Hey r/leangains,
I've always wanted to get on legitimate lean gains regimen, but my lifestyle has made it very difficult to know where to start. Here's my dilemma:
I travel EVERY week for work, Mondays to Thursdays. I can't always rely on being in the same place each week, though I always return to San Francisco for the weekends, landing late Thursday nights and flying out again Sunday night / Monday morning. So that's the gist of it, but I want to point out some of my constraints to give you a better sense of what my challenges are.
I have no choice but to eat bought meals almost exclusively. Grocery shopping is difficult when you're never home, and just about impossible on the road. Getting nutrition information for what I eat is only possible about 25% of the time, and that's usually when it's something not too healthy (like Chik Fil-A).
Training on Thursdays is out. Especially if I'm traveling to the East Coast, I wake up at 6:30 (3:30 SF time), am at work by 8 am (5:30 SF time), and go to the airport straight from work, landing back at home around 9 or 10 pm. By the time I get to my house it's too late to hit the gym, and I can't wake up much earlier without fucking my internal clock more than I already am. I also work 8-6/7 during the week, so I can't go on a long mid-day or morning run and then lift in the evenings. One work out a day max, and I need 1 or 2 rest days during the week, mandatory rest days on Thursdays due to travel.
My workouts must be limited to dumbbells. I belong to a good gym in San Francisco, but you just can't rely on a hotel gym to have anything more than some treadmills and dumbbells between 10 and 50 lbs. Sometimes they do, but I need a regimen that is restricted to these options if I want a consistent training plan. Also keep in mind that there's usually a bench, but you can't always count on being able to adjust the angle of the bench. Most of the time you can, though.
What I've been doing:
About 50% of the time I start my lift days with a mile run on the treadmill (I usually do around a 6 min mile). It depends on my motivation, energy level, and how well I feel like I've stuck to my diet and whether or not I feel like I've gotten enough cardio lately).
I also play tennis once or twice a week. It's good cardio, so I count it as a workout on my calendar, but I doubt I burn more than 3-400 calories when I play.
Diet: I try to incorporate some IF into my diet, so I end up with a cup of coffee in the morning, lunch at 11 and dinner at 7-8. I try to limit my calories on rest days to under 2000 and on lift days I try to get over 2500 but not much more. I generally try to stay low-carb and get as much protein as possible. I end up eating a lot of salads, steaks, and sometimes supplement with a store-bought protein drink (like Muscle Milk, again think limited options). I have no idea what my TDEE is, my BF%, nor do I have an accurate BMI to reference. Currently I'm 5'10 170lbs, down from 185 a year ago. I've discovered that if I don't get enough carbs I get crazy hangry, but sometimes I'll eat salad twice a day if it's a rest day. That said, sometimes it's a buffalo fried chicken cobb salad we're talking about, so we're not talking anything too extreme here regarding my calorie intake. At my lightest I was 162, and I'd love to get back to that weight without losing a lot of muscle.
Ok r/leangains, that's my situation. What would you do if you were me?