Vegetables

[WILLGETNICE]

How important is it to incorporate vegetables into your diet? I only have maybe one meal out of the day where I have them. This is a sample day of what I eat
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Banana, 1 scoop whey
Lunch: Chciken Kebob w/ veggies
PWO: Myoplex and Banana
Dinner: Chicken and Brown Rice
Before Bed: Protein Shake

[jazer80]

what are your goals, current size, current bf (bodyfat), and type of training? assuming you're looking to get big, seeing as we're talking on wannabebig.com, you want to have a positive calorie surplus. further, you want to minimize spikes in nutrients throughout the day (except before/after training), so you should be eating about 6 meals throughout the day, about every 2 to 3 hours. this keeps your body fueled at a pretty regular interval. now getting total calories is important, but you don't want to put on bf, so getting your calories from, say, sugar is a bad idea. if you ate just sugar to get your total calories, you'd have spikes all day long. at times you'd have too much in your body, promoting fat storage. at other times you'd be hungry, and prolly start being catabolic (muscle breakdown). now imagine that instead of consuming total calories for the day in sugar, you consumed them in oats. the oats would keep you with a very constant supply of calories, not the up and down i was just speaking of.

though vegetables are not very dense (calorically), they have vitamins and, more importantly (well to me anyways ) they have fiber. like fat, fiber slows digestion. i make sure to get fiber and fat in every meal, so that i have a good amount of food in me to keep me til my next meal.

also if you are trying to gain weight you're gonna want to add more food in there.
also myoplex is a HUGE rip off.
also i hope that's a casein, egg, soy, or milk shake before bed, and not whey protein.

if you do keep the myoplex (or as you finish the box), i'd switch it with my morning 1 scoop of whey. i think you'd be better off augmenting breakfast w/ myoplex and keeping they fast digesting whey to be used pwo (post workout). hope i helped ya a little

[jazer80]

good dinner ya got there, i have the same nightly now

[AdmiralDan]

i find that veggies are good especially for a cutting diet, which it looks like you are on. they don't have much in the way of calories and they have fiber which helps make you feel fuller longer. i also like being able to eat a huge bowl of broccoli and knowing its not that many calories

[WILLGETNICE]

Thanks for the detailed advice jazer. At the moment I'm at 160 lbs with about 10% bf and would like to get to 170 lbs at the same or very little more bf%. The way my schedule is with school, work, and other errands always being on the go 5 meals is usually all i get to eat, but they are usually within 3 hours of each other.
Yea Myoplex is pricy but they taste really good IMO and its an easy source of protein when you're on the go.
The shake before bed is whey protein I mix with skim milk or if I have time in my grocery shopping I get some kefir and have some of that.
Thanks again for your advice!

[jazer80]

you're not getting enough calories if you want to gain weight. i don't even know the portions of what you're eating but i know there's not enough stuff there to get the calories you need (unless when you say chicken and rice you're eating ridiculous portions). how many calories, about, are you getting daily?

also about the myoplex, i hope you're pretty well off, or your parents are buying it, because aren't they like two or three dollars per packet? i can tell you there's stuff that tastes better and is cheaper. muscle milk comes to mind. actually with your lack of calories i'd recommend you swap your myoplex for weight gainer (up your mass is good, or something that is quality, w/ minimal sugar / maltodextrin).

your before bed protein is deficient, assuming a regular sized glass of milk (~8-16 grams protein). don't worry if you can't do anything about it, but i'd recommend using a scoop of soy, egg, or milk protein in addition to the milk.

what is kefir?