Getting tired of eating all the time

[Viking22]

You know, when I made up my mind that I wanted to be big, I pictured all of the sweat I'd need to spill in the weightroom to build visible mass.

Sh!t, that's the easy part. That's the fun part. The hard part is having to stuff food down my throat every 3 hours of the day.

I'm sick of having to eat all the time to keep my size. Once you earn a muscle, you shouldn't have to keep feeding it.

[Power-Quest]

Become one with the food....

[fitnessman]

You are going to need to do something to amp up your metabolism so that you want to eat come meal time.

For me it having 7-8 meals per day. Cutting down the volume of food per meal and having more frequent meals can do well for some, lets say 2 hours between meals.

In addition, a slight increase in cardio will do well for the metabolism as well.

Eating should be enjoyable, not something that you dislike. Keeping the food selections varied is helpful for the mind.

Overall, yes its part of the deal to keep the hard earned muscle.

[egoatdoor]

Nothing that is exceptional is easy. If it was, most of the population would be buff. Either you want to be big ( and if so, do you have what it takes to make the necessary sacrifices?) or you don't.

Here's an article that can be inspiring or a real downer, depending on how you take it:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ronharris26.htm

[NuclearArms]

That is quite a good article. Real eye-opener. I try to get 300g of protein daily and it is a bitch to eat that much and be healthy. There are days I don't get there, but if you want to pack on the mass, you have to stoke the furnace.

[rsw1]

Originally posted by NuclearArms
That is quite a good article. Real eye-opener. I try to get 300g of protein daily and it is a bitch to eat that much and be healthy. There are days I don't get there, but if you want to pack on the mass, you have to stoke the furnace.

I agree Nuke, great article. Me? I have to be one of the worlds worst at eating enough during the day.
Funny, I was just talking about this yesterday. I weigh in at 185 at 5'10", so just to "maintain" my weight I'd need at least 2400 calories a day. But....that's where the problem comes in. Personally I have a hard time consuming more than 500 calories before lunchtime. That usualy consists of a 320 calorie protein bar and a cup of yogurt ( at differnt times of the morning). Then, lunch is usually a lean chicken/turkey sandwich and a side of beans (or whatever). Well that's great and all....but I've still only consumed 1000-1100 calories for the day. So now I find myslef trying to "make up" for my (minimum)1400 calorie deficit during the rest of the day/evening. Sound easy....but for whatever reason, to me it isn't.

I'm still able to make moderate gains, but I think this article goes a long way by putting things in perspective.
Now if I can only start woofing down the groceries I'd have it made.

If only beer counted, I'd be good to go :<)

[Minotaur]

My problem is that I love to eat. I love all kinds of food. Unfortunately, it's the preparing of food that I dislike. Oh, I like to cook... a big meal, or a big pot of something. But not all the time. What I dislike is having to make up food portions or packages, or think about what I'm going to take to work. That sort of thing.

[Macattack]

Right beside ya minotaur, i'll often just say scew throwing crap together i'll hit the drive thru then GUILT!!!!!!

[egoatdoor]

Originally posted by rsw1
I weigh in at 185 at 5'10", so just to "maintain" my weight I'd need at least 2400 calories a day. But....that's where the problem comes in. Personally I have a hard time consuming more than 500 calories before lunchtime. That usualy consists of a 320 calorie protein bar and a cup of yogurt ( at differnt times of the morning).

5' 10", 185. You don't sound fat. Why are you eating yogurt? Also, you've been sleeping for how many hours and then working in the morning. That's maybe 12 hours and all you've eaten is a protein bar and yogurt...How about a decent breakfast(oatmeal or whole wheat waffles with some fruit)? Then eat the protein bar mid morning to tide you over to lunch. If you eat more early in the day, it boosts your metabolism which leads to fat burning and muscle building, right???

Then, lunch is usually a lean chicken/turkey sandwich and a side of beans (or whatever). Well that's great and all....but I've still only consumed 1000-1100 calories for the day. So now I find myslef trying to "make up" for my (minimum)1400 calorie deficit during the rest of the day/evening. Sound easy....but for whatever reason, to me it isn't.

Its still early in the day and you are not fat, so why skimp on the calories? Have a more caloric complex carb like a baked red potato or a yam instead of the beans. Once a week, have a hamburger grilled from lean red meat for additional calories and amino acids. One or two days a week, have some nuts (a source of healthy fats) in the mid afternoon a couple of hours after lunch.

I'm still able to make moderate gains, but I think this article goes a long way by putting things in perspective.
Now if I can only start woofing down the groceries I'd have it made.

Its not that hard if you put your mind to it, eat more early in the day and don't try to eat too "clean" all the time ( don't believe what you read in the magazines about the pros eating only chicken breast, oatmeal and rice all day. That is only when they are pre contest dieting ).

For illustration, this is what I ate today through lunch:

Breakfast: small plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and chopped vegetables, tuna steak( my protein source for the meal) a whole wheat english muffin and Crystal Light.
9:30: A protein bar
11:00: 2 ounces of unsalted peanuts
Lunch(12:30): Tuna steak, baked red potato, slice of cornbread, Crystal Light and water

Yesterday's lunch was chicken breast, a potato, an apple, Crystal Light, water and a couple of graham crackers.

Its not that hard.

[egoatdoor]

Originally posted by Minotaur
My problem is that I love to eat. I love all kinds of food. Unfortunately, it's the preparing of food that I dislike. Oh, I like to cook... a big meal, or a big pot of something. But not all the time. What I dislike is having to make up food portions or packages, or think about what I'm going to take to work. That sort of thing.

I'll cook food in large batches. Bake a dozen potatoes at a time, wrap them in foil and microwave for one minute to reheat them

Roast 5-10 chicken breasts or grill 5 hamburgers at a time, again wrap them in foil and microwave when I am ready to eat them.

[Uninspired]

If you guys have heard of ShaneG85, at 16 years old and a competitive bodybuilder, he eats over 4000 calories....while he's cutting. I can't imagine what he had to eat when he bulks.

[egoatdoor]

Originally posted by Uninspired
If you guys have heard of ShaneG85, at 16 years old and a competitive bodybuilder, he eats over 4000 calories....while he's cutting. I can't imagine what he had to eat when he bulks.

In my last cutting phase(which I treated like a pre competition), I started at 4250 and worked down to 3650 the last week ( of six). The 3650 was all clean. Using certain diet manipulation techniques plus racheting up the cardio, increasing intake of thermogenics and reducing carb intake gradually worked to burn off the fat while retaining almost all of the muscle size I started out with. Cutting calories and carbs too drastically will flatten out most trainers if they are not using drugs.

[rsw1]

Great advice Ego. One thing that will help me is to stop treating breakfast as though it's a "quick" energy boost or as a shot of protein and start treating it as a real meal. Same goes for lunch.

[desmo]

I've been ghosting for a while and only recently started to post, but I've read so many posts from different sites and forums about guys who are stacking PHs, and complaining they aren't making any gains. Few make any mention of kicking the calories up.

It took me years to finally get my head out of my a__ and figure out that being a gym rat is only part of the equation. Sleeping and eating are the other IMHO. What's been working for me is to plan out my menu and eat mostly the same thing during work every day (I know variety is necessary also). This makes packing my food every day much easier.

Yeah it's a pain in the butt thinking about what to eat, when to eat, etc. but it's kicked my growth up after years of hovering around the same weight (and BF%). Sunday evening (before the Sopranos) is spent cooking chicken, veggies, boiling eggs, etc. for the week. Another thing I found that helps is I have a couple set meals - say 200g chicken w/2 slices cheese there's 500 cal, ~70g P and 25g F that I can grab depending on whether I need a P+F or P+C meal.

I'm finally a believer in packing the food in - you gotta feed the machine!