I don't keep track of what I eat
You start tracking your calories, or I WILL HIDE IN YOUR CLOSET with a bull horn, and yell:
"YOU MUST TRACK YOUR CALORIES, YOU MUST TRACK YOUR CALORIES"
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Okay, let me be frank:
You have a strength/growth problem, young man. And, this problem can be monumentally improved by knowing whether you are in a deficit or surplus in calories; flying by the seat of your pants in the diet arena hasnt worked has it? What was that? I didnt quite hear ya........?
The answer: NO it hasnt.
Since you are new to training and not well adversed in the caloric content of foods you consume to be able to obtain a rough estimate of what you are consuming and apply this consumption to benefit your personal caloric Maintenance Line and mentally approximate whether you are in a surplus or deficit, I flat recommend you learn about the calories of foods, track your calories, and create a surplus, and this will create a bodily environment to make potential growth/strength increase happen. This is the PRIMARY KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS.
Let me make myself clear:
Protein supplements and other supplements like Creatine ARE NOT MIRACLE WORKERS you have too much focus on supplements.
In addition, Protein ISNT A MIRACLE WORKER: It simply cannot create muscle OUT OF NOTHING.
What I mean is, if you are in a catabolic state (body feeding on itself for food, and which deficit diets create), you can consume tub afer tub of protien in this example, and your flat wasting your time.
Our bodies need protein everyday with or without weight training, but.......you would not be creating an "optimal" enviroment to use the the protein to "assist" in building "additional" muscle tissue (if in deficit, and not enough surplus); instead its more akin to trying to "maintain" and "repair" what it has because you are weight training----BUT...you are .."possibly" not eating enough and "possibly" eating in a deficit, and thus this is counterproductive to the goal you seek........>UNDERSTAND?
A calorie is a unit of energy.....
THUS......
More energy then needed to maintain the body, will allow the body to produce more tissue........through the USE of this extra energy and nutrients.
Think of it like a light bulb: Flip the switch and the bulb turns off (deficit diet=no tissue growth, past new to training gains) there is no energy supplied and it doesnt work. Flip the switch again, and the bulb turns on because energy is supplied (surplus calorie environment leads to muscle growth)
You have to get your diet in
SHAPE to make your SWEAT IN THE GYM pay off
GREAT!
Do you want the same results in the next 4 weeks? What was that I didnt quite here ya.............?
The answer: No, I dont........
Okay, your body will remain the same unless you give it a reason to change.
Before I go into what you have been doing in the weight room (and ask more questions), I first want the issue of the almighty calorie understood; therefore, I want you to configure your MT LINE........BY YOURSELF, and post this information------ON YOUR NEXT POST!.......UNDERSTOOD?=========================================================
Here is the information you need, young man:
The road to potentially bulking:
The road to your goal, is gaining knowledge of calories and nutrition within a diet proportioned to your age, wgt, hgt, and gender, which includes associated activities.
Then developing a scheduled training plan per week (which allows recuperation time) that compliments---a clean diet. When both are developed, then the key is consistency and then watching, looking, and being very mindful, of your bodily responses to your diet and training stimulus.
Surplus dieting is the MAIN thing that does the job.
Some Basic information that can lead you to weight tissue gain
Calorie calculation is an approximation science, remember this. Through your journey WATCH, LOOK, and LISTEN, to your body..........it will TELL YOU if your doing the correct things or combination of things!
○ Change your eating habits (below are some suggestion examples)
○ Substitute an artificial sweetener of your choice in the replace of refined white sugar (Refrain from Refined Sugar like you would a disease)
○ Try eating 5 to 6 smaller meals during the day
○ Balance your meals out during the day so in one day you have a mix of protein, carbohydrate and good fats
○ Drink lots of water during the day and before, during and after exercise
○ Simple Carb Examples: Grapefruit, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Oranges, Apples, Pineapple, etc
○ Complex Carb Examples: Whole Wheat Pita Bread, Oatmeal, Long Grain Brown Rice, Brown Pasta, Malto-Meal (Plain, whole wheat),etc
○ Good Protein Examples: White or Dark Tuna, Chicken Breast, Lean Turkey, Lean Ham, Very lean Beef, Quality Whey Protein Powder,, etc
○ Good Fats Examples: Natural Peanut Butter, Various Nuts, Flax Seed, Fish Oils.
This is what you need to do:
This an approximation science, but you can narrow it down very close, if your meticulous in your vision when looking at the data.
Tweak your desire and passion by educating yourself on the basic requirements of losing fat tissue. With your age, sex, height, and weight, in mind, find your approximated base calorie needs (this is organ function, breathing, or bodily function needs). One can use the Benedict Formula.
Calculate your BMR:
The Harris Benedict equation determines calorie needs for men or woman as follows:
• It calculates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calorie requirements, based on your height, weight, age and gender.
• It increases your BMR calorie needs by taking into account the number of calories you burn through activities such as exercise.
This gives you your total calorie requirement or approximated Maintenance Line (I call it the MT Line).
Step One : Calculate your BMR with the following formula:
•Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
•Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
Step Two : In order to incorporate activity into your daily caloric needs, do the following calculation:
•If you are sedentary : BMR x 1.2
•If you are lightly active: BMR x 1.375
•If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 1.55
•If you are very active (You exercise daily.): BMR x 1.725
•If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 1.9
The calorie surplus margin is just an example:
Apply this knowledge by going over the approximated MT Line (approximated Maintenance line), say for example, a +500c per day, for about 1 week.
Before the week begins, weigh yourself in the AM when you FIRST get up (do not eat yet) (remember your clothing, preferably with just underwear and t-shirt or like clothes).
Note the time, and the approximated wgt.
Each day spread your caloric content out throughout the day (keep the body fed, with calories in the 300 to 500c approximated calories each meal), or a like division which mirrors your end caloric deficit limit (meaning MT +500c).
This way you have your entire day and body encircled with nutrition (I assume you already know to eat clean), which if your eating right, will give an approximated good energy.
At the end of the week, on the same day, the same time, with the same like clothes, weigh yourself again. Note whether you lost or gained tissue (or weight I mean).
If this didn't happen, this means you need to make finer adjustments, and the MT line is not accurate, and you need to adjust this on your own.
Based upon the FEEDBACK your body is giving you, ask yourself how faithful you were on the diet, AND how faithful in training (whether you kept the training schedule (if you didn't, this would effect the caloric equation, no?!), AND how accurate you figured in your activities caloric wise.........but, you have the base information to begin making adjustments.
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The Nutrients are an essential factor in the diet; however, the law of energy balance within the DIET, is the ultimate KING while the Nutrients can play in some decisions made within the body.
Do yourself a favor, figure out your MT line, adjust off of this, eat well balanced spaced out meals (DONT EVER starve YOURSELF), AND listen to your body for the results.
While you are trying to figure out your body, IT WILL PAY YOU BACK, I promise. You have to learn to MASTER yourself to become the master of weight loss for YOURSELF.
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"Let your inner vision cultivate your ultimate exterior expression" —Chillen
"The strongest inner feeling that prevails will result in the exterior expression" –Chillen
"Your cultivation and manifestation of thought accumulated within your reasoning will determine your outcome"----Chillen
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The most effective beginning is to look at your diet, and make a diet journal in my opinion, THEN work in a training program around this diet.
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You must have "some obsession".
Have controlled obsession (and obsession to a---Point, is necessary), but
some lose this obsession once they learn the amount of work it requires. There eyes then widen and then the obsession then pops right out. Dont let this happen to you: Raise your Want-o-Meter to a new higher level.
Best Regards,
Chillen