View Single Post
 
Old 10-18-2007, 07:08 PM
Cradler's Avatar
Cradler Cradler is offline
Rank: Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Boston
Posts: 379
Send a message via AIM to Cradler
Default

Hey, first of all, thanks for posting here, man. Welcome, and +1 on what Eric said - congrats on the upcoming surgery, and you're asking some good questions, all of which Eric hit so for the most part I won't beat a dead horse there.

Like Eric, I'm not great with the details of diet but just as a basic outline, I'd shoot for 5-6 meals daily as opposed to 3, and obviously they'll be smaller. I eat about every 2-3 hours, and it might just be as small as an apple or something (I'm in a cutting phase, but you get the idea). Eating like that allows you to get your macronutrients in but it also keeps your metabolism running at a high pitch, something that heavy lifting will also help with. If it were me, from your pictures, I would focus on heavy compound lifting like Eric said to fill out more. If you want, you can add in some cardio like an HIIT (there's a sticky on that one in the fatloss forum) program to be shedding some of the extra fat.

Something like 3000-3300 cals per day should be okay for building muscle mass without much risk of putting fat back on. Make full use of things like tuna, cottage cheese, etc., that have relatively low calories but carry most of their calories in protein. Also, as far as late-night eating, consider some kind of fibrous, watery vegetable (celery being a prime example) as a pre-bed snack, it'll do wonders for your metabolism overnight. And don't be afraid to have certain kinds of fats - olive oil, for instance, is really good for you in moderation. You need certain fats and from what you've said I doubt you're going to make hasty decisions in that vein.

Again I'm not a dietitian (yet ), but that's just some basic stuff I've picked up from here and from experience. Good luck with everything, report back here and tell us how it's going!
Reply With Quote