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At the beginning of the summer I had a very similar problem....

Like most people in this thread already said, eating more helps...

I was having trouble getting through my workouts and analyzed my diet. Every Day I was only getting 1700-2000 Calories a day, with about 160 g protien. Being a 160 lbs male with 9% body fat, that was just above my Basal Metabolic Rate (The amount of energy u use if u just sit in bed all day doing nothing) and I was clearly doing much more than that.

I bumped up my calories to 2700-3200 a day (which rocked cuz i love to eat) and after a day or two of eating much more, i found i was getting more pumped at the gym rather than beaten up and run down.

Definitely try eating more, I can definitely see how the low food intake might be a problem. If you are curious about your BMR and other metabolic rates there are tons of useful calculators on the net (just make sure u are using the right one) and they can tell you how many calories u need with a +/-20% error....which will have to do for now.

thanks for the info, I have started to eat more, although I am not counting calories, carbs, fats etc. my meals are someting like this, breakfast= 3-4 eggs or whole grain cereal, meal #2= 3-5 hard bolied egg white's, meal #3 some chicken cut into strips or lean ground beef made into meatballs (some type of fingerfood) meal#4 = protein shake, meal #5 is lunch maybe some ground beef with broccoli and brown rice or chicken with brown rice, then dinner in the evening what ever the wife made that day. biggest problem is I work out doors and I am constantly being watched and talking to my students ( I teach tractor trailer driving) so I have to take everything with me in a small cooler in order to have it available during the day.
frank

Thats a big problem for me also. When I'm at work I get only 1 lunch break every 12 hours im on shift......if i work more than 6 hours i get shafted out of meals every 3 hours. I like to eat every 2, in smaller quantities, but every 3 is OK too.......usually when i have to work i wind up eating every 4-5 hours because I have no choice...
Also, when class is in session and I have 8 hours of class straight on some days, eating every few hours becomes packed fruit/granola bars and protein shakes :(

It sounds like you are doing well as far as diet is concerned then but I did notice that what u mentioned was very high in protien. This is good because, as you know, protein is the main nutrient involved in muscle growth and repair....HOWEVER, I noticed most of your carbs are complex carbs (Rice, pasta, cereal, whole grains) While complex carbs are good when you don't plan on doing any kind of workouts immediately, I would highly suggest eating something with a lower glycemic index (simple sugars) such as fruits rich in sugar will definitely help you in the gym.

Fruits like Apples, Grapes and Pears are great to eat before the gym. Their sugar content will give you a noticable boost in energy if you eat them before you train. Before I go to the gym I usually like to eat Apples with oatmeal and bananas. This is because the Oatmeal is rich in the B vitamins group which controls muscle contractions and help with generating your body's energy.

Other great fruits that have a low glycemic index and are great for you are bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mangos, papayas, oranges, peaches, nectorines, blah blah...basically any fruit or vegetable. Get a healthy serving of fruit before the gym and u will have a lot of sugar coursing through your body to give you the energy you need. Once I realized this I felt way more pumped at the gym and could almost feel myself glowing as I went from workout to workout.

One final note is that it is very beneficial to eat pineapple with proteins such as beef and chicken. If you dont like cottage cheese, try the nonfat one with pineapple mixed in because it's delicious and the pineapple is sitting in the container with protein and creating all sorts of beneficial reactions for your body. Pineapple has enzymes that help digest proteins, thats why it is great in marinades (now that you read this you will notice how many marinades have pineapple) because the enzymes bring out the flavor.

The only downside to this is that you need to shop a lot since fruit goes bad quickly, especially in the summer. Also, fresh fruit can be quite pricey and canned fruit is covered with sweetners and preservatives.

With all this in mind, keep in mind its summer.....so I took advantage by making a nice tall cold ivy fruit smoothy (With only ice or just nonfat milk) to have before the gym. Nice and sugary and delicious! Also can mix some protein powder in there, but I hear that the large quantity of sugars mixed with whey protein make it hard to digest.....

Hope I helped!

phreaknite, thanks , yes this is a great help, I was not really sure if a serving of fruit counted as a meal, that will make life a lot easier on me during week with the crazy work schedule I have. I have been looking at some of the info posted on this site about diet, etc. there is a lot to digest.... one of my major fears is gaining weight as fat and becoming even heavier then I already am, being I am only 5' 6" this would not be a good thing. I am still searching for the foods that will work for me as Eric suggested. the pasta I have been eating is whole wheat, I understand thats better then the regular pasta so we switched. thanks again for the info, I appreciate it.
Frank

no doubt man just keep in mind one thing....

Fresh fruits are mostly water! That means that per gram, most do not have many calories. In example, 50g of dry pasta has about 190 calories whereas 50 grams of strawberries has 20-30 calories! That means, if you are going to be eating fruit as a significant part of a meal, you are definitely going to have to eat a lot of it! (which rocks for people like me cuz i love to eat!)

Beware though, some fruits and veggies are very calorie dense. There are about 100-130 calories in 1 banana. I go through 3 or 4 bananas a day, but i work them into my diet plan. Make sure you know how many calories each kind of fruit is.....but in general, calories are very low when eating fruit, and u NEVER hear of someone who eats a lot of fruit complain that they are overweight, so dont worry too much.

A useful website that I use is www.nutritiondata.com -- the site has a huge database of many foods that are in many homes that don't have nutrition data such as fresh fruits, vegetables and even fast foods.....so definitely check it out.

Once again, anything can count as a meal so long as its being injested! Keep your meals in your caloric goal (my caloric goal was 200-350 per meal when I was losing weight and 500-700 per meal when i was trying to gain muscle) Once you start thinking in calories instead of amount eaten, you will be better off.

100 grams of apple and 100 grams of chocolate both weigh the same but their nutrition information is very different. When you eat though, 100g is all you realize your eating, so recognize the CONTENT of what you eat, and not the amount. (ie, if you eat 1 apple and 1 candy bar, both may be "one serving" to you, but realize that the apple has 1/3 of the calories and about 10x the vitamins, minerals and nutrients, so you can eat 3 apples for every 1 candy bar!)

I can go on and on for days man......IM me at phreaknite on AOL/AIM or phreaknite@hotmail.com if you like.

phreaknite, thanks, this is the type of things I need to learn about I need t learn about. seeing results is a great motivational tool...I am on MSN IM' frankroadrider352, email is frankkaren2617@comcast.net
Thanks Frank

frank, what is ur msn account's email? i was trying to add you but i couldnt. mine is phreaknite@hotmail.com