The Secrets of Natural Bodybuilding

"About Ivan: Ivan Nikolov is a natural bodybuilder from Bulgaria, currently residing in the US. Since his arrival Ivan has been competing for the Musclemania chain of natural shows and has consistently placed in the top five in his weight class, while competing only in worldwide events. Ivan specializes in teaching real people how to change their mental approach toward life, which in his opinion is the foundation that one has to set first in order to achieve a better and healthier body."

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Meal Exchanges and macronutrient groups

We arrived at the point where knowing the grams and the percentages of your macronutrients you are ready to break them down in to meals. I like to use two ways for that. One way is straight in grams for each meal and the other is in exchanges.

Exchanges are serving sizes, which are exchangeable for any other item from the same macronutrient group. For example one exchange of brown rice will be interchangeable with one exchange of oatmeal in the group of the carbohydrates.

All you need to remember about the exchanges (if you are going to use them instead of grams) is the approximate serving size. Example: 15 grams of carbohydrates = 1 carbohydrate exchange, 7 grams of protein = 1 protein exchange, 5 grams of fat = 1 fat exchange. You should also try to remember the serving size of some of your favorite items.

Did I mention that exchanges are easier to use compared to grams…
Here is a list of the most common items in each macronutrient category:

Carbohydrate Group (roughly 15 grams)

Starches (15 grams of carbohydrates, 80 calories)

1 slice whole wheat bread

1 small whole-wheat tortilla

Cereals and Grains (15 grams carbohydrates, 80 calories)

a. ½ cup bran, wheat, and oat cereals

b. ¼ cup muesli

c. 1/3 cup cooked long grain rice

Milk (12 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams protein (counts as a protein also)

  1. 1 cup skim milk
  2. 3/4 cup plain non fat yogurt
  3. 1 cup fruit flavored yogurt with nonnutritive sweetener

Vegetables (15 grams carbohydrates, 80 calories)

  1. 1/3 cup baked beans
  2. ½ cup corn, peas, and various other beans
  3. 1 small, 3 oz. Baked sweet potato

Fruits (15 grams carbohydrates, 80 calories)

a. 1 small apple, orange, nectarine, or pear (4-6 oz.)

b. ½ grapefruit

c. 1 ¼ cup strawberries

Protein Group (roughly 7 grams of protein)

Very Lean Meat (7 grams protein, <1>

  1. 1 oz. white meat turkey or chicken no skin
  2. 1 oz. Cod, flounder, or haddock fresh or canned
  3. 1 oz. Shellfish
  4. ¼ cup nonfat cottage cheese
  5. 2 egg whites
  6. 1 whole egg

Lean Meat (7 grams protein, 3 grams fat, 55 calories)

  1. 1 oz. Trimmed beef sirloin
  2. 1 oz. Dark meat turkey or chicken no skin
  3. 1 oz. Herring, sardines, or tuna (drained)

Fat Group

Monounsaturated Fats (5 grams, 45 calories)

  1. 1/8 avocado
  2. 1 tsp. Olive oil
  3. 6 almonds, cashews, or pecans
  4. 1 tsp. Natural peanut butter

Polyunsaturated Fats (5 grams, 45 calories)

a. 1 tsp. Flaxseed oil

b. 1 tsp. regular mayonnaise

c. 1 tsp. regular salad dressing

Saturated Fats [not recommented] (5 grams, 45 calories)

  1. 1 tsp. Butter
  2. 2 tsp. whipped butter

Next time I will show you how to break that down in to 6 meals using the exchanges list. I will give you the breakdown in grams as well for those of you who don’t mind doing it the harder but more precise way.

posted by Ivan Nikolov - The secrets of Natural Bodybuilding @ 11:33 AM

3 Comments:

At 8:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've read about this before also. This post is even better because you're not only telling me which foods in the macronutrient groups are exchangeable, but also the portion sizes and that helps me a lot, too. I'm still adjusting to the food, six meals a day, three hrs apart and it's hard. I don't want to eat that much food but I know I need it. I need to eat like this the rest of my life
which I know will become easier and I will grow to like it as well as not feel right not doing so. It just takes time. I know that the next post is really going to help me also. Thanks for the posts.

 
At 6:51 PM, Blogger Ivan Nikolov - The secrets of Natural Bodybuilding said...

The post that you're waiting on willbe up in a day or two max. Sorry I couldn't put it up today. It has some tables and these always take time because the posts are HTML and when I put a table from a word document it doesn't look like a table at all in the blog. So, next one is going to require some more time and I am behind with so much stuff.... and that's the reason I haven't replied your emails yet for which I have to apologize. Don't feel ignored, though. I haven't replied even to my mother and a buch of other emails...I will review your messages as soon as I have a minute to devote on my mail box :-(...

 
At 12:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's alright. ;-) You're still the one I go to first and talk to first, before I even go to anyone else.

I'm changing things up a little bit. I'm running three days per week (the recruiter told me to run three days per week and not everyday). On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday(which will include PT) I will run. On those days I will run/walk 3 miles and probably add sprints in it. I will also maybe do additional cardio, probably the bike, jump rope, high incline walk, or stairclimber on those days. On the days that I don't run, I will use the bike, stairclimber, high incline treadmill, and/or jump rope for 45 min. I still do weights five days per week prior to cardio and cardio is 6 days a week. I just got the whey protein powder and stevia, I also had a "before" picture taken. My first weekly report will be sent to you on Monday, April 17th. :-)

 

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