The Eating

[Dradden]

The lifting is the easy part, but I struggle with the eating. I lift for a few different reasons;

1.) Stress and aggravation alleviation. I am a stay at home dad with 4 sons, two not old enough for school yet. Lifting help keeps me sane, I also am a founder of a fairly large online blockchain project which comes with its own stresses.

2.) Strength and health. I don't lift for the "bodybuilding" aspect, more for increasing strength and helping stay fit as I get older.


At 5"11 I am kinda stuck between 200-210lbs, and it is because I have a really hard time to eat enough, being as busy as I am. I am trying to fix this but man it is tough to get over 130-150g protein a day.

How do you guys do it? Any tips or tricks?

I do supplement with whey protein, but not really looking to do more than that. Not looking to bulk up either, just slow and steady strength increase and with it the additional muscle and weight.

[StephenCGreen]

Been there.

If you really, really want to increase your intake, then you may need to count. You probably don't want to count, though. So, count just one food item in your head. For example, if you always have 2 boiled eggs for breakfast, increase it to 4 eggs. If you always have 4 eggs, increase it to 6 eggs. It doesn't have to be boiled eggs, though they are probably the easiest and most beneficial thing to prepare ahead and to increase in consumption, if you eat them.

Also, look at eating fat along with your meats. You get a lot more calories and usually some attached proteins from fat than you do from carbs. Once you lift very heavy weight because of gaining strength, fat is your friend, calorie-wise.

Other than that, increase your fruit and sweet vegetable intake, which can be tedious, but beneficial. You like to workout to alleviate stress. Some people eat to deal with stress. You could learn to make eating a supplementary workout to indirectly deal with stress. Eat your fruits and sweet veggies. Most of them have been bred to be full of sugar, which will help to increase your appetite.

[weiss1967]

for someone 5'11" this is prob all you are going to get, without too much fat or gear. I remember those days when I was continually digesting copious amounts of protein-rich foods.

Add here a small collection of injuries, and there you have a typical natty weightlifter.

Forget it. Enjoy lifting, no goals but pure fun.

If you really want to digest a bit more food- drink two glasses of water between meals. Kind of speeds up peristaltic. Doesn't add anything to actual speed of nutrients intake, but moves shiit faster. My hypothesis is that we simply do not have the absorption area of intestine big enough to digest more than what we can. And then again, do you need larger intestine, larger liver, 2 gallon stomach? How are you going to jump or run with all this shiit?

[GeneralSerpant]

The earlier you start the less impractical it gets.

A meat sandwich is an exceptionally easy way to get 50+ g within 10 minutes, allowing for any combination of starch, fat, or vitamins/minerals. If you can do that in the early morning then you'll have pretty much the whole day to get the other 2/3 - 3/4.

I believe that your hunger signals will be more consistent also if you supply your body wth enough amino acids for both after fasting during sleep and for your upcoming requirements throughout the day. You'll feel like eating more throughout the day, but the hunger is less strong and distracting. It makes the protein quota come off much more practical.

[Gandog]

Do what your doing.. Myself I eat 1 proper meal a day, protein shakes x3, cheap ass ham or chicken slices to snack on..

Of course you can do better than what I suggested. But, the body can only take in so much protein throughout the day. So timing a heavy meal, protein shakes and in-between snacking on chicken or beef/ham slices etc.. You get a lot of protein intake. (I mean spreading out what you eat because having snacks here and there your body can absorb more protein to be more specific)

My two cents.

[MrCarrot]

You probably don't need as much protein as you think you do. When I am bulking and I need 4k calories to gain weight I tend to pack it out with calorie dense foods such as chocolate and peanut butter. I switch out chicken for pork, low calorie mayo for full fat mayo, etc.

[LWW]

Eating is easy and fun! I find it the best part about lifting, no guilt in eating more than the non race horse.

Been eating the feedbags at the stables all day!

[SuicideGripMe]

The easiest fix would be simply add some protein rich foods throughout the day or do a protein bomb once a day (this can be rough on some people's digestion though).

A protein bomb can be simply 2 scoops of whey, 1 scoop collagen, milk (or skim), and some PB2 or peanut butter. This will slam in 70 or so grams of protein and then your other meals can be a bit lighter on the protein. Your other three meals should be quite easy to get the remaining 70 or 80 grams of protein. This seems to work well post-workout and can be a quick fix. I've worked with high school kids and they can't easily tell their parents what to cook or how to cook or shop on their own, so this is a technique we use.