Hey everyone!

So, I'm looking at bulking. I want to bulk quite well, mass is my main goal, but I am aware its summer time and I go on holiday in about 2 months time so I dont want to pack much fat on. I am looking for advice on exactly what I should be doing. How many grams of protein, complex and simple carbs and fat I should be taking in to keep bulking but without running away with my diet.

So, here are my stats:

Age: 24
Sex: Yes please! lol, male.
Height: 6ft0
Weight: 77kg
Metabolism: medium. I was a skinny teenager, but my metabolism has slowed quite a bit over the past 3 years.
Body-Fat%: 14.5%
Cardio: Boxing training once a week (I used to train 3-4 times a week but I am cutting it down to focus on bodybuilding and mass).
Natural/Assisted: I am traning without steroids currently. I wish to bulk up naturally for now, but will definitely be starting them in the future.

Current Diet:

I currently usually wake up and have a bowl of sugar free museli, protein shake and a piece of fruit. I then snack on chicken and peanut butter through the day. I usually have 3 protein shakes a day, as much chicken as I can. I usually have some rice or brown bread with my chicken at some points in the day. I also have my dinner which will be whatever my family have cooked. Usually pasta or potato with some meat, could be anything really. Post workout I usually have a piece of fruit with a protein shake.

So, usually 1-2 pieces of fruit, 3 shakes, 4 chicken breasts, 1 bowl of museli, couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter, 1-2 rounds of brown bread and whatever my family cooks for dinner.

I am looking to build a diet which is better than my current one. I know its nowhere near what I should be and I want to improve it drastically. I would like it if someone would tell me the rough amounts of each micronutrient I should be consuming. I feel my diet is lacking on many levels and I need a target to aim for in order to maximise my gains. My poor diet is the main reason I want to give a good diet a chance and get it right before I go on my first cycle, as I dont want to waste the cycle on shit diet.

I am currently using Optimum nutrition 100% whey as my protein shake, but I have been thinking of getting a casein protein to use before bed rather than whey.

My preferences. I like chicken and fish. I cant eat eggs, I am intolerant to them, if I eat 1-2 eggs I'll have a really bad stomach ache. If I have 3, I wont be able to walk because of the pain.

Any explanation on peoples logic behind their statements is greatly appreciated.

Let me start off by saying I am not a nutritionist. There are far more educated on here than me.
How is your body reacting to your current diet and exercise combo? Have you been gaining weight? Loseing weight? Or stuck at a plateau?

When did you stop boxing? takeing that much cardio out should have affected your weight?

Judging by what I see it looks like you might need more calories. That's probably not what you want to hear seeing as how you are trying to stay trim. My advice would be to try to figure out exactly how many calories, carbs, protein and fat you are eating. Next step would be to figure out how you current diet is affecting your body and then start doing MINOR teaking from there. Don't get frustrated with results it takes a while for your body to adjust to new diets. You might want to look into weight gainers instead of just whey and casein they tend to have more protein per serving along with necessary calories ranging from 500-1200

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Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. --buddah

I have come back to bodybuilding a couple of months ago after an injury to my abdomen, so I am regaining mass I had before, but in the past couple of weeks I think I have passed my previous best size.

I'm still boxing, just once a week instead of constantly. I cut this down 2 weeks ago.

I am currently gaining mass, albeit much slower than I have in previous, complete bulking periods. In the previous times when I gained mass, it was more or less junk bulking. I'd be eating pizzas, burgers, chips, etc as well as the rest. I was aware I was packing fat on and I was mindful that what felt like muscle would have had some fat around it too

Now my diet is clean and I want to get the gains, but keep it close to being as good a diet as possible.

I agree I definitely need more calories, but which ones and how much is where I am stuck! I am going to start logging what I eat.

For weight gainers previously, I just ground oats in to my protein shake and made it a weight gainer, I can revert to that again, I'm just at the point where I would like to know how much of each micro-nutrient I should be eating for my aim, bodyfat, mass and height so I can move from there and start looking at my log as I am making it and noting down where I am lagging.

Here is what I know about calories:

There are four types carbs, protein, fat and alchohal

Carbs- contain 3.75 calories per gram- when choosing what carbs to eat you should choose one that are low on the glycemic index also known as complex carbs not sugar carbs.

Protein-contains 4 calories per gram similar to carbs. This is relatively self explanatory. You should be eating plenty of this!! Duh winning!!

Fat- contains 9 calories per gram. Yes that's right over double protein and carbs. The only fat you are going to need to worry about obtaining is omega 3 fatty acid. You get it from flax seed and oily fish.

Alcohol- 7 calories per gram. If your cycling don't drink!

Calories are all the same? Yes they all burn at the same rate that's what a calorie measures. But some calories are more easily converted into fat than others. And any excess calories will be stored. This is why the exact food log is necessary to see how your body reacts to your daily routine and diet combined. Or in other wards figure out the rate of you metabolism.

Keep in mind you said you want to bulk. For some bulking and staying slim is an oxymoron.

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Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. --buddah

also if you havnt already check out easy's write up "to eat or not to eat" its got a lot of good info.

__________________
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. --buddah

I'm aware of the values of each micronutrient from my own studies, at the moment I'm looking for either equations or templates which people use to decide which ratios and totals of each micronutrients I am to be consuming, so I can look at my own planner and decide for myself what I should be changing. Such as what total calories I should be aiming for and what ratios I should be looking at as well as if the ratios are per gram or 'from calories' so youd need to factor in calorific value.