Diet recommended for gaining weight

yeah, stop worrying about leanness. like, right about now. hit the weights and eat like a horse for a few months and see what happens

 

okey the weights, how much would you recommend?

 

cause my mom is a bit dodgy about me carrying weights. I only have two 1.5 kgs dumbbells and 1.25 ankle weights

 

oh dear... where do i start?

first build a good strength base. by this i mean you should be able to pick up 100kg from the floor before you even THINK about doing anything else. shouldn't take much more than a year, and by itself that will put some mass on you. you are going to need a gym and a barbell. whatever concerns your mother has are unfounded; weight training is extremely safe as long as you don't do anything dumb (up to and including: doing more than you are ready to do, in any sense; starting with more than you can handle; lifting with bad technique). the lifts that are the most useful you can learn from a variety of sources. the basics are to press (either overhead or on a bench), squat, deadlift and row. any questions you have about that, we're here to answer them, and you can always take a peek at the training logs section and see what sort of stuff we do (and ask questions there). unless you have any physical issues that interfere with performance of a lift, there's not much to them rather than keeping your back straight and moving the bar in a roughly straight line.

for learning the lifts, mark rippetoe's material is good for beginners, just don't hang on to his every word. the strength camp folks (elliott hulse et al) are also putting out some nice lifting tutorials, if memory serves, and there are a few others that have good stuff out there (diesel crew are well respected, if memory serves). just remember that as a beginner, your job is to go to the gym, lift the weights with a straight back, starting light and gradually adding more weight, and worry about the details later, or you'll just keep fiddling with stuff and not make any progress. unless you have an actual problem with the lift (either pain or an inability to do it), just go by feel.

after you've built a strength base (at a minimum, both squat and deadlift at or above 60kg, preferably nearer 100), then you can start seeing about fiddling with stuff, adding different exercises, etc, but only after you've spent a few months with the basics.

 

as far as actually performing the lifts goes:

one, you'll need a rack. a rack is a place where the barbell can be hung at a height that lets you put it on your shoulders from the get-go, which will let you press and squat comfortably, eventually with heavy weights that would be a pain in the ass to get up from the floor.

two, the lifts:

-overhead press: you unrack the bar by grabbing it with a roughly shoulder-width grip (it varies, so find what's comfortable), stepping forwards and putting your shoulders under the bar, then standing up and stepping back. then you tighten your abs and glutes, lean back at the shoulders a little bit, and press the bar straight up as high as it'll go (you'll know this happens because you'll be leaning forwards at the end of the lift), then reverse the motion. that's one rep. see: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI8HF6UBduA"]Standing Military Press - YouTube[/ame] (note that he holds the bar rather than resting it on his shoulders. this is unimportant, as it depends on arm proportions and grip width. don't worry about it until the weight gets heavy, and by then you'll have enough experience to go by feel)

-squat: you unrack the bar by grabbing it with a width that you find comfortable (some grip narrow, others super wide, others in-between), stepping forwards under the bar and resting it on top of your shoulders, behind your neck, with your shoulderblades pressed together (this makes the trapezius, the muscles that cover most of the upper back, pop out so you can rest the bar on them), then standing up and stepping back. then you squat down as low as you can go with a straight back (usually the benchmark for a full squat is hip crease below top of knee, or "below parallel"), without raising your heels, and stand back up. that's one rep: see: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-T6nXPBxCU"]Squat - YouTube[/ame] and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6u_rtRkiig"]Olympic Back Squat - YouTube[/ame]

-bench press: plenty of ways to do this one, but to make it simple, you lie down on a flat (horizontal) or incline (diagonal) bench, grab the bar with a grip width of your choosing, unrack it and hold it above you, with your shoulder blades pressed together and your arms vertical, then lower it to your lower chest and press it back up. that's one rep. you may or may not press your feet into the ground or arch your back to get more strength into it, but until you're pushing some serious weight it's not that important (and plenty of strong guys don't do it). see: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1e4Jp34iPQ"]Bench Press - YouTube[/ame] (note: don't use a thumbless grip until you get really strong hands and are VERY comfortable with bench-pressing technique. until then, wrap the thumb around, else you risk dropping the bar on yourself)

-bent-over row: you bend at the hips (keep the back straight), grab the bar with a wide-ish grip, pull it to your lower chest or abdomen, then lower it. you can do this while holding the bar in the air (a "normal" bent over row), or from and back to the floor (what's called a "pendlay row" after a guy called glenn pendlay who made it popular). see: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xglwz5hwRYs"]Bent-Over Barbell Row - YouTube[/ame], [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz1ep9Oaq3s"]Pendlay Row - YouTube[/ame], and [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlRrIsoDpKg"]Pendlayrow.wmv - YouTube[/ame]

-deadlift: you bend at the hips while pushing them back and grab the bar just like for a row but with a narrower grip, you straighten your back by pulling your shoulders up a little bit (chest out), take a deep breath, and stand up without bending your arms (try to pull the bar towards your body by moving your arms back a bit). then, reverse the motion (butt back, bend at the hips, bend knees when the bar passes them, keep lowering until the bar touches the floor). that's one rep. see: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rKvoLu5Isk"]Deadlift - YouTube[/ame]

at first you'll be able to do all lifts in the same session, as the weights will be light and the stress on your body will be minimal. eventually you might want to break it apart so that you do two or three different sessions a week. experiment a bit and see in which order they feel best (some lifts will interfere with others because they'll tire similar muscle groups, so you'll have to choose which to do first and which to do next, etc).

routines are structured in terms of sets and reps. one set of five reps, means you do five reps with minimal or no rest in between, then you rest a bit (usually 1-3 minutes, depending on how hard the set was), and then do the following set, and so on and so forth. usually, although this is a generalization, sets of no more than 5 reps are preferred for building strength (not because the number itself is magical, but because once you're pushing heavy weights, the weights that are best for strength building are heavy enough that you can't do many more reps than that in a row (and you play it safe and do fewer, compensating with more sets).

different people thrive on different set/rep protocols on different lifts. i personally prefer to press in sets of five, squat in sets of one to five (although i occasionally do sets of ten or twenty), deadlift in sets of one to five (and rarely more than that, because high-rep deadlifts cause lower back soreness, which is uncomfortable), and row for high reps (10+ unless i'm going heavy, then i do as many sets of 5 as i can). bench i don't do, but it tends to benefit from high volume (total reps).

so a sample routine could be, for the first three months:

overhead press or bench press: warm-up with lighter weights, then 3-5 sets of 5 at a top weight.
squat or deadlift: warm-up with lighter weights, then 3 sets of 5 (3x5) at a top weight
bent-over row or pendlay row: warm-up with lighter weights, then 3 sets of 5-10 reps.

all the while increasing the top weight you use every week by a very small increment (something like 2.5kg/~5lbs), IF you did the maximum reps for the lift you wanna make heavier (5x5 on press, 3x5 on squat/dead, 3x10 on rows)

if you do that, or something like that (plenty of beginner routines out there, like stronglifts 5x5, starting strength, etc, already come pre-packaged so you can just read up for a while and start them right off the bat until you're comfortable enough to tweak stuff or look for something more suited to your needs and preferences), frequently and consistently, you'll get results very quickly. just remember: show up, lift the weights, and always keep your back straight while you do so. then go home, eat and sleep .

 

Here's an old-school bodybuilding formula to gain weight:

Take your current bodyweight (in pounds) and times it by 20.

EG If you weigh 150 lbs x that by 20 = 3000 calories.

You'll need to consume at least 3000 calories per day to put on any weight.

So today consume 3001 calories.

About 40% carbs (quality not sugary crud), 40% protein, 20% fat.

Raise the bar each time you put on a pound.

Brown rice for the win -

Good Luck

 

That^

Remember the old dudes at my first gym telling me that, legends.

 

Cheers steve :Angel:

Just to add a little to this formula.

The reason why you want to eat more carbs (if you want to gain a bit of mass) is because excess carbs allow you to add body weight.

The problem a lot of skinny dudes encounter is they eat too high ratio of protein and fat to carbs. Usually they're told to either do 33/33/33 or 50% Protein, 30 Carbs, 20 Fat.

The thinking behind this is they'll put on weight that way.

It would at first make sense - Because they're thinking in terms of total calories in - total calories out.

BUT! If you eat too much protein and fat in comparison to your carb intake you'll lose weight not gain it (I know a lot of folk here get this already - just clarifying). This is the way one of the general ways bodybuilders cut weight (lean down).

Why though? Because your body thrives on fat - Its preferred fuel. When you consume larger amounts of protein and fat your body naturally gets rid of body fat because it thinks there's an 'excess' (feast).

When you consume higher amounts carbs your body thinks 'famine' and starts to store more weight thinking it's in lean times. Not good if you're a couch potato, but useful if you're doing resistance work and want to get meatier.

The trick is to get the ratio right so you can put on mass without becoming a bloater (unless you want to be a bloater, hey bloaters got feelings too...).

That's why the majority of your carb intake should be things that possess 'quality' - I.E Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes etc and not cheesy puffs and twixs.

Also, depending on your wants you can decide whether your weight session will burn mostly fat or carbs.

For skinny dudes and dudesses who want to stack on some mass without getting too fat - Choose slow-burning carbs as part of your pre-gym meal. This'll mean you burn mostly fat as fuel in the gym and the carbs will contribute to your overall muscle gain.

If, on the other hand you actually want to burn carbs first at the gym (because you don't want to lose anymore body fat) - Then choose fast-release carbs - And your body will use them as fuel first before any fat reserves,

Try it for yourself.

Good Luck

 

"Why though? Because your body thrives on fat - Its preferred fuel. When you consume larger amounts of protein and fat your body naturally gets rid of body fat because it thinks there's an 'excess' (feast).

When you consume higher amounts carbs your body thinks 'famine' and starts to store more weight thinking it's in lean times. Not good if you're a couch potato, but useful if you're doing resistance work and want to get meatier."

not true, but it doesn't invalidate what it's trying to explain (it's just the explanation that is wrong). carbs are the preferred fuel for the body, because they degrade quickly (which lets you quickly increase your levels of glucose, which is the primary catalyst of ATP generation and the primary fuel for the brain). fats enable you to create more ATP but degrade REALLY slowly, thus are unsuitable as short term fuel. therefore if you take in more energy than you spend, if you eat enough carbs, the body has no need to use fatty acids for energy, and the residues from digestion go to biosynthesis, which includes the fatty acids that fill adipose tissue cells (thus making your subcutaneous fat cells larger). eat fewer carbs, and you'll use more dietary fatty acids for energy. eat even fewer carbs and/or exercise in such a way that you use more energy than you take in, and then the body needs to pull energy from its own tissue (which, unless you don't eat protein and don't move much, basically means the fatty acids inside adipose cells) as it shunts glucose straight to the brain. eat near-zero carbs and your liver will start intervening in fatty acid degradation and using the residues to create ketone bodies, which the brain can use, but still depend on fat stores and intake (hence why keto diets are high in fats).

 

Isn't that what I said? I do get less points though. Because I failed to get the words ATP and biosynthesis into my paragraphs. Damn Iphones!

Anyway I'm off to get some biosynthesis in...Cheers

 

I'd picked up on a couple points,but the overall message is solid gold so I left it fishy...

The main thing if you are underweight and need to bulk is STOP MICROMANAGING eat lots of decent stuff, we can make it all perfect later when you have enough meat in you bones for it to matter half a damn.

 

It's a thread for bulking, but since both sides of the coin are being discussed, I wanted to ask how anaerobic and aerobic workouts add up to losing weight.

I've seen people recommending anaerobic workouts as a mean to lose weight like the HIIT training we do in boxing or tabata training, but at the same time I have seen others recommending slow running below unaerobic threshold, to lose fat..

 

@sokklab: it was the opposite of what you said

@madao: oversimplifying a lot: muscle use consumes ATP directly. you have some reserve ATP in the form of phosphocreatine*, which is used first, and replenished quickly via glycolisis (breaking down glucose). then you have glycogen, which is the body's glucose stockpile (and of which muscles have a specific stockpile that's unique to them and isn't used by the rest of the body), and only after glycogen is gone do you start to use up fat stores. the more you exercise in a row without resting, the more ATP you consume and the more likely it is you'll start releasing and using up glycogen. higher intensity exercise will use up more energy per rep, but will be less sustainable in the long term, and vice versa for lower intensity exercise. the usually quoted figure i've seen is about an hour of low/mid intensity exercise to start burning up fat (usually refers to cardio). the popularity of cardio for this probably stems from a combination of the general public's near-pathological aversion to strength training, and increased energy consumption by the heart and lungs when they have to work harder, probably bypassing the issue of having to go through muscular glycogen first. i'd personally suggest both, doing like half an hour of heavy strength training, then 30 to 60min of cardio. i'd DO both, but i hate cardio, so i make do with lifting

then there's the hormonal angle. if you look at my spoilered post in the other page, you'll see that anabolic processes are stimulated by insulin. this includes building glycogen and filling up adipose tissue, with insulin being more present after eating. glucagon, which predominates during the time between feedings, does the opposite, stimulating degradative metabolic pathways (so that what's degraded can be used for energy since dietary input is low). eat smaller meals and/or do intermittent fasting (eating only during a specific time window, usually 6-8 hours, and fasting during the rest of the day, as well as possibly training fasted and breaking the fast immediately after training), and you reduce the time you spend with high insulin, reducing the formation of new glycogen, thus letting it be depleted faster and gradually making the whole process easier.

*the TP in ATP means triphosphate. muscle contraction uses the energy released by breaking off one phosphate, turning ATP into ADP (DP = diphosphate). phosphocreatine basically has spare phosphates that transfer to the resulting ADP to turn it back into ATP.

tl;dr: you don't use fat until you run out of glycogen, but muscles have their own glycogen stores. usually people say one hour of moderate exercise to start burning fat, but that'll depend on too many factors to be exact, and usually refers specifically to cardio, so i'd suggest about 1.5h, starting with strength and filling the rest with cardio.

 

Playing devils advocate but the degree of this is ethnicity dependent

 

again ethnicity dependent.
in keeping fat off, it's much better to be caucasian
muscle mass wise - it sucks to be south asian. also a much lower V02max (possibly because of more efficient mitochondria).

but if you arent caucasian (or share some caucasian genetics) then you're kind of screwed in keeping lean (although there is some variation)

but those are minor things.

i agree. eat lots of meat and protein sources. lots of veggies and save the carbs for after training. and fruit is awesome. cos its tasty.

 

ethnicity shmethnicity. you're focusing on it like it can't be done. it's just harder. it's also hard to put your own weight overhead or pull twice it from the from the ground, yet both are eminently possible for anyone who isn't crippled. if you're not caucasian, go get swole, jacked and tan, breed to improve the race and show us pasty white buggers how it's down a couple generations down the line. hell, if you look at viking museums, many of the corpses they have aren't much bigger than i am, and today the nordic peoples are generally huge. similarly, south american aborigines back in the day were reputed to be similar in size and constitution to the europeans, if not bigger, back when they subsisted on warfare, human sacrifice and the occasional cannibal snack, and now, post-getting the crap conquered out of them, people with aboriginal blood are almost all short and squat, many again being of a similar size to me.

papa darwin would frown on you, zaad

 

I'm Caucasian, and this is bollocks. :cry:

 

The obesity epidemic in 'merkuh did a poll on the caucasian statement, and has concluded that it was a lie.


@Fish - Where do you get the info saying "you don't burn fat until you burn up your glycogen?"

The process isn't that simple, especially when you're simultaneously using multiple energy systems using different fuel sources simultaneously (fat, glycogen already available, and oxygen). You burn more fat for calories doing lower intensity exercise in the ratio of "what was used for the energy" but when you do higher intensity activity for shorter duration you actually burn more fat because you burn a lot more calories even though the ratio is lower in the fat use department when compared to low intensity exercise.

With that said, the most effective way to burn fat is higher intensity exercise in both efficiency in speed to reach a goal and the time consumed to reach that goal. Lower intensity works and dives into the fat stores more for energy, but you just don't burn as many calories so you have to do a much longer duration of exercise in order to reach the same fat loss goals.

 

Did you just race card fish? Touché,

Jokes a side, I do think we are micromanaging and potentially going to baffle the OP and put him/her off the endeavour of becoming bigger stronger and more awesome. Get protein, loose fizzy pop and similar junk and worry about the rest when you weigh more than a Labrador.

Also:

 

Because I can't do multi image