Nutrition:
The Most Important Aspect
By: Alton Hare
The right stuff at the right time is 90% of
bodybuilding, and your gonna need all of that with the
chest training I outlined, along with, what I
consider, the best workouts for each body part.
This site is about teen bodybuilders, and if its not
summer then we're in school about 7 hours, and in that
seven hours there is one 30-60 minute break in which
we are actually allowed to eat. You could just load
up as much food as you could possibly handle at this
one break, but that's not the most efficient way for
your body to absorb nutrients. First of all, it can
make you sick to stuff yourself like that, and second
it spikes your insulin way up, which signals your body
to store fat. When you eat large, infrequent meals,
your body makes allowances to store some of the energy
to be used when your not eating. Unfortunately that
stored energy isn't very useful for bodybuilders since
we don't need large amounts of stored energy to
survive. While I was wrestling I made sure to eat
every 2-3 hours, it was all I could do to stay fueled
for the intense practices after school AND my weight
training.
Protein bars are an expensive way to eat, plus most
don't contain enough carbs or have too many carbs as
sugar, which spikes your insulin anyway. If you have
the money Met-Rx Protien Plus are good bars, as long as
you get the peanut butter flavor, the chocolate has
EIGHT grams of saturated fat, that's too much even in
a bulking phase, its just not healthy. The peanut
butter I think has 4.5 grams, and only a few grams of
sugar. If you don't have the money a can of tuna,
opened and put in a Tupperware container and sealed
works just as well. You can even bring a couple
slices of whole grain bread with you in a ziploc bag
and have a tuna sandwich between, say, first and
second period. I ate breakfast around 7 am, and first
period was over at 946, and I ate lunch at 1240, so
that's what I usually did. Tuna is very dense in
protein, and cheap too. You may want to consider
chipping in the extra few cents for low sodium tuna if
you have a problem with water retention, or just for
your health, sodium in general is bad for you, even in
the doses the FDA recommends. The owner of my gym, a
natural bodybuilder, brought his sodium down to 200
milligrams a day before a contest and experienced no
cramping.
School lunch is a compromise, most of it has way too
much grease and almost nothing nutritionally. I used
to pick out the most healthful choices I could, they
usually have a few vegetables and its hard to mess up
chicken (unless its fried).
About two hours after lunch it was towards the end of
fourth period, and about an hour and a half before my
workout (in wrestling season I took weightlifting in
second period, second semester I trained after school)
I got out my shaker cup with a scoop of whey protein
and powdered Gatorade already in it, and poured in
water from my bottle of water, and shook it up. I had
a really cool teacher 4th period, so he didn't mind at
all. If you have one who's a bitch, you can wait till
right after class. I'd drink that, and be ready and
energized for my workout. I am planning on using
N-Large II for this purpose next year, I've already
gotten a 10 lb. bucket, I've heard good things about
it, plus there's only six simple ingredients that are
pretty common, no tricks and gadgets and stuff to soup
up the protein. The ingredients are so simple I've
memorized them: Whey protein concentrate, Maltodextrin
(a complex carbohydrate), fructose syrup (a simple
carbohydrate, notice its not "high fructose corn
syrup" which is more refined), Dutch cocoa, natural
and artificial flavors (duh), and lecithin (an
emulsifier I think to help digest protein, Arnold put
it in his shakes if you read his encyclopedia). I'll
probably take a half serving before workout, and half
serving afterwards.
After my workout I had a similar shake, protein and
Gatorade for high glycemic carbs, with glutamine
usually. About an hour later my mom has dinner ready,
and she knows I'm eating for bodybuilding so she knows
what to make, and doesn't mind cuz I'm not on a strict
diet so she likes most of the food too. This meal is
at 630, post workout shake is 530, workout usually
starts at 4, but I stretch and warm up so I don't
start lifting till 410. I finish my meal and around
9-930 I have a protein shake with glutamine in milk
(for slower absorption) and go to bed. That was my
routine, and I only broke it on the weekends when I
like to stay out, but even on the weekends I eat 6
times. So, it looked like this weekdays:
- 6:30: wake up
- 7:00 breakfast (apple, bowl of noodles, can of tuna is
norm but not always)
- 9:50: tuna sandwich
- 12:40: lunch
- 2:40: whey shake w/ high glycemic carbs
- 4:00-5:00 train
- 5:30: whey shake w/ high glycemic carbs and glutamine
- 6:30: dinner
*homework*
- 9:00: double scoop of protein in milk with glutamine
- 10:00: hopefully be asleep
This is a routine I think just about any teen can
follow, if you can't get protein shakes there is
always things like tuna, boiled eggs, lowfat milk,
lean beef, chicken, turkey (deli not processed crap),
peanut butter, lowfat cheese, and young human flesh is
pretty high in protein (haven't tried this one yet).
And if you can't get powdered Gatorade you can always
carry bananas, apples, or regular Gatorade. If you
don't train after school this routine is pretty easy
to change, tailor it to your needs. One last note,
something I have found out only recently. I've never
had an upset stomach or any type of disturbance from
consuming upwards of 200 grams of protein a day, but
some people do. Protein is very dense and difficult
for your body to digest, taking a fiber supplement or
being sure to get some kind of leafy vegetable with
your protein is a good idea to help keep everything
going through your body.
That's it, there's even time for studying built in,
feel free to e mail me for feedback, good or bad.
- Alton
beautifuldisaster420@yahoo.com
Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
Back To Alton Hare's Main Page
Back To The Articles Main Page.
Related Articles
No BS Nutrition: You Asked For It!
Powerful Nutritional Tactics For Meet Day!
Beginning Nutrition: The Facts About Protein, Carbs & Fat.
