im wanting to build muscle, however i ride bike a lot. like 180 - 260km a week to work. occasionally i ride further.
i try to eat as much as possible and get enough protein, but im struggling.
i ride bike as it saves me money on taxi's and a lot of free time. (can save up to 30minutes compared to a bus)
any ideas on how to get enough calories?
i'm not really a big eater and i eat pretty healthy ( only vice is cola)
some advice?
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zachvanslyke
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Re: some advice?
Foods that are easily portable and pretty much non-perishable help out quite a bit with that. Raw nuts, seeds, healthy trail mixes, fruits, protein bars, things of that nature are easy to take with you and provide good calories, especially for an on-the-go lifestyle. Raw almonds and sunflower seeds, oranges, bananas, and apples are among personal faves. Drinking whey shakes before and after workouts (or bike rides) is a good thing to do, to. Nutritional approaches can be a long and complex topic of debate. From a general standpoint, in order to gain muscle, theoretically, one has to take in slightly more calories than one uses, and get enough protein along the way to rebuild and add new muscle. Try to take in around at least .5 to 1 gram of protein per pound of desired bodyweight per day. Some might argue you need more, maybe they are right, who knows- it's a huge gray area. Plus your exact workout regimen and overall lifestyle plays a huge role in what you need to eat, and when. Good luck
Re: some advice?
Hi there!
Hope I can help you a little bit here. On the one hand you say you want build muscles and on the other hand you want more calories. This both goes hand in hand actually. I like your weekly biking exercise and attitude very much. I did this for a long time also some years ago and it saved me always cardio exercise besides strength and muscle building workout in order to burn fat.
So you don't have this problem. The thing is though, that you need to work out at a gym or at least lift weights at home or somewhere else because otherwise you will NOT build muscles. You can only build muscles by doing isotonic contractions, so a dynamic workout with concentric and eccentric movements. Best is slow.
You can only really build muscle by working out the way I explained above with free weights. That's a fact. Of course, you build muscles by biking and even jogging but not the type of muscle fibers you need to make your muscle bigger and stronger. Therefor you need the red muscle fibers which you only grow by doing these slow isotonic workouts with a maximum of 15 reps. per set (better is max 12!).
You will need to adjust your workout schedule / trainings plan every few weeks in order to have constant muscle growth. You will need some assistance here.
Also, you are right, you need some foods that support you here, since you need energy too to build and grow the muscle tissue. So, your not a big eater. The first thing you can change is to eat in the morning as much as YOU can. Second, there are a lot of foods which give you a lot of healthy energy and you do not eat so much. eggs for ex! one egg has about 100 kcal. Great source of protein and fat as energy deliverer. nuts, of course. some fatty meat > again protein and fat. potatoes won't give you enough energy since they only have about 15-16 grams of carbs in 100 gram. Eat noodles, rice and oatmeal for carb energy. Carbs are always good before and after your trainings sessions (at least an hour before though). Also if you eat something an hour before you go an the bike again you will save energy and calories.
Fatty cheese is very good too (45%) for you. And what always helps, especially if your not a big eater - I did this too at one time - is to eat half a chocolate as a snack or even after a meal. Chocolate has a lot of energy, so calories and all the main energy deliverer in it > carbs, fat and protein!
Hope that helped a little.
Take care now and the best of luck
Sebastian
Hope I can help you a little bit here. On the one hand you say you want build muscles and on the other hand you want more calories. This both goes hand in hand actually. I like your weekly biking exercise and attitude very much. I did this for a long time also some years ago and it saved me always cardio exercise besides strength and muscle building workout in order to burn fat.
So you don't have this problem. The thing is though, that you need to work out at a gym or at least lift weights at home or somewhere else because otherwise you will NOT build muscles. You can only build muscles by doing isotonic contractions, so a dynamic workout with concentric and eccentric movements. Best is slow.
You can only really build muscle by working out the way I explained above with free weights. That's a fact. Of course, you build muscles by biking and even jogging but not the type of muscle fibers you need to make your muscle bigger and stronger. Therefor you need the red muscle fibers which you only grow by doing these slow isotonic workouts with a maximum of 15 reps. per set (better is max 12!).
You will need to adjust your workout schedule / trainings plan every few weeks in order to have constant muscle growth. You will need some assistance here.
Also, you are right, you need some foods that support you here, since you need energy too to build and grow the muscle tissue. So, your not a big eater. The first thing you can change is to eat in the morning as much as YOU can. Second, there are a lot of foods which give you a lot of healthy energy and you do not eat so much. eggs for ex! one egg has about 100 kcal. Great source of protein and fat as energy deliverer. nuts, of course. some fatty meat > again protein and fat. potatoes won't give you enough energy since they only have about 15-16 grams of carbs in 100 gram. Eat noodles, rice and oatmeal for carb energy. Carbs are always good before and after your trainings sessions (at least an hour before though). Also if you eat something an hour before you go an the bike again you will save energy and calories.
Fatty cheese is very good too (45%) for you. And what always helps, especially if your not a big eater - I did this too at one time - is to eat half a chocolate as a snack or even after a meal. Chocolate has a lot of energy, so calories and all the main energy deliverer in it > carbs, fat and protein!
Hope that helped a little.
Take care now and the best of luck
Sebastian
Re: some advice?
I must politely disagree with one point of this.
Potato can give you around 30g of Carbs, particualrly from a large Baked one. Also if you have the small "new" type, then portion size would dictate Carb intake anyway to some extent.
Potato can give you around 30g of Carbs, particualrly from a large Baked one. Also if you have the small "new" type, then portion size would dictate Carb intake anyway to some extent.