Supplement my Weight-Training

June 25, 2004 4:40 PM

Followup question: Recommend some good protein (and other nutritional) supplements to compliment my weight-training. [more inside]

It's been a month since I started weight-training and it's going fine so far. I'm on a Upper-then-Lower alternate-day schedule.

Now, I've concerns regarding my diet. As I mentioned in the earlier thread, my choice of food is restricted to a few places, like Subway, some pizza, some Indian and Chinese. A rough estimate is that I consume 1500 calories a day (excluding supplements). I would ideally like 1500 more. I could simply buys tons of protein supplements. One problem, I can't afford to spend too much. I can't spend more than $120/month on them (also, in which case, I'll have to economize on regular food, but I've some ideas there.)

So, with that in mind, what are good nutrition/calorie strategies (and products)?

posted by Gyan to health & fitness (11 answers total)

Taste not much of a concern.
posted by Gyan at 4:41 PM on June 25, 2004

Protien powder. There are dozens of brands, almost all of them have supplements added to the mix. They also come in huge containers that have 20+ servings. Check out the various nutritional websites for more info.
posted by Juicylicious at 5:38 PM on June 25, 2004

CostCo has a killer deal going on, and the taste ain't too bad as far as your typical whey protein stuff goes.
posted by keswick at 7:10 PM on June 25, 2004

I'm using this, and getting great results. It's $34 with the GNC gold card.
posted by gramcracker at 7:51 PM on June 25, 2004

In addition to protein supplements, I'd also recommend supplementing with Glutamine and EFAs (essential fatty acids) like fish or flax oil. The glutamine will help your body better deal with the stress of weight training (some more info here). The EFAs are proven to be important to your cardiovascular system but getting enough of those "quality" fats in your diet is essential to losing fat and building muscle.
Both of those supplements have some good science behind them without serious side effects.
posted by dicaxpuella at 7:53 PM on June 25, 2004

Tuna. Cheap protein. No, really.
posted by notsnot at 9:26 PM on June 25, 2004

Dude, I know I'm totally late, but please, eat some real food. 1500 Kcal (if that's the real number) from food isn't much if you're trying to get "hyoooge." Eat peanut butter -- it's good for you, very, very cheap, and a good source of protein and good fats. It's your best friend when trying to get big. Also, if you can tolerate it, milk. If you're really skinny, you can probably drink whole (more calories there), but you might want to stick with 1% (less saturated fat).

If you're just starting out weight training, you can get big on almost anything, and you definitely don't need fancy supplements to do it. In fact, assuming you're willing to eat stuff like chicken thighs and ground turkey, you can get lots and lots of (real) protein for next to nothing (there's always something on sale). Skip the powders and supplements and eat real food. You'll save money and eat better, in the end. Don't be a pansy: cook for yourself.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:27 PM on June 25, 2004

Also egg whites. Hard boil 3 eggs a day, toss the yolks (or eat maybe just one of them) and eat the whites. I've read that "egg whites and oatmeal" is a pretty common breakfast among serious bodybuilders. I did it a little bit when I first started working out.

But for me, in the mornings I'm just too lazy to do any cooking. So breakfast for me means "smoothie" - throw stuff in a blender, puree, and drink. Most commonly I use 8 oz. soy milk, one banana, a handful of frozen strawberries, and a scoop of protein powder. These days I'm using Designer Whey cuz it's pretty inexpensive, though I don't like that one scoop is only 17g of protein - I prefer something that's more in the 25g range. I've also used Weider's Ultra Whey Pro cuz it's fairly inexpensive too, but lately its availability at my grocery store has gotten erratic. (Both of those brands are generally available at Jewel/Osco here in this area, which is another reason I like them - no need for a special trip to the nutrition store. However we just got a new Vitamin Shoppe in town, and they seem to have good prices so I may start getting stuff there now.)

One thing to note if you go the protein powder route - something many people may not mention cuz it gets into TMI land - some of them can cause some nasty flatulence. I down a Beano tablet with my morning protein smoothie and that seems to keep that little problem in check.

The two protein bars I like are Promax and Detour. The Detour ones taste just like a Snickers bar, only with 30g of protein. (A fair amount of fat for a bar like that, so I don't get them every day.)

A general piece of advice I picked up somewhere is to shift your thinking a little bit about food - think of meals as fuel, not necessarily as something that has to be enjoyed all the time. For me I found what works is to develop a system I can stick to. Like, every weekday I bring nearly the same sandwich to work. (Brownberry Health Nut bread, Healthy Choice ham and turkey, slice of cheese, mustard.) Often I bring a little cup of cottage cheese along with this. People joke that I have the same thing all the time - but it's a damn healthy sandwich, and I never have to think or worry too much about what to get when I go to the store. So find things you like, that work for you, and just stick to them.
posted by dnash at 10:47 PM on June 25, 2004

For 10kg of muscle weight gain, how much protein would you need to eat? How long would it take you to put on that much muscle?

Seems to me, that's how much you'd need extra per day.

In one year, 10kg muscle mass x 80% of that is water = 2kg protein spread over one year, ie. piddle.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:13 AM on June 26, 2004

You must learn to love canned tuna and cottage cheese. Both of them are excellent sources of protein and you can get the tuna really, really cheap. I wait until someone has it on sale for $.33/can and stock up. I've found that I actually like the taste of chocolate whey shakes, but then again I've always loved chocolate milk.
posted by TungstenChef at 3:32 AM on June 26, 2004

You don't wanna be eating more than two servings of canned tuna a weak.
You're just asking for heavy metal troubles. Chunk lite is a bit safer, but ineather note I said 2 servings. A typical sized can of tuna=2 servings.
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:45 PM on June 26, 2004