Advanced Nutrition Guidelines for HardGainers
In a follow up to a previous post, Basic Nutrition Guidelines for HardGainers, this article will cover specific meal details for a HardGainer.
As mentioned in the Basic Guidelines, your entire caloric intake should be spread across 6-7 smaller portioned meals eaten every 2-3 hours. If you are serious about bodybuilding, and packing on some serious muscle, the days of a simple 3 meal approach of breakfast, lunch, and dinner are over. Frequent feedings throughout the day are crucial in that they provide a constant flow of nutrients to your muscles, and deny your body the chance to enter a catabolic state, a state when your body breaks down its own muscle for food.
Preparing 6-7 solid food meals every day is quite an undertaking. Thats why we can substitute protein shakes and weightgainer shakes as liquid meals. Heres some details on a typical 7 meal workout day:
Meal #1-Breakfast: 8:00am
- Protein Shake
- Carbohydrate source
Meal #2-Snack: 10:00am
- Protein source
- Carboydrate source
- Fat source
Meal #3-Lunch: 1:00pm
- Protein source
- Carboydrate source
- Fat source
Meal #4-Snack: 4:00pm
- Protein source
- Carboydrate source
- Fat source
Workout: 5:00pm
Meal #5-Post-Workout: 6:00pm
- Protein Shake
- Carbohydrate source
Meal #6-Dinner: 8:00pm
- Protein source
- Carboydrate source
- Fat source
Meal #7-Before Bed Snack: 11:00pm
- Protein Shake (if above 200lb)
- Protein source
Stay tuned for specific articles focusing on quality protein, carbohydrate, and fat sources to meet your dietary needs!
July 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am
[...] a follow up to the Advanced Nutrition Guidelines, and incorporating information from the Guide To Protein, Guide To Carbs, and Guide To Fats, this [...]