Warrior on the works

[Paganini]

Hi!

I'm a 22 y old male from Hungary. I'm 178 cm and 72 kg - not in bad shape, a little bit of extra fat here and there, but nothing I'm conscious about. What I'm not satisfied with is my strength and my muscles. I've never seriously played any sports, I never really worked out, and let's just face it - I'm pretty weak. That is what I want to change. I want bigger and stronger muscles. I want to do 20 pull ups and I want to have defined arms, and a full chest.

This is the first time in my life I am really determined to do this. I've started p90x a few weeks ago, though I'm considering changing to Beast Body, that's a bit more in line with my goals). What I have most issues with is diet. I don't eat junk food, stay away from bread and pasta, and mostly consume meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables and fruits. But I feel like I should eat more - problem is, I can't really eat those stuff beyond a point. I know I have to eat, EAT to grow muscle, but while I think I could eat almost unlimited amounts of sandwiches, I find it hard to put the 4th egg in my mouth.

I'm also the kind of person who overthinks everything, so I'm constantly stressed about whether I'm doing things right or not

So I'm mostly here for diet advice, in fact the article that led me here was the one about paleo diet.

Good luck to all, see you in the training grounds!

[Razor]

I'm right in the same boat with you about eating. It's hard. Very, very hard.

What I would recommend would be a good shake for your extra protein and calories. You could buy a mass gainer, or for a little more effort a homemade one by looking online. Be careful with shakes though, it's often easy to consume too many calories with them and raise your bodyfat% so high that nobody can see your big muscles xD

Really, for a high calorie, high protein shake that goes down easy, all you need is:

Whole milk

Some type of nut. Almonds, cashes, peanuts (not really nuts what whatevs), etc.

Whey protein

Yogurt

Rolled oats

Smoothie fruits, such as strawberries, bananas, pineapples, etc.

You can add some stuff too. I've added ovaltine, honey, and propel lemon powder to my shakes.

However, doing this gets you about 1800 calories. ONLY do this on days you haven't really eaten anything all day and want to blend something before bed.

[Paganini]

Well, I have a protein shake I drink early in the morning (I don't like to have breakfast, I'm never hungry when I wake up), and after workout. To be honest, protein intake is not the biggest of my problem (2 shakes in 0,5 liter milk is about 70g, and I eat as much meat as I can every day, so my needed 145 g is reached on most days), what I have and issue with are carbs. I can't eat bread (big change from my earlier life, I even had bread with soups), and I find it hard to get the right amount from vegetables. But I have to, if I want to actually build muscle..

[Razor]

Well, I have a protein shake I drink early in the morning (I don't like to have breakfast, I'm never hungry when I wake up), and after workout. To be honest, protein intake is not the biggest of my problem (2 shakes in 0,5 liter milk is about 70g, and I eat as much meat as I can every day, so my needed 145 g is reached on most days), what I have and issue with are carbs. I can't eat bread (big change from my earlier life, I even had bread with soups), and I find it hard to get the right amount from vegetables. But I have to, if I want to actually build muscle..

You can never get too much protein. Well, you can, but you'd have to purposefully go out of your way to try.

I never used to be hungry in the mornings either, still don't eat breakfast sometimes. One trick is to get up extra early, you'll usually be hungrier. Another is to find something you just love eating. I went from not eating breakfast at all for a year (Literally can only remember eating breakfast twice my first year of college), but now I cook a mushroom and green pepper omelette every day, even when I'm not hungry. Just find something you can stomach and that is healthy.

Also, for carbs, pasta is GREAT. I would also recommend Triscuits for your carbs. Not only are they carbs, but they've got a lot of fiber too, and are fairly low in sodium. Not to mention they come in a ton of flavors (I just go with reduced fat).

[Paganini]

Yeah, maybe I'll add some pasta to my diet.. I tried to avoid it along with bread, but maybe I should postpone that until I want to lean down the mass I've gained.

[Deacon Blues]

I'm also in the mist of completing P90X. This is my 3rd round of the program and I love it. Now that I've lost the weight I wanted, I've modified the program to put on muscle. For instance I increase my weights for alternating dumb bell curls. Instead of curling 12-15 reps with 25 lbs. I curl 6-8 reps with 40 lbs. For pull ups I attach 40 lbs to my weight belt and do pull ups from that. There is a way to go totally beast mode with P90X. You just have to be creative. As far as my diet; as the others mention, I drink protein shakes for either post workout or a snack. I also eat a lot of tuna and chicken breast. That's the biggest challenge. To stay lean but build muscle. You have to eat as efficiantly as possible with little to no junk food and mind your macros, go heavy as far as weights with as many reps as you can and get your sleep.

I would love to hear how your performance is going, so keep us updated.