Suggestions for bulking up

I would get digestive enzymes and load up on pasta and work out. Pasta is cheap. Eat like half a dozen eggs with a yoke or 2(4 whites for 1 yoke). I'm guessing you are young so I would start with pushups and then gets some dumbells.

You aren't eating enough though. If you post what you eat normally I'm sure you don't eat enough unless you have a worn or something.

 

You can build mass with body weight exercises, especially someone like you who is presumably fairly weak cause you're just starting out. You never want to go straight into heavy weights. Deal with body weight exercises until you have them mastered. This is nothing to be ashamed of obviously. Just start out slow and work your way up.

The way you build muscle is by doing a low amount of reps (6-10) for each exercise until complete muscle failure where you cannot do anymore. Before you worry about that though just build up some strength for the 1st week or two. Do the max amount of push ups you can until you can't physically push up anymore. When you fall on your face rest for like a minute. Then do the same thing two more times. Do that routine everyday for a week or two and you'll build up a general base strength to work with. If you have a pull up bar, do the same thing. Same thing with body weight squats as well. Do your max reps and then do two more sets of max reps. If you do that for push ups, pull ups, and squats for 2 weeks, then you'll be ready to move forward.

I would eat plenty of protein but don't stress about it too much! Gaining muscle is about training fucking hard and then getting adequate protein. Training less and eating more protein simply will not work. You have to tear your muscle fibers for them to get rebuilt bigger with amino acids. There is a certain point where more protein won't do you any good.

So what you want to eat is basically whole foods. Fruits, veggies, meats, dairy, nuts, seeds, and sprouts. I personally don't eat grains. They cause a lot of healthy issues. You can eat conventional produce, that's fine. Try to go to a produce market or a farmers market if you can however. You'll find better quality and cheaper prices. I rarely shop at supermarkets. For meats, if you're going to buy conventional meats get the leaner cuts and animals like chicken or turkey. I would suggest getting grass-fed beef...the fats in grass-fed beef are definitely superior and better for you. I'd say try to buy as much organic produce and grass-fed meats as possible. If you can't do all organic that's fine...maybe do like organic meats and conventional produce? I think organic meats are much more important than organic produce for health reasons, although organic produce tastes better and is higher quality than conventional. For dairy, only drink raw milk. You can find that at your health food store or local farm markets or the farmers themselves. I wouldn't recommend drinking conventional, pasteurized dairy. Sure it'll help with protein, but it's not good for you at all.

Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. I like to do fruits in the morning and then salads at night or in the afternoon or both. Supplement those meals with protein. Have a glass of raw milk and a few eggs in the morning with a couple pieces of fruit. Then for lunch have a salad with some fish and nuts and seeds. For dinner do some steamed veggies with a cut of meat and a small side salad. It's pretty easy honestly cause real food tastes amazing and feels great after a good workout. Drink a lot of water and basically keep it to unprocessed, unrefined, natural whole foods. Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, sprouts, meat, and dairy. Don't get sausage or cold cuts or any of that shit...just straight up, unprocessed cuts of meat from a butcher shop ideally.

 

I was about 135 pounds and 5'10ish a year ago, I'm at 154 right now. Whatever you do, DONT take prohormones or anything of that nature, sure you'll gain weight like crazy but you will lose most of your gains.

to gain 20 pounds over a year I cleaned up my diet alot, no fast food, no processed foods/sugars/sodas etc... replaced normal rice and pasta with whole wheat/brown I also take goldstandard whey protein and a carb loader called glycomaize. 1 scoop of each with my breakfast, 1 scoop of each about an hour before the gym and 2 scoops of each after my workouts.

The key to gaining 'good' weight for me was to eat until I couldn't eat anymore, then I'd force myself to eat again. 4-6 meals a day(sometimes it was 4 due to long shifts at work)

No matter what you do don't be discouraged, progress is progress no matter how fast or slow.

and the weight scale isn't always the best way to track your progress. I stopped weighing myself on a daily basis and just paid attention to my strength gains and the weight began to go up too.

Best of luck to you.

 

This besides less powders and more real food

 

Eat 5 meals a day, or 3 major meals and 3 high calorie/protein/carb, low sugar/sat. fat snack. Last year i weighed 140 and i've moved up to 150 without working out too much. Basically do only body-weight exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, crunches), free weights, and lots of cardio. My BMI has actually gone down too so i've packed on muscle, i used to think my metabolism was fast but i just didn't eat enough.

 

On top of what TGOLD and Budsmokn420 said I would recommend to research into compound exercises and do those.

 

Spot on. This OP...

Yar!

OP check out Stronglifts 5x5... good beginner weight training program that is comprised solely of major compound movements. Throw in pull ups as well and you're set.

 

Retro is 20 a month if I'm not mistaken and your local ymca is quite cheap too

 

Nuts will be your best friend, healthy fats and packed with calories. Just don't go running into a gym thinking your going to start out with a 40 set workout, that will most likely just discourage you and make you too damn tired to continue. I was in your exact situation about 4 months ago I'm now around 156 lbs. I would recommend "Doug's mass building workout for ectomorphs" it's on bodybuilding.com, works for me. Good luck making them gains.

 

And keep them munchies healthy!

 

Lots of water lots of protein lots of good carbs and good fats.

 

Was unsure of how to subscribe without writing something,
but this has been the single more informative article/forum
I've yet to find on my nutrition. Good post OP.

 

Roids

 

I'm really skinny my whole life. I'm starting GOMAD, gallon of milk a day, on top of protein shakes and regular meals. If you want to gain you need to up the calories.

 

A gallon a milk a day seems like overkill. There will be a lot of negative side effects.

 

That's what I was thinking too.
From what I've read, as I'm an ectomorph with an
elevated metabolism, shocking your body with nothing but protein
won't have anyone seeing significant gains.

You have to balance out between protein, carbohydrates, and fats (e.g. calories) amongst the day, with your main focus being on a high calorie consumption for your preworkout, and then a high consumption of protein for your postworkout.

But I'm a beginner, and this is all I've been able to conclude so far. haha

 

[quote name='"budsmokn420"']You can build mass with body weight exercises, especially someone like you who is presumably fairly weak cause you're just starting out. You never want to go straight into heavy weights. Deal with body weight exercises until you have them mastered. This is nothing to be ashamed of obviously. Just start out slow and work your way up.

The way you build muscle is by doing a low amount of reps (6-10) for each exercise until complete muscle failure where you cannot do anymore. Before you worry about that though just build up some strength for the 1st week or two. Do the max amount of push ups you can until you can't physically push up anymore. When you fall on your face rest for like a minute. Then do the same thing two more times. Do that routine everyday for a week or two and you'll build up a general base strength to work with. If you have a pull up bar, do the same thing. Same thing with body weight squats as well. Do your max reps and then do two more sets of max reps. If you do that for push ups, pull ups, and squats for 2 weeks, then you'll be ready to move forward.

I would eat plenty of protein but don't stress about it too much! Gaining muscle is about training fucking hard and then getting adequate protein. Training less and eating more protein simply will not work. You have to tear your muscle fibers for them to get rebuilt bigger with amino acids. There is a certain point where more protein won't do you any good.

So what you want to eat is basically whole foods. Fruits, veggies, meats, dairy, nuts, seeds, and sprouts. I personally don't eat grains. They cause a lot of healthy issues. You can eat conventional produce, that's fine. Try to go to a produce market or a farmers market if you can however. You'll find better quality and cheaper prices. I rarely shop at supermarkets. For meats, if you're going to buy conventional meats get the leaner cuts and animals like chicken or turkey. I would suggest getting grass-fed beef...the fats in grass-fed beef are definitely superior and better for you. I'd say try to buy as much organic produce and grass-fed meats as possible. If you can't do all organic that's fine...maybe do like organic meats and conventional produce? I think organic meats are much more important than organic produce for health reasons, although organic produce tastes better and is higher quality than conventional. For dairy, only drink raw milk. You can find that at your health food store or local farm markets or the farmers themselves. I wouldn't recommend drinking conventional, pasteurized dairy. Sure it'll help with protein, but it's not good for you at all.

Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. I like to do fruits in the morning and then salads at night or in the afternoon or both. Supplement those meals with protein. Have a glass of raw milk and a few eggs in the morning with a couple pieces of fruit. Then for lunch have a salad with some fish and nuts and seeds. For dinner do some steamed veggies with a cut of meat and a small side salad. It's pretty easy honestly cause real food tastes amazing and feels great after a good workout. Drink a lot of water and basically keep it to unprocessed, unrefined, natural whole foods. Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, sprouts, meat, and dairy. Don't get sausage or cold cuts or any of that shit...just straight up, unprocessed cuts of meat from a butcher shop ideally.[/quote]

Preach it! I'm actually dealing with the same shit same height just 125lbs.......so sad. I'm so into health yet I can't quit smoking cigs. I think I'm gonna take a look at that "stoners guide to quit cigs" or whatever the name of that thread is. I really think that quitting tobacco with be the key to gaining weight so yeah if one is trying to gain weight don't smoke cigs.


Toga

 

No. GOMAD, gallon of milk a day is a tried and true method for hard gainers, it was recommended to me by a bunch of very well informed people on reddit. So if you want to bulk up, don't write this off. Look it up.

You are exactly right. Milk is not nothing but protien, milk also has carbs, fat, sugar, everything. If you are like me, an ectomorph with a fast metabolism I urge you to look into this, gotta use whole milk though. I'm on my 3rd day so I'll let y'all know how it works for me.