Questions about ground beef and eggs (not raw vs. cooked or cholesterol related)

[Kerpal]

I'm ready to go on a bit of a "bulk" and I'm thinking about just starting to eat something like 8 eggs and 2 lbs of lean ground beef a day. 4 of the eggs would be cooked and 4 would be raw in my shake right before bed.

Using the numbers from this page: http://www.txbeef.org/view_archived_special.php3?archived_id=36

I get 234 grams of protein from the ground beef and I believe there are 8 grams of protein in an egg, so that would be 64 grams of protein from 8 eggs, for a total of 298. I would then get another 48 grams of protein from 2 scoops of Optimum Nutrition whey protein, for a total of 346 which is just under the 2 gr/lb of body weight recommended by many on this site (I weigh just under 175 right now). Plus I'd get a little from other sources like the milk I put my whey in, cottage cheese and peanut butter in my before bed shake, etc. So I'd actually be a little over 2 gr/lb of bodyweight.

Thank god for ground beef and eggs, I never used to eat very much ground beef before but I just started because it is relatively cheap, can be frozen and eaten later which I've been doing a lot lately, has high protein, I can eat a lot of it because it's not very filling which I can't do with chicken and tuna, I just discovered last night that I can eat 1 lb of ground beef in a sitting with no problem. Eggs are high in protein and fats and are so easy to mix into shakes. I've always been frustrated in the past when trying to put on muscle because I thought I just didn't have the appetite to eat that much; but back then I was always eating chicken and fish, never much eggs and beef.

Do these numbers sound right to you guys, and is this a good idea? It sounds like a LOT of beef and eggs, but I know those are 2 of the best foods for building muscle, but I'm a bit concerned there may be unforeseen consequences. They shoot cows up with all sorts of hormones, antibiotics and etc, and organic beef is extremely expensive so I don't plan on doing this for too long.

I train MMA for 2 hours 5 days a week, I do 4 conditioning and 2 strength workouts a week. I know that high volume will impair me a little but I don't want to get HUGE, I want to put on about 15 lbs of muscle and I know it will take time and dedication. I know I can handle this routine because I've been doing it for a while now and my work capacity has gotten pretty good, I just haven't been eating very much.

 

[mrRuckus]

Large eggs are typically 6g protein per. Extra large 7 or 8.

You're doing basically what I've been doing lately. I eat up a bunch of ground beef and do a mixture of cooking and eating raw eggs for the rest of the meals. Occasionally i have some chicken a few times a week, but i don't really get tired of the beef and eggs. I use vegetables to fill me up.

I put ON Mint chocolate whey in my raw egg drinks for flavoring.

There's nothing inherently wrong with all that fat before bed but if you care about body fat i wouldn't go crazy with it.

Eating nothing but beef and eggs really makes eating easier. I just make a huge batch of beef every weekend that lasts all week. Usually in the form of chili with chili powder, peppers, onions and a few other things...

You're right. Chicken and tuna end up dry and are so much harder to eat than beef. I can shovel down beef and raw eggs and have it in me well before my "full" signal kicks in.

That much MMA will absolutely kill you mass building department.

They do the same crap to chickens and turkeys and every other animal so i wouldn't worry all that much about cows and eggs if the alternative is other meats instead. I watch what i can up to point, but eventually it's just too much hassle for too little gain. Are the hormones they put in cows even proven to be dangerous to humans? I have no idea.

 

[Kerpal]

Yeah I know the MMA training will make it very hard to put on muscle. I guess the upside is it'll be easy to stay lean since I'm doing so much cardio. I think it could be possible though if I am dedicated in the eating department. Also all of my conditioning and the MMA training is mostly anaerobic. I'm not doing 5 mile runs or anything like that.

I didn't realize 8 grams was for an extra large egg, but no big deal. That's only 30 grams of protein difference, that will easily be made up from auxiliary sources, and I could always just use another scoop of whey.

 

[mrRuckus]

it will eat up your CNS.

 

[simon]

Note that the protein values are for 3oz of COOKED beef. I don't think 2lbs of raw beef has 234g of protein in. The 90% lean beef I get is only 191g per 2.2lbs raw.

 

[Kerpal]

The info in that link I posted is for cooked beef Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

it will eat up your CNS.

Another thing I may do is cut down to 3 strength days and 2 conditioning days, weekends off, for a while. I hate to do that but I'm tired of being small(ish).

 

[simon]

Yeah it says "Serving size: 3oz (cooked)" at the top of the nutritional breakdown table. It just means you're going to have to eat more beef

There are a few guys over at ironaddicts.com that combine MMA (training and fighting) and weights so you may want to read about how they train and how they go about gaining weight.

 

[Kerpal]

Yeah it says "Serving size: 3oz (cooked)" at the top of the nutritional breakdown table. It just means you're going to have to eat more beef

OK now you're confusing me. If that table is for cooked beef, why would I have to eat more? Wouldn't that only matter if the 234 grams was for raw beef? (I'm assuming that protein is lost, not gained, during the cooking process).

 

[simon]

You don't lose any protein during cooking, just a lot of water weight. Say you had 2lbs of raw beef. That's 32 ounces. You cook all that beef and it yields, because of all the water loss, say, 21 ounces of cooked beef. According to that nutritional breakdown you'd get 7 x 22g = 154g of protein from that 2lbs of raw beef. You'd need to eat 32 ounces of cooked beef to get your 234g, and that equates to about 43 ounces of raw beef if you assume about one third of the weight is lost during cooking.

EDIT: I assumed you meant 2lbs of raw beef in your original post. Got myself confused now

 

[Kerpal]

But if the chart is for cooked beef, isn't that not an issue? Those values are for after the beef has already been cooked.

Edit: Just saw your edit, never mind, lol, but that is still a good point I hadn't even though of. I wouldn't want to just buy 2 lbs of beef at the store because after cooking it would be less than 2 lbs. Anyone know the percentage of water weight lost from ground beef so I know how much to buy before cooking?

 

[simon]

Did you mean you were going to eat 2lbs of cooked beef, or cook 2lbs of raw beef and eat what you get from that?

 

[Kerpal]

The former, if I'm going to eat 2 lbs of COOKED beef a day, how much should I start with, BEFORE cooking?

 

[simon]

2.4 lbs raw to get 2lbs cooked. http://199.133.10.140/codesearchwebapp/(bi41qy2ro1djnaq0mk0ahfuk)/measures.aspx?id=21501300 is the USDA nutrition breakdown thing.