Some diet related questions

To start of the new year I made the decision to either take gym seriously and do everything right or to stop training altogether. I have spent 2 years going up and down between 79kg and 82k and frankly wasted money by half assing it and not seeing any results. I have a few questions regarding proper dieting and meal prep that I would like some advice with.

Question 1: Counting Calories

• What app is the best between myfitnesspal and myfatsecret?
• Do you literally try to count everything?
• Any tips and tricks?

Question 2: Counting calories and Raw vs. Cooked weight
Obviously you only weigh out your portions after you have cooked them. How do you count calories on myfatsecret easily since most of their nutritional values are for uncooked food. I saw some formulas for rice/pasta but how about mince, chicken etc.

Question 3: Pre-Workout and Post-Workout meals/supplements
• My pre-workout meal is 1 hour before training and consists of protein oats and 2 bananas.
• 20-30 minutes before training I drink my pre-workout and BCAAs (First time i will be using BCAAs - Is there an upside to powder over caps? I currently have caps)
• Post-Workout is whey with dextrose and glutamine

Is there anything I should add or change?


Question 4: Suggested split for protein/carbs/fats
I have read so many different things regarding this that I do not know what to believe. What is the suggested ratio for bulking?

I have a base diet worked out that I want to perfect.


Question 5: Cheapish and easy source of fat
What are some nice affordable go to foods to add fats to a meal? I know nuts and peanut butter is there, anything else?


Question 6: Meal prep
Any tips and tricks for doing proper meal prep?


Question 7: Anything else that I need to know




Thanks guys

Also have to add that I have been training for 4-5 years and started under 70kg. I think 63.

tramacet wrote: To start of the new year I made the decision to either take gym seriously and do everything right or to stop training altogether. I have spent 2 years going up and down between 79kg and 82k and frankly wasted money by half assing it and not seeing any results. I have a few questions regarding proper dieting and meal prep that I would like some advice with.

Question 1: Counting Calories

• What app is the best between myfitnesspal and myfatsecret?
• Do you literally try to count everything?
• Any tips and tricks?

Question 2: Counting calories and Raw vs. Cooked weight
Obviously you only weigh out your portions after you have cooked them. How do you count calories on myfatsecret easily since most of their nutritional values are for uncooked food. I saw some formulas for rice/pasta but how about mince, chicken etc.

Question 3: Pre-Workout and Post-Workout meals/supplements
• My pre-workout meal is 1 hour before training and consists of protein oats and 2 bananas.
• 20-30 minutes before training I drink my pre-workout and BCAAs (First time i will be using BCAAs - Is there an upside to powder over caps? I currently have caps)
• Post-Workout is whey with dextrose and glutamine

Is there anything I should add or change?


Question 4: Suggested split for protein/carbs/fats
I have read so many different things regarding this that I do not know what to believe. What is the suggested ratio for bulking?

I have a base diet worked out that I want to perfect.


Question 5: Cheapish and easy source of fat
What are some nice affordable go to foods to add fats to a meal? I know nuts and peanut butter is there, anything else?


Question 6: Meal prep
Any tips and tricks for doing proper meal prep?


Question 7: Anything else that I need to know




Thanks guys

1. I use MyFitnessPal and I love it. I know a lot of members here use FatSecret as it has more South African products, although I have never tried it so can't comment on how the two really differ. MFP works perfectly for me!
Literally everything which enters your mouth you add, except normal still or sparkling water and 0 calorie foods (but I try avoid those due to the chemicals). You cut yourself a slice of cheese, weigh it! You have a teaspoon of peanutbutter or eat an apple, add it!! These small things can add up very quickly and a difference of 300 calories can have quite an effect if you are trying to cut or lean bulk etc.

2. You should always weigh your food BEFORE you cook it. So uncooked pasta, uncoocked chicken breast, uncooked mince, uncooked oats etc. etc. As soon as you cook it the weight often changes - be it go up (like with oats, pasta and rice or go down such as with meats due to the water being cooked out of it and since everybody cooks their food different (some like rare steaks, some like it well done) it just makes life that much easier to weigh your food prior to cooking.

If I am going to cook rice for multiple meals I will weigh it out to say 300g of dry rice. Then cook it and lets say the rice comes out at 800g after being cooked. Divide that by 3 and dish up 266g of rice which will be equal to 100g uncooked rice. You could even eye it and half it or try split it up into 3 portions but may not be 100% accurate.

3. I often eat carbs (like oats) pre-work out although I know some members dislike that. I am not sure why though. I do not take supplements other than a bit of creatine now and then.
Post-work out I always try get some carbs and protein in my body. How ideal that is though, I do not know.
Perhaps someone with more nutrition knowledge can comment and assist us both


6. For meal prep, try and cook in advanced for a few days if possible depending on your schedule. Always try have something quick and easy to eat should you be starving and tempted to eat junk food instead. For me that is oats as it takes a minute in the microwave to cook as well as a can of tuna as I literally just open the can and boom! I find that if I get really hungry and all my food is frozen I am easily tempted to jump in my car and goto the Spar or PnP and get something already cooked which isn't only expensive but often not the best food to be eating.

Also the way you cook your food makes life much easier. I use to bake / grill all my chicken breasts but it took forever so I was often demotivated to cook my chicken breast. I started frying it in a pan with spray & cook and some spices. It's soo much quicker and easier.
Rice I make in the microwave and takes 25 minutes - so while cutting and cooking your chicken your rice is already cooking and requires nothing but waiting and helps keep your cooking space clean and tidy so that you can work faster as there isn't as much shit in the way.

7. Make sure you know what your maintenance calories are and remember that as your weight increases, so will your maintenance so you will need to up everything every now and then.

Hey Tramacet/ Furk

Don't give up man... It is a slow process and unfortunately you have to do some self experimentation with regards to foods and training protocols. I also started at about 60kg.... was fucking skinny after matric.

1-Tracking:

I also use MyFitnessPal, you can create custom foods as well so that might help if the database doesn't contain something.

2- Food weight:

Some things like carbs i weigh before cooking and meat/protein i weigh after. Don't stress too much about being on point to the gram, give yourself a range for your macros.
i.e > Protein 200- 220G , Carbs 250- 270 grams ....you get the idea!?


3 - You say you have a meal 1 hour before training and bcaas before? I just have the meal, depending on the amount and type of protein it takes a few hours to fully digest. Even whey digests at 8-10 grams per hour. But that's just what i do, if it works for you keep going.
Dextrose post workout is okay yeah. i sometimes use a 50/50 Dextrose Maltodextrin mix.

4- You macro split is going to depend on what type of eating protocol you follow, for an idea check on www.iifym.com

5 - Fats:
mixed nuts are good, natural peanut butter (no sugar), other nut butters, Avo, Fatty meat and fish, Olive oil etc

Thanks guys.

I won't stop. That is just how serious I am about doing this right. Also stopping any alcohol for at least a month to see if that makes a difference. Going to try my best to make 90kg @ 12% body fat by the end of the year!

Can eat 2400 clean calories per day at the moment. Hopefully I can make 3200 in about a week or two's time. :lol:

I am logging everything I eat and thanks for the idea to give myself ranges. Yesterday i did Fat: 57.24, Carbs: 290.34, Prot: 185.71, Cals: 2320. Today I hope for 2500 calories. Also need to up my fat intake to 90g.

Contemplating to start a diet log with stats and pictures to help keep myself motivated. Not sure yet though. :pinch:

yeah slow and steady, when you up your calories give it about 21 days fro your metabolism and body to adjust and then go from there, too many increases to quick will just increase fat gain

Demolish wrote: yeah slow and steady, when you up your calories give it about 21 days fro your metabolism and body to adjust and then go from there, too many increases to quick will just increase fat gain

That's true. Luckily my fast metabolism is one of the reasons I struggle to gain weight Want to increase by like 100 per day until I reach 3200.

It does indeed seem as if you are struggling to eat if you are trying to build upto 3200 calories. I would imagine you are quite a big bigger than me as well.

What sort of foods do you generally eat? When I had to try and increase my calories and when I use to struggle to eat a lot of food, I would try and find certain meals which would be fairly easy to eat and use those to help me out at first while my body adjusts. Peanutbutter is an amazing one as it is soo easy to eat a tablespoon of that stuff and boom! 100 calories.

100g oats with 125ml of full cream milk is just under 500 calories. A 5th of the way there, start your day with a bowl of oats and then an hour to two hours later have your actual proper breakfast and already that is 100 calories or more. Oh, yoghurt is another one! Plain, double cream yoghurt. I can easily eat a 500ml tub of it!
Whey protein and tuna (fish in general) I find fill me up and offer hardly any calories. So a great snack should you feel hungry yet you are very close to your caloric limit for the day or if you are cutting... Or any food I dislike, that has the same effect.

I personally find it very easy to eat oats and peanutbutter as well as tasty meat (so not chicken breast). You can try biltong as well. At first I use to takeforever to eat my food, but I got it in eventually and as your body gets use to it, it becomes easier.
Increasing calories per day sounds like a good idea as well, however you might have those days every now and then where you just do not feel like food. Then try and eat meals which are calorie dense.