilst trying to reduce a bit of belly fat as well. (I've heard its hard to do both)  Ive been trying to do this for quite a while and have had very limited success. 

What do you mean by quite a while - 3 months, 12months, 2 years?

And by limited success you mean you've gained nothing and lost nothing in this period - no strength or muscle gains and no fat loss?

I go to the gym most morning before work and have a very knowledgeable instructor and training plan which makes me think the problem lies with my diet.  As they all say I eat a pretty healthy diet but for all that I dont seem to be putting on the muscle Im looking for.

I hear lots of people that tell me they have "pretty healthy diets" however it's often meaningless as "healthy" is a fairly loose term depending on who is defining it - my definition of a healthy diet is mostly likely going to be vastly different to yours, or a bodybuilders healthy diet, a vegetarians healthy diet, or a crossfitters healthy paleo diet - for one thing daily regular intake of corn thins would not in my mind be considered part of a heathy diet.

What sort of muscle gain are you looking for? Has your "knowledgeable" instructor revised your training plan in light of the fact that the training plan isn't working for you?

 

Im in my 40's am 6"5, and weigh 107 kg.  Im looking for a meal plan that is going to get me results but is not going to result in me cooking steak or chicken all hours - it needs to be convienient and simple.

McDonalds is convenient and simple, unfortunately most convenient and simple things in life result in a bodytype resembling either the Michelan man or a skinny fat person. And as far as I'm aware Mark Wahlbergs chain of drivethough McBodybuilder King Restaurants hasn't arrived in NZ yet.

Generally a diet that helps you lose bodyfat and gain muscle at the same time isn't going to be simple and probably not that convenient if you're short on time or working around family and work commitments. No matter what the google or facebook ads say, there is no "1 simple trick" or "breakthrough discovery" that will have you looking lean and mean in 4 weeks, unfortunatley it takes a bit of time and effort.

Currently my meals arent to any plan but breakfast after the gym is porridge and 6 eggs white and a protein shake, protien shake and 4 corns htins for morning tea, lunch is a couple of roast beef sandwiches, afternoon tea is a tin of tuna and corn thins and a protein shake and  dinner is whatever the family are having.

Your diet's not too bad I guess however probably more suitable as a maintanance diet than anything else. A diet suitable for gaining muscle and losing fat is going to require more precision and ideally a decent food & training journal so you can keep track of calories in and out. It would probably be a good idea to work out your maintanence calorie requirements too so that you've got a benchmark to base your dietary requirements on. I could recommend  diet for you however not a convenient and simple one.

my gym programme is usually half cardio and half wieghts and I go to the gym about 5 times a week.

Unfortunately split workouts like this will always have compromises - if you're doing a decent calorie burning cardio session pre weight training you can't really expect to push your strength training very far. And vice versa - if you have a decent weight training session and then go spend an hour on the treadmill post weights you're compromising your recovery and the old window of opportunity is well gone by the time you get your post training shake into you.

You'd be better off splitting the sessions or training them on alternating days so you can give each training session a decent go of it.