Zac,

Before you spend money on supplements, I would look at your meal plan first. While I know it is hard to eat on a student's schedule, you don't need to eat 6-8 times a day to build a solid physique. 3 times a day with some supplements and/or healthy snacks is fine. The key is to eat enought of your macronutrients in the time you have to eat.

First off, protein will be your #1 priority to fuel growth. Second will be carbs and healthy fats. Use Scott's Meal Plan tab on the home page to calculate what you minimally need each day. Don't worry about your metabolism or your weight. You are still young and won't completely finish growing until your early 20's so you have plenty of time to put on quality weight and size. It is better to have quality muscle gains and average weight gain than massive weight gain with muscle and fat. Chicken, beef, fish, and eggs are all available in Australia and relatively cheap (I live in Singapore and most of our meats come from Australia). Oats, rice, and whole grains (pasta, etc) are readily available as are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. If you have a big bowl of oatmeal with eggs and fruit in the morning, some meat/grains/veggies for lunch, and meat/fish and grains and veggies for dinner, you should have enough macros to fuel and support your growth - and that is just eating 3 times a day. Healthy snacks are nuts (walnuts, almonds), fruits, or greek yogurt.

As for supplements, I would just get a good whey or egg protein and a good casein (milk) protein powder. Whey/egg after workouts or with meals and milk protein with water right before bed. Casein is a mixed bag. I personally am not a fan and it only provides temporary gains in size and strength which you lose once you stop. It also stresses your kidneys and requires you to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. Not worth it in my opinion.

If you do your best to eat 3 times daily as described above, add in some protein supplementation, train smart and get enough sleep, the growth and strength will come in time.

John

Zac,

The Extreme Mass gain looks OK. The Muscle Fuel has too much sugar so I would not use that. The casein supplement is fine as well.

The meal plan looks OK but you really need to use the Meal Plan tab on the SHF home page and accurately calculate your macros. Then you can determine what foods and suplements to have to meet them. If you have done this already and this meal plan is based on that, I would suggest trying to have a protein shake immediately after your workout not at 4PM because the protein bar is not anywhere near enough protein and waiting until 4PM is too late. Also make sure those protein bars don't have corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup or any other type of sugar in them. A lot of them do and people think because they are protein bars they must be healthy. Most times they are no better than a high protein candy bar. As for the milk at dinner, have no fat or low fat not whole milk.

John

Zac,

The bottom line is you want a protein supplement that is just that - protein. Weight gain formulas just pump up the calories with sugar which is not what you want. Find a good quality whey protein that doesn't have any labels targeting weight gain. BSN and Optimum Nutrition have great whey protein powders as does GNC.

Now that you know your BMR and caloric needs when in motion, to gain muscle and weight you need to eat about 250 - 500 calories ABOVE your in motion total. In this case 2902 + 250 is 3152 calories minimum. You don't want to do more than 500 additional calories because then you will be adding more fat than muscle. Knowing that 1 gram of carbs and protein yields 4 calories and fats yield 9, you need to calculate your macros. Scott has a great video on how to build a meal plan. I suggest you check it out to help you calculate your macros. Just remember that high protein and low/moderate carbs equals lean gains and high protein and high carbs will be gains that have more fat with the muscle gain than if you keep your carbs low to moderate.

Fructose is OK to eat when you consume it with fruit. The fiber in the fruit slows the absorption of the fructose so you don't get an insulin spike. Drinking fructose alone, like in fruit juices, dumps the sugar directly into your bloodstream as there is not fiber to digest. It is best to get your fructose from fruit. Corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are man-made sugars and are very bad. Man made sugars like these and man-made trans fats are the real cause of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood fats, and some types of cancer - not cholesterol or fats like the U.S. and U.K. medical community wants you to believe. You need to avoid these like the plague and they hide in ALL processed foods - I am sure they are hiding in the protein bars you are eating. Anything in a plastic wrapper or a cardboard box is a processed food. Anything with corn syrup/high frutcose corn syrup or any hydrogenated oils are examples. Companies put these in food to make them taste better and to have longer shelf lives. These are metabolic POISONS and will kill you slowly over time.

Whole milk has a lot of dairy fat. Unless the milk comes from grass-fed cows not treated with hormones or antibiotics, the fat ratios are not good. Milk from cows raised on a farm the old fashioned way have better meat and milk from a fat perspective for your health. This is a whole other topic of discussion I won't go into here but I highly doubt you are getting "fresh" milk from "normal" cows - more likely the mass produced stuff we all get. Therefore, it is best to drink low fat (1%) or non fat milk from these sources.

John

I don't think I've agreed with anything I've read on an online forum more than I agree with your middle paragraph re: trans fats and man-made carbs.

Seconded, thirded and fourth'd.

Eric,

It is so sad that not only has the general public been duped to believe fat and cholesterol are evil but also the whole medical establishment further propagates this bullshit. I am watching the ill effects of Statin drugs and a low fat, low cholesterol diet on my father who has been taking them for 20+ years yet he refuses to believe me. He eats way too much processed sugar and fats and even though he exercises he is taking 2 steps forward and 2 steps back.

John

You are totally right John. Especially when cholesterol is one of the main ingredients for testosterone production.

Maybe the medical establishments want us all to be weak and feeble so we are easier to control? lol

Not just testosterone but ALL hormones. The bottom line is it is simple economics - the Statin drugs are a 30 Billion/year industry. There is no way in hell the drug companies will forfeit this money or admit they were wrong about cholesterol. It's all bad for business. But it is true with lower testosterone levels we become more docile and easier to coerce :-)

John

Zac,

I eat 7 eggs a day - 3 whole and 4 just the egg whites - for breakfast. Cholesterol is not bad. Man-made sugar and processed carbs are.

John

Studies show that 3 eggs a day actually improve cholseterol markers which is a good thing! Eggs are incredible food sources, especially the yolk which contains choline. Choline is a neurotransmitter which is essential for brain function and liver detoxification which helps prevent fat acculmulation. Why people never eat egg yolks I will never know!

There's also more and more research coming out debunking the anti-fat / anti-saturated fat stigmas that popped up over the last few decades based off of shoddy research or on old methodologies. Thinking critically (like John and Daniel mentioned about re: cholesterol), your body also utilizes saturated (and many other unsaturated and / or cholesterol types) in the formation of every single cell membrane in the body. Dealing in extremes with health and nutrition is the exact opposite of health and nutrition, typically.

What I'm referencing:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140305191429.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140317174502.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140327123337.htm

Remember ya'll, only a Sith deals in absolutes. Pragmatic > Dogmatic.