Want to know what to eat to build muscle?
After getting a few emails from people asking me what to eat on the low-carb section of the MANS dietary approach, I decided to keep food logs for a few days.
This is what I ate yesterday, Monday 14th January 2008.
Breakfast
4 eggs scrambled, made with heavy cream and water (instead of milk)
Coffee and cream
Protein – 25 grams | Fat – 45 grams | Carbs – 2 grams
Lunch
Toasted Low Carb Wrap – Chicken, Cheese & Mayo
De-Caff Coffee w/ Heavy Cream
75g chicken
25g mozzarella cheese
25g mayo
1 x Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla
I then put the wrap into the George Foreman grill for a few minutes to toast.
De-Caff Coffee w/ Heavy Cream
I use around 30ml of cream in my coffee so that’s around 14 grams of fat, 1 gram of carbohydrate, 0 protein.
Protein – 33 grams | Fat – 42 grams | Carbs 5 grams
Main Meal
150 gram White Cabbage
300 grams Spare Rib Pork Chop (you can see the chop weighed 336 grams but there’s a little bit of bone there)
No sauce today although sometimes I take Ranch or melted butter
Protein 56 grams | Fat 36 grams | Carbohydrate 7.5 grams
40 grams Whey Protein Isolate
5 grams Creatine
5 grams L-Glutamine
10 grams Glucose
Protein 35 grams | Fat 0.5 grams | Carbohydrate 11 grams
Snack
Peperami Bar
100 ml Heavy Cream w/ 20 grams Crushed Almonds (1 teaspoon granulated splenda)
Protein 10 grams | Fat 69 grams | Carbs 4.5 grams
Evening Snack
Peperami Bar
30 grams Cracker Barrel cheese (I cut the cheese into litte cubes and enjoy with the coffee).
Protein 14 grams | Fat 20 grams | Carbs 0.5 grams
Totals For The Day
Ok, so here’s the totals for yesterday
- Protein 173 grams
- Fat 212 grams
- Carbs 30.5 grams
It’s easy to get sufficient protein in a day; low carb food choices is the way. It’s also easy to get enough fat to encourage higher levels of anabolic hormones in the body.
As I’ve stated before, there’s no need to go calorie-counting when gaining muscle or just seeking to maintain your current weight or body fat levels.
Just for fun though, let’s see how many calories I consumed yesterday.
- Protein 173 grams = 692 calories
- Fat 212 grams = 1908 calories
- Carbs 30.5 grams = 122 calories
Total calories = 2722
If anything that’s actually a little low but I didn’t eat as much as I normally would yesterday. Well, that’s day 1. I won’t be counting up the macronutrients or calories for the rest of the days. I simply want to give you menu ideas to assist your muscle building lifestyle.
Stay Motivated!
Mark McManus
What about vegetarian guys who eat only egg as non-veg in their daily diet.
To be honest Manoj, I can’t see how someone could follow a MANS type approach while being a vegetarian.
Keeping your carb count below 30 grams per day and your fat and protein high is going to be a difficult task.
You might be best searching for a low-carb vegetarian cookbook on amazon.
Mark
Uuuh, Mark I’m confused…if I’m suppose to be a fat burning machine, why all the fat intake? Plus, how can I tell how much protein is good for me to take, doesn’t that vary from person to person? Thanx again!
Hi again Tony.
Don’t get MANS confused with a cutting diet. The objective of MANS is to allow people to build muscle mass without adding fat.
When on a high-fat diet, your body switches to burning dietary fat (first, then body fat) for fuel, hence you are a fat-burning machine. On a low fat diet, you’re a glucose-burning machine (from all the dietary carbs).
Plus, fat is responsible for the release of those anabolic hormones I talk about in the MANS diet article. High-fat is the best way to go for optimum muscle-building.
Now, there is a tweak to all this when it comes to stripping fat from your body. It allows for maximum fat loss in minimum time, nothing magical – pure testable science – but it works like magic 😉 I’ll go into this in my book ‘Total Six Pack Abs’ as a low body fat percentage is the key ingredient for defined abs.
Anyway, rest-assured you will not add fat to your body on MANS, just muscle tissue. Dietary fat Does NOT = body fat.
As far as protein requirement, yes it’s totally individual. Did you read my post on how to calculate yours? In the sidebar under ‘MuscleHack Favorites’ click on ‘How Much Protein To Build Muscle?’.
This post is simply a food log of what I ate that day, not dogma on what you must eat or in what quantities.
Hope That Helps,
Mark
about your post workout shake? when i use mine i just fill up my shaker with milk and whey protein? im a little confused? milk has a bit of cabs in it so what would ineed to do? also im a little confused how to make up this post workout shake?
Hi Brendan, don’t use milk for your post workout shake.
Use cream diluted with water. I use it in the ratio of about 1:2 so let’s say you put 100ml of cream, add another 200ml of water, then add your whey.
Cheers,
Mark
What about fiber? this diet seems really low in fiber and veggies.
Another thing is that if I eat too much fat, I’ll feel too full, and wont be hungry again for hours.
Actually, you should get a lot of fibrous veggies on this diet.
Also the low carb versions of products are often higher in fiber like the Mama Lupe Tortillas.
I suggest you get some liquid calories in you in that case. See this post:
https://musclehack.com/monster-whey-protein-shake-recipe/
Cheers,
Mark
The only tortilla wraps I can seem to find are ones made
from 90% wheat flour, 9% palm oil and 1% salt. Are these ok?
I’m living in thailand and its very difficult to find products here
that you would get back in england.
Also trying to figure out what carbs sugars and proteins, as alot of the packets are in thai!
Matt,
It would be impossible to say without knowing the carb count per wrap.
I have to order mine online as low carb wraps aren’t available locally.
If it’s going to be an impossible task for you maybe you should opt for a low Glycemic Load diet like GLAD.
Mark
Hi,
I did the Atkins diet for a while – It worked, and was basically high fat low carb, like yours (I think). The common belief is that high fat diets are bad for you. Maybe it’s ok if you’re exercising a lot, but I’m not sure. After all, a body is for life:)
PS please don’t take this as a critisiscm of your site, your’s is the only one I’ve felt motivated to respond to.
Hey Mark, what is up with all of the heavy cream? is that to get your calorie count up, buddy?