Bodybuilding Forums

Hey guys,
Just wondered if anyone has any quick, simple & cheap filler foods for the mans diet other than double cream/heavy whipping cream I'm currently having 100ml of cream a day and I'd rather be eating something solid if I can (also though I have cheese in my diet I avoid too much of it as I'm not a huge fan). All ideas much appreciated.

Good question.

Pepperoni is about all I found aside from cheese and oil that has no carbs.

Other lower carb snacks I eat...

- Vegetables
- Almonds
- Low Carb Vanilla Ice Cream (Great stuff once I found some vanilla extract without sugar or corn syrup - Good old trader Joe's. If you try it whip the heck out of that heavy cream until it is really thick. Then make sure you fold in the yummy goodness. Don't stir or mix it in)
- Low carb protein bars (but I make mine with some milled Flax Seed which has zero net carbs.
- Low Carb Chocolate muffins (just drop the baking time and heat a bit and they are really good. I cook mine for 12 minutes @ 340. They come out of the oven soft and fail the tooth pick test. But after 15 minutes they cook up more and they are not nearly as dry as microwave or original suggested cooking time)


MANs is tougher than I thought because it seems everything has carb fillers that really add up....

Hey Toeser,
Thanks for the suggestions, I tried the choc muffins at the weekend as you say, cooking heat and time needed reducing first batch were a little black but tasted fantastic ! My protein powder doesn't taste great so I was amazed at the results with the muffins. I've just bulk ordered 5 KG of almonds & 2KG of peanuts so that should keep me going for a while. I tend to have my flax seed with natural greek yogurt but that is 5g of carbs per serving.
I guess cream is just a nicer tasting version of oil kinda...Just wanted to try and find something a little more nutritious.

Just a slightly more general question - how are you finding MANS ? My eat till full numbers are quite a bit higher than the floor suggested by the MANS calcs, gained a fair bit of what I hope is water weight from starting the creatine too though my lifts have gone up a fair bit from TSPA and I have only been doing mans for a week or something.

I went off TSPA 3 weeks ago. I was ramped up and didn't want to take a week off so I jumped right into MANS and THT 3.1.

I continued to monitor my calories to make sure I was eating more than maintenance. The first week I ate 200 calories over maintenance and didn't gain a pound. The second week I upped it to 300 calories over, still didn't gain a pound.

I hadn't taken a week off working out for about 11-12 weeks so I broke down and am currently taking a week off. It really doesn't feel right, but I understand my body probably really needs a break. I am also going on an annual binge drinking party on the Shenandoah river this upcoming weekend. Since I knew I was not going to be able to carb up I upped my carbs this week to about 55 and am cheating a little bit. A little candy here and there along with some junk food a haven't had in over 10 weeks. I have been leaving my calories at maintenance since I am not working out. This morning I weighd 1 pound more than I did when I went off TSPA. Bodyfat calipers read the same at 5mm which is where I was when I stopped TSPA.

Long winded answer - so far MANS is not really working for me. Low carbs keeps the fat off, but I am struggling to put on weight.

I am going back on Sunday and plan to keep my calories at 300-350 above maintenance. I am also hoping Mark posts his new program.

Keep us posted on your progress. I will do the same. I really want to add some muscle mass and know I would find it very challenging to do GLAD.

Pork Skins have been my go to cheap filler food. Moderate fat & protein & Zero Carbs! Salt & Sour, BBQ, Chile Lime, etc. Other than the sodium deep fried pork really isn't a bad filler on MANS! Also Trader Joes makes a Guacamole with Zero net carbs. Great source of healthy fat (4g/serving)! I put that on everything! Happy Chomping.

Thanks! I forgot all about the pork skins. I bought a couple of bags but the taste was harsh after heating more than 5 of them. Maybe I will try other flavors/brands.

FYI - I read ground pork rinds make a great low carb breading. I have to try that....

Shame to hear mans isn't going so well for you Toeser but no doubt you'll soon be on track. Can't wait to see marks new e-book too.

In the UK I can't find any cheap sources of pork rind (pork scratchings as it seems to be called) but thanks for the suggestion liz. Managed to bulk order 7KG of nuts so hopefully that'll keep me going and just have to keep the double cream up. Happy eating

toeser wrote:Long winded answer - so far MANS is not really working for me. Low carbs keeps the fat off, but I am struggling to put on weight.

Well that sucks. Considering GLAD? Or something else entirely??

I am going to try to "sort of" stick with MANS. I like the carb cycling so I am going to see what upping my daily carbs by about 15g per day does while keeping my caloric intake around 2900-3000. I plan to keep increasing carbs until I see some weight gain. I don't know much about ketosis, but I figure if I could eat 60g while cutting then I have some wiggle room to play with my carbs on MANS.

GLAD would be OK but it seems like a lot of work and I would be hard pressed to have 6 well balanced meals every day. MANS offers so much more flexibility to me.

toeser wrote:I am going to try to "sort of" stick with MANS. I like the carb cycling so I am going to see what upping my daily carbs by about 15g per day does while keeping my caloric intake around 2900-3000. I plan to keep increasing carbs until I see some weight gain. I don't know much about ketosis, but I figure if I could eat 60g while cutting then I have some wiggle room to play with my carbs on MANS.

That's pretty much what I'm doing at this point. Should be able to achieve ketosis at 60g of carbs - it works on TSPA so there's no real reason it should break itself eating more fat and protein. Only on week 2 but so far so good - and the damn ketostix still turn color.