Raiding The Vending Machine Instead of Eating Nothing?

[JessAlfie]

Hi,

Just a quick question. I'm trying to put weight on so for the days I'm at work and I haven't remembered to take extra food with me to have between my main meals (usually tuna mayo sandwiches) then is it better for me to eat rubbish from the vending machine (crisps, chocolate bars, cookies etc...) than to not eating anything at all? I know it's better to avoid crap like that but I figured maybe it's still better to have those extra calories in me instead of nothing at all.

Cheers for any advice you can give.

Cheers
J

[rafaerusan]

Wait until you get home to raid your fridge instead.

[aramirez626]

Can you leave and go get something? Even a grocery store, you can get some milk, lunch meat, peanut butter, cottage cheese, etc....

[Demian]

You could try to get some "clean" (aka plain or just salted) peanuts or cashew nuts from the vending machine

[itsbruce]

Junk food tends to mess up your diet (by which I mean your plan for what you eat, not diet as in losing weight), mess with your blood sugar levels, make you feel lethargic etc. Lot of hassle for some extra calories. Some vending machine options are better than others, though. What range of products is on offer?

[FilthyMcNasty]

Hi,

Just a quick question. I'm trying to put weight on so for the days I'm at work and I haven't remembered to take extra food with me to have between my main meals
J

Remember your food, don't look for permission to eat crap.

[Darylbethyname]

waiting to you get home and eating twice as much is better. the whole eating every 3 hours thing is crap anyway so as long as you make up for the missed calories you'll be fine. but try and avoid this situation with better planning

[itsbruce]

the whole eating every 3 hours thing is crap anyway

You're going to find a lot of people on this site who completely disagree with you on that. And not just on this site. One of my colleagues, who also does strength training but not SL5x5, says that moving to the 3 hour schedule made a huge difference to his size and strength gains.

[Darylbethyname]

the whole eating every 3 hours thing is crap anyway

You're going to find a lot of people on this site who completely disagree with you on that. And not just on this site. One of my colleagues, who also does strength training but not SL5x5, says that moving to the 3 hour schedule made a huge difference to his size and strength gains.

so the warrior diet and intermediate fasting are witch craft then? if you can eat every 3 hours then do so, but if you can't its not going to make any measurable difference if you get your complete calorie intake in the day

[itsbruce]

For some people, the three hour schedule is the only way they can get enough calories in; they just don't find it possible to eat that much at 3 sittings only. Many people also find that, even if they can eat the larger amounts in a 3 meal schedule, that it leaves them very lethargic afterwards, which can be just unpleasant or even disruptive, depending on their daily routine.

No one diet regimen is suitable for everybody in every situation. The warrior diet is good for some, the three hour routine for others; they aren't in opposition. Saying one works doesn't invalidate the other.

[FilthyMcNasty]

At the risk of being obvious , we're way off question. It's not Fasting == every three hours. It's is crap ok instead of real food. And the answer is still no unless the vending machine sells nuts that are not salted and not treated with any other crap.
If you have a locker/desk buy a big bag of nuts and leave them at work for this purpose.

[Abzstrak]

I get stuck at client sites and at work at irregular times randomly.... I find it impossible to always have food. For that reason I carry a couple of protein bars with me in my laptop bag. I try not to make them a regular part of my diet, but sometimes my schedule just sucks... Buy some that are high in protein and very low in sugar/carbs... they are definitely better than anything in the vending machine, and drink water with them. You can also carry other foods with you such as nuts, beef jerky and dehydrated fruit. Obviously stay away from as much salt as you can on the jerky and try to get dehydrated fruit that doesn't have an ass ton of sugar added...

best bet though, always remember your food, only do this stuff in pinch.

[ricepower]

Some nuggets of wisdom from lord Rippetoe:

The real lifters all recognize the intimate relationship between increased bodyweight and increased strength. But modern bodybuilding has fucked this up. Abs seem to be the primary criterion for everything to most people, including most of you guys.

You really think a young man, between 18 and 35, really needs to be conscious of his "health" for a year while he gains muscular bodyweight? What do you think can happen to him in a year of 7000 kcal/day eating?

Question:Rip, there's a picture of you floating around, which I conveniently linked below, that probably came from a powerlifting meet. You are pulling what looks like 585 and you are quite lean. Hell, you may have even been in danger of having six pack abs. Whatever the case, you don't look like a 300 pounder, yet you are moving some serious weight. In your earlier training days, did you eat as much as you recommend now?

Answer: If I told you how much I used to eat, you would not believe me.

Question: Any one see the movie Supersize Me? Guy went on a MickeyD diet for 30 days.
The changes in his bloodwork were scary in such a short time.

Answer: And the "Supersize Me" did involve absolutely no training, if I remember correctly, and is obviously therefore not an equivalent situation. You guys that worry about eating clean are actually merely bodybuilders looking for justification for your obsession with abs. You cannot get big and strong on 3000 kcal/day. And you cannot eat 7000/day and eat perfectly "clean".

Okay, you want to know what I ate. I have eaten a dozen eggs for breakfast before, but always ate 6 with toast and milk, and 5 bowls of raisin bran was quite normal until my members asked to stop doing that. I have eaten 11 10-oz. steaks at an all-you-can-eat steak deal -- several of us went there, and the special was discontinued the following week. I have eaten 4 very large plates of spaghetti and meat sauce in 30 minutes. I have eaten 15 pork chops + vegetables at the Olympic Training Center back when the food was really good. I have eaten 225 shrimp in an hour. At a seafood buffet in Michigan, I ate 10 lobsters and the claws off of 10 more, in addition to shrimp, crab legs, lobster bisque, clam chowder, and bread, in 2 hours. I have eaten 7 big bowls of Mongolian BBQ. I have had a gallon of milk in less than 30 minutes. I was very expensive to feed, but I am told by reputable sources that I was absolutely nothing compared to Phil Grippaldi.

And folks, for weight-gaining purposes, "eating clean" is not a useful concept. Big Macs are.

[mjh]

Not sure why those quotes are relevant, ricepower. The Rip quotes are referring to eggs, steak, seafood, chops, milk, burgers etc... real food, useful calories. Not at all the same as potato chips and chocolate bars, which is what this thread is about.

[ricepower]

He was just emphasising eating 7000kcal+ is pretty much essential if you are serious about getting strong. And this is of course impossible to do clean.

I just happenned to be reading at the same time so though I may aswell post it.

Here is something more directly relevant.

Written By Dave Tate.

There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn’t gain weight to save my fucking life.


There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He’d go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.


I finally asked him one day how he did it.


“You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I’ll fill you in.”


Now remember, we’re at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.


So we get outside and he starts talking.


“For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don’t care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That’s your breakfast.”


At this point I’m thinking this guy is nuts. But he’s completely serious.


“For lunch you’re gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don’t want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don’t care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can’t let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter.”


“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put ’em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it.”


“Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”


This guy is in a zen-like state when he’s talking about this.


“Now you’re on the clock,” he continues. “After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you’re full. Don’t listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I’m telling you now, you’re going to get three or four pieces in and you’re gonna want to quit. You fucking can’t quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.


And if you can’t finish it, don’t you ever come back to me and tell me you can’t gain weight. ’Cause I’m gonna tell you that you don’t give a fuck about getting bigger and you don’t care how much you lift!”


Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn’t get much fatter. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, though.