First Cycle Nutrition

[Btcowboy]

I am trying to tweak my nutrition before I run my first cycle in August. The cycle is a simple Test C 250mg 2x a week for 15 weeks.I have AI on hand if needed. I am plan to cruise afterwards so no PCT plan but will have PCT available if needed. Stats 43 196lbs 13-16 % bf. Currently on week 7 of PHAT program with the intent to run it throughout my cycle.

This thread is more on getting my nutrition dialed in for maximum results.

Current food is as follows
Wake up 4am

5am
6oz ground Turkey
1 cup quinoa

8am
6oz ground Turkey
1 cup quinoa
1.5 cups shredded cabbage
Homemade dressing

11am
6oz ground turkey
2 slice protein bread toasted
4 slices tomato
Half an avacado

2pm
6oz ground turkey
1 cup quinoa

At gym 345

Post work out 5pm
1 cup 1% milk
1 scoop whey

530pm
6oz ground Turkey
1 cup quinoa
1.5 cups shredded cabbage
Dressing

Before bed 730pm
1 scoop whey
1-2 tbsp all natural peanut butter
1 tsp coconut oil

In bed 730-800

Total are 3000 cals, 205 carb, 299 prot, 100 fat.

I am strict with the above on my 10 days at work but eat slightly different on my 4 days at home as wife wont eat like I do. Other than different meats it's pretty close.

In the 7 weeks on PHAT program and eating as above I have gone from 186lbs to about 196lbs. I am also on HCG 2000ius per week and 60mg raloxifene daily prescribed by doc.

To get to the question, with my cycle plan and work out plan. I am thinking I will need to add some calories to my plan maybe another 1000? And believe it should come in the form of more carbs. That said looking for some advice, tips, ideas, comments from those here at Meso to ensure best results in my first blast.

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

If your already making steady weight increases your first 7 weeks I would look at that if it’s slowed down or how the progression had happened over the course of those 7 weeks. If you do plan to add calories into your diet 300g of protein is plenty enough and imo I don’t see having fats over 100g it’s just a personal opinion I guess but I’ve never kept fats high. Tweaking your carbs would be the place to start. Right off rip I wouldn’t just jump into adding 1,000 calories off the bat. Add 250-300 calories from carbs in at a time and give it two weeks to see how that effects your weight and performance. I’m assuming your goal is to add muscle as well. Personally I’d probabaly add most of those extra calories into my pre, post, and breakfast. Watch your body composition along the way as well. Again you could always lower the fats some and replace those calories again with more carbohydrates. It’s a bit of trial and error to find out what’s going to work specifically for your body and nobody’s going to be able to notice the differences better than yourself.

By the way I ran Layne Norton’s PHAT program for a long period of time last year. Made some of the best progress of my life with that program. Enjoy !

 

[Btcowboy]

Thanks @FourOneDeuxFitt I have been following your log as well as @Morefyah and @DrankSlangin and you guys are killing it. So I am super happy to get feed back from you guys. I will do a log at some point but have a ways to go to catch up to you guys lol.

Agreed 100% on slow increase if needed. Looking at my food most of the fat is in the ground Turkey, 12g/6oz so may be a bit tough dropping some fat but think I could cut the quinoa as it has 3g fat and switch to yams or potato which has 0 fat and eat more of em. This should also allow me to eat some fattier cuts of meat too from time to time. I will focus most carbs around workout and first thing am. I am going to spend today re working the diet and timings.

Loving Layne Nortons PHAT program. It is tough but very happy with it.

Thanks again

 

[Eman]

What exactly are you trying to achieve with your diet and cycle? Get huge? Get strong? Both?

What is your TDEE?

Personally, I would use ground turkey for only one meal. Use lean red meat for the rest. I'm not sure where all your fat is coming from in the diet... 100gr seems high unless you're using real fatty dressing, which is cool. I hate to see no eggs. I'd get a little more variety in there, but I can see you're looking at convenience.

 

[DrankSlangin]

Your diet is not bad but here’s a few suggestions for tweaking it since your fat is too high. 20% of your calories should come from healthy fats.

1) don’t eat so much ground turkey. There are leaner cuts of meat like chicken breast and lean cuts of steak.

2) homemade dressing hmmmm. I recommend you toss that cabbage in just apple cider vinegar. Tastes great and ACV is incredible for you in many ways, one of those is to help optimize your insulin sensitivity. The better this is, the easier it is build lean muscle and burn body fat. Add some broccoli in that salad too. Spinach. Get those micronutrients from all the vegetables.

3) some are going to scoff at this, but for best results I’d minimize your peanut butter intake. You want omega-3 fats, peanuts have omega-6. Replace with raw almonds or raw almond butter. The only other high quality fat in your diet right now is half an avocado. Take the avocado and almonds, or other nuts high in omega-3’s, and spread them out evenly with your meals. Get your daily fat total to 20%. Or a bit lower so you can make room in that 20% to add in wild caught Alaskan salmon and tuna to your diet. Awesome muscle builders jacked with omega-3 fatty acids. Eggs! Find a way to get a serving in your diet. Lots with omega-3’s.

4) with healthier and lower fat, now you can increase carbs. Quinoa is a fantastic carb. Switch it up for sweet potatoes and rolled oats. Dude rolled oats are super carbs and so easy to make. I’m currently on a budget so I eat the same fuckin meal 5x/day, but my carbs now are rolled oats uncooked, just put em in a cup, 1/2 scoop protein powder for flavor and water. Stir and eat. If you’re not on a budget, switch out the water for almond milk.

Good luck my man. Please tag me if you start a log so I can be sure to sub it. Don’t worry about being at a certain level before your log starts, logs are all about showing progression. The earlier your start one, the more dramatic it will be! I wish I’d have started one 2 years ago ha

 

[Evom1]

I agree with the others on switching to red meat

Also I'd like to suggest focusing a little more on peri workout nutrition

 

[Btcowboy]

Awesome thanks guys.

To answer the questions

My goals are to add lean mass and strength.
My TDEE according to calc is 2350
Ground Turkey is just cheap and easy.
My homemade dressing is 1 part olive oil 2 parts ACV

So I made some changes as per above.
Swapped out ground Turkey for eye of round steak
Added in broccoli and spinach
Swapped PB for almond butter

It's odd I cant eat nuts but can eat the butters. Affects my gall bladder as does eggs so they are out too.

New numbers
Cals 3105
Carb 293
Prot 298
Fat 83

The only fat in my plan is
Almond butter 9g
Eye of round 14g
Salad dressing 1g
Protein bread 2g

My biggest meals are now pre and post workout. Breakfast is the next biggest. Will be taking BCAA/Creatine Mono/Carbion intra workout.

This is why I am here to get this shit right and make the most of my time in the gym and my cycle. Thanks again

 

[DrankSlangin]

Awesome thanks guys.

To answer the questions

My goals are to add lean mass and strength.
My TDEE according to calc is 2350
Ground Turkey is just cheap and easy.
My homemade dressing is 1 part olive oil 2 parts ACV

So I made some changes as per above.
Swapped out ground Turkey for eye of round steak
Added in broccoli and spinach
Swapped PB for almond butter

It's odd I cant eat nuts but can eat the butters. Affects my gall bladder as does eggs so they are out too.

New numbers
Cals 3105
Carb 293
Prot 298
Fat 83

The only fat in my plan is
Almond butter 9g
Eye of round 14g
Salad dressing 1g
Protein bread 2g

My biggest meals are now pre and post workout. Breakfast is the next biggest. Will be taking BCAA/Creatine Mono/Carbion intra workout.

This is why I am here to get this shit right and make the most of my time in the gym and my cycle. Thanks again

Diet numbers look much better! Double check your fat though, you left out the avocado from your totals and only 1g from olive oil? There are 14g of fat in just one tbsp of olive oil. Other than that, looks good.

 

[Sparkyp]

btcowboy you got me questioning my fat now. good post w/ good responses i'll have to modify also.

these forums are so important for the small details.

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

Everybody really hit the nail on the head. I use a lot of 97/3 lean ground beef because fattier cuts of red meat are just very very hard on my body. BUT. Once a day I do have a 5oz portion of a fattier cut of steak and also one meal includes 4 whole eggs and those two meals alone make up HALF my TOTAL fats for the day. The rest of my meals are fish or chicken and when doing so I add in either a tbsp of coconut oil to it or 1 tbsp of an organic nut butter which is literally two ingredients (almonds and palm oil). Which adds in around 7-8g of fat to those meal.

@Evom1 made a VERY good point with peri workout nutrition and I use a lot of John meadows programs and honestly I love his methods and science behind everything and once I started focusing on periworkoit nutrition I felt better all around. Better workouts, quicker recovery, better pumps. Personally I use a half scoop of karbolyn hydrate which is 25g of carbs, 1 scoop of eaa’s, and add in salt as well to my peri shake I sip throughout my workout. If I’m training back or legs it’s a full scoop of karbolyn (50g of carbs). But it was a great investment to make in that and a solid EAA.

 

[Btcowboy]

Diet numbers look much better! Double check your fat though, you left out the avocado from your totals and only 1g from olive oil? There are 14g of fat in just one tbsp of olive oil. Other than that, looks good.

Great so on right path now..... I took out the avacado to cut the fat down. My dressing is made in a bigger container and is 40 servings so per serving it's only 1g fat.

Also swapped quinoa for yams

 

[Sparkyp]

Intra workout for me is 35g of fractionated barley mixed in 25oz of coconut water and 5g of Fusi-bcaa, Fusi doesn’t get their bcaa from animal feathers or hair like the rest do. They extract it from plants. Same stuff just cleaner . I like unflavored because sucralose and artificial sweeteners are very bad. Great pump from the carb and the coconut waters natural electrolytes really keep me fresh throughout.

 

[DrankSlangin]

Everybody really hit the nail on the head. I use a lot of 97/3 lean ground beef because fattier cuts of red meat are just very very hard on my body. BUT. Once a day I do have a 5oz portion of a fattier cut of steak and also one meal includes 4 whole eggs and those two meals alone make up HALF my TOTAL fats for the day. The rest of my meals are fish or chicken and when doing so I add in either a tbsp of coconut oil to it or 1 tbsp of an organic nut butter which is literally two ingredients (almonds and palm oil). Which adds in around 7-8g of fat to those meal.

@Evom1 made a VERY good point with peri workout nutrition and I use a lot of John meadows programs and honestly I love his methods and science behind everything and once I started focusing on periworkoit nutrition I felt better all around. Better workouts, quicker recovery, better pumps. Personally I use a half scoop of karbolyn hydrate which is 25g of carbs, 1 scoop of eaa’s, and add in salt as well to my peri shake I sip throughout my workout. If I’m training back or legs it’s a full scoop of karbolyn (50g of carbs). But it was a great investment to make in that and a solid EAA.

I’m gonna start me some peri workout nutrition as well since you and @Evom1 recommend it. How much water are you using to mix with karbolyn and eaa’s? How much salt? Why eaa’s over bcaa’s?

 

[Sparkyp]

Ok, forget the “no sucralose” lol. It’s in this pre workout. Here is imo the best creatine you can find and the absolute best preworkout @Btcowboy. Just the right amount of speed but not overwhelming and the focus is something I never experienced before. Pumps are great to

 

[Btcowboy]

Ok, forget the “no sucralose” lol. It’s in this pre workout. Here is imo the best creatine you can find and the absolute best preworkout @Btcowboy. Just the right amount of speed but not overwhelming and the focus is something I never experienced before. Pumps are great to

For creatine I generally use Allmax Mono.
I have tried 2 pre workouts Magnum Pre 4 and C4 extreme. Not the biggest fan of them. Rather just use my ECA stack and coffee lol and then an intra. For added pumps I have tried Magnum Volume as well and get pretty good pumps with it.

 

[Eman]

I don't see any reason to cut fat down... 100gr is a good number for a bulk. This is also your first cycle, I would take advantage of it. The only reason to be careful of fats is they can make you feel full and your going to want to get those calories in.

I would increase calories just a little more, personally. I would round off to 300/300/90-100 on fats. That will put you at about 1000cal surplus for a first cycle.

I would insert more white rice and keep the sweet potato, add some fruit like oranges.

Red meat choice is good, I would change it up from time to time. Flank steak is a favorite of mine. Get some ground beef to keep the convenience aspect of the ground turkey, ground bison is becoming more popular.. it's a little expensive sometimes but it is great.

I would add a little bit of grass fed butter to make up some of the extra fats. I would add some more cooked vegetables like spinach, peppers, etc.

Just some more notes. Regardless of what the details of your diet are, keep calories and protein up and it'll be a cycle you'll never forget. Take pictures.

 

[Btcowboy]

Thanks @Eman will do.

 

[FourOneDeuxFitt]

I’m gonna start me some peri workout nutrition as well since you and @Evom1 recommend it. How much water are you using to mix with karbolyn and eaa’s? How much salt? Why eaa’s over bcaa’s?

EAA compared with BCAAs, studies show that the body can more efficiently use EAA’s in order to provide needed energy for muscle growth pre and post-workout. Your body enters into protein synthesis mode after you consume protein, which helps to create and repair muscle fibers. As with any process, there is a peak point in which synthesis is the most active, after which it slowly levels off. Whereas BCAA’s can become redundant if you’re already getting adequate protein intake from your diet and therefore may not help with increasing productivity during protein synthesis, EAAs are proving to help restart and sustain protein synthesis between peaks. The BCAAs do not provide all of the requisite building blocks your body needs to synthesize proteins. To do so, it needs all nine essential amino acids. If your goal is to build as much muscle as possible, you want to supplement with essential amino acids. BCAA are better than nothing, but they are incomplete and inferior to essential amino acid supplements.

 

[DrankSlangin]

EAA compared with BCAAs, studies show that the body can more efficiently use EAA’s in order to provide needed energy for muscle growth pre and post-workout. Your body enters into protein synthesis mode after you consume protein, which helps to create and repair muscle fibers. As with any process, there is a peak point in which synthesis is the most active, after which it slowly levels off. Whereas BCAA’s can become redundant if you’re already getting adequate protein intake from your diet and therefore may not help with increasing productivity during protein synthesis, EAAs are proving to help restart and sustain protein synthesis between peaks. The BCAAs do not provide all of the requisite building blocks your body needs to synthesize proteins. To do so, it needs all nine essential amino acids. If your goal is to build as much muscle as possible, you want to supplement with essential amino acids. BCAA are better than nothing, but they are incomplete and inferior to essential amino acid supplements.

Awesome, many thank yous for that break down my man!