Need more energy throughout the day!

[Jack]

Hi, basically I want to possess more energy and a greater feeling of mental and physical awakeness throughout the day. While I am familiar with the role of complex and simple carbohydrates, I was wondering how useful vegetables and herbs would be when added to my diet?

My daily diet is something like this normally..

0630 - 4oz Oats, 1oz raisins , milk (mv tablet and green tea)
1030 - 2 PB+J sandwiches, milk
1230 - 3 Tuna sandwiches, piece of fruit
1530 - 1 Tuna sandwich, piece of fruit
1730 - PW - Whey Shake in Milk, Orange Juice
1830 - Dinner (Large)
2100 - Milk, Nuts, Salad

I think I may generally be eating a bit too much and having so much blood in my stomach all the time may be making me feel more drowsy.

Dave you say you get as many carbs as possible from vegetable sources and minimise the starched - e.g. pasta, bread, rice, etc. Could cutting down on the starches and eating more fruits and vegetables throughout the day help farther?

I already drink a good 3-4 litres of water a day. I may stop with such a Bodybuilding diet, by reducing the copious amounts of food and increasing natural fruit, vegetables, vitamins, green tea, and juices. I am not too concerned with nutrition to support working out, I just need a good maintanence, healthy diet brimming with energy. :)

Advice welcome!

[THEGREAT1]

it might be the 3-4 litres of water wieghing u down(jesting, think 2 litres is supposedly sufficient, but depends on the climate where u live and your own personal activites i guess:PP
)

anyway can u put that diet into numbers perhaps e.g.

grams of carbs per meal, grams of protein etc.

i dunno since i don't see then numbers but it doesn't look that high in carbs at a glance but i'm prob wrong :)

[Jack]

0630 - 4oz oats, 1oz raisins, 800ml milk (850 cals, 40g pro, 127g carb, 22g fat)
1030 - 2 PB+J sandwiches, 500ml milk (590 cals, 24g pro, 65g carb, 22g fat)
1230 - 3 Tuna Sandwiches, Apple (410 cals, 38g pro, 66g carb, 15g fat)
1500 - 1 Tuna Sandwich, Banana (245 cals, 10g pro, 45g carb, 1g fat)
1730 - 40g whey, 250ml milk, 400ml Orange Juice (475 cals, 42g pro, 52g carb, 5g fat)
1830 - Dinner (varied) (500 cals, 35g pro, 70g carb, 20g fat) - roughly
2100 - Nuts, Salad, 500ml milk (480 cals, 25g pro, 29g carb, 30g fat)

Total - 3550 cals, 214g pro, 454g carb, 115 fat

[Bon]

Christ!

I think that's overkill with the amount of food you're eating, man...

Big meals + starches == tired

Small meals != tired

[Bon]

Take a look,

you have 4 hours between your second meal,
the insulin level rises from your first meal and since you don't feed yourself until four hours later, your insulin level comes down... Then, having a big meal causes your insulin level to sky rocket again - what goes up must come down... Your body can't take that kind of fluctuation with insulin levels.

You wanna try and maintain your insulin level on a horizontol line as much as possible, which means eating every 2-3 hours, but small meals.

[THEGREAT1]

Agreed

but as for carbs......

this is from a body building perspective atleast, to be able to maintain energy levels and be able to train at your maximum etc,

3 grams per lb of body weight is recommended

so depends on your own personal bodyweight there

and it's a good idea to spread it out over the day as bon says to keep insulin levels steady.

so similar amounts of carbs each meal is useful :-)

hope that helps a bit.

[WhiteWizard]

personally don't know a lot about the science of the subject but things like pasta bread and stuff help a lot

[Jack]

I will attempt to balance out the time between meals, and the carbohydrate content in these meals.

Bon - That was a Bodybuilding bulking diet I was on. I am now going to reduce how much I eat :)