Eating, a decent schedule

Hello!
 
I am looking for advice on a few questions I have about working out and my lifestyle. First, so you know what you are working with, my background (tell me if anything more is needed):
20 years old
appx. 150 lbs.
6'
very low body fat, high metabolism (obviously)
I smoke maybe 1/2 pack per day
Pretty good muscle definition
 
I haven't worked out seriously for a few years, but I'm looking at getting back into it now. I am not looking to lose weight, I only want to gain muscle mass, but my problem is that I work as a waiter and do go out drinking every few nights. I often work all day and hardly ever wake up early enough to eat something besides donuts and the like on my way to work, I typically only eat twice twice a day, once around 2-3pm and again around 10pm (sometimes there is a third meal at 1am or so). Because of my job, it would be impossible to eat every two hours or so like most of the threads suggest, and I usually just get those two huge meals. Anyone else in a similar situation? Any thoughts on this? Should I just wake my drunk ass up and eat my wheaties every morning?
 
Also, the food I eat is usually fast food or food from my reastaraunt (The last few things ive had were chicken tenders and fries, turkey sandwich and fries, sweet and sour chicken with rice, salmon with rice and veggies. My restaraunt has a huge menu and I can get almost anything) Is this food even giving my body what it needs? Is fish pretty good for this? If it is I will get it more often.
 
Sorry for all the question filled paragraphs, this will be the last one. I am planning on doing a 3 day per week "program" with somthing like:
 
day 1
3 back excerises that work different groups
2 bicep exercises
 
day 2
3 chest excercises
2 forearm excersises
 
day 3
2 ab excersises
2 tricep excercises
2 shoulder exercises
 
I know I don't have anything for legs, but for one I am walking around like a jackass all day long, so my legs and feet are pretty tired at the end of the day, and also my legs are still in pretty good shape from playing hockey my whole life, and I would rather focus on my upper body. Does this list seem reasonable? Too much? Too little? Should I do more or less on something that I put up there? The reps will change each time, I hate starting at the same weight and doing the same reps, so I will be doing anywhere from 5 or 6 to 15 or so reps for each exercise. Is this an OK way to go? Feel free to add any other comments or advice, and thanks in advance,
 
John
 

Hi there and welcome!

About legs, you really need to train them, even for upperbody development. Start atleast with light squat and deadlift form work. Here's how to do 'em:

Barbell Full Squat
Barbell Deadlift


When considering to do squats and deadlifts, you'll have to know that most of the effort, at start all of the effort has to be made on mastering the form. After a few months of good-techniqued squats and deads you'll have alot lesser risk of lower body injuries, more toned legs and butt and a firmer midsection.

Here's a bit of my thoughts on the squat:

Get some light free squat form work as a first thing of a workout (after warm-up, of course). With 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps, and about 1-2 min. rest, without going anywhere near to failure, you can't go wrong.

Squat form: about a shoulder width stance, lower back arched maximally. Get the bar up to your neck, with a narrow grip, elbows to the front. Try to split the floor to your sides with your legs. Arch your upper body also. Get your chest up high, straighten your neck, brace your shoulder blades together and down, and get your elbows to sides of your torso. Try to fire with your glutes. I assure you they won't grow too big and you'll end up not getting knee and low back problems as easily as a usual gym rat training with machines.

If you have problems with keeping the low-back arch and/or if your glutes round forward in the bottom postition, then while getting down, i.e. in the eccentric portion of the lift, don't arch your upper body and get your elbows to the front, as if doing a front squat.

Consentrate on as many points as you can at a time without going nuts. : D

Be full of fire. Make the world burn.

Read this.
http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/Stop_fking_around_and_lift_like_you_mean_it/m_127347/tm.htm
And then this.
http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/How_Many_Calories_Do_You_Need_Calorie_Calculators_Includes_Quick_Spreadsheet_Too/m_45013/tm.htm
When it comes to eating, you need to get a certain amount of calories in your system each day in order to build muscle, PERIOD. The reasons you've read about five or six meals a day in a bunch of threads is because that's what you need to do in order to build muscle- Eating two large meals a day won't cut it. Your body will only digest and use what it needs right then, and the rest will get turned to fat- So there's no sense in trying to get all your calories into those two meals.
Yes, you need to wake your drunk self up in the morning to get a good meal in- And, there are some of us here who work two jobs, have kids, etc- And are still able to get their meals in. Where there's a will, there's a way.  As far as foods go, chicken and fish are excellent sources of protein- Better if they're not fried or battered, but cooked as plainly as possible- Baked, for instance. Fries are not a good source of carbs though- Go with something whole grain or whole wheat if possible. Whole grain brown rice is my favorite source of good carbs.
As Lari pointed out, and as it says in the first link I gave you, there should be no excuse not to work your legs. The gains you get from leg workouts are just plain ridiculous- Don't pass them up.
Also, it's best to stick with a certain rep range, regardless of what you like for now- The whole point is progress. You should be able to lift more than the week before if you're eating right, especially in the beginning. If you keep the reps bouncing all over, your body will be trying to respond in different ways- Challenge the muscle with incremental increases, using the same rep range for now.

Remember that a meal is no 2 giant slices of turkey, potatoes, stuffing and all the other fixings. If you take what your total intake is and devide that by 6 you will get how many cals per meal you need.
 
Mine is around 360 cals a meal but I also eat 8 meals(I do have more for lunch and dinner but only a small amount more) so you can say 300 cals each meal and spread the 480 accross Breakfast lunch and dinner.
 
What is there out in the world for around 250 - 300 calories? A few apples, a can of tuna and some bread, a lunch bowl of fruit,a plain chicken breast, a protein bar, a can of muscle milk I could go on forever. The point is you can find several things that you can eat in a minute or two, Im sure you get 1-2 minutes every 2 hours.
 
Ultimatly if comes down to you and how you will be able to make this change work for yourself. I eat more protein bars and shakes than I should, I am always advised that real food is better, but I manage an entire operations center and am in meetings all day so protein bars are the best way 60% of the time. But that is a choice that I had to make as well.

All right, thanks for the advice everyone. I will try to eat breakfast more regularly and as many meals as I can.
 
I have a related question, can someone elaborate on it? I know fast food isn't the best for you, but where does it stand? As I said before, I am not looking to lose weight, so I could care less about the fat portion on it aside from how it relates to building muscle. My lunch today was a jumbo deluxe butterburger and fries, with the following nutritional info burger first, fry info in ():
992 calories    (420)
58g fat    (22)
520 calories from fat     (195)
19g sat. fat      (4)
215 mg cholesterol     (0)
1487mg sodium     (56)
61 (no unit given) carbohydrates    (53)
3 (no unit given) dietary fiber    (4)
11g sugar    (0)
56g protien    (5)
%dv vitamin A - 12    (0)
%dv vitamin C - 4     (26)
%dv calcium - 30     (0)
%dv iron - 45      (7)
 
What of these catagories is most important to me (after protein and carbs I would assume)? Does a meal like this have any kind of value for what I want from it?
And I am not ignoring the advice above, I am sure it is better than my way and I am going to try to follow it, I just want to see where I stand after eating like this for the past year or so.
 
Also, in my beginner shoes, will I get enough exercise for my legs with just 1 additional day devoted to them maybe 4 or 5 individual excersises, or do they need more?
 
Thanks for the advice so far, have a good day,
John

Adding in a leg day would be a great idea- You could do something like this.
Squats- 3 sets
Stiff leg deadlifts- 3 sets
Calf raises- 3 sets
And that should just about cover it.
When it comes to the junk food question, you have to look at it this way- Even though you're bulking, and fat might not seem like an issue to you, you get what you put into your muscles. If you bulk with junk, expect junk results compared to what you could get with decent food. Changing the types of food you put into your system can make a world of difference- Not all calories are equal, go with the best possible sources for the best results.

The one thing that sticks out is the calories from fat, its almost 50% which is pretty high, and sat fat isnt the best either. Like CPL said try to get clean calories, What would the possibility of getting a chicken burger instead of a beef patty or something like that?

Last one, I promise. By clean calories then, I assume you mean foods where the calories from fat are very low compared to the overall calories?
 
Thanks for all the links, I finally had a chance to really read through them and they do make a lot of sense (like the testosterone generated by working the bigger lower body muscles helping everything grow...That had never occurred to me), and the one from lori with the huge lists of excersises and animations of them being performed. Thanks again for all the help, at least I know I'm starting off on the right foot now.
 
John

Not really- By good calories, we mean eating from the best possible food sources. Try to get your meats as natural as possible- A pile of processed meat might have the same amount of calories as a piece of natural chicken breast, for example- But the calories you'd get from the chicken would be far better.