You could always try Weightgain 4000. BEEFCAKE!

rather than fill myself up with chemicals

hmmm, I agree with that sentiment but apart for hitting the chocolate and pies I'm finding it difficult to eat healthily and get enough calories without eating almost constantly.

well that's easy. These days I buy a bunch of chicken drumsticks which I cook up in the oven then leave in the fridge to eat when I want. Wrap a couple up in foil and take to work, snack on in the evening. Sometimes I roast a tray of spuds and leave those in the fridge to eat cold when I want something. There's also toast to eat in the evenings after dinner if I want plus a bag of mixed fruit and nuts. There are those small tubs of couscous, lentils & rice and stuff which can be bought in Sainsburys which make good little snacks… no need to be eating chocolate and pies.

Are you eating enough for breakfast and lunch ?

Kev

Yeti – add carb powder to your food or drinks..?

Seems odd that you are eating as much as you can and still losing weight…

Drink whole milk in between meals, the best 'sports drink' available

breakfast = Apple, and 100g bowl of Dorset Cereals
9:30 snack on a rice pudding or yogurt and some fruit.
10:30 snack on some mixed nuts probably >30g's worth
11:30 banana
gym
1:30 lunch sandwich and fruit salad
3:00 more fruit
4:30 more mixed nuts

Evening meal some fish/meat and veg with cous cous or bread or a pasta dish.

Snack on more nuts or an all natural bar.

I'm pretty sure those Dorset cereals are full of sugar as far as I'm aware. I eat an oatbran millet rice cereal mixed with either Alpen or an organic museli, all of which are pretty low in sugar, around 12% instead of near 30% which is what most toasted oat cereals are.

Try to eat more at lunchtime maybe a sandwich is not enough although obviously I've no idea what size sandwhich you are eating. I reckon you'd be better off swapping the fruit salad for another sandwich. I'll eat about 120g of carbs alone at lunchtime, cold rice /pasta mixed with either tuna /chicken and veg.

Kev

I'm pretty sure those Dorset cereals are full of sugar as far as I'm aware

so long as you're not overeating there's nothing wrong with it!

The cereal (I have it on my desk) is 22.3g of Sugar per 100. It all comes from the dried fruit, I think.

Drink whole milk in between meals, the best 'sports drink' available

Rubbish – sports drinks don't need fat in them.

Btw Normal Alpen has loads of sugar in it – you can taste it! And the sugar crystals crunch between your teeth 🙂 However in the OP's case this may not be bad, as sugar = carbs, and it goes into your muscles to be used in exercise.

Might be worth getting tested at your GP? Thyroid etc?

Have you tried porridge for breakfast? Slow-release rather than a sugar-rush from cereal. I can recommend Sainsbury's Organic.

Ah, I see you are eating quite a bit of fruit!

mmmmmmmmmmmmm fruuuuuuuit

Alpen won't give you a sugar rush – porridge is cooked so probably has a higher GI than muesli.

Rubbish – sports drinks don't need fat in them

Not rubbish at all, a higher fat intake in line with carb intake is recommended for training

Southern Yeti: Eat. More.

I don't know which Alpen you are referring to Molly but the one I eat has less than 10% sugar and obviously doesn't taste very sweet. If it did I'd find it difficult to eat 'cause sugar makes me gak.

Kev

C_G's porridge:

Sainsbury's SO Organic porridge oats – half a cup. Put in pyrex dish with 1.5 cups water. Cover and cook on full power for 2 mins 30 secs. Serve with honey/demerara sugar or my favourite – maple syrup. 8)

oooh that sounds good C_G.

Any of you guys that're on the iDave plan think that I can supplement my fruit based diet with some of his ideas?

Well, I've cut out tomatoes and replaced with a medley of fresh vegetables every evening. Have rediscovered the delights of peas from a pod – quite therapeutic to shell them. 8)

No fruit after a meal but to be honest I feel pretty full-up from the veg.

You are probably on the no added sugar alpen then. Blue packet.

CG, I think porridge made with that much water has a high GI, and by adding sugary stuff you are making it really high. So not so good.

Cooking and processing ususally raises the GI of food; in the case of porridge you are removing the starch by dissolving it in water. So that means it can get absorbed really quickly.
This page puts the GI of porridge at 87.

I don't cook porridge. Straight from the box with a bit of milk. Perfect.

molgrips – in an ideal world without those, yes! The Scots add salt to their's.

OK then – poached egg/s for breakfast. No buttered toast though. 😉

I'm pretty sure those Dorset cereals are full of sugar as far as I'm aware

…so long as you're not overeating there's nothing wrong with it!

Simon, there's nothing wrong with anything in moderation but for someone who is trying to stave off hunger sugar isn't the best thing to be consuming large amounts of. It gives energy spikes that don't last which leave you feeling hungry again shortly afterwards.This is why complex carbs are better, and I know you already know that.

Kev

hmmmm southern veti, after seeing you at afan today with the wife beater vest on I would defiantly recommend the protein supplement- those guns need a lot of help! lol

hahahaha, oxforddan, I think I know you for some reason!

.This is why complex carbs are better, and I know you already know that.

I'm not sure I do. If the figures I've read about the rate of carb digestion are true, it's rather small compared to the glucose demands of heavy exercise, which the body handles well enough, leading me to suspect the type of carb doesn't matter

I love these threads, lots of advice given by people that know sweet FA about what they should be eating and when, other than what they have read in BS articles on the internet and have been told for years by the food industry and the goverment.

Reading teh original goal in the original post. A protein supplement is not what you are looking for. You want a something to help prolong excerise and then recovery.
For prolonged excerise use creatine, it will also add with strength. For recovery use an antioxidant, (green tea, Alpha lopic acid, CQ10) and ingest sugar a very fast digesting carb with a protein roughly at 2:1 ratio.
Job done.

For recovery use an antioxidant

I'm willing to bet creatine and "antioxidants" only have placebo effects too :o)

I'm willing to bet creatine and "antioxidants" only have placebo effects too :o)

I'll take that bet sir.

Creatine monohydrate is the most researched sports supplement on earth, and has been proven to increase strength and resistance to fatigue. Go read the hundreds of papers and studies, for yourself buddy. O and by the way it is produced in the human to do that same job. You do however need to drink alot more water than normal if using creatine to get the benefits. IA common mistake is not to increase water intake and therefore dehydrate and you see or get no benefit. Note: It will not work for everyone its about an 80-85% hit rate with people. Normally 5grams is used and loaded for the first week to ten days, it has been shown though that 20grams or more each day is still safe and does give even bigger gains.

Antioxidants, come on buddy you must know at least some chemistry and biology. Exercise destroy's muscle to create energy in that process it creates free radicals which we are bad little buggers and make recovery longer after you have finsihed excerising. Using a strong antioxidant helps remove those free radicals by binding to them and therefore reduce muslce break down post excerise and aid recovery.

Of course with everything there is a level of a placebo effect, but in these cases there is a really measurable effect also.

Simples

I win, you owe me one custard tart.

Go read the hundreds of papers and studies, for yourself buddy.

not in this lifetime 🙂

Exercise destroy's muscle to create energy in that process it creates free radicals

IMO that's not how it works at all

I'm with Simon on this.
http://www.badscience.net/2007/12/epistemological-indulgences/

good link, I like this:
"Some of these trials were stopped early because the people getting the antioxidants were dying faster."

as I've pointed out before, the mammalian metabolism has been honed over 50 million years of evolution to be operated by simple instinctive behaviour (hunger and thirst), and what intellectual intervention we've managed to make (beyond the peripheral invention of agriculture) has equivocal results. It may be possible to game the system right at the limit of human capability, although IMO even there it's more a matter of psyching oneself into stronger self belief than any measureable physiological benefit.

I win, you owe me one custard tart.

and guess just where I throw it ?