Back To Basics With Nutrition and Supps !!

[sanj]

This is a thread ive been working on for about 3 weeks now. I've gathered all information from bodybuilding.com, and various magazines (Flex, MuscleMag, etc.). So Enjoy !


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Protein Supplements
There are several types of protein supplements: whey protein, casein protein, protein blends, egg protein, and soy protein. With all the different brands and varieties out there, it gets pretty confusing. Luckily, we got articles on all of the on the site here somewhere. ;-)

Whey protein is the staple supplement of bodybuilding. Whey is one of the best proteins with a PDCAA score of 1.14, and a biological value of 100. Being a very fast absorbing protein, whey is the choice supplement for immediate use right after workouts.

Besides its many benefits for bodybuilding, many studies have show many health benefits of using whey protein:

"A growing number of studies has found whey may potentially reduce cancer rates, combat HIV, improve immunity, reduce stress and lower cortisol, increase brain serotonin levels, improve liver function in those suffering from certain forms of hepatitis, reduce blood pressure, and improve performance, to name a few of its potential medical- and sports-related applications. Whey also has an exceptionally high biological value rating and an exceptionally high Branch Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) content." - Will brink (The Whey It Is)


Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is another staple of bodybuilders, but like with various supplements, some users blindly use it without really understanding what creatine really is, or how it really works. Which is why I get questions such as "will creatine make me fat?", or "will creatine cause my balls to shrink?", or "will creatine stunt my growth?".

The answer is "NO" to all of above.

First of all, creatine has no nutritional value, so there's no way it can make you fat, and it won't do anything for you, if you don't have a good diet and workout program in place to begin with. Creatine helps by increasing the amount of ATP available in your body - ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the fuel for your muscle contractions.

The ATP releases a phosphate molecule to become a diphosphate (ADP), thus supplying energy for your muscle contractions. Creatine then gives one of its phosphate to the ADP making it an ATP again - so by supplementing creatine, you increase your body's ability to generate ATP, which is what gives the extra energy and endurance many creatine users experience.

There are pure creatine Monohydrate powders, usually quite cheap nowadays, and then there are creatine formulas like celltech, V12, phos****en etc... During my bulking cycles, I like to use cell tech creatine... Well, not the real store bought one, which is just a little rich for my blood, so I make my own homemade celltech, which has worked excellent, and also tastes fantastic!

What is cell tech? It's a "creatine delivery system" - its creatine monohydrate mixed in with a lot of dextrose, in a ratio of 5g creatine to 35g of dextrose. (Dextrose is a simple carb). I'm not going into details about this, since I have 2 other articles covering this.


L-Glutamine - Amino Acid
Glutamine is the other "regular" supplement in my stacks. L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in your muscles, consisting of over 61% of your skeletal muscle, and it is also the primary nitrogen transporter. Glutamine has many benefits:

Help improve recovery
Increase growth hormone output
Help boost the immune system
Replenish declining glutamine levels from workouts
Prevent muscle catabolism

Cell Tech Taste Review
A quick little blurb about Cell Tech's taste - it comes in 4 flavors, orange, grape, fruit punch, and lemon lime. I like orange, so that's the one I tried, and the taste is actually really good! For those of you that really care about taste, you should enjoy Cell Tech taste. Most other people who's taken Cell Tech also enjoys the taste. Now on with the good stuff.

MuscleTech Cell Tech Ingredients
MuscleTech did put alotta thought into Cell Tech, and its mix of ingredients. CellTech isn't like the pure creatine monohydrate powders, but a mix of a lotta stuff that actually works synergistically together to boost creatine absorption - I'll get into details about this later.

Here's a list of Cell Tech ingredients:

Serving Size: (two scoops) 98.5g
Each serving provides:
Creatine Monohydrate: 10g
Lipoic Acid: 200mg
Calories: 300
Total Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 60mg
Potassium: 150mg
Calcium: 20mg
Total Carbohydrates: 75g
Protein: 0g
Vitamin C: 250mg

Ingredients: Pharmaceutical-grade Dextrose, HPLC-tested Pure Creatine Monohydrate, Taurine, Natural & artificial flavors, Malic acid, Red beet powder, Dipotassium phosphate Disodium phosphate, Magnesium phosphate, Ascorbic acid, Lipoic acid, FD&C Blue #2, Chromium picolinate.

With all things put aside, the major ingredients in Cell Tech are the 10g of creatine monohydrate, 75g of dextrose (carbs), and chromium picolinate, and it comes with 300 calories per serving. You'll see in the next section how this mix helps creatine absorption.

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Proteins

Protein is an essential nutrients, since your body can't make its own, so you have to get it from the foods you eat everyday. Almost anyone half serious about bodybuilding will know that proteins are an essential nutrient that you must get enough everyday to support new muscle growth, and you can get proteins from foods such as all types of meats, nuts, dairy products, vegetables, supplements and more.

A protein is made up of a number of amino acids. There are 20 or so different amino acids that make up a protein - 8 of them are essential (meaning your body can't make them), and the rest are non-essential, meaning your body can make them from the other essential aminos.

Ever hear the term "peptides" and wonder what the heck they are in protein terminology? It's really simple. Link a few aminos together, and that makes a peptide, and link a bunch of peptides together, you have a protein!

PROTEIN:
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Tuna (water packed)
Fish (salmon, seabass, halibut, sushi, mahi mahi, Orange roughi, tilapia, Sardines)
Shrimp
Extra Lean Ground Beef or Ground Round (92-96%)
Venison
Buffalo
Ostrich
Protein Powder (Whey, Casein, Soy, Egg)
Eggs
Low or Non-Fat Cottage cheese, Ricotta
Low fat or Non fat Yogurt
Ribeye Steaks or Roast
Top Round Steaks or Roast (stew meat, London broil, Stir fry)
Top Sirloin (Sirloin Top Butt)
Beef Tenderloin (filet mignon)
Top Loin (NY Strip Steak)
Flank Steak (Stir Fry, Fajitas)
Eye of Round (Cube meat, Stew meat, Bottom Round)
Ground Turkey, Turkey Breast slices or cutlets (*no deli or sandwich meats)

Carbohydrates

Everyone seems to hate carbs these days - thanks to Atkin's, low carb diet craze, and the media - everyone's jumping on the bandwagon of following low carb diets. Which is rather ridiculous if you ask me. Your body is made to operated on and burn carbs as the main fuel. On an Atkin's diet, you eat almost no carbs, and as much fats and proteins as you want...
-Bad Idea !

COMPLEX CARBS (nothing enriched, bleached or processed):
Oatmeal (Old fashioned, Quick oats, Irish steal cut)
Sweet Potatoes, Yams
Beans (Black eyed, Pinto, Red, Kidney, Black)
Oat Bran Cereal, Grape nuts, Rye cereal, Multi grain hot cereal
Farin (Cream of wheat)
Whole Wheat frozen Bagels, Pitas
Whole wheat or Spinach Pasta, Whey Pasta
Rice (Brown, white, jasmin, basmiti, arborio, wild)
Potatoes (red, white, baking)

Fats

The sound of the word "fats" scares many people, but in all honesty, not all fats are "bad", and fats play an essential role in our regular diet, and in keeping a balanced nutrition plan. There are different types of fats, and not all fats are bad for you.

Saturated fat (bad fat)

Fatty acids are made up of chains of carbon atoms, and when the carbon atoms have no free bonds to link with other atoms, the fat is saturated.

Fat fact - saturated fats are the 'BAD' type of fat. The body has a tough time process saturated fats, and stores it as fat. Saturated fats raise cholesterol levels, which increases the chance of heart attacks. Reduce saturated fats in your diet is the first fat solution towards a healthier diet.

Saturated fat mainly come from meat sources, but some are found in vegetable products: i.e. palm and coconut oil.

Polyunsaturated fat (good fats)

Usually liquid at room temperature, polyunsaturated fat comes in two types: omega 6 and omega 3. Omega 6 type comes mainly from vegetables, and omega 3 come from oily fish. Polyunsaturated fat actually help reduce the level of cholesterol! So a small consumption is important for good health.

Monounsaturated fat (good fats)

This type of fat mainly comes from veggies. For example, they can be found in olive oil and almond oil. Monounsaturated fat is also thought to help reduce cholesterol levels.

[sanj]

Intake Guide
To figure out how much calories you need, here's a general guideline:

For weight loss:
Your body weight X 10 to 12 = The range of your daily caloric intake

For maintaining:
Your body weight X 13 to 15 = The range of your daily caloric intake

For bulking up:
Your body weight X 16 to 18 = The range of your daily caloric intake

This will give you a rough idea of how much calories you should take in each day, but it's by no means carved in stone. For me, I weigh 155, so:

BodyWeight X 16 = cals/day
BodyWeight X 18 = cals/day

Calculating your Protein, Carbs, and Fats intake

So, for me, let's just pick a even number of 2700 calories per day - obviously it won't always workout exactly this way, but round numbers are easy to deal with. ;-) To do the following calculation, you will need to know the calorie values of 1g of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Here they are:

1g protein = 4 calories
1g carbohydrates = 4 calories
1g fat = 9 calories
The above just shows how much calories you will get from consuming 1gram of each, and notice that 1g of fat gives more than double the calories of proteins and carbs.

Calculate your daily protein and carbohydrate caloric intake:

Your daily calories X 40% = calories coming from proteins
Your daily calories X 40% = calories coming from carbohydrates
For me, these numbers would be:

2700 X 40% = 1080 calories from proteins
2700 X 40% = 1080 calories from carbs
Calculate your daily fat caloric intake:

Your daily calories X 20% = calories coming from fats
My daily calories from fat would be:

2700 X 20% = 540 calories
So, now that we know I need 1080 calories from of protein, 1080 calories from carbohydrates, and 540 calories from fats. All we need to do now, is figure out how much protein, carbs, and fat I need.

Calculate your daily protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake:

Protein: 1080 calories / 4 calories per gram of protein = 270g protein
Carbs: 1080 cals / 4 cals per gram of carbohydrate = 270g carbs
Fat: 540 calories / 9 calories per gram of protein = 60g fat
So, I should aim to take in 270g of protein, 270g of carbohydrates, and 60g of fats.

The Glycemic Index (GI) & Food You Eat
When you eat certain foods, insulin release results from the food you eat, and you have a good control of this by the foods you choose to eat. There are simple carbs, and complex carbs - actually I think there's something like 5 types of carbs like monosachrides, polysacharides, and etc... To keep things simple, we just say simple and complex carbs.

Carbs are just sugar. Simple carbs are just sugar, and is absorbed into the blood stream very fast. Complex carbs like that from rice, bread and pasta, take time to breakdown, and takes longer to absorb.

So what's this got to do with the glycemic index?

The Glycemic Index measures the ability of how quickly (or slowly) a carbohydrate food can raise blood sugar levels. In general, simple carbs tend to be high on the glycemic index (since they raise blood sugar levels relatively fast), and complex carbs are lower on the glycemic index - since they take more time to break down.

When you eat foods low on the glycemic index (complex carbs), the insulin response is much more mild, since the food increases your blood sugar level at a slower rate, unlike simple carbs. Below lists some significance of the glycemic index:

-Low glycemic index food keep you fuller for longer
-Low GI food can help improve diabetes control
-Low glycemic index foods help improve your body's sensitivity to insulin
-Low GI foods are beneficial for people trying to lose weight
-Low glycemic foods lead to smaller rise in blood sugar
-About the only time you would want to consume a high glycemic index carbohydrate is immediately after workouts

The Glycemic Index of Food
Cereals GI Snacks GI
All Bran 51 chocolate bar 49
Bran Buds + psyll 45 corn chips 72
Bran Flakes 74 croissant 67
Cheerios 74 doughnut 76
Corn Chex 83 graham crakers 74
Cornflakes 83 jelly beans 80
Cream of Wheat 66 Life Savers 70
Frosted Flakes 55 oatmeal cookie 57
Grapenuts 67 pizza, cheese & tom 60
Life 66 Pizza Hut, supreme 33
muesli, natural 54 popcorn, light micro 55
Nutri-grain 66 potato chips 56
oatmeal, old fach 48 pound cake 54
Puffed Wheat 67 Power bars 58
Raisin Bran 73 pretzels 83
Rice Chex 89 saltine crakers 74
Shredded Wheat 67 shortbread cookies 64
Special K 54 Snikers bar 41
Total 76 strawberry jam 51
Fruit vanilla wafers 77
apple 38 Wheat Thins 67
apricots 57 Crackers
banana 56 graham 74
cantalope 65 rice cakes 80
cherries 22 rye 68
dates 103 soda 72
grapefruit 25 Wheat Thins 67
grapes 46 Cereal Grains
kiwi 52 barley 25
mango 55 basmati white rice 58
orange 43 bulgar 48
papaya 58 couscous 65
peach 42 cornmeal 68
pear 58 millet 71
pineapple 66 Sugars
plums 39 fructose 22
prunes 15 honey 62
raisins 64 maltose 105
watermelon 72 table sugar 64

The Glycemic Index

Pasta GI Beans GI
cheese tortellini 50 baked 44
fettucini 32 black beans, boiled 30
linguini 50 butter, boiled 33
macaroni 46 cannellini beans 31
spagh, 5 min boiled 33 garbanzo, boiled 34
spagh, 15 min boiled 44 kidney, boiled 29
spagh, prot enrich 28 kidney, canned 52
vermicelli 35 lentils, green, brown 30
Soups/Vegetables lima, boiled 32
beets, canned 64 navy beans 38
black bean soup 64 pinto, boiled 39
carrots, fresh, boil 49 red lentils, boiled 27
corn, sweet 56 soy, boiled 16
green pea, soup 66 Breads
green pea, frozen 47 bagel, plain 72
lima beans, frozen 32 baquette, Frnch 95
parsnips 97 croissant 67
peas, fresh, boil 48 dark rey 76
split pea soup w/ham 66 hamburger bun 61
tomato soup 38 muffins
Drinks apple, cin 44
apple juice 40 blueberry 59
colas 65 oat & raisin 54
Gatorade 78 pita 57
grapefruit juice 48 pizza, cheese 60
orange juice 46 pumpernickel 49
pineapple juice 46 sourdough 54
Milk Products rye 64
chocolate milk 35 white 70
custard 43 wheat 68
ice cream, van 60 Root Crops
ice milk, van 50 french fries 75
skim milk 32 pot, new, boiled 59
soy milk 31 pot, red, baked 93
tofu frozen dessert 115 pot, sweet 52
whole milk 30 pot, white, boiled 63
yogurt, fruit 36 pot, white, mash 70
yogurt, plain 14 yam 54



So to get an idea of what these numbers mean, here's a general guide line:

Low glycemic food = 55 or less
Medium glycemic food = 56 - 69
High glycemic foods = 70 or higher
Simple right? All you need to do, is try to consume foods lower than 55 on the glycemic index. ;-)

For my diet, below are some foods which I ate often as primary sources of carbohydrates for my meals:

Long grain white rice - 56
Yams - 73
Green beans - 30
Carrots - 49
Grape fruit - 25
Grapes - 46
Pine apple - 66
Corn - 56
Green pea - 47

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All Information from various magazines and bodybuilding.com.

Enjoy.

[Cyberslick18]

Rock solid information for beginners. Sticky?

[sanj]

Rock solid information for beginners. Sticky?

half the people on this forum wouldnt be able to answer these questions in person if i asked them. this is overall basics. if you dont got this down, your not going far.

^

[omega23]

bump

[ShadowBlaze]

Great post! sums up everything, great for everyone to brush up
on their basics or learn them for the first.

[the letter X]

Wait a minute hold everything! did u just say ostrich! ive never eaten ostrich or seen it for sell. is it any good?