Diet and Fitness
Discussion
Is it possible to eat pretty normally and have a well defined body (Not huge but well defined muscles)?
I am just getting into weight training, however when you ask on a fitness/bodybuilding forum they only eat disgusting stuff like a protein shake mixed with pprridge in the morning, cottage cheese for a snakc, and a chicken breast for lunch.
Now is it possible to eat fairly normally (but healthily) and take some protein supplements and achieve the same goals? I cook pretty much everything from scratch so don's eat any ready meals or crap like that.
I am just getting into weight training, however when you ask on a fitness/bodybuilding forum they only eat disgusting stuff like a protein shake mixed with pprridge in the morning, cottage cheese for a snakc, and a chicken breast for lunch.
Now is it possible to eat fairly normally (but healthily) and take some protein supplements and achieve the same goals? I cook pretty much everything from scratch so don's eat any ready meals or crap like that.
monthefish said:
Yes.
Unless you are looking to bulk up, yes you can certainly do it on a normal healthy diet.
For maximum definition, you'll need to be really picky about the food you eat, but it can definitely be done.
Yes, I'm looking to bulk up slightly (Don't want to be like Arnie, more like Bruce Lee Unless you are looking to bulk up, yes you can certainly do it on a normal healthy diet.
For maximum definition, you'll need to be really picky about the food you eat, but it can definitely be done.
). I was a fatty(ish) but sorted myself out and keep active so I'm now slim. Am going to carry on without the protein supplements I think for a while and see how I get on. Or would you recommend taking them on workout days (1 post workout and one before bed??)
obob said:
monthefish said:
Yes.
Unless you are looking to bulk up, yes you can certainly do it on a normal healthy diet.
For maximum definition, you'll need to be really picky about the food you eat, but it can definitely be done.
Yes, I'm looking to bulk up slightly (Don't want to be like Arnie, more like Bruce Lee Unless you are looking to bulk up, yes you can certainly do it on a normal healthy diet.
For maximum definition, you'll need to be really picky about the food you eat, but it can definitely be done.
). I was a fatty(ish) but sorted myself out and keep active so I'm now slim. Am going to carry on without the protein supplements I think for a while and see how I get on. Or would you recommend taking them on workout days (1 post workout and one before bed??)
Supplements are great, especially if you are finding it difficult to get enough protien to support growth in your normal diet (which is surprisingly difficult, especially on a sustained basis (which is necessarry for growth - there's no point in eating brilliantly for the first week and then going back to normal afterwards))
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Makes what might otherwise be a relatively boring breakfast of porridge into deliciousness. The chocolate flavours in particular are great for this. And adding oats into a protein shake will give it a wonderful gloopyness - you end up with a very thick shake, full of flavour.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Meoricin said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Makes what might otherwise be a relatively boring breakfast of porridge into deliciousness. The chocolate flavours in particular are great for this. And adding oats into a protein shake will give it a wonderful gloopyness - you end up with a very thick shake, full of flavour.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Edit - Actually maybe it could work I guess with some of the stuff. What do you use and how do you make it taste decent?
Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Friday 17th September 18:36
Running 100+ miles a week and eating anything and everything, just lots of it, gave me a very well defined lean body with low fat %age. that might be a bit extreme for you if you're not a competitive athlete though 
Diet was obviously high in carbs, good on protein, ok on fat, also included litres of water and a few beers, coffee and cake.
Diet was obviously high in carbs, good on protein, ok on fat, also included litres of water and a few beers, coffee and cake.
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
I have a pretty good diet, have cut out the crisps/chocolates, stick to spirit based drinks for less calories on the odd occasions I do drink. I cook everything from scratch apart from the odd fish finger sandwich which I can't help, and my cheat day which is Sunday.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
It wasn't just the mixing of protein shakes into porridge. It was the fact that they watch exactly what they eat. Like exactly how many grams of protein and how many of carbs and which types of fats and which amino acids etc. I'm not anal enough to do that!!
How much protein should you take per day? is it 2grammes per KG of bodyweight?
obob said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
I have a pretty good diet, have cut out the crisps/chocolates, stick to spirit based drinks for less calories on the odd occasions I do drink. I cook everything from scratch apart from the odd fish finger sandwich which I can't help, and my cheat day which is Sunday.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
It wasn't just the mixing of protein shakes into porridge. It was the fact that they watch exactly what they eat. Like exactly how many grams of protein and how many of carbs and which types of fats and which amino acids etc. I'm not anal enough to do that!!
How much protein should you take per day? is it 2grammes per KG of bodyweight?
You don't need to watch every gram if you don't want sub 10% bodyfat it really depends on how far you want to go. Simply having a good idea about what you're eating at the start is good enough then if you want to move further along you may want to understand a bit more.
I have a friend who believes he doesn't need to watch his diet much since he goes the gym, he's one of those dudes that goes the gym forever but never seems to get in shape or really change.
Most bodybuilders recommend 1.5-2g of protein per llb of body weight. I work off 1.5 but as long as I'm getting about 200g of protein a day I'm happy. It's easy once you get the hang of it and it's what will make the effort you put in, in the gym show.
Too many people train properly but then neglect their diet and never see any real results and then end up demotivated and not happy or give up.
Low fat/med or low carb and high protein is all you need. I takes a little learning at the start but gets very easy after a few weeks.
Ordinary_Chap said:
Meoricin said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Makes what might otherwise be a relatively boring breakfast of porridge into deliciousness. The chocolate flavours in particular are great for this. And adding oats into a protein shake will give it a wonderful gloopyness - you end up with a very thick shake, full of flavour.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Edit - Actually maybe it could work I guess with some of the stuff. What do you use and how do you make it taste decent?
Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Friday 17th September 18:36
Morba said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
Meoricin said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
I'd suggest diet is going to equate to about 70% of your shape.
Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Makes what might otherwise be a relatively boring breakfast of porridge into deliciousness. The chocolate flavours in particular are great for this. And adding oats into a protein shake will give it a wonderful gloopyness - you end up with a very thick shake, full of flavour.Protein shakes are pretty nice now with the right brand. Myprotein shakes are like drinking a milkshake. Although I've never heard of anyone putting it in porridge
The long and short of it is you're not going to get defined and grow well with a shoddy diet.
I think it's entirely possible to have an enjoyable and very healthy diet using a lot of bodybuilder foods like chicken and other lean meats.
Protein is one of the biggest building blocks though if you want to develop some muscle and its pretty hard to get enough purely through diet unless you're going to eat a lot of meats and if you do you'll probably end up fat anyway. Thats why most folk use protein drinks or other suppliments.
Having a poor diet and training hard is akin to thrashing a car whilst feeding it substandard fuel and expecting good performance from it.
Edit - Actually maybe it could work I guess with some of the stuff. What do you use and how do you make it taste decent?
Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Friday 17th September 18:36
Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Saturday 18th September 10:58
To just improve my physique, I found I can pretty much eat what I want as long as I get the training in. My diet does tend to verge toward vegetarian and I only eat meat 2-3 times a week (protein comes from mushrooms, lentils, couscous, pulses etc) plus I don't drink more than 1-2 units of alcohol a week but I eat a lot of crisps (10 bags a week?) and biscuits (5-6 packets a week) plus I eat quite late in the day (dinner can be anything from 7pm to 9pm). Point is, get the CV work in plus train to failure and, while it won't exactly win competitions, it'll be an improvement over what you have now. To quantify, I can probably do 20 pull ups in a row at a push, 30 horizontal rows and 40-50 press ups in a row at a push (I was going for the 100 thing but read about the potential damage to shoulders which I can't afford as it'd ruin my climbing training).
Edited by ShadownINja on Saturday 18th September 23:40
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