Any of you guys need to GAIN weight like i do? Need some tips.

[Lawnboi]

I know some of you guys are probably looking at this like...... come on, really? But its true, sadly, id rather be a fat man and have something to work for, as i love working out, its my stress relief.

Ok, well im giving up fast food, its going to be tough but its a start. To give you an idea of how i am, im 5 7", 135lbs, very atheletic, and built pretty well for my size. I always turned to fast food for the calories, i need alot to keep up with my life.

Brings me to my first question. Now im not much of a cook, but i need to start to learn to make myself some, healthier, high calorie meals, in hopes of packing on some much needed pounds by fall. Also any supplements you guys would suggest? as far as protien and what not.

I lift 5 times a week, cardio around 3 times a week. I mix it up alot, and im in the best shape of my life right now. Im just having a hard time breaking that weight. I think it has to do with the amount of shit food i eat constantly.

Thanks for any help

 

[Matt Cashell]

Buy whey protein in bulk. Mix it in everything. Eat a lot of eggs, chicken, and fish. Drink gallons of milk. Fresh veggies for nutrients. Stick to high-protein nutrition and eat ... a lot. How many meals do you eat a day? If it is three, move to five small volume, but high calorie meals. Nuts make a great snack. I have been in your shoes, just not anymore now that I am getting a bit older.

 

[JPhelps]

EAT BIG! It's a simple equation of Calories In VS Calories Expended

Eat more of the healthy foods. Lots of Protein, Healthy Fats and Complex Carbs.

 

[quarbles]

stop the cardio or at least minimal. lift heavy weights for power as opposed to reps. more 3x5 than 3x15. take breaks between sets to make effort maximal. 3 pull to a push ratio, more back and posterior chain. eat meat, seafood, eggs and veggies to abandon. olive oil is a condiment. avoid grains. squashes and tubers as opposed to fruit for a carb source. as close as a gallon of milk (whole!) a day as you can get. avoid processed foods. squats and deadlifts are huge, as are shoulder presses.

 

[Lawnboi]

I get the eat big part, im going to do my best to do that.

About not doing any cardio, i still want to stay in shape cardio wise, i dont ususally hit the cardio very hard. But i do lift often. And when i do do cardio stuff it usually includes a pack with weight, and the incline treadmill. I just need to push myself to eat healthier, and eat more.

 

[robby denning]

If you can find a gym or medical facility that has a Metachek or a Body Gem, you can get your metabolism tested and find out exactly how many calories you require at rest; from there you just determine the number you burn weekly in your workouts and job, then add that number into your intake. Keep a weigh-in journal and a food journal. If you don't start to see the scale start to move about 1/2 pound in 2 weeks, then increase you calories by 100/day. Check your body fat percent monthly, if it starts to rise, you're gaining too fast. I've seen too many guys like you go from skinny to packing a gut. If you get through Idaho Falls, I have one at Apple Athletic Club -$50 for the test.
Don't stop cardio! That would be the worst thing you could do for heart/cardio health and hunting shape. Just add your calories burned back into your diet. It's not like your trying to win a body building contest. The science shows that weight training only increases your cardio so much, so don't drop that cardio.
If you can't get tested, then take your body weight X 13. Add to that number the exercise/job calories per week.
None of this will work if you don't accurately track your calories. Try Myfitnesspal.com app or just track on paper.
Finally, that fast food will kill you if you're eating more than about 1x per week. Skinny 50 year olds die of heart attacks, too.

 

[JPhelps]

I get the eat big part, im going to do my best to do that.

About not doing any cardio, i still want to stay in shape cardio wise, i dont ususally hit the cardio very hard. But i do lift often. And when i do do cardio stuff it usually includes a pack with weight, and the incline treadmill. I just need to push myself to eat healthier, and eat more.

If you want to stay with cardio, you will have to replace the calories you burned doing the cardio to avoid a calorie deficit.

 

[aggieland]

My adivce.. Go go to crazy with gaining weight. When your older you will probably want the Patrick Swayze look more than the Ronnie Coleman lol. Also if you ever stop working out the weight goes somewhere.. or at least mine did, now im back in the gym thank God. Trying to get back to where I was before.

 

[Aron Snyder]

Ryan Avery needs to gain weight as well.

You guys should give him some advice.

 

[robby denning]

Aron, post up a pic!

 

[ohhiitznik]

Ok, if you really want to gain weight, all the protein powders in the world aren't going to help you. Calories in vs Calories out is what it all boils down to, how you get the calories is what makes the type of weight you gain. Start eating lots and lots of pasta dishes, lots of rice, and I mean lots. You need to cut the cardio off, not completely but cut it way down and go to heavy weight lifting. I mean sets of 3-4 reps with 80% max effort weight. Look up the wendler 5-3-1 method and give it a shot. Deadlifts and squats are the primary weight gaining lifts. Use large muscle groups and compound movements to put on mass to gain weight. Sucking down whey protein and 9 eggs in the morning won't do anything for you if you don't do the right movements.

Boiling it down to simple formula that you can live by:

Lift heavy things, plain and simple. 5 sets of 3-4 reps of major movement lifts.
Deadlifts and squats are the most important thing you will do.
Eat double the amount of calories you eat now, but don't double your calories with whey protein and fast food, use pasta, rice dishes, pizza is even a good choice. High energy high carb foods are great for building mass. You can have a protein shake in the morning, but don't over do it. Your body can only process so much protein at a time, putting 90 grams of protein in you is useless. Your liver might be able to handle 30 grams at a time being you're only 135 lbs. I dont even think myself at 265 can handle 50 grams at one sitting. PM me for details I can get you on a good workout program that will put weight on you in the right way, with functional strength not puffy body building muscles.
Reduce your cardio by 70% at least

 

[Lawnboi]

Ill be sending you a PM sometime soon ohhiitznik.

I am going to cut down my cardio to 2-3 times a week. What do you think of that? I want my cardio to remain strong as it is now though, but i can tell you, turning over the calorie counter on the incline treadmill multiple times a week probably isnt helping too much. Thought i wont count the cardio stuff that i consider fun, like mountain biking and walking around with my pack on. But what kind of cardio exercised would you reccomend for keeping my cardio in top shape without burning 1000 calories in a workout?

Iv stopped on the fast food! its going to be hard not to eat as much of it but i can do it. Iv started pounding food as well, i dont look at the protien content or whatever i am just trying to put down as much good food as i can. I just made my own high calorie bars today at home.

I already do alot of deadlifts, squats, bench, and alot of stuff to strengthen my back and core and i lift pretty heavy in general for everything else. Along with that i tend to push myself every day........ and after the gym i get to go to UPS and lift heavy boxes for the next 4 hours.

Thanks for all the adivce, keep it coming!

I dont think i could count calories to make sure im getting what i need... just too time consuming. Im just going to eat as much as i possibly can. I literally barely have a stitch of fat on my body.

 

[BMB]

Lawnboi, you're really gonna have to count calories if you want to consistanly gain without backing off your cardio. What hasn't been touched on is if you DO slow down on your cardio a few things will happen:
1. yeah, you're gonna gain weight.
2. your fitness level is going to decrease (counter productive)
3. when you amp your cardio back up before season, you're going to loose weight AGAIN if you don't adjust your caloric intake.

Sit down one day a week and plan all your meals for the week. It may seem time consuming, but after a week or so you'll be able to figure out your calories per meal a LOT faster. A lot of carbs, mixed with a level of healthy fats and proteins is what you're after. Ohhiii is right on with the high protein intake, all you're gonna do is Pee out what your body can't utilize which actually works your kidneys harder than they need to be. Drink at least 1-2gallons of water a day to help keep yourself flushed out and properly hydrated.

It's all a matter of finding out just how much you're burning a day and going over by 500+calories a day. That'll give you roughly a pound gain each week (3500calories is about a pound of body weight gained).

 

[Lawnboi]

Dang, i wish i was fat now, seems so much easier when you need to lose weight

 

[JSonn]

lifting heavy, eating clean and getting plenty of sleep- from my own personal experience, at 6 foot 3 going from 145lbs to 215lbs in 3 years

- lift heavy weights at low reps and as many sets as you can. Then drastically reduce weight and do reps until near muscle failure.
- eat to live and eat often, if you do this right you will want to vomit. take a big pot and throw in everything, meat + veggies then wrap in a burrito. eat every 3 hours and eat before bed time
-get your rest, this all takes a major toll on an ectomorphs body, once you get the proper sleep you wake up refreshed, with gains and hungry to work out and hungry for food!

and my 2 cents- never cut or skip cardio

 

[ohhiitznik]

I didn't say completely cut your cardio off, But you cannot stay trim and put on mass quickly at the same time. You will gain bodyfat while gaining muscle mass. It will be easy for a guy who is already thin to put on some bodyfat and muscle, then trim the fat with cardio. Notice most "fat" guys can put on muscle and strength quicker than a "skinny" guy? Its because they have extra energy stores in their body from fat that they can use as energy and what not. You're going to put on some fat, but you'll be alright, even if you put 5 lbs of fat on for every 3 lbs of muscle you'd be doing amazing. if you really don't want to cut the cardio off, swap it from long drawn out aerobic cardio, to fast high output anaerobic interval training. You won't lose your cardio capacity and you won't be fat burning while you're doing your cardio.

 

[ohhiitznik]

Remember this credo for the mountains as well: Anaerobic training will increase your aerobic and anaerobic capacity, aerobic training will only increase aerobic capacity and will have 0 effect on anaerobic training. Most of your mountain hunting situations are mostly high end aerobic pushing into the anaerobic zone. Training in the anaerobic zone will also make you more efficient at altitude, because you're working with a lack of oxygen in your muscles in the anaerobic zone. Try swapping your cardio to swimming sprints, and running suicides. Give it a shot for 2 weeks and let me know how its going

 

[AlpineAthlete]

Lawnboi I would just like to tell you what has worked well for me.

I'm a freshman in college and I'm not an expert by any means but I do like to keep up with new techniques and such. My advice would be to switch to a bodybuilding type program. Obviously once you get as big as you want to be, you can lay off the number of sets and focus more on cardio or whatever your goal at that point maybe. My program looks like this, I include calves and abs MWF.

Monday- Quads, Hams
Tuesday- Chest
Wednesday- Back
Thursday- Shoulders/Traps
Friday- Arms

I shoot for these workouts to be no longer an hour and a half, and days like shoulders and arms tend to be around an hour. A rep range of 8+ works best for me. Currently it seems that studies are proving that "time under tension" for the muscle produces more protein synthesis or growth than heavy weights and low reps. Therefore, I have been including sets some with 12+ reps and have been seeing good results. The number of exercises will just depend on how your body responds. I usually work quads with 5 or 6 sets of squats, then moving on to 3 to 4 sets of leg extensions, and finishing with 3 to 4 sets of leg press as an example. However, it varies. My chest seems to respond well to 2 to 3 sets of 4 to 5 exercises, while my arms like 4 sets of 2 exercises or 3 of 3 for each muscle. It all depends on what works for you. One thing is for certain, you want to include big, compounds lifts. Deadlifts, squats, bench presses, pull ups, and rows seem to be essential for me.

As far as diet, I don't eat the cleanest but I eat clean enough. My daily diet looks roughly like this (I am working on including more protein):
Meal 1: whey protein shake, 3 eggs, bowl of whole grain cereal or oatmeal
Meals 2-5: bowl of pasta or potatoes, chicken breast or steak, some green beans (with a protein shake immediately following my workout)
I also like to include a glass or two of milk during the day and usually end up eating a couple tortillas with PB as quick snacks.

Like I said I'm no expert, but since the beginning of the school year I've went from 170 to 200 lbs following this pretty basic layout while keeping the same bodyfat. Just sucks that I'm 6' 4" because I'm still pretty freakin skinny I'm open to any questions but just be consistent, lift hard, and eat a lot. Not expert advice but its just my 2 cents and I hope it helps anyone interested.


Good luck!

 

[Lawnboi]

So pretty much im just going to keep doing what iv been doing. Im already taking a body builder type lifting approach.

Now im just going to stop eating bad food, and start trying to eat as much as i can. We will see how it goes. I appreciate all the advice.

Realistically id like to hit 150 by fall, that may be a bit high of an expectation though. Iv got the time, and drive right now to really hit it hard and be in the best shape i can for this coming season.

 

[Lawnboi]

Im going to try to mix up my cardio a bit, latly i do take the long dragged out approach, im going to start to mix in some fast stuff, sprints, i may try out the endless pool at the local gym and do some swimming as well.

The main thing though is i just have to push myself to eat alot! That is honestly going to be the hardest part for me.