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The Ultimate Student Guide To Bulking On A Budget

February 26, 2016Food, Uncategorizedadmin

MYPROTEIN Deals – Help me release UNIGAINS Apparel!

Finally, you have decided to put on some muscle mass; you want to transform your physique, your mentality, and your life.

This is the time to make a fresh start and redifine yourself – you are no longer going to be that scrawny guy. Good.

But now you need guidance.. you’re on a tight budget, and you want to bulk – not a good mix…

Luckily for you, you’ve just arrived at the perfect guide to help you bulk whilst on a tight budget.

But first – Do you really know what a bulk is?

The first things first we need to make sure we understand is what an effective bulk is.

Sure, anyone can eat 4000 calories and ‘bulk up’ – but in reality, you are just getting fat.

A calorie calculator (with protein requirement), a four-month bulking workout program, a body progress tracker, and a guide on how to bulk effectively is all included in my FREE UNIGAINS program.

Essentially, we need high protein and low calories – on a budget. Try this and you will soon realize that it is hard as fuck.

I have been experimenting a lot with trying to find foods which are easy to buy (can be bought from a supermarket), are cheap and satisfy typical bulking macronutrient goals.
Below is a list of the main foods which I rely on to get my protein and calorie requirements at a cheap price.

Before we start.. this is not a ‘healthy eating’ guide. The foods here are designed to fit our bulking goals, not our health and well-being. If you are expecting to see lean fillet steak and other expensive shit then you have come to the wrong place.

The foods have been analysed to make them easily comparable, and the ‘percentage of protein/calories’ is based on me; I am 163lbs, 5 foot 9, and currently I need 2800 calories and 160g protein to bulk.

SO LET’S BEGIN! In no particular order…

1. Frozen Pizza
Price per serving – £0.90-£1
Calories – 700-800
Protein – 25g
Percentage of daily protein – 15%
Percentage of daily calories – 25%
Cost per 50g protein – £1.80
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.25

I love frozen pizza – so quick to cook, easy to prepare, and no need to worry about expiry dates. Even though the calories are slightly on the higher side, I still rank it near the top of my list as it makes a great post workout meal due to adequate protein levels as well as high-glycemic carbs.

2. Baked Beans
Price per serving – £0.32
Calories – 370
Protein – 18g
Percentage of protein – 11%
Percentage of calories – 13%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.88
Cost per 1000 calories – £0.86

Beans beans good for your heart… and bloody cheap too. I was shocked when I realized just how much protein there is in beans.. like damn there is a decent amount.. and for the price too, it’s pretty fantastic. Again I love baked beans because all you have to do is shove it in a microwave and you’re done.

3. Natural Yoghurt
Price per serving – £1
Calories – 492
Protein – 32g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 17%
Cost per 50g protein – £1.56
Cost per 1000 calories – £2

Again, I was surprised when I saw just how much protein there was in natural yohurt. Convenient and simple – just shove a bit of sugar and honey/jam in there and you have another quick fixer-upper! This is one of the more expensive items on the list, but it tastes so good.

4. Eggs (4 per serving)
Price per serving – £0.33
Calories – 240
Protein – 24g
Percentage of protein – 15%
Percentage of calories – 8.5%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.69
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.38

Obviously this list could not exist without eggs. The protein content always dissappoints me, I always feel that eggs should have way more, but they are the cheapest source. And don’t be worried about cholesterol; studies have not found a direct correlation between cholesterol and heart disease. But if you still are concerned, there are plenty of other foods to choose from.

5. Frozen Fish
Price per serving – £0.50
Calories – 144
Protein – 33g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 5%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.75
Cost per 1000 calories – £3.47

One of the healthier options on the menu. I picked these up from Morrisons. Again just slap them in the oven and you’re done. The protein content is superb and of a higher quality than most others on the list. It’s a bit bland, but meh – gotta sacrifice for them gains.

6. Red Kidney Beans
Price per serving – £0.30
Calories – 250
Protein – 19g
Percentage of protein – 12%
Percentage of calories – 9%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.79
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.20

Tastes quite bland. If you find a way to make it taste good please let me know. This is another cheap source of protein with a low percentage of calories. In fact, nutritionally, this may be one of the best foods on the list for protein/carb/calorie mix… shame it tastes shit.

7. Frozen Mince Beef & Pork
Price per serving – £0.64
Calories – 600
Protein – 32g
Percentage of protein – 20%
Percentage of calories – 21%
Cost per 50g protein – £1
Cost per 1000 calories – £1.07

Surpisingly, it is 100% meat (shocking, I know). Now this is a little higher in calories, and I don’t really like the taste too much. However, if you’re struggling to chug down some calories whilst trying to get in some protein, then a slab of minced meat is the way to go!

8. Impact Whey Protein (with water)
Price per serving – £0.29
Calories – 100
Protein – 20g
Percentage of protein – 13%
Percentage of calories – 3.6%
Cost per 50g protein – £0.73
Cost per 1000 calories – £3

I left whey protein for last because I wanted to stress that whey protein is not the only protein you should rely on. Too much of anything is bad for you, especially when it is meant to be a supplement.

Try to get as much of your protein requirement as you can from proper food. I tend to keep the percentage of protein I get from whey to about 1/3 of my daily consumption; I highly doubt that too much of it is a good thing…
To summarize, here is the list of foods in order of the best price/protein ratio:

1. Eggs
2. Whey Protein
3. Frozen Fish
4. Red Kidney Beans
5. Baked Beans
5. Frozen Mince Beef/Pork
7. Natural Yoghurt
8. Frozen Pizza

Well there you have it, these are the foods which I basically live off for my protein needs.. and yes, I did leave out tuna because it is pretty damn expensive. £1 for just 20g protein? No thanks, I will just have a frozen pizza with 700 calories instead (tastes way better too).

Of course, the remainder of your carbs and calories can be filled with rice, pasta, porridge, oats etc, just make sure you are getting your protein requirements whilst not exceeding your calorie limit!

NOW LET’S MAKE SOME UNIGAINS!

-Mike

Any suggestions, comments, or questions? Ask at mike@unigains.com, or @unigains on Twitter

Creatine Guide For Students

February 24, 2016Foodadmin

MYPROTEIN Deals – Help me release UNIGAINS Apparel!

One of the first supplements you will hear about when starting to get into fitness is creatine. It is now becoming one of the ‘must’ supplements for making gains, along with protein shakes and pre-workouts.

But honestly, I don’t think half of us actually have any clue as to what it is, the function it provides, how essential it is, if it has any side-effects etc.. So I’ve done my research and tried to simplify it for you guys.

I would just like to point out that I do not take creatine, here is a link to why.

But for those who are interested, here we go!

What is Creatine?

“Creatine is a compound formed in protein metabolism and present in much living tissue. It is involved in the supply of energy for muscular contraction”

Essentially, creatine helps supply energy to your muscles for lifting, therefore taking additional creatine will increase these supplies further – this should help you increase the work done in the gym.

How does creatine affect my performance in the gym?

Studies tend to suggest that a 20g/day dose of creatine for 5-7 days increases:
-your maximal power/strength (1 Rep-Max) by 5 to 15%
-work performed for maximal effort contractions (reps till failure) by 5 to 15%
-single-effort sprint performances by 1 to 5%
-work done during repetitive sprint performances by 5 to 15%

So as you can see creatine does increase your athletic performance in the gym, which may be a useful tool to burst through plateaus and hit new 1 Rep Maxes.

So will creatine help me build muscle more quickly?

Well, potentially, as you are able to apply greater stress on your muscles.

Think about it this way: if you are able to perform more work in the gym, you will be able to push your body further than normal, and therefore you can put your muscles under more stress which may trigger a greater response for them to grow.
No one knows for sure the amount of muscle that creatine will help add, and you will not just gain muscle by taking in creatine. Assuming you are already training and eating appropriately, creatine may help to push yourself that little bit further which could help with building muscle.

What type of creatine should I be taking?

Creatine is sold in many different ways (candy bars, liquid creatine, creatine gum etc.), however, no data suggests that it provides better creatine uptake to the muscle better than creatine monohydrate. Mixing it with water, juice, protein shakes etc. is fine, but don’t mix it with a citrus drink! (breaks it down making it useless.)

How much creatine should I be taking?

Typical doses range from 2-25g a day and that only about 5g of creatine should be taken at once – otherwise, it just gets peed out.

Creatine is usually taken before and/or after a workout in 5g doses (whilst your body is in a primed state for muscle building); this tends to be up to personal preference, and depending on what phase you’re in. The remaining amount can be taken at equally spaced intervals throughout the day.

Generally, there tends to be a loading phase, maintenance phase, and a wash-out phase:

-The loading phase is where you fill up your muscular creatine stores over a few days to maximise the stores in the muscles – here you should take 0.3g/kg of bodyweight, and do not consume this amount for more than five days (the excess amount is not needed anymore)

–The maintenance phase is when your creatine capacity has been maximised, and you only need to maintain this amount – here you only need to take 0.03g/kg of bodyweight – stay in this phase for no longer than a month.

–The washout phase is when you stop taking creatine for a while to let your body recover, and just to be on the safe side if there are side-effects – a washout period of 1 month is advised.

Are there any side effects?

According to WebMD, creatine is likely safe when taken by mouth correctly for up to 5 years. It is possibly unsafe if it is taken in high dosages, and that it could harm the kidney, liver, or heart function – however a connection between high does and these negative effects has not been proven. Creatine may also cause stomach pain, nausea, diarrhoea, and muscle cramping.

Also, creatine draws water from the rest of the body, so make sure you are drinking enough water to account for this.

You will gain weight fairly quickly at the start, and this is due to water retention in the muscles, giving your muscles a ‘puffier’ look – hey it makes you look bigger! Good right? But this is likely not muscle mass… just water.

Is it worth the money?

According to the bodybuilding.com shop, a typical 400g tub of creatine monohydrate will set you back about £10 pounds. So that is about 80 5g servings. This is about 13p a serving.
So yeah, I have no complaints about the price of it, but if I were you I wouldn’t go buy it just yet…

My Opinion

If you’re starting out, I wouldn’t bother, and for good reason:
Basically, you will build muscle and get stronger doing pretty much anything when you start off in the gym. Personally, I will save creatine for a time when I am really struggling to make gains, or have hit a seriously big plateau.
This is my take on most supplements really; I don’t like to rely on them, because when I really hit a brick wall, there is nothing to help me overcome it.
At the moment, I’m getting bigger and stronger, and I have not reached a stage where I am mentally and physically struggling to progress in the gym, and I’m deadlifting 220kg – don’t blame the lack of creatine as an excuse if you’re just starting out.
Always look at the fundamentals first if you are not making progress – your diet and exercise. Experiment with that first, and if that really doesn’t work, then yeah hop on some creatine and see how it goes!

-Mike

If you have any questions, ask me @unigains or mike@unigains.com!

Sources to articles here, here, and here

How To Effortlessly Lose Weight

February 24, 2016Foodadmin

For those who don’t know, to lose weight you have to eat less.

Specifically, you need to be consuming fewer calories than you are burning. So for example on average I burn about 2300 calories a day through sleeping, eating, pooing, walking etc. so I would need to eat less than that to lose weight. Simple.

Now the calories we burn on a daily basis are called our ‘maintenance calories’. This varies for everyone. To get an approximate value multiply your weight in pounds by 15. This will give you a good starting value.

Our aim during weight loss is to lose about 1lb (0.4kg) of fat a week. This figure is a good mix of being able to eat enough so we don’t hate the diet, yet we will still be losing a fairly considerable amount of fat which we will be able to do consistently.
The deficit is also not large enough to lose too much muscle; as we lose weight our body is deprived of nutrients, and will start fishing around for energy from fat and muscles. The body normally looks around for fat first, however if we are really not eating enough it will start to attack our muscles too. We don’t want that because muscle makes us (both men and women) look good.

So, our objective is to reduce our calories by about 300-500 calories below our maintenance value. For me I weigh 163lbs, so I burn about 2400 calories just doing daily stuff. To lose weight, I will start off with eating 2100 calories and tracking my weight every week to see if I’m on track. If I’m not, I will eat about 100 less each week until I am.

So what is this method of weight loss you want us to try?

Well, this may surprise you, but I say fuck breakfast.

And here is why: My willpower is strongest in the morning; I am able to control myself and resist earlier on in the day. Throughout the day, my determination and willpower fade, and by the evening I am vulnerable to cravings. I also do not like going to bed hungry and like to eat whilst watching TV…

In essence, I just try and wait as long into the day as possible before eating –this often just means waiting till lunch to it.
Now there are actually studies showing the benefits of doing this, however regardless of the benefits, I just find it a very manageable way to control how much I eat.

Admittedly, it is difficult at first, so I started off just waiting a bit later in the day to eat. First till 10 AM, then till 11 AM, and within a month I was able to consistently manage to wait until lunch.
This makes the rest of the day a breeze, because you can just eat normally, and will not feel like you are missing out on anything.
When you get good at controlling yourself, you could even try and eat a little less at lunch and have a feast of a dinner, if you really like to eat a lot in one sitting.

Any Tips?

To curb your hunger in the mornings chew on some gum – this does wonders for me.
Also, sparkling water and black coffee are great ways to satisfy your belly before lunch.
And stay busy – if you are doing something such as work or studying time can fly! Before you know it is lunchtime, and your belly feels fine and you are happy because you know you are on the right track to losing weight!
Be sure to eat enough protein to help retain muscle! Aim to shoot for about 0.9g per lb of bodyweight.

I urge you to give it a go. It really has helped me control my food issues (I like to eat, a lot…) and it feels really good mentally when you are able to control yourself.
Also, I noticed that I actually feel more refreshed and energised without food in the morning– I assume it’s because eating an influx of sugary high-carb breakfast foods really messes with your energy levels

Good luck!

-Mike

Why You Do Not Need To Do Cardio

February 24, 2016Bodyadmin

MYPROTEIN Deals – Help me release UNIGAINS Apparel!

One of the first questions I get asked by people starting out is: “Mike, should I do cardio!?”

This all comes to what you want to achieve out of fitness.

If you want to be able to run far, well then yeah.. the best way to get better at something is to practice it; so if you wanna be able to run 10 miles in an hour then get on that treadmill and start training!

But.. if you care about overall fitness, and want general good health, typical cardio may actaully not be too good for us, due to it causing unnecessary stress on limbs and releasing unfavourable hormones which break down muscle.

Instead, to satisfy your aerobic needs, walking and sprints may actually be better options if focusing on all-round athletic performance.

Now if you only care about building muscle and getting bigger, cardio is going to result in you having to eat more and make you more tired… what’s the point? I can see no reason to do cardio if aiming to get bigger and stronger – for me it just drains my energy which I should be using to lift weights and get stronger.
If you’re getting fatter, then you’re eating too much. Eat less.
If you just want to eat more, then I guess burning a few hundred calories with cardio could make sense – but it’s so much effort. Just control yourself and do some intermittent fasting or something, or just don’t eat that donut.

Now if you’re trying to lose weight, I’m still not a big fan of it.. as I said earlier, high-paced cardio releases a stress hormone called cortisol which breaks down muscle. Also, you’re already eating less – why make yourself more hungry!?
think about it this way, jogging for 45 mins burns about 300 calories. That is the same amount of calories as a donut. Now I don’t know about you but when I used to finish a run I could probably eat like 3 or 4, easily… so it just doesn’t make much sense for me.. just don’t eat that goddam sprinkled donut.

So yeah, the only time I would advise doing typical cardio is when you want to train for something which requires it.

If you just want all round fitness and health I personally think strength training, walking, and sprints are they way to go.

And if you just want to get huge, fuck that shit.

…and also, cardio is just boring…

-Mike

follow me on twitter @mikeyteey, and if you have any questions email me at mike@unigains.com. Would love to hear from you!