Awesome weird stuff.

[sathor]

Okay, so I've been taking this EAS stuff for a week now, about twice a day. I don't take a full serving because I drink it with milk (20g of protein in a single glass is enough, I don't need 32 or more)

It seems to me that my physique hasn't looked better (yes, I work out and work a hard manual labor job to boot)

The only issue is that I'm still having problems gaining weight.  If I could put on even 10lbs permanently, I would be a very happy guy.

I need to overeat about 3,000 calories to gain a pound. Doing that in a day is inconceivable. I really need to monitor my intake and modify accordingly.

I figured if I could force myself to snack 300-500 calories right in the middle between meals, that might work. But I've done that for awhile with little to no change - actually, I eat throughout the day, many many times. I know - that increases my metabolism even further. But I don't have the stomach for downing 1,500+ calories in a sitting unless it's very dense food (and it seems like I don't get dense food rather often - which is why I'm going to start teaching myself some good recipes)

Eating /bad/ foods to gain weight is not a positive thing. I can't snack myself to 180lbs. For one, the fats won't get burned off and they'll get left in stereotypical areas.

But as long as I eat mostly whole foods (even if they aren't "great" for my health) I should be okay.

A typical day for me looks something like this:

Morning (whatever that is relative to the shift I'm working)
A tall glass of orange juice (probably 12-16oz?)
A bowl of cereal (2% milk)
A bagel
A glass of milk (12-16oz)

Lunch

Sandwich
Celery
Apple/Banana, maybe both if I feel frisky
Some chips (hey, first unhealthy!)

Supper

Whatever it may be. Burgers, chicken, mexican, pizza, spaghetti, breakfast for supper, seafood, the list can go on...sidedishes and whatnot as well...


I don't think I eat that badly really, from a three balanced meals perspective.

I see what lacks a lot of the time is probably 7-8 servings of grains a day. A couple pieces of toast as a snack in the evening, with some peanut butter (legumes) and jelly (fruit) would probably put me exactly where i need to be. Vegetables can hurt too, but I'm slowly working in the vegetables I actually like. Fuck, at least I like celery and carrots, green and orange vegetable. I could only like green veggies and then I'd be worse off.

If I went through and calculated most days, I'm positive I'd be sitting near to 3,000 calories. That's 600 more than the reccommended for my "activity" level and age (2,400 i believe). Obviously, the job I work basically makes me an /athlete/. Except, I can't afford freaking athlete diets.

I'd be eating like $10-15/day if I wanted to really gain weight, wtf!

Comments

[noximist.livejournal.com]

I'm late to this party, but quick comment about the safety of supplements:

In the US, if a product is categorized as a supplement, rather than a drug, it is not checked by any regulatory body. The FDA doesn't even glance at it, and there's no one to apply a warning label except the manufacturer, who obviously won't do so even if it's merited. The irony is that while people complain (not completely without basis) that the FDA is completely motivated by cash and won't approve useful therapies, it's also true that they are -legally unable- to monitor and ban dangerous natural products.

If someone notices that a supplement is killing people, it will eventually be banned - but if that doesn't happen, if the dangers are more subtle than that, it can sit on the shelf indefinitely. There's also the fact that there is no required standardization of ingredients in these products; a recent study of various popular supplements showed that the dosages in the container varied wildly from what was advertised, and some supplements contained unlisted ingredients.

Basically, you should be extremely diligent about checking any unregulated product before you take it, because the onus to ensure your own safety is on you. As one example: melatonin, the popular sleep aid, is almost always made from the pineal gland of cows. This is generally not listed on the bottle, so you have no idea where you're getting it from - and if you're the sort of person who worries about BSE from bovine brain/spinal matter, you're in trouble. I distrust the herbal supplement industry, because there have been so many cases where it has deceived and endangered the public. Soy protein isolate is probably fine, but if you start expanding your reach to include other products, tread very carefully.

Sorry, that was much more of a rant than was necessary. Apparently I've been bottling up my feelings on the matter for a while. ;)

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I will probably stick with the Whey/Creatine just as an after-workout and before bed supplement (best when used after workout, but the protein boost during sleep is a huge help for my muscles, since i'm lifting before work, and then working an 8 hour shift, and /then/ going to bed) The stuff i recently got is a lot better - it has way less sugar (negligible amount in a serving, like 1g) and the rest is vitamins/minerals. It doesn't have a /lot/ of creatine - I used to have friends who would take boatloads of it daily while lifting, and they gained /way/ too fast. I'm only looking to gain maybe 2-3lbs/week at /most/. In a couple months I'm hoping to be close to my target weight, and then I can start cardio while keeping my caloric intake about the same, a "cut" phase. If I'm still not happy, I'll do another bulk phase and continue that until I get to the point where I just want to maintain (god, I wish I was there already)

The Soy gets bad and good reviews all around. I think many, many things do nowadays. Too much of something is bad, too little of something is bad, you need to moderate.

I do want to note though, that the /whey protein/ makes me feel /very/ different mentally. After I started protein supplements period I was more positive/upbeat/happy consistently, but the whey protein is taking it a step further by making me feel quite a bit more energetic. Some of the stuff in the new supplement supposedly can boost testosterone levels (as can doing harsh lower-body workouts) and you can imagine what that might change.