Suggestions for supplement and eating schedule

[msharp3d]

Hello all. I'm really trying to step up my fitness goals and I think nutrition is where I need the most work. Normally I would just try to eat healthy, low carb, high protein throughout the week, avoid drinking, and have a protein shake after my daily lunch hour work out and another shake before bed. I'm 35, 5'10" and weigh about 210. I think I've reached that critical point where I need to introduce a few more supplements and be more diligent with my nutrition schedule. I don't have a ton of money to spend on supplements each month, but I read an article on here about the most important supplements to take: Protein, Creatine, BCAA, Glutamine, Fish Oil, ZMA. I have used a lot of different whey protein supplements throughout the years and I've tried creatine from time to time. My biggest questions is when, how often and how much of each of these supplements? I've read up on each individual supplement in general and of course read the specific brands instructions and tried to create a daily supplement/diet schedule for myself and I'd like to run it by you all. This is really the only way I can stick to something, by having a precise schedule telling me what to do each day. So if you have suggestions or supplements need to be shuffled around or I need to take more or less, please let me know how it should apply to the schedule.

I really appreciate your help in advance.

Here are the specific supplements brands I have:

NOW Sports Whey Protein Isolate
NOW Sports Creatine Monohydrate Powder
BPI Sports Best BCAA Powder
NOW Sports L-Glutamine
NOW Ultra Omega 3 Fish Oil
Optimum Nutrition ZMA
Kirkland Daily Multi Vitamin

My breakfast usually consists of 3-4 eggs, lunch is grilled chicken and a cup of veggies and dinner is grilled chicken and a cup of veggies(boring I know).

Here is the schedule I worked up:

9:00 AM 4 eggs(2 whole, 2 whites)
Creatine - large scoop
2 cups water

10:00 AM Glutamine 4 caps
Multi 1
Test 2 caps
2 cups water

11:00 AM


12:00 PM Protein Shake
BCAA - 2 scoops
Creatine - large scoop
2 cups water

12:30 PM workout

1:00 PM

2:00 PM Protein Shake
BCAA 2 scoops
Creatine - 2 scoops
2 cups water

3:00 PM Glutamine 4 caps
fish oil 2 caps

4:30 PM Lunch
2 cups water

5:00 PM

6:00 PM

7:30 PM Dinner
Glutamine 4 caps
2 cups water

8:00 PM

9:00 PM

10:00 PM Creatine - 2 scoops
2 cups water

11:00 PM

12:00 AM ZMA 4 caps
Glutamine 4 caps

BED!

[koweanguy]

O.M.G..
what a complete mess
First off, disregard the article and drop majority of the supplements you bought. Drop the Glutamine.
2nd, you just need 3-5g creatine daily.
3rd, you do NOT need bcaa's if you are consuming protein shakes or a well-balanced meal.

Just by seeing your excessive reliance on supplements, it is clear that you have no idea about nutrition..
Get your nutrition and workout program figured out first and stop squandering $$$..

[y0lked]

dude youre starving your body. You need to learn proper cutting dietetics. Supplements wont help you there.

After you get your dietary requirements resolved this should be your new supplement regime

breakfast: food and multivitamin
lunch: food and 5g creatine and fish oil
pre workout: food and a preworkout supplement
intraworkout: 5g bcaa
post workout: protein shake and carbs and 5g creatine
pre-bed: casein protein, 50mg zinc

thats it. you do not need more than 2 protein shakes a day unless youre not getting protein from food sources (which is a mistake). And you do not need glutamine, and you do not need BCAAs throughout the day.

[VO2Maxima]

You have way overthought this. I also see a lot of wasted money from way too much creatine, BCAAs being taken at the same time as whey protein, a bunch of supplemental glutamine, etc.

Whey: treat it as food and use it as necessary to hit your protein macro. Some days this may mean you get enough protein from whole foods and don't need it at all, other days you may need to supplement with varying amounts of whey.
Creatine: 5g/day, whatever time of day is convenient
BCAA: use if training fasted, between meals spaced several hours apart, or with meals that are too low in protein to spike MPS
Glutamine: this is abundant in food and also doesn't even make it to the muscles. Use if you have digestive problems, otherwise don't buy this again.
Fish oil: take with food, spaced away from your workout
ZMA: use before bed
Multi: take with food that contains fat

Also no idea how big those food portions are, but it sounds like you're probably starving yourself and losing muscle, and also probably not eating enough fat and tanking your testosterone production.

[msharp3d]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I way overthink EVERYTHING which is why I'm posting haha. I should have pointed out that this is the first week or the creatine loading phase, so by early next week I would have cut down to the amounts you all are recommending now. Also, I tend to workout during my lunch break. I don't really like eating before working out. I feel sluggish or if I'm doing cardio, I don't like the food bouncing around in my belly. However if it's better to eat before working out I will. I was always told to have a protein shake immediately after working out. Since I don't like eating before working out, what I've always done was workout at lunch, protein after, then 2-3 hours later have "lunch". Clearly I know **** about nutrition. The last and really only book on fitness I've ever read was Body for Life so I;m sure the diet and training methods described in there are really out of date.

[msharp3d]

Just by seeing your excessive reliance on supplements, it is clear that you have no idea about nutrition..
Get your nutrition and workout program figured out first and stop squandering $$$..

Though I appreciate you taking the time to reply, trying to get my nutrition program figured out is exactly what I'm trying to do and simply saying I need to figure it out doesn't help much.

[AfroPope]

[msharp3d]

breakfast: food and multivitamin
lunch: food and 5g creatine and fish oil
pre workout: food and a preworkout supplement
intraworkout: 5g bcaa
post workout: protein shake and carbs and 5g creatine
pre-bed: casein protein, 50mg zinc

Thanks for the info. How might this regiment be adjusted if I workout on my lunch break around noon? By this plan I would have eaten 3 times before even working out at noon and I don't even wake up till 9 haha

[TrainerTone]

Your nutrition/diet seems very lackluster to be honest. What you need to do is use a TDEE calculator to figure out your macros a total daily calorie allotment. Once you figure out your total daily cals subtract 300-500 calories from that number. That will be the amount of calories you need to consume daily in order cut. From there make sure you're hitting those numbers (cals/macros) daily. Also make sure you're training regimen is geared towards your goal of cutting. Once you have those 2 things in order for at least a good 3-4 months, then add supplements as.needed.

[koweanguy]

Thanks for the quick replies!
I way overthink EVERYTHING which is why I'm posting haha. I should have pointed out that this is the first week or the creatine loading phase, so by early next week I would have cut down to the amounts you all are recommending now. Also, I tend to workout during my lunch break. I don't really like eating before working out. I feel sluggish or if I'm doing cardio, I don't like the food bouncing around in my belly. However if it's better to eat before working out I will. I was always told to have a protein shake immediately after working out. Since I don't like eating before working out, what I've always done was workout at lunch, protein after, then 2-3 hours later have "lunch". Clearly I know **** about nutrition. The last and really only book on fitness I've ever read was Body for Life so I;m sure the diet and training methods described in there are really out of date.

Sigh, where on earth are you getting all these info.
No, you do not need to load creatine. 3-5g daily as mentioned ought to suffice.
And no, you do not need a protein shake immediately after working out.
Check out the stickies in the Nutrition Section of the forum

Also no idea how big those food portions are, but it sounds like you're probably starving yourself and losing muscle, and also probably not eating enough fat and tanking your testosterone production.

^^Boom!

[koweanguy]

Though I appreciate you taking the time to reply, trying to get my nutrition program figured out is exactly what I'm trying to do and simply saying I need to figure it out doesn't help much.

That was intentionally posted to keep you aloof from Supplementation until you researched and got the gist of your Nutrition down.

[msharp3d]

Your nutrition/diet seems very lackluster to be honest. What you need to do is use a TDEE calculator to figure out your macros a total daily calorie allotment. Once you figure out your total daily cals subtract 300-500 calories from that number. That will be the amount of calories you need to consume daily in order cut. From there make sure you're hitting those numbers (cals/macros) daily. Also make sure you're training regimen is geared towards your goal of cutting. Once you have those 2 things in order for at least a good 3-4 months, then add supplements as.needed.

I found a TDEE calculator and my number came out to 2298, so by your suggestion I need to eat a bit under 2000. Sounds easy enough, but the concept of counting macros is completely new to me. I understand that it's fats, carbs and protein but without being told specifically what to eat and when for my body type and goals I'm pretty lost. LOTS of articles out there and it seems like every time I research something it just opens another rabbit whole and I end up with more questions than I had before. Not to mention I did crossfit for a few years and that whole camp preaches nothing but paleo and not even looking at a carb. Are there any good calculators out there where I can plug in my TDEE minus the 3-400 cals and it spits out recipes? Cuz this is what I need haha

[Farley1324]

I found a TDEE calculator and my number came out to 2298, so by your suggestion I need to eat a bit under 2000. Sounds easy enough, but the concept of counting macros is completely new to me. I understand that it's fats, carbs and protein but without being told specifically what to eat and when for my body type and goals I'm pretty lost. LOTS of articles out there and it seems like every time I research something it just opens another rabbit whole and I end up with more questions than I had before. Not to mention I did crossfit for a few years and that whole camp preaches nothing but paleo and not even looking at a carb. Are there any good calculators out there where I can plug in my TDEE minus the 3-400 cals and it spits out recipes? Cuz this is what I need haha

1. Don't worry about when. Totals at the end of the day, every day, are what you really need to be most concerned with.

2. Don't worry about your "body type", once you have determined the macros (calories and protein being the two most important to get real close to goal), they are what they are there's no "for your bodytype" crap about it

3. **** crossfit

4. No, you aren't going to find something that literally tells you exactly what to eat unless you pay money and that's just silly. Get a food scale, weigh stuff. Look at food labels. If you are like most people a lot of what you eat will be the same basic or similar stuff repeating in rotation so even if the numbers you use or estimate are off, simply adjusting the quantity of those things up/down will get you where you need to be anyway.

5. It takes a little bit of work on your part, it's not going to be spoon fed to you micro step by micro step. But you have access to everything you need for very very little $.