Fitting in your meals

For all you guys looking to pack on as much muscle as possible and work a 8-5 job how do you plan your meals? Are you able to eat 3 meals during work and then obviously fit in the rest after work? Or are you limited to one meal during those hours? Basically to sum up what I am asking is how are you fitting all your meals in if you working a 8-5 job?

Not a problem I have now but when I used to I just ate at my desk while working and/or used shakes in between.

No one ever really had an issue with it to be honest but it could get tricky when there were a lot of meetings.

Worked with a guy a few years ago that was always bulking...

To the point that we were sick of chicken and rice or brocoli



he just ate at his desk. But we all did that anyways. are you in a monitored env that doesnt allow that? Take a "smoke break" and eat then... smokers can, so can you

During high school we were 3 guys in the same class who were into powerlifting and bodybuilding. I used meal replacements as a quick fix with meals at our break times and so did one of the others. The one guy though (was the biggest and always won competitions) used to have 2 back packs. One for books and the other for food. He used to eat almost every hour! Lunch boxes with rice and lentils, tuna bowls, chicken and veg, yoghurts, oats... everything! He wasn't a troublesome kid so the teachers allowed it knowing it was for his sport. I suppose if you're not really disturbing anyone and depending on the nature of your work then your employer might allow it. Otherwise meal replacements are probably your best bet.

Well let's look at the average 8 to 5 workers day and structure around it.

Wake up at 6am probably have no hunger ( so wake up earlier and do at least 30 min fasted cardio to facilitate this ,or don't eat a carb heavy meal before bed ( idk,just something I noticed through my own experience ) )
take into account that peak hour traffic is a bitch and a half so we'll leave home at say 7am
As well as peak hour traffic on the way back home ( depending if you're going straight to gym or going home to change and take a dump lol )

so this is a basic structure of how I would go about this

* I would advise prepping your meals the night before to avoid getting late for work unless you're fortunate enough to have someone cook your meals fresh everyday

05h15 wake up and hydrate,take a dump
05h30 fasted cardio
06h00 / 06h15 any protein source that absorbs quickly so eggs / whey protein shake with whatever else you require ( oats,cream of rice, toast, banana,berries,nut butter, honey ) can eat it or blend into a shake to save time depending on what time you leave home for work

10h00 tea break

can be either another meal replacement shake of oats / cor with whey and nut butter to slow the digestion down a bit OR a solid meal if you can fit it in

13h00 lunch

Solid meal

15h00 tea break

I would probably keep this one small as a snack maybe whey protein shake and a banana as its pretty close to the solid meal from lunch and that will still be digesting, however this may vary depending on how much fat/ fibre was in that meal as well as your metabolism... alternatively you can make a hefty preworkout meal with a good amount of fats to slow the digestion down so you wont need to eat again before training . If you finish work at 17h00 and get to gym at 17h30 / 18h00 ,then most of it should be fully digested into the system. next alternative if you are on a low calorie diet, I would split this meal into half and have a smaller amount of it closer towards the workout window ( nobody can really give you shit for drinking a shake when it's not tea time lol )

19h00 / 19h30 post workout
fast digesting protein and carbs

20h00 / 20h30
solid meal

22h00
solid meal with slow releasing protein

everyone has a different job environment so it would need to be tailored to suit their needs,but i think the most important factor to take into consideration is digestion which will play a huge factor in your hunger levels . The meal combinations are endless when you start looking at this,let alone whether you're on a high / low carb diet . so as you can see,there are a shit ton of variables to play with in this scenario and it will all depend on the individual itself

BDav wrote: For all you guys looking to pack on as much muscle as possible and work a 8-5 job how do you plan your meals? Are you able to eat 3 meals during work and then obviously fit in the rest after work? Or are you limited to one meal during those hours? Basically to sum up what I am asking is how are you fitting all your meals in if you working a 8-5 job?

You can get away with 4 meals a day, splitting your meals into multiple smaller meals through out the day isn't doing anything other than making it convenient to consume food qualities.

Also having 4 meals vs 6 to 7 means that you can have a bolus of food in each which makes planning meals easier and allows for more tasty food combos. With me for my prep I used to train in the morning and have 2 smaller meals in the morning, and then 3 larger meals in the evening making my last meal before bed the one with the most calories in it, mainly carbs. Helped me sleep, but also I was training after 8 hours of sleep so my body had digested food enough by the time I got to the gym.

If you are waking up and doing fasted cardio this is the perfect time to take 1mg of yohimbine per kg of bodyweight, 200mg caffeine, and a glucose disposal agent and doing 30mins of cardio. Yes I know blood glucose at that time should be low enough, but if you are using a glucose disposal agent that has gynema leaf extract in it, that causes the body to secrete insulin, which forces the body to pull glucose for instant energy and it does that from stored body fat. If you are feeling slight hypoglycemia whilst doing cardio then you know you are in a good place. When I say slight hypoglycemia im saying getting a little bit extra sweaty and hands are a little clammy.

Now if you want to extend the fat burning effects, have your first meal of the day as protein and fat only about an hour after your cardio.