VitaSh Member

Currently struggling to adjust my mindset to this new goal. I want to gain a lot of muscle so now I'm bulking (started last month after competing), and it's a bit of a mind**** But I'm slowing adjusting. How many calories are you ladies eating? Currently slowly gaining at about 3000 calories with heavy lifting.

I am purposefully gaining weight to pack on some quality muscle but deathly afraid at the same time as I'm doing it (gaining weight on purpose..are you insane? - says my subconscious). But I know I have to, since being 7.8% competition-ready body fat is not healthy and the fact that I'm not there anymore is GOOD. But post…

Coming off my competition prep diet and looking for some gains! I placed first in my division but I want to win overall next and I need more muscle :) Still trying to make my mind agree though, it's a bit of a mind**** trying to change your think to "gain"

After my extremely strict diet preparing for my fitness competition (just proteins like low-sodium tuna, chicken, tilapia, lean turkey, protein powder etc and only CERTAIN carb sources like sweet potato, oatmeal, quinoa, veggies), when I came off this diet and overindulged, I was bloated and uncomfortable for two weeks. I…

Don't buy the snacks. And if you do, buy only a serving or 2 at a time (I never buy a whole box of quest bars for example!) and you'll only eat what you have at home. Also 3 square meals a day never ever worked for me. I eat small meals about 5-6 times a day.

But our body can only use up so many carbs at a time so maybe 4 servings can be cut to 2 a day. Otherwise your muscles will store glycogen from carbs only up to a point, and when saturated (unless you use em up by exercising), will spill over to your other storage area, fat stores. I love my oatmeal but I try to get my…

If you up your exercise intensity, I almost guarantee you will not have this problem in a couple of weeks when your metabolism speeds up and demands more food. I found that was the case for myself. When you just start eating healthy, whole foods they seem so filling. But with strength-training and endurance exercise, when…

Before I started to get into fitness competing, someone once told me ew you have to eat sweet potatoes..and OATMEAL. I was like yum? my favorite foods you mean? I loooove my oatmeal. So versatile. To up the protein and satiety, I add a half a scoop to a scoop of vanilla or chocolate whey protein powder a little almond or…

No problem :) I love talking about food because I love it lol. And I love how using the right nutrition can help achieve a variety of healthy goals. And yes, I tweaked my calculator with my own percentages. Have a great day!

So if after a trial of 50% carbs feels best for you, then go for it.

It's how you feel in the end. I feel best with 30% carbs and then 40% from protein and 30% from fats but a good ballpark is about at least 0.5 grams of protein per body weight and then calculate the rest of your macros of carbs and fats from there, once you established your protein intake. That was easier for me. But I…

The response you're going to get from your body is highly individual. I find carb cycling really leans me out and being on a chronically low carb diet affects my mood. On strenuous workout days I do high carb, on others moderate, on off day zero carb (well in the form of fibrous veggies only). I also find that for many…

Yes that is way too much in my opinion as well. FDA isn't end all be all. I mean experts just recently came out saying total cholesterol in food is not going to be counted as it was before for heart disease risk! It's the trans fats and processed foods that are increasing bad cholesterol. It's confusing. But fats are…

I adore fruit though. I love my berries and apples!

Depends, though. Some days I morph from fish into fluffy oatmeal mixed with Quest peanut butter protein powder :)

That sounds great then :) Our bodies don't need nearly as much carbs as sometimes depicted unless you're a marathon runner (someone once told me 300 grams! I'm not on a male bodybuilding bulking regimen, thank you lol). I eat about 135 grams mostly from oats, a yam, and veggies. Helps that I'm completely in love with…

Fish :/

Fruit is a good choice but probably not a good idea to have it as your only carb source. You need some starchy sources like oats or sweet potato and also some from fibrous veggies as well (any greens, cauliflower, spinach, asparagus etc) . Fruits come in the form of fructose which gets stored in your liver and if you…

You literally can't gain fat in a few days, especially with such little calorie change albeit a higher one. That's water weight. Carbs hold more water so eating a little more carbs one day will increase your weight. Eating less or more sodium will make your weight go up and down. It is normal to fluctuate from like 1 to 3…

I am very partial to Cashew milk at the moment, the unsweetened version is surprisingly creamy and very low in calories cup for cup. My next favorite is a blend of almond and coconut milk that Silk also makes (the blend tastes best imo). I put both either in cereal, coffee, baking, anything really. I've lost the taste for…

I feel you! I have a big sweet tooth and over the past holidays I've let my healthy diet slip by making sugar one of my major food groups :( I became extremely serious about it this year and I've given it up completely by substituting with stevia (a natural 0-calorie sweetener) and I put it everywhere, from coffee to…