Posts by Matthew Richardson81

Alex Long8 said:I knew someone was gonna call me out on that! I guess I worded my last post a bit weirdly... look, I get it, my whole foundation is built on my diet.

Basically, I'm doing 4-5 meals a day plus a shake, and if I happen to have enough time between my last meal and hitting the gym, I'll grab another shake.

I'm slamming a massive amount of carbs here. My plan is to hit about 80g of carbs and 30-40g of protein per meal. That works out to roughly 4g of carbs per kg of body weight and 2g of protein per kg daily.

Man, just ditch the mass gainers! Seriously, do the math for a second—compare what you're paying for a pre-made gainer versus just buying some whey and mixing it with glucose, dextrose, or maltodextrin. I bet you anything the DIY version is way cheaper and actually higher quality. Just toss a scoop or two of protein in there with 2 or 3 scoops of those sugars, and boom—you’ve got your own custom gainer.
Obviously, you still need to be in a calorie surplus. If eating huge volumes of food is a struggle for you, try focusing on carbs that aren't as filling. For example, it's usually much easier to crush a big plate of pasta than it is to eat that much rice if you're looking at the carb count. Making those kinds of smart swaps makes hitting that calorie surplus way less of a chore. I totally get it, though—slamming tons of carbs every single day is a grind!

Man, I feel you. I’m dealing with the exact same thing. I play a ton of basketball too, and my knees have been absolutely killing me lately. I actually went to see an orthopedic specialist, and he told me it looks like some cartilage damage. He was saying that when you're in your late teens or early 20s, that cartilage is still basically hardening or whatever, which makes it way easier to run into these kinds of issues. I’ve got an X-ray scheduled for later this week, so hopefully, once I head back for the follow-up, I'll finally have some real answers.