Want to gain muscle and do cardio but too poor to buy lots of food

GOMAD

+1 on milk. Unless you're lactose intolerant. LOL. Not sure why I laughed but lol if you can't drink lots of milk at once.

galenruppisgod wrote:

+1 on milk. Unless you're lactose intolerant. LOL. Not sure why I laughed but lol if you can't drink lots of milk at once.

I don't think I'm lactose intolerant, but I read (even a lot of topics on here) of people giving answers to things advising "don't ingest too much dairy" "lay off the milk on your cereal"..etc. so even not being lactose intolerant could too much milk have many negative consequences?

Ever thought about found to prison? Dudes seem to get jacked when all you can do is work out, fight and avoid getting raped all day.

Ramen noodles, peanut butter, chicken. Boom.

Whey can be cheap.

You just need 1.6g/lean kg body weight of proteins per day.

Or if it's just for aesthetics, creatine is cheap and would really make you swollen. You would carry 4 pounds of water during your hobjogs.

Creatine is one of the few proven nootropics, so you have the added benefit of getting a brain boost while getting swole.

But, there is a SLIGHT chance its use could quicken hair loss in those with genetic male pattern baldness.

22twos wrote:

Creatine is one of the few proven nootropics, so you have the added benefit of getting a brain boost while getting swole.

But, there is a SLIGHT chance its use could quicken hair loss in those with genetic male pattern baldness.

+1

It's nice to read facts on this forum, for a change.

Seriously? The cost of a few hundred calories a day in bread or pasta or potatoes is virtually zero...

Nonsense. In the US and much of the world, poor people are fatter than rich people. And you can get good nutrition cheap if you want to. Rice and beans are good food and cheap. Eggs* and milk are cheap protein. And like someone said, whey protein is about as cheap per gram of protein as eggs are.

*dirt cheap master food I can eat that has all the calories/proteins I need

How much running?

How much lifting?

Current HT/WT?

Alan

Tofu

Lot of good suggestions here. The key is to cook a lot from scratch. A big batch of black beans and rice with greens and salsa - enough to last many meals - can cost under $5 if you buy rice in bulk, dried beans in bulk, cheap greens (frozen vegetables are just as nutritious) and cheap salsa. Learn how to use spices to add flavor. Some of the Greek yogurts and cottage cheese have a good amount of protein, not too much added sugar, and if you buy in bulk, aren’t crazy expensive.

There are some good ideas in this online recipe collection, written for people who have limited means but still try to eat well:

https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf

Beans, quinoa (buy in bulk), and eggs. Add different veggies, spices, and hot sauces.

Make sure to buy bulk. Buying from a grocery store is ridiculous.

A big mistake for people who try cooking for themselves everyday is they cook a meal at a time. No one has time and energy for that. Always make a huge pot of rice and beans for the week. Then any day you can eat as it with hot sauce or do a quick fry-up with an egg or other protein or veg to vary it.

I'll add potatoes as cheap and filling. Bread bakeries have two day old loaves they have to toss out- go make them an offer.

I grow all my own food and only spend money on potato chips, ice cream, and olive oil. With most of my diet consisting of plants- potatoes, grains, beans, etc- dairy products have worked out to be my number one source of protein. I get the milk direct off a small farm for next to nothing and make cheese and yogurt from it. $3/ jug= $3 1/2 gallon of yogurt if you make it yourself. I'm not a fan of drinking a ton of straight milk as a personal note.

While eating is high priority to gain muscle, if you want to gain muscle, you'll probably have to cut back on the cardio too. The best way to gain muscle is to lift heavy, and it's tough to lift heavy if you're doing serious volume.

If I were you, I'd consider cutting back the mileage for a while and working to increase your main lifts in the gym. Then once you make some solid progress and are happy with where you are weight-wise, start gradually increasing your cardio again. It's difficult to increase both aerobic fitness and strength at once.