Need help putting on weight

johnners2981

I'm roughly about 11 and a half stone, slightly under maybe, and about 5'9".

My goal is to put on about half a stone in muscle mass by february and would like to know what you think is the best way.

Mainly for sport but also cause few people have mentioned that they think I should eat more (face looks a bit thin). I'm not skinny as you can prbably tell from my weight/height ratio.

I do a lot of running and playing football and have been lifting weights on and off last few years so I have a pretty low body fat percentage, just want to bulk up a bit more.

I know I'll need to look at my diet (it's not great, eat whatever I want) but wondering if protein powder is the way to go, I've never bothered with it before and know nothing about it really.

With football nearly over now till next season I plan on going to the gym a good bit over the next few months. Plan on doing pretty even workouts, lower and upper body but feel my quad muscles could use extra work (not sure if its strength or endurance they need).

So basically do I start using protein powder and which one would be best for my needs?
I'll be making a workout for myself but any recommeneded exercises or workouts are welcome.

Thanks

top madra

How many calories are you eating a day?

People have already told you what you have to do,eat more...



protein powder and which one would be best for my needs?

just get whey and whatever one you prefer the taste of....it wont do much for you if your diet is lacking..


just sayin.

johnners2981

Well I'd say I'd eat close to 3000 calories, never really count but I also burn a lot with 10k runs and such. I eat plenty, just couple of people stated that my face looked a bit thin. And its not that easy to eat more, when you're full you're full plus I don't want to eat more and just put on fat.

So if I just want to put on half a stone of muscle taking whey protein and doing weights should help me achieve that?

top madra

if you don't count calories you wont have any idea how much your're consuming...

building muscle is all about having a calorie surplus...you need to find your maintenance amount and then add more to build muscle....

just adding a protein powder isnt going to add that muscle for you..

its all about calories...(protein/carbs/fats)

johnners2981

Ah right well there was me thinking that protein powder was going to be a quick fix.

So what happens if your calorie intake remains the same but you start going strength training in the gym?

Right well I'll have to start counting my calories and see what I'm averaging a day, how much of a calorie surplus would be needed?

top madra

johnners2981 wrote: »

Ah right well there was me thinking that protein powder was going to be a quick fix.

So what happens if your calorie intake remains the same but you start going strength training in the gym?

Right well I'll have to start counting my calories and see what I'm averaging a day, how much of a calorie surplus would be needed?

If your calorie intake stays the same you pretty much just maintain what you have,of course if your're a newb to weights you will get newb gains but these won't last..

you will need to find out what your maintenance is and then add more,start with about 500 extra and see how you go from there..

search Lyle McDonald and alan aragon on google and read up on nutrition..

heno86

Even if you bulk up your body unless you gain fat your face will look just as thin..

jive

If you just want to mass up then I'd suggest doing compound movements (e.g. squats, deadlifts, bench, military press, barbell rows etc.) and just eating a lot of decent food. There's loads of programs out there that use compound movements so just have a look around. Eat plenty of rice/pasta/oats/bread and chicken/fish/beef/eggs. Cut out the crap food (assuming you're not 7 years old you know what's crap and what's not at this stage) and eat some fruit + veggies for a decent all round diet.

I'm roughly the same height (5 9 - 5 10) and weight 12 and a half stone. Typically what I'd eat in a day would be
2 cups oats, tin of tuna
pasta + chicken or sandwich with ham or chicken
pasta/couscous + beef
sandwiches with ham or chicken
oats, eggs and toast
pasta + chicken

to gain weight you'd have to eat something similar (in quantity, doesn't matter if its the same foods as above just eat enough that you gain weight) to that minus maybe a 1 of the above meals. You don't need protein shakes or anything unless you're very stuck for time. They make no noticeable difference IMO, the only benefit is that they are handy as you just have to chug it down.

johnners2981

Thanks for the help, it looks like diet is going to be a bigger factor than I expected.

I eat plenty of carbs and protein at the minute, lacking in the fat intake. Any particular food you can recommended for that?

I love running which burns a lot of calories so I'm guessing that will slow me down in my goal to put on weight. So I'm guessing that means I'll have to eat extra calories to make up for the ones I've used while running.

I suppose having to eat more isn't the worst problem in the world

jive

johnners2981 wrote: »

I eat plenty of carbs and protein at the minute, lacking in the fat intake. Any particular food you can recommended for that?

I suppose having to eat more isn't the worst problem in the world

nuts, peanut butter, eggs, fish are all good to get fat. Pouring olive oil on pasta is a good way to get good fat and it's calorie dense which helps a load when trying to gain weight. Might be hard to eat enough at first but you get used to it. A table spoon of olive oil is like 120 calories so if you can use that on your pasta/bread or if you really need to have a shot of it or something. I've never done that and I imagine it tastes like shít so I'd go with the pasta/bread route first!

markoire

Do deadlifts, squats, bench press, pull ups and some shoulder pressing along with increasing your calories. Also if you must get a protein powder, its probably best to get an all in one powder. I found maximuscle cyclone to be effective but expensive. Hurricane XS from myprotein.com is way cheaper and just as good speaking from experience. I went from 83kg to 103kg with a combination of a drastic change in diet and heavy training. Just take your time at it or you'll put on bad weight instead of good weight. Strength, muscle and weight gains will definitely happen!!

johnners2981

markoire wrote: »

Do deadlifts, squats, bench press, pull ups and some shoulder pressing along with increasing your calories. Also if you must get a protein powder, its probably best to get an all in one powder. I found maximuscle cyclone to be effective but expensive. Hurricane XS from myprotein.com is way cheaper and just as good speaking from experience. I went from 83kg to 103kg with a combination of a drastic change in diet and heavy training. Just take your time at it or you'll put on bad weight instead of good weight. Strength, muscle and weight gains will definitely happen!!

20kg, well done. how long did that take you? I suppose 4-7kg is about what I'm looking to gain otherwise I'll need to get a new wardrobe full of clothes

Thanks for all the responses and advice, going to look about gym membership and protein (for the start anyway) and hopefully be ready to go in a week.

markoire

johnners2981 wrote: »

20kg, well done. how long did that take you? I suppose 4-7kg is about what I'm looking to gain otherwise I'll need to get a new wardrobe full of clothes

Thanks for all the responses and advice, going to look about gym membership and protein (for the start anyway) and hopefully be ready to go in a week.

Took me the best part of 2 years to do that!! Am now a pretty lean 97kg as I found being over 100kg affected my pace!! The protein really wont make much of a difference to your weight although it should aid your recovery. For a cheap night time alternative to whey protein, try cottage cheese. Its Casein protein which is slowly absorbed and helps you recover. Great before bed!!