A feasible weight-gain target in four months?

CiaranMT

I'm headin to Canada for the next four months, and while there I want to get training, as part of which I want to gain weight.

I am 20, currently about 72 kilos (5"10'), and want to gain weight for next year in order to get back playing GAA.

Currently I would eat about 2,000-2,200 calories a day, which would definitely need to increase (not doing any exercise at the mo).

So basically, what I would like to know is what is a realistic target to aim for? If I reached and consistently stayed at 76 kilos I'd be happy, but would aiming for 80 just be overkill in such a short period of time?

Advice on diet would also be appreciated. I would be eating the usual nuts and pulses, chicken and eggs, but what can be thrown on top of this? Earlier in the year I would load on the calories after a gym session, would it be wise to continue this? I ask because I seem to have a fairly high metabolism, and need to basically eat more than I've been used to up to recently, in order to keep the weight on.

And before I'm jumped on for being a lazy gowl who hasn't read the stickies, I am in the process of doing so!

Apip99

http://stronglifts.com/gomad-milk-squats-gallon-gain-weight/ Always Always a quick route. If you like milk, then you'll be okay. Spread the intake over a day.

I sure other poster will have pro and cos.

But as you say, your calorie intake needs to go up a lot...

Good luck.

CiaranMT

Thanks for that. 4 litres of milk a day would be a bit hard to stomach after a while but it's good to know the calorie count in milk is that high.

newby.204

I went from 11.5st to 15st last year in 3.5months(approx) , now to be fair had a base in SS and moved on to 531. I was eating 5-6 times a day and drinking 2 protein shakes, i also drank 1-2 litres of milk, my advice would be if you have a problem with fat include some hiit to keep it down. but you goal is very achieable imo, i would have considered myself, and still do to an extent a novice lifter when i did this

CiaranMT

newby.204 wrote: »

I went from 11.5st to 15st last year in 3.5months(approx) , now to be fair had a base in SS and moved on to 531. I was eating 5-6 times a day and drinking 2 protein shakes, i also drank 1-2 litres of milk, my advice would be if you have a problem with fat include some hiit to keep it down. but you goal is very achieable imo, i would have considered myself, and still do to an extent a novice lifter when i did this

Forgive my ignorance, but what dya mean by the highlighted bits? Fat isn't a problem for me, rather it's keeping the weight on after I've built it up is the problem.

Btw, 3.5st in 3.5 months? Fair play.. I'll be delighted with half that!

newby.204

Starting strength and 531(http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_pure_strength) now i did the 531BBB(boring but big variation)

the hardest bit was all the eating!!! like when you get thirsty your already dehydrated, i never let myself get hungry!!

Michael 09

I went from about 59kg to 67kg in roughly 7 weeks of hard training. Your target is definitely do able!!

CiaranMT

newby.204 wrote: »

Starting strength and 531(http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_pure_strength) now i did the 531BBB(boring but big variation)

the hardest bit was all the eating!!! like when you get thirty your already dehydrtd, i never let myself get hungry!!

Twil be the same with me, trying to get all that food in!

bman

newby.204 wrote: »

I went from 11.5st to 15st last year in 3.5months(approx)

How much of this was fat? I'm not criticizing; simply curious. I thought the most muscle you could gain is about 1lb / week? That would equal 14lb (1 stone) in that space of time. You gained 350% of that.

newby.204

honestly i couldnt tell you how much of that was fat, my weight was going up, my lifts were going up, my clothes werent fitting so i was happy, with that i did put on a bit of fat on my stomach and hips. thats why i said include some hiit to keep down the fat and gian as much weight in muscle as possible.

jive

newby.204 wrote: »

I went from 11.5st to 15st last year in 3.5months(approx) , now to be fair had a base in SS and moved on to 531. I was eating 5-6 times a day and drinking 2 protein shakes, i also drank 1-2 litres of milk, my advice would be if you have a problem with fat include some hiit to keep it down. but you goal is very achieable imo, i would have considered myself, and still do to an extent a novice lifter when i did this

thats crazy you obviously put on way more fat than you should have. if your looking to gain weight eat a massive amount of healthy food and if you're gaining more than 3lbs a month then cut back a small bit. 2 lbs a month would be ideal, thats 24lbs in 1 year which is a lot of weight and you wont be gaining a huge amount of fat (you will be gaining some however, that goes hand in hand with gaining muscle)

newby.204

jive wrote: »

thats crazy you obviously put on way more fat than you should have. if your looking to gain weight eat a massive amount of healthy food and if you're gaining more than 3lbs a month then cut back a small bit. 2 lbs a month would be ideal, thats 24lbs in 1 year which is a lot of weight and you wont be gaining a huge amount of fat (you will be gaining some however, that goes hand in hand with gaining muscle)

you may be right i never had it measured was more concerned with the scales and the lifts than what i looked like, occasionally people told me i got bigger so that did me i was happy outside of that, wasnt doin it for the "disco muscles"

Mellor

newby.204 wrote: »

you may be right i never had it measured was more concerned with the scales and the lifts than what i looked like, occasionally people told me i got bigger so that did me i was happy outside of that, wasnt doin it for the "disco muscles"

Your lifts should go up regardless when starting, strenght isn't only related to size plus there is technique.

I've dropped weight over the last few months and all my lifts are way up

El_Drago

Eat BIG lift big and sleep big.If you do each of those, you'll get bigger. Just on the eating big bit,someone here posted this up a few months ago:

There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn’t gain weight to save my ****ing life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like ****ing magic. He’d go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

“You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I’ll fill you in.”

Now remember, we’re at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious **** if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

“For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don’t care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that **** down and eat. That’s your breakfast.”

At this point I’m thinking this guy is nuts. But he’s completely serious.

“For lunch you’re gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don’t want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bull****. I don’t care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can’t let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter.”

“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put ’em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that ****er up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that **** over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the **** out of it.”

“Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that ****er. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”

This guy is in a zen-like state when he’s talking about this.

“Now you’re on the clock,” he continues. “After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you’re full. Don’t listen to that ****. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I’m telling you now, you’re going to get three or four pieces in and you’re gonna want to quit. You ****ing can’t quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can’t finish it, don’t you ever come back to me and tell me you can’t gain weight. ’Cause I’m gonna tell you that you don’t give a **** about getting bigger and you don’t care how much you lift!”

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn’t get much fatter. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, though.

TommyKnocker

Although I find that story amusing I don't think that it's good adivce for the ordinary joe looking to gain a little weight.

The most important line in that whole story for me is the last line

Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds.

At 260lbs it's fair to say that this guy probably already had a good amount of lean mass and was lifting heavy, so handling all those extra calories from what I (and I am sure others) would consider junk food would be a relatively easy task.

However I think if the ordinary joe follows this regime all they are going to get is fat. Sure if they are lifting really heavy in the gym they will gain muscle also, but they are going to put on a fair amount of fat. This will need to be dieted off at a later date.

It is also possible to put on mostly lean mass and control the fat gain by eating a moderate calorie surplus and working out hard/lifting heavy.

Just showing the other side of the coin.


M

CiaranMT

An entertaining story, but not something I hadn't known anyway! Plenty of pizzas were eaten the last time I was going to the gym

soc$

newby.204 wrote: »

you may be right i never had it measured was more concerned with the scales and the lifts than what i looked like, occasionally people told me i got bigger so that did me i was happy outside of that, wasnt doin it for the "disco muscles"

Without seeing you I'd guess you must have put on more than 50% of that weight in fat. There's no way to put that much weight in lean muscle on in that short space of time without using steroids and even then you'd be hard pressed.

@OP - 5kg would be a very healthy weight gain in lean muscle over 4 months.

Another piece of advice I'd give - if you're doing it to increase your athletic performance then focus on strength instead of weight - because being heavier is not always the key to being stronger. For example: I weight 76kg and have between 8% and 10% bodyfat depending my training program at the time - I have a 3RM squat of 160kg. Consequently I can generate a lot of power which is vital for sports like GAA, soccer, etc.

CiaranMT

soc$ wrote: »

@OP - 5kg would be a very healthy weight gain in lean muscle over 4 months.

Another piece of advice I'd give - if you're doing it to increase your athletic performance then focus on strength instead of weight - because being heavier is not always the key to being stronger. For example: I weight 76kg and have between 8% and 10% bodyfat depending my training program at the time - I have a 3RM squat of 160kg. Consequently I can generate a lot of power which is vital for sports like GAA, soccer, etc.

I'd be the same, last time I had it checked, my body fat % was 10%. Twould be a while before I'm squatting that though

El_Drago

B-Builder wrote: »

Although I find that story amusing I don't think that it's good adivce for the ordinary joe looking to gain a little weight.

The most important line in that whole story for me is the last line



At 260lbs it's fair to say that this guy probably already had a good amount of lean mass and was lifting heavy, so handling all those extra calories from what I (and I am sure others) would consider junk food would be a relatively easy task.

However I think if the ordinary joe follows this regime all they are going to get is fat. Sure if they are lifting really heavy in the gym they will gain muscle also, but they are going to put on a fair amount of fat. This will need to be dieted off at a later date.

It is also possible to put on mostly lean mass and control the fat gain by eating a moderate calorie surplus and working out hard/lifting heavy.

Just showing the other side of the coin.


M

You're totally right. I was just trying to give an OP an idea of how much food we're talking here.

newby.204

soc$ wrote: »

Without seeing you I'd guess you must have put on more than 50% of that weight in fat. There's no way to put that much weight in lean muscle on in that short space of time without using steroids and even then you'd be hard pressed.

@OP - 5kg would be a very healthy weight gain in lean muscle over 4 months.

Another piece of advice I'd give - if you're doing it to increase your athletic performance then focus on strength instead of weight - because being heavier is not always the key to being stronger. For example: I weight 76kg and have between 8% and 10% bodyfat depending my training program at the time - I have a 3RM squat of 160kg. Consequently I can generate a lot of power which is vital for sports like GAA, soccer, etc.

I dont want to get into an argument however, didnt use steroids and tbh i get fairly ****ed off that people put my hard work and effort, at the table and in the gym, down to steroids. My supplements were ON gold standard and then 90+ 2-3 shakes a day and 18bcaas a day(i got biotest) for 70days.

A typical days eating for me at the time
brkfst 4eggs(scrambled/boiled) 5rashers(grilled)
snack shake pce fruit
lunch tuna melts(2tins tuna4/5slices toast)
snack shake
dinner chicken curry(2 fillets)
snack shake
supper turkey and cheese(2fillets) or 3turkey fillets
2l milk would also be taken in everyday

thats just an example off the top of my head but thats what my diet looked like


From looking at myself in the mirror i would est about 30%(14.75lbs/6.7kg) of that weight was fat, and tbh i couldnt care that it was either.

as far as athletic performance i never commented on that im sure putting on a stone or so of fat is out of that question, however i was just letting the OP know that his goals are very doable, its also why i said include some hiit to keep the fat down.

Mellor

newby.204 wrote: »

I dont want to get into an argument however, didnt use steroids and tbh i get fairly ****ed off that people put my hard work and effort, at the table and in the gym, down to steroids.

Nobody said you used steroids, he said that it was impossible to put on that sort of weight as lean mass. You've said your self that it wasn't lean. your estimate of 30% is a lot of fat (1 stone) and could easily be up to 50%.

newby.204 wrote: »

I went from 11.5st to 15st last year in 3.5months(approx) ,

That's 49 pounds in a little over 100 days. I have no way of knowing if you did, but honestly, i don't believe you did in that time frame.

I don't doubt you were 11.5 at one atage, and then 15 or so at another, but not over 100 days, lean or other wise. You are most likely underestimating the timeframe. these things rarely have a start date. It could of been a montho of eating more etc before you started the full program with BCAAs and all.