Help me Gain body mass.

sebastianlieken

Okay so i'm new to this corner of boards.ie and I'm finally getting around to addressing the issue of weight gain.

I'm 25. i'm 6ft on the button. I'm pretty fit/athletic in build (I cycle and I gym about 2 times a week). However, I am pretty light - i've been 65kg steady for the last couple of years with no wandering outside of 63-66kg.

I eat pretty well; my mates think i'm a fat person stuck in a skinny guys body.

a standard day for example:


Breakfast
4 golden syrup weetabix with whole milk and a tall fresh smoothie (home made with pinaple, blueberries, fruit juice)

Lunch
Large plate of chicken curry with side of chips

dinner
Large Pasta bowl with red sauce / chicken fillet pieces / cheese + 4 slices of buttered toast

That's just an example and is quite typical.

The Gym is a recent addition to my routine (about 3 months now) as i've stopped doing my other sports (mostly cycling + swimming)

Probably important to point out that it's genetic: I take exactly after my mum, my grandad, and my great grandmother, (and probably further down that family tree). They've all been seriously athletic people and built exactly like I am.
I want to gain weight and I want to know how.

I'm thinking a tub of something to help me gain weight but all this "creatine", "whey protein" etc. confuses me.

I'm not going to spend every hour of free time in the gym. My two or three 1 hour sessions per week is all I can really manage to be honest. Those sessions are mostly spent lifting heavy-ass weights. - 4 sets of 10 on stuff.

SO, which tub of something will help me bulk up and gain body mass?

NoQuarter

All you need to do is figure out what your maintenance calories are so go here:

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html


Then sign up to http://www.myfitnesspal.com and log everything you're eating.

And if you're eating about 500 calories ABOVE what your maintenance is AND lifting heavy-ass weights, you WILL put on size. It takes patience though.

It really is that simple.

Stench Blossoms

Read the stickies.

Your diet is atrocious.

cmyk

sebastianlieken wrote: »

Okay so i'm new to this corner of boards.ie and I'm finally getting around to addressing the issue of weight gain.

Welcome...and that's a good start.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I'm 25. i'm 6ft on the button. I'm pretty fit/athletic in build (I cycle and I gym about 2 times a week). However, I am pretty light - i've been 65kg steady for the last couple of years with no wandering outside of 63-66kg.

So what you're actually saying here is that you've been eating at maintenance and are pretty active.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I eat pretty well

That's pretty subjective...you just think you do, but you can change that.

I won't quote your daily diet, but suffice to say as mentioned above take a read of the stickies and educate yourself on the sort of foods you should be building your nutrition around. Depending on portion size though, you could easily be eating under maintenance with that diet, it's not as much food as you think.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

The Gym is a recent addition to my routine (about 3 months now) as i've stopped doing my other sports (mostly cycling + swimming)

Ok, give us a bit more detail on this...what sort of work you do while your there and how many times per week etc.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

Probably important to point out that it's genetic: I take exactly after my mum, my grandad, and my great grandmother, (and probably further down that family tree). They've all been seriously athletic people and built exactly like I am.

Yep, that doesn't mean you can't make changes though.

I'm going to post these questions again in the hope that someone might actually do this small amount of work and learn something in the process, so go and try to find the answers to these...

1. Are you getting enough protein to support muscle grow and/or muscle maintenance.
2. Are you eating enough vegetables and fruits
3. Are you getting the correct amount of calories to support weight gain?

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I'm not going to spend every hour of free time in the gym. My two or three 1 hour sessions per week is all I can really manage to be honest. Those sessions are mostly spent lifting heavy-ass weights. - 4 sets of 10 on stuff.

2-3 resistance training sessions per week ought to be enough, once you're hitting them hard and depending on a few factors.

sebastianlieken wrote: »

SO, which tub of something will help me bulk up and gain body mass?

Forget tubs of anything for the moment, concentrate on getting a baseline diet sorted, couple that with some decent training and that should yield you some good results.

Stench Blossoms

+ 1 to what cmyk said.

(He's just so much more diplomatic than I can ever be )

cmyk

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

(He's just so much more diplomatic than I can ever be )

Only after coffee.

sebastianlieken

Thanks all for the comments and advice! I don't mind the blunt comments at all! i've got pretty thick skin (figuratively speaking of course :P ) so tell me what I need to hear.

I'll give the stickies a read, i'll suspend the notion of "tubs of whatever", and i'll take steps to alter my diet to include more vegetables and protein rich foods.

cmyk

sebastianlieken wrote: »

I'll give the stickies a read, i'll suspend the notion of "tubs of whatever", and i'll take steps to alter my diet to include more vegetables and protein rich foods.

Sounds good, come back with specific answers to those 3 questions though after you've read up on them...you can be a pioneer here, in that you'll be the first to make the effort to do it. ; )

NoQuarter

The only thing to watch out for is replacing your diet now with a load of veg means you'll be coming waaay down in the calories and you may end up losing mass. So you'll need to counter for that.

the groutch

sebastianlieken wrote: »

Breakfast
4 golden syrup weetabix with whole milk and a tall fresh smoothie (home made with pinaple, blueberries, fruit juice)

Lunch
Large plate of chicken curry with side of chips

dinner
Large Pasta bowl with red sauce / chicken fillet pieces / cheese + 4 slices of buttered toast

I know you're looking to bulk, but that's still far too carb heavy

between the weetabix, milk and fruit there's way too much sugar

with lunch ditch the chip, and dinner ditch the toast

ThunbergsAreGo

Looking forward to the answer to this, been trying to eat better, but it can be difficult for me, to keep the calories up over the course of a day without eating badly. Hitting about 80g of protein a day and there is only so much chicken you can eat

cmyk

naughtb4 wrote: »

Looking forward to the answer to this, been trying to eat better, but it can be difficult for me, to keep the calories up over the course of a day without eating badly. Hitting about 80g of protein a day and there is only so much chicken you can eat

It's not really that difficult. 2 chicken breasts will yield you about 55-60g, tin of tuna about 25-30g, add in another meal with maybe some eggs, along with the protein levels in all your accompanying foods you should hit your protein needs with relative ease.

Another point to consider is that your protein levels might not need to be as high when you're in caloric surplus.

Paddywiggum

naughtb4 wrote: »

Looking forward to the answer to this, been trying to eat better, but it can be difficult for me, to keep the calories up over the course of a day without eating badly. Hitting about 80g of protein a day and there is only so much chicken you can eat

and the answer IS: peanut butter!

100g in a blender with 300ml full fat milk + few berries.

700 cals + 50g of protein. If you dont like the taste of it see a doctor.