Hi from a Scot living in London

[itsbruce]

I found this site looking for advice about building muscle (and particularly about building upper body strength). About 18 months ago, I realised that after too many years in desk jobs I was heading towards obesity and that if I didn't change that soon, I'd never do it. So I changed my diet (G.I. diet, although I think just having a sane diet plan is much more important that the actual theory behind it), started exercising at home until I'd lost enough weight not to feel embarrassed to go to the gym, then got a gym membership. Now I'm four stone lighter (actually, that only took eight months, but my weight's been rock stable since then) and have a lot more stamina and want to move on to gaining some genuine strength. Don't ever want to become a body builder and have biceps bigger than my waist, just want some respectable upper body strength.

The 5x5 plan is easily the most reasonable and well thought out regime I've found since I started looking - been trying it for three weeks now and enjoying it. Hope it stays as fun - all the activity on the forum makes it look as if it's really working for people.

One thing, though - after 18 months of eating moderately, it's really hard to eat as much as the FAQ recommends. I'm trying, but it doesn't come at all naturally to me now. Good thing I like fish or it'd be really hard - impossible - because I just can't go back to eating a lot of red meat.

See you around on the forums

[Glahn]

Welcome to the forums

Good luck with your eating routines. Just put enough effort in your diet. You'll get it down eventually.

Tuna is a great protein source, and consists almost only of proteins.

A can of tuna = ca 35 g of protein!
Three eggs: 21 g protein
1 l milk: 33 g protein
10 slices of cheese: 25 g protein
4 slices of bread: 8-10 g protein
300g cottage cheese: 39 g protein

This is the basis of my daily eating habits. This alone provides me with ca 150 g protein.

In addition to this comes dinner, evening meal, vegetables, water, fruits, nuts, vitamins etc.

Again, good luck