Gaining weight...

[Haailo]

I got the same problem. I started going to the gym at the end of Januari and i was 1.85m and around 63kg. I went to the gym on monday and wednesday and i had basketbal on tuesday, thursday en saturday. In my eyes it look liked i was losing all the weight i was gaining at my basketballpractise! Now im like 66-67 kg and its still too low! The main problem i have is that i cant eat in the morning, i just can´t! Anyone got any tips for this?

[Buckwald]

Wrong to lose weight you stop eating... it's science..

I understand the whole "if you dont eat you get hungry and then eat massive amounts because you hungry" scenario

I understand the whole "if i eat small steady meals throughout the day and make sure i am never hungry" scenario

I understand them both but the logical solution is to stop eating and you WILL lose weight.. When you have losed the weight you go back to your normal NEW healthy eating pattern

That's not even remotely close to true. If you stop eating your body will think it's starving and store any food you have and convert it to fat as a defense mechanism. Your metabolism will also slow down so you don't burn it off. That's just a little bit of information for you.

[Deleted]

I have a degree in biology and getting my degree in medicine now so maybe that helps as to my credibility.

First of all, I am assuming you would like to gain muscle weight not just weight. To actually measure muscle weight gain you have to know your % body fat. When you exercise you will loose fat and gain muscle and even though I don't remember the numbers of the top of my head the densities of both our quite similiar, so loosing 1kg of fat will net you gain a 1kg body transformation in muscle if you can build up muscle that fast. Early on you will not gain weight because you will loose fat at almost the same rate as you will gain muscle, water intake is also a big fluctuator of weight. Once your body fat is down you will see increase in weight since your not going to be loosing fat anymore. You wil have to modify your diet to account for the fact that your body can't regenerate energy from your fat reserves anymore.

Exercise, you have to exercise enough to get the pump and the pump is a state of increased blood flow to the muscle. Simply explained, your muscles becomes very firm, very stiff like, thick, will feel dense, and squeeze resistant. You achieved that take a day off from training, you haven't achieved that continue for a day. The assumption is that with the pump you also caused enough microdamage to the muscle so that it will regenerate and grow.

Diet, simply said protein. What are good examples from nature? Predatory cats VS. Gorillas. A gorilla or a grizzly for that matter will have a huge muscle gain over a long period of time. Full grown gorillas will have large muscles but due to their diet this will take more time. Gorillas, male, need 11-13 years to mature. Predatory cats like lions, for example, will have fast muscle gain. Male lions mature at 3 years and are full grown at 4-6 years. This is twice as fast as gorillas and a mature gorilla growing to challenge a full grown silverback takes even longer than 11 years. So, the point is gorillas eat plants primarily and cats eat meat. Since I can't really afford expensive protein shakes I eat the mmore avialable natural stuff which is meats and eggs. Remember a living animal grows out of an egg, so eggs provide everything you require to grow that animal which include plenty of muscle tissue. Considering there is a diversity of amino acid and muscle tissue does not diverse between species its a good bet to eat other animals muscle tissue as this will contain all the amino acids you will need to build your muscle tissue. I eat carbs in the morning and proteins after training. About 1kg or roughly 2lb of meat a day during training. Don't eat that much meat if you don't train or you will get gout.

While comparing 2 different species might be confusing for some the important point is that both species will have a similiar weight at maturity, one just reaches this weight much faster. So muscle gain on average is greater. Just to clear that up.

The diet might seem extreme but it works for me. I tried soybeans but I just don't like them. A good chunk of meat is proteins, theres a lot of water and some fat depending on the meat. It is pretty much everything you need, proteins, enough fat for energy and no carbs.

Oh, one more thing. After puberty and I believe the age is around 23 you will start loosing muscle every year in a slow manner. So, if your training and your above the age of 23 you have to account that your body is starting to fall apart pretty much. You have to account that if you don't exercise you will loose muscle and this loss increases with age.

In the end I believe diet is the most important thing. To gain 1 kg of muscle you have to consume 1 kg of the right amino acids in a prefect composition to build up this 1 kg muscle which can translate into consuming about 4-5 kg of meat to get just the proteins. Now you will not gain muscle that fast so you have to pretty much pump yourself full of proteins ALL THE TIME. That's the reasoning why I am eating so much meat and I am not talking about 1kg of burgers I'm talking about 1 kg of steak without nothing. I cannot recommend this at all if you don't train very hard and on a regular basis. A high meat diet can be very DANGEROUS.

[Kulthor]

Protein Shakes help bulk up a little bit and just increase your diet in general, Just don't eat garbage.
You should take a look at scoobies channel. He's really nice and knows his stuff. http://www.youtube.com/user/scooby1961

[Deleted]

Exercise, you have to exercise enough to get the pump and the pump is a state of increased blood flow to the muscle. Simply explained, your muscles becomes very firm, very stiff like, thick, will feel dense, and squeeze resistant. You achieved that take a day off from training, you haven't achieved that continue for a day. The assumption is that with the pump you also caused enough microdamage to the muscle so that it will regenerate and grow.

You do not need to get "The Pump" to gain muscle. You can get a pump going from push-ups but that isn't going to do much.
The pump has virtually nothing to do with increased myofibrillar hypertrophy – the actual fiber growth that’s responsible for 75-80% of the increase in muscle size. That type of fiber growth comes only from heavy training, which produces much less, if any pump.

I just don't want people worrying "Oh mah gawd I didn't get the pump I must not have trained hard enough"

[Deleted]

Protein Shakes help bulk up a little bit and just increase your diet in general, Just don't eat garbage.
You should take a look at scoobies channel. He's really nice and knows his stuff. http://www.youtube.com/user/scooby1961

Yep, good advice scooby knows his shit.

[mercutiouk]

i eat 1-1 1/2 meals a day and cant lose any weight, im 5'8 and around 230lbs.........wtf is this!!!!

If you are eating only a couple of times a day likely 2 things:

1) Starvation response. If you don't get fed or have sporadic eating your body assumes you have problems getting food and will hang on to fat.
2) Large meals (which you would likely be having as a bigger guy/girl eating only a couple of times a day) result in insulin spikes. Insulin is produced to reduce blood sugar, that excess energy goes to storage aka fat.

I'll add a 3rd - you likely aren't doing much excercise. You're "big" for a reason and diet alone likely won't help. Cardio does a bit, weights does a bit.

In summary:
Eat less, more often (portions should be clenched fist sized).
Workout. After the initial couple of weeks of it being a real pain in the ass it actually gets to be much less of a chore (taken me a few months to get there but I am there)
Get plenty of water - it helps fill you and a lot of the processes you want to happen for weight loss require good hydration.
Lift weights - so long as you are supply the protein required for muscle development lifting weights will gain you more muscle. While it won't look vastly different on the scales for a loooong time (muscle weighs more than fat) extra muscle increases the energy requirements of your body at rest. Even sat doing nothing you will use more energy.

[Deleted]

You do not need to get "The Pump" to gain muscle. You can get a pump going from push-ups but that isn't going to do much.
The pump has virtually nothing to do with increased myofibrillar hypertrophy – the actual fiber growth that’s responsible for 75-80% of the increase in muscle size. That type of fiber growth comes only from heavy training, which produces much less, if any pump.

I just don't want people worrying "Oh mah gawd I didn't get the pump I must not have trained hard enough"

Actually the pump is apositive measure of good training. The so called pump is an increased blood flow due to an increased demand, this demand is only their if you strain the muscle enough. It's positive feedback or a confirmation, of course you could have reached a state of enough traning before you gain the pump but this is the measure that helps people know that they have actually done enough.

Simply said if you get the pump you know you trained enough if you don't get it you can't be sure unless you know your body very well.

[Deleted]

Actually the pump is apositive measure of good training. The so called pump is an increased blood flow due to an increased demand, this demand is only their if you strain the muscle enough. It's positive feedback or a confirmation, of course you could have reached a state of enough traning before you gain the pump but this is the measure that helps people know that they have actually done enough.

Simply said if you get the pump you know you trained enough if you don't get it you can't be sure unless you know your body very well.

A "Pump" is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside the muscle tissue when you train. The muscles will swell up and leave your body feeling bigger and tighter. While a pump does feel fantastic, it has very little, if anything to do with properly stimulating your muscles to grow.

A "Pump" is simply the result of increased bloodflow to the muscle tissue and is certainly not indicative of a successful workout. A successful workout should only be gauged by the concept of progression. If you were able to lift more weight or perform more reps than you did in the previous week, then you did your job.

[Creotor]

As usual, not the best place to look for advice on anything WoW unrelated.

Google your question.
If you want to gain weight, then it's quite obvious you have to eat more, but it's best if you don't eat a lot of unhealthy food still.
It's also best to have as many small meals a day as possible as opposed to having 3 fat ones.
To convert that newly gained mass into muscle, you obviously have to exercise, but to find out exactly which ones you have to do - you'll have to google this.

My situation is similar, I'm around the same height, maybe a centimeter or two lower than that and weigh around 144 pounds. Can eat whatever, but don't really gain weight. However, I have very bad appetite.

[Deleted]

Don't listen to uneducated people telling you "rest your body", "workout 3 days".

You want to workout 5 days a week. It will be hard the first couple of weeks, after that, your body will get used to it. Get a decent program focused on different muscle groups, something like:
Monday: Chest+Calves
Tuesday: Arms day (Biceps+Triceps)
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Legs+Shoulders(Including Traps)
Friday: Cardio+Full body (small) routine

Throw in Abs in 2 of those days as well.

There are hundreds of things you can try, this weekly schedule has worked pretty well for me. It's all about finding what works best for you, a lot of people like to combine chest+bicep, back+tricep, etc, just see what works for you, just remember not to mix to major muscle groups in the same day, it's unwise to work chest and back on the same day for example.

Train hard. Don't slack, do Deadlifts and Squats, these 2 exercises alone will build your core. Learn to execute them right, and you will get results EVERY week.

Eat hard. You're terribly underweight, right now it doesn't matter what you eat, you need to fuel your body with a lot of protein+fat+carbs, I'm not telling you to go eat at fast food joints every day, I'm telling you to just eat more - buy chicken breast, tuna, salmon, you need this protein. Learn to enjoy Oatmeal, eggs, broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts.
Drink water, lots of it.

Take your protein shake immediately after workout, and have a large meal at least 1 hour after your workout.

Your body will learn to adapt to these changes very fast, if you follow this YOU WILL gain weight, if you eat right and on a good amount you will gain muscle without putting up too much fat.

[Creotor]

Early on you will not gain weight because you will loose fat at almost the same rate as you will gain muscle, water intake is also a big fluctuator of weight. Once your body fat is down you will see increase in weight since your not going to be loosing fat anymore. You wil have to modify your diet to account for the fact that your body can't regenerate energy from your fat reserves anymore.

You really think he has any significant fat with that height/weight ratio, considering he's already been exercising?
Whatever you got from your degree has to be tailored to a specific situation before applying it.

[Deleted]

Don't listen to uneducated people telling you "rest your body"

Your ignorance is showing.
You realise that your body builds muscle while it rests yes?
Exercising the same body-part multiple days in a row is asking for disaster.

Don't listen to uneducated people telling you "workout 3 days".

3-day programmes are great for beginners.
For example a great programme for beginners is "Starting Strength", which has you work out 3 days a week.
Having to work out 5 days a week with numerous different exercises can be pretty intimidating for newbies.

[Garam]

.
Unfortunately, I just am not hungry enough to take in more than 3000 kilocalories a day and I really dislike doing nothing.

You need to work your way up. Steadily eat larger and larger meals, your stomach will make accommodations.

[Deleted]

Your ignorance is showing.
You realise that your body builds muscle while it rests yes?
Exercising the same body-part multiple days in a row is asking for disaster.

3-day programmes are great for beginners.
For example a great programme for beginners is "Starting Strength", which has you work out 3 days a week.
Having to work out 5 days a week with numerous different exercises can be pretty intimidating for newbies.

If he's sleeping 8 hours a day, and resting at weekends, that's hall he needs. My schedule does not have him workout the same muscle group days in a row. Abs are an exception. As a smaller muscle group that gets targeted someway with our every day routine, our abs rest rather quickly and it's no issue to train them 2 times a week (a lot of people do it 3+ times).

About my ignorance, my body shows the results, and I could show it, but that would be bragging right? (And yes, I can brag). Intimidating? Sounds like loser talk, OP says he works out every day, I don't think he is intimidated.

but hey, I'm talking to some guy that claims muscle pump has nothing to do with gaining muscle, so, it's rather pointless to waste time with you (you won't/don't want to learn).

[Deleted]

I'm talking to some guy that claims muscle pump has nothing to do with gaining muscle,

Don't put words in my mouth brah.

it's rather pointless to waste time with you (you won't/don't want to learn).

I have results, I just don't want people like you giving bad advice to beginners.

[Purely]

Dunno if you still read responses, but first of all, do NOT work out every day. it's bad. your muscles needs restitution, otherwise you won't gain weight.

secondly, if you work out, your body needs more food. if you want to gain weight, you need something around 500+ of what's normal, hence around 3k.

You should eat food with a lot of healthy carbohydrates in it, eg. rice, pasta, noodles, potatoes. You should also eat a lot of chicken for the sake of proteins.

[Shik Valentine]

That's not even remotely close to true. If you stop eating your body will think it's starving and store any food you have and convert it to fat as a defense mechanism. Your metabolism will also slow down so you don't burn it off. That's just a little bit of information for you.

No it doesn't.

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top...-debunked.html #4

There's a couple of links in there to studies to back up the myth..

[Razorice]

Eat Mc'd for a few weeks

[Nachopie]

Hey anyone here got any tips for gaining weight/muscle weight? i work out for an hour every day and i take protein and im still not gaining weight even though im getting stronger? im 140 pounds and 6 foot 1 inch. so im pretty underweight. any tips would be appreciated and also any workout tips would be nice. No weight room access at the moment.

You can't gain weight unless you eat more. It's that simple. A higher caloric intake is all you can do. While lifting weights will have a little benefit it won't be major (for weight gain) until your caloric intake is higher.

Weight gain and weight loss is always going to be about taking in more or less energy. If you are signing up for anything else it's a diet scam.

---------- Post added 2011-06-18 at 01:03 PM ----------

i eat 1-1 1/2 meals a day and cant lose any weight, im 5'8 and around 230lbs.........wtf is this!!!!

Not sure if you are being serious but you should be trying to eat around 4-5 smaller meals throughout the day.