body weight exercises to gain weight?

[Deleted]

I had the same problem. I used: http://www.onacademy.co.uk/pro-complex-gainer

I swear by ON products. This with a nice gym routines you will see gains yourself within 4-6 weeks. I ate it with oats 3 times a day then had a shake after workout then ate a healthy full meal for dinner. Vanilla custard tastes amazing when mixed with porridge.

[Hraklea]

If you're extremely new you might make tiny gains but they certainly won't be visible to anyone but yourself.
To put on real visible muscle you need to eat 3k calories a day (maybe slightly, slightly less if you're super skinny/sedentary).

Sometimes I think that you guys find anything smaller than Ronnie Coleman is "skinny".
Thanks for the answer, anyway.

That explains why I'm not able to increase the weights I lift at the gym, I guess...?

[Deleted]

Sometimes I think that you guys find anything smaller than Ronnie Coleman is "skinny".
Thanks for the answer, anyway.

That explains why I'm not able to increase the weights I lift at the gym, I guess...?

Yeah I'd imagine so.

If you want to be able to lift more I strongly suggest following the starting strength or stronglifts programs while eating those 3k calories a day.

As well it doesn't matter what you eat, it's all about calories. So you can eat 2k calories of cookies and 1k calories of protein powder if you like.

[Hraklea]

Yeah I'd imagine so. If you want to be able to lift more I strongly suggest following the starting strength or stronglifts programs while eating those 3k calories a day.

Thanks for the advice.
I'm current on a diet (my body fat on my last physical evaluation was ~24,5%), so I guess I'll first lose the extra fat, and then start building muscles.

So you can eat 2k calories of cookies...

Sounds great, dude.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the advice.
I'm current on a diet (my body fat on my last physical evaluation was ~24,5%), so I guess I'll first lose the extra fat, and then start building muscles.



Sounds great, dude.

In that case eat 1500 (or as low as 1200 if you can handle it) calories a day whilst lifting. Your lifts will probably increase really slowly or not at all but you'll have really good form and experience (plus a bit of extra muscle) for when you're down to 15% body fat or however low you're happy with and can bulk.

When you get there don't worry about gaining fat back on, I think you'll be really pleasantly surprised by how hard it is to gain fat when you're doing doing low reps of heavy weights. Bulking is actually great fun if you love food and because it's much, much easier to lose fat than gain muscle you will typically spend most of the year bulking and eating like a pig whilst looking better all the time for it.

[Hraklea]

In that case eat 1500 (or as low as 1200 if you can handle it) calories a day whilst lifting.

Isn't that too low? I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't eat below your BMR, and according to the Harris-Benedict equation, my BMR is 1.900kcal.

[worprz]

There is no exercise that will make you gain weight. You can actually lose weight from doing weight lifting or body weight exercises if you do not eat enough. You need to find your maintenance level (the amount of calories you can eat to maintain your weight) and then eat more than that.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=156380183

This is a really good thread on your nutrition and what you need to do to gain weight.

[Deleted]

Isn't that too low? I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't eat below your BMR, and according to the Harris-Benedict equation, my BMR is 1.900kcal.

Nah that's bullshit. I'm sure some clown on the internet somewhere has said that but it's absolute nonsense and has no basis whatsoever in science.

When you eat under your calorie allowance for the day all your body does is break down the fat and muscle reserves you already have and use them as energy instead. So instead of getting energy (remember calorie is another word for energy) from an external source it gets it from an internal source, hence you have less fat/muscle on your body and you lose weight.

Your daily bodily functions aren't effected at all because you're still getting the exact same energy you always got (i.e exactly what your body needs) it's just instead of getting it from food you're getting it from fat that was sat on your body doing nothing.

Now if you've extremely thin then of course you won't have those fat or muscle reserves but assuming you're either fat or a normal person you'll have loads of fat to use up.

It's perfectly healthy to diet on 1200 calories a day. The only downside is it's harder to due and as such you might not be able to stick with it like you would say 1500 calories.

[Hraklea]

So instead of getting energy (remember calorie is another word for energy) from an external source it gets it from an internal source, hence you have less fat/muscle on your body and you lose weight.

But I don't want to lose muscles, only fat.

[Deleted]

But I don't want to lose muscles, only fat.

So to do that you need to lift heavy whilst you diet, this lets your body know that is really needs that muscle so when it's deciding whether to destroy fat or muscle for energy it picks the fat.

[Hraklea]

So to do that you need to lift heavy whilst you diet, this lets your body know that is really needs that muscle so when it's deciding whether to destroy fat or muscle for energy it picks the fat.

Makes sense. Thanks you one more time, and sorry for all these noob questions, I'm really new on this stuff.

[Deleted]

Nah that's bullshit. I'm sure some clown on the internet somewhere has said that but it's absolute nonsense and has no basis whatsoever in science.

Except that it's not. Look up what BMR actually is and you'll swiftly conclude that it's unhealthy to have a prolonged caloric intake that's (severely) below your BMR.

It's perfectly healthy to diet on 1200 calories a day. The only downside is it's harder to due and as such you might not be able to stick with it like you would say 1500 calories.

Considering that 1200 kcal/day is sub-BMR for most people, this statement isn't very good either.

[Deleted]

Except that it's not. Look up what BMR actually is and you'll swiftly conclude that it's unhealthy to have a prolonged caloric intake that's (severely) below your BMR.

Considering that 1200 kcal/day is sub-BMR for most people, this statement isn't very good either.

You have no idea what you are talking about at all. Read my last post to understand why.

There is zero scientific evidence to suggest that you need to eat at your Basal Metabolic Rate as a minimum, that is utter bullshit.

The entire reason your body gets fat in the first place is because it is storing energy for times when there is a shortage of food and can convert those stores into energy. Your body is hard wired to be good at dieting because that is how pre-historic man lived. Going through periods of not eating is far more natural and in alignment with what your body evolved for than eating three balanced meals a day.

[Deleted]

Your BMR is the minimum amount of energy your body needs to keep its vital organs functioning. It's common sense that going below that will damage these organs, or at least make them perform sub-optimally. Staying below BMR for a long time will also screw over your metabolism, putting you in starvation mode. Another side effect is that your cortisol levels most likely will skyrocket too, leading to even worse things.

You do NOT want to go below BMR to lose weight, you only want to go below your TDEE needed for maintaining weight.

[Deleted]

Your BMR is the minimum amount of energy your body needs to keep its vital organs functioning. It's common sense that going below that will damage these organs, or at least make them perform sub-optimally. Staying below BMR for a long time will also screw over your metabolism, putting you in starvation mode. Another side effect is that your cortisol levels most likely will skyrocket too, leading to even worse things.

You do NOT want to go below BMR to lose weight, you only want to go below your TDEE needed for maintaining weight.

Utter nonsense.

Your body creates it's own energy through the catabolism of your lipid, protein and nucleic acid resources into smaller molecules when it isn't getting enough of these molecules from external sources. Provided you have a reserve (which anyone's who not morbidly anorexic does) it is perfectly safe to go way under your Basal Metabolic Rate because the entire reason your body stores fats en masse is for this exact situation. When your body is storing excess fat it wants you to diet and use those resources, that's why it's keeping them in the bank in the first place.

You still have the exact same energy in your body whether you eat 10,000 calories or 1200 calories because your body will store everything over your BMR+Exercise as fat with the 10k calories and it will top up the 1200 to your BMR+Exercise through catabolism, so your organs get exactly the same functionality regardless.

You know absolutely nothing about basic anatomy and physiology. Please stop posting wrong information that might lead people to take your terrible advice.

[Deleted]

Point being that:

1) After staying below BMR for quite a while your body will adapt, your BMR will lower, thus hindering further weight loss.

2) There's a limit to how much energy you can get from fat. This abstract shows some numbers, while this article gives ~72 kcal/kg of fat mass/day as the upper limit of energy from fat. This is the absolute upper limit, which is extremely unhealthy for a normal person (severe caloric deficit). When your body has reached that limit it will consort to breaking down muscle tissue in your body, and as far as I know your body doesn't prioritize what gets broken down first. This will lead to a decrease in organ function, which in turn has nasty effects for your health.

3) Besides lowering your BMR after a prolonged caloric deficit, your body also starts to change other processes, a big one being protein turnover. Read this part, since it explains everything better than I can do.

4) Getting in so few calories makes it very hard to fill your micronutrients.

Putting someone on a diet which results in a caloric intake below their BMR will put unnecessary stress on their body, no matter how fat/muscular this person is, without aiding that much to the actual process of losing weight.

[Deleted]

Point being that:

1) After staying below BMR for quite a while your body will adapt, your BMR will lower, thus hindering further weight loss.

2) There's a limit to how much energy you can get from fat. This abstract shows some numbers, while this article gives ~72 kcal/kg of fat mass/day as the upper limit of energy from fat. This is the absolute upper limit, which is extremely unhealthy for a normal person (severe caloric deficit). When your body has reached that limit it will consort to breaking down muscle tissue in your body, and as far as I know your body doesn't prioritize what gets broken down first. This will lead to a decrease in organ function, which in turn has nasty effects for your health.

So basically as almost anyone who's dieting has a good 10kg+ of fat to lose (extending way, way higher depending how overweight you are) then your body is more than capable of making up the deficit. You just proved I'm right...

4) Getting in so few calories makes it very hard to fill your micronutrients.

Multivitamins are good. And no one fills their micronutrients every day anyway, a well structured 1200 calories diet would do a better job of it than what most people randomly decide to eat on a daily basis.

Putting someone on a diet which results in a caloric intake below their BMR will put unnecessary stress on their body, no matter how fat/muscular this person is, without aiding that much to the actual process of losing weight.

Now this is plain retarded. If you eat 1200 calories a day and exercise you're going to lose absolutely loads of weight. You're losing 2.5lbs just from the dieting and with exercise as well (if you're already reasonably slim, way higher if you're not) it's not hard to be losing 3-4lbs a week of weight.

Starvation mode is absolute bullshit, a total non-science. If you don't eat you lose loads of weight end of. I know because I've done it countless times with minimal muscle loss and no loss in organ function (rofl).

[vaiix]

You can, and will, gain weight doing bodyweight exercises. It's cheap, quick, and you can do it from home until you're ready (or if you decide it's not for you) to do otherwise.

Anybody who argues that you can't gain weight / muscle by doing bodyweight exercises needs to think of this:

When you're doing bench press, what are you lifting? A barbell right? Wrong, it's a resistance. Your muscles don't know the difference between any form of resistance. You could lift a boulder and your body would still respond in the same way, it doesn't care what you're lifting, you're still lifting.

Pair bodyweight exercises with some good nutrition and you can get yourself a really good foundation.

Exercises to include should be:
Press up variants
Chin up variants (Get yourself a multi chin up bar that goes in a doorway)
Squat variants
Isometric core variants

Throw on a rucksack with a various amount of bottled water if you want to add some weight to your exercises.

[Deleted]

Don't be self-conscious about your size, even Arnold was tiny at some point.

Best thing to do is hit the gym with a good routine:

http://www.projectswole.com/weight-t...ngth-training/

http://allakters.ru/uploads/posts/20...gger-19005.jpg

this is arnold when he as 15 :P

he probably was tiny as a baby tho! xD

[Aalyy]

There's a book and an app called You are Your Own Gym that is really good. I use the app regularly. Bodyweight exercises are a good place to start but eventually you will need to lift some heavy weights. For now start with exercise, eat a lot, eat some more, esp protein, and make sure what you eat is healthy and not junk. Don't be afraid of carbs but make sure they are nutrient dense.

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-O.../dp/0345528581
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...os.yayog&hl=en