Low Cost, High Protein, Low Calories Food for Bodybuilding

Mayflower10cat

What about fresh grilled mackeral fillets, with a squeeze of lemon juice? Serve with a spicy salsa. Stock up on mackeral on special offer, cook it and freeze. Or make your own curry paste or green herb without the oil/or with less than usual and use as a marinade or rub for any of the other inexpensive, oily fish such as herring. If you made a batch of various marinades when you find the ingredients on offer, you can freeze it in ice cube trays then bag it up. Just take out a block as you need it.

Husband and I were eating our breakfasts at a hotel recently and the man (slim and very well built, I must say) at the next table ordered an omelette - without egg yolk. I could see my husbands face registering utter amazement and I had to explain why. But we did wonder what the hotel did with the yolks - hope they didn't throw them away!

adelight

protein powder is extremely cheap from myprotein.co.uk they also sell liquid flavouring so you could buy plain flavour powder and experiment with different flavours? you can also cook with it. i find mixing one scoop with one egg (or two egg whites and a tsp olive oil) some cocoa powder and water and microwaving it makes a pretty good cake, good enough to encourage me to workout so i can eat one
don't eat the same thing everyday, some people are very cautious of eating too much tinned fish. get a variety ie, eggs at breakfast, protein shake after workout, tuna lunch, pork loin dinner. pork is a really cheap, lean meat if you get the right cuts. the chops from lidl are brilliant and cheap.

i know you didn't ask but are you sure your workout is well balanced and you're working at the right intensity? not too often but heavy enough weights? do lots of research, trainer if you can afford it or just film yourself to check your form is good. a naff workout can ruin all your effort

terra_ferma

adelight wrote: »

protein powder is extremely cheap from myprotein.co.uk they also sell liquid flavouring so you could buy plain flavour powder and experiment with different flavours? you can also cook with it.t

sounds like something astronauts would eat, chemical food :eek:

Gloomendoom

150 lbs?

How tall are you?

stphnstevey

Gloomendoom wrote: »

150 lbs?

How tall are you?

5ft something?

Why?

Gloomendoom

I just wondered.

Most books I have read advise building the muscle first and then losing the fat afterwards as restricting your diet can restrict muscle development.

stphnstevey

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I just wondered.

Most books I have read advise building the muscle first and then losing the fat afterwards as restricting your diet can restrict muscle development.

Yeah, alot say about 'bulking' and then 'cutting' but I don't hold in that theory. When you bulk, you put on some muscle but natural put on a alot of fat as well. The idea is to then burn off the fat and keep the muscle in 'cutting'. But such extreme dieting is difficult and only leaves you 'cut' for a limited period, the rest of the time 'bulky'. This works well for competitions mainly.

Another theory, which works well all year round, is to eat excess protein to maintain muscle growth but also ensure your calorie intake is below that needed to substain your current body fat so you also lose fat (effectively combining just the good parts of bulking and cutting). Hence why I am looking for high protein but also low calorie foods.

Jude4488

Heyo.

I have been hitting the weights for around 4-5 years now, but have only really got serious about nutrition and diet in the last 2 years and I have to stay whatever your goal it really makes allll the difference.

Diet-wise it sounds like you're doing fairly well with varied sources of meat and dairy proteins. A few other tips you might find useful: get into nuts, they are high calorie but a handful with a piece of fruit or some veg (carrot/pepper sticks/sugar snap peas) can go towards one of 5 small meals a day and they are full of fibre and vit and minerals, so really great for filling you up. They can be pricy though, but keep an eye out for the holland and barrett buy one get one free sales or penny sales. Aldi also tend to do unsalted pistachios, walnuts and almonds relatively cheaply.
Which brings me to my second food item: rye bread - if you haven't cut bread from your diet altogether this is a fantastic alternative, lower in fat and massive in fibre it really satiates your appetite and can be got from aldi for 69p per loaf (probably in lidl too, it is a german bread).
Try quark - some people aren't keen on cottage cheese, quark is similar but smoother and is great for using in recipes, in shakes (with some fruit, etc) or on its own - i've found it in both asda and tesco.
Use places like costco if you can, great for stocking up cheap canned fish and beef jerky - another high protein winner.
Recipe-wise invest in some decent spices - cajun mix adds flavour to anything, for example consider poaching chicken (cutting out the fat of oil) and sprinkling over cajun spice mix for great flavour, and the spices will ramp up your metabolism too. Try and incorporate spice where you can, cayenne pepper in particular is good.
Cod Liver oil tablets - essential, so many good things, not enough time. Google for the myriad benefits.
Shopping wise, i find the butchers/markets are alot cheaper for meat than the supermarkets and aldi super 6 (and generally) makes a healthy diet achievable on anyones budget.

As far as protein powders go, i echo the above comments re. myprotein.com - best price and service ive had ever.

Exercise wise I would start incorporating more whole body moves to really get the most of your sessions. Alot of people (myself included for a long time) neglect the importance of the legs, but get deadlifts and barbell squats into your routine and you'll be unstoppable. Sounds like you're doing well getting 30 mins in every other day, thats a good decent time slot. When doing any kind of cardio work make it HIT - High Intensity Interval training, again google it - it's fantastic for shedding the pounds.

Lastly I would recommend doing exercise that involves a social side, something that keeps you motivated (and accountable maybe) like rock climbing, football with mates, boxercise, etc. That way you'll be getting in shape and having a laugh without even stopping to realise the benefits you're getting. Keep up the good work!

daywalker

stphnstevey wrote: »

I am trying to build muscle and get rid of my beer belly-I'm looking for the classic abs and pecs. I'm weight training and doing cardio at least every other day.

I have also read that diet is key - Protein, Protein, Protein! - about 1g protein/Lb weight/day. For me my target is 150g/day.

I also want to lose fat. I've researched that you need around 2500 calories/day to maintain weight so I am aiming for about 1500/day.

So I'm trying to maintain 150g protein/day and still stay under 1500 calories - but also on a budget, so looking for the cheapest ways of maintaining this!

Also, any bodybuilders that want to help, particularly on how they maintain their diets, would be more than appreciated.

Any ideas on anything else I could be doing to build my Abs and Pecs also appreciated

Cheers! :beer:

If you've worked out you need 2500 cals a day to maintain your weight and you have decided to eat 1500 cals a day AND 'bodybuild' how do you expect to build any muscle? To build muscle you actually need a calorie excess in line with proper weight training.

Infact you haven't worked out 2500 at all, you've had a guess as you've seen that's what 'Mr average' needs. At 5ft tall and 150lbs your requirements will most likely be very different.

I would seriously suggest you see a PT for a while to get everything right (workouts and nutrition). At 1500 calories a day you won't be adding any muscle.

stphnstevey

daywalker wrote: »

If you've worked out you need 2500 cals a day to maintain your weight and you have decided to eat 1500 cals a day AND 'bodybuild' how do you expect to build any muscle? To build muscle you actually need a calorie excess in line with proper weight training.

Infact you haven't worked out 2500 at all, you've had a guess as you've seen that's what 'Mr average' needs. At 5ft tall and 150lbs your requirements will most likely be very different.

I would seriously suggest you see a PT for a while to get everything right (workouts and nutrition). At 1500 calories a day you won't be adding any muscle.

I haven't 'guessed' at all, you have just wrongly assumed I have. I have researched the exact amount of calories I need based on not only my height and weight, but also the amount of activity. I had already created a lengthy post and I was trying to condense it so people would actually read it. Also, the aim of the post was not to discuss how to calculate calorie intake but identifying foods low in calories but high in protein.

You need protein to build muscle, hence why I am eating a high protein diet. Proteins contain the amino acids needed to build muscle proteins (for instance the proteins actin and myosin). I eat excess protein to maintain my muscles and add more. An excess of calories alone will add some muscle, but also alot of fat (this is the traditional bulking). But you won't be able to see that muscle because it will be covered in fat. Hence why people 'cut' (reduce there body fat) after bulking.

The human body only burns muscle in extreme circumstances, when you have very very low fat levels. So low that you needn't worry about having a low calorie diet if you have that little fat. So muscle can be maintained even in a low calorie diet. If you combine that with a high protein diet, muscle will also have enough nutrients to grow.

Hence a low calorie, high protein diet