Not eating enougt, thinking about supplements

[LuigiB]

I am trying  to  get  in shape and grow a bit going to te gym ,walking,swimming  and of course working 

I have a quite active work and im always  on the move i do an average of 20.000 steps (more usual ) when i work and anyway  almost never less then 10.000 .

I usually have a coffe and a couple of croissant  for breakfast  and mid morning a well filled sandwiches  but then nothing else  till the end of work as i found out if i eat lunch (one main course  with veg and meat , no pudding or starter) i am letargic all afternoon  and my productivity and concentration go down .

At home i always  cook so a good chiken roast with potatoes  or other kind of dish i like to cook

Same on my day off  i have always  a lite breakfast  and one main dish then some sweet and snak .

But i usually on calories  deficit  and theres not way that i can eat more (On a regular basis)

So now a question 

Do you think i should start with supplement 

And what will be the best combination ....i mean .....there is a whay proteine ,creatine and mass gainer and all sort of products that i have not idea how to chose and what to chose.

So please let me know your experience ,what product you test and what results you gof 

I know everyone is different but it can be illuminating to read other people experiences. 

Thank you for your time 

[MagsOnTheBeach]

I think you need to eat better food.  

For breakfast, have 2-3 eggs with one croissant - better ditch the croissant and look for a nice rustic seedy whole grain bread and have toast. Add an apple and some milk too.  I'm not sure what a well-filled sandwich is, but if it has processed meat, I'd get rid of it too.  Why not make a double sized dinner and the other half for lunch?  Do you eat green vegetables? You should be eating many more vegetables and fruits.  What about yogurt? 

Before resorting to supplements, eat real food.

[GershonSurge]

Supplements create expensive urine, and that's about all. Many of them are harmful and increase the probability of an early death.

[Dominique]

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@LuigiBwrote:

Do you think i should start with supplement  

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No, I don’t think so. Supplements are very low on the list of things that matter for body composition. What matters most are calories: if you want to gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you expend. No need for supplements for that: as @MagsOnTheBeach said, just eat normal food. Since you already get a lot of activity via your work (lucky you), it would probably be a good idea to shift the focus of your exercising from cardio training (e.g. walking, swimming) to resistance training (weight lifting). They don’t need to be mutually exclusive, just do more of the latter and less of the former. Resistance training will burn less calories per unit of time than cardio training, but it will let you put on some mass.

"Mass gainers" are just a mix of protein powder (usually whey) and cheap high-glycemic carbohydrates like maltodextrine or dextrose. You can (should) get most of your protein from real food, but if you do need to supplement, just use regular whey protein. If you want to make workout shakes, just add maltodextrine/dextrose and you’ll have your own "mass gainer". If you want to gain lean mass (muscle), the most important factor is providing your muscle a stimulus to grow (resistance training); without that stimulus, any excess of calories you will eat will be stored primarily as fat.  

[Dominique]

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@LuigiBwrote:

creatine 

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Regarding creatine: it’s one of the few supplements that have been shown to actually work (plenty of serious studies showing this), but even when it works (which is not the case for everyone), its impact on performance is minimal, something like 2-3%. So again, it’s not what you should focus on if your main problem is being a "hard gainer". 

To gauge the importance of calories vs. supplements for changing body composition, see this older topic.

[LuigiB]

Thank you MagsOnTheBeach.

But I lifestyle is a bit hectic. 

And there' no way that I can eat anything a part coffee and croissant  in the morning .

I work 12 hours shift and I have 15 min in the mid  morning (where I have my sandwich) 30 min around  one o'clock ans anoter 15min breack at 4pm then work till 20.00

There' s no chance to snack during the working time and as I said  if I load myself with food I will sleep all afternoon feeling bloated. 

At home I cook from scratc but ....time I  arrive at home , tome I spend to cook  i usually eat  around 21.30/22;00.

So also to double up the portions is really hard to think for me .

Your letter and the other reply make me bit of rethink about supplement .

Maibe fresh fruits milkshakes or so. 

Anyway thank you for your help  thats really help me to make a plan of actions to take 

[LuigiB]

Thank you  Dominique 

You get me quite a  clear answer , eat more !

I will try to make it happen 

But it will be hard 

Again thank you for all the information  

[mahmoudhany]

Hello Luigi!
It's nice to see that you are conscious about your choices and ready to make a change, however, as @MagsOnTheBeach had suggested, it's best to resort to real foods first before considering supplements.
@Dominique gave a really nice explanation to all the supplements that you had inquired about, but I would like to add a fun reference in case you ever wanted to search for a specific supplement or nutrition in general, it's https://examine.com/, it's unbiased and was very helpful to me.
Also in case you ever wanted to buy a certain supplement, like whey protein for example, I suggest that you visit https://labdoor.com/rankings, they have unbiased lab tests to verify that the labels that supplement companies put on their products are actually true, you would be shocked to find out how big companies lie about the content (and the amount of protein in the case of whey protein) of their products.
I hope that this would be helpful to you, please keep us updated with your progress.

[Mukluk4]

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@LuigiBwrote:

Thank you  Dominique 

You get me quite a  clear answer , eat more !

I will try to make it happen 

But it will be hard 

Again thank you for all the information  

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You can get every benefit of the weight gaining supplements by following the GOMAD diet (if you are serious about putting on bulk).  Not anything I would try, but the feedback from the gym rats is pretty good.

[LuigiB]

I Will get some info  about and I'll  let you know 

Thanks 

[LuigiB]

Thank you very much 

This search it start to be really  interesting 

I will chek all the link you gave me 

And I'll let you know 

Again thanks 

[Dominique]

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@Mukluk4wrote:

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following the GOMAD diet (if you are serious about putting on bulk).  Not anything I would try

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I wouldn’t try it either. I just think there are smarter and more pleasurable ways to get the extra calories needed to be in a surplus than to drink 3.8 liters of milk everyday. Not to speak of the logistics, if you’re buying fresh milk.

I’ve been bulking for 10 week straight, didn’t use any "mass gainer" (just been eating regular food) and I’ve been too "successful": I planned to gain 0.25 kg per week in average and ended up gaining 0.36 kg per week:

 

My advice to @LuigiB would be: 1) eat more of the foods you like, 2) don’t move as much as usual (lower your step count), 3) train hard (lift weights), 4) be a bit "lazier" when you’re done with your training (resting is part of the recovery process). 

[LuigiB]

Well I will never be able to drink so much milk on top of my food intake .

There was a time that I was drinking lots of milk but with little food and I was skinny . I reach 63 kilos on my worst figure.

Luckily I chnged abits  and I eat more and more regular.....and with the age now I reach almost 80 kg 

Which I like 

I' m not looking to bulk and become a bulldzer but I want to balance my calories in and out ...and of course to grow but not getting that far .

Thank you for the suggestions ...

Btw tonight I eat 500 gr of gnocchi with a three cheeses  sauce 

Nice and heavy😂

[LuigiB]

I will never be able to drink so much milk 

But thank you for the informations 

I didn't know that diet