Gaining Weight and You - A LOT of Misinformation

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yoink*gasp*

Turbocharged, Bitch
Feb 11, 2007
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Hey guys;

I'm not going to claim that I know everything, or that everything being said on this forum is wrong, but there is a lot of misinformation being presented here.

Weight gain comes down to a few standard elements:
  • Calorie Intake. High quality calories and lean proteins are essential to gain lean mass (muscle, not fat).
  • Protein. PROTEIN, PROTEIN, PROTEIN. And one more time... PROTEIN. To gain muscle effectively you should be eating 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh EVERY DAY. You can find protein in almost everything... meat, fish, nuts, whey, dairy... no matter your diet you can always get protein.
  • Train. Work out, and push yourself to your limits. Try and expand them in future workouts. Never train if you are sick or sore, and never train the same muscle group two days in a row.
  • Rest. Sleep a lot and rest a lot. Give your body a chance to get its shit together :)
Eat 5-7 small meals per day as opposed to three big ones and make sure you're taking in 40g of protein MAX at a time. That's the largest your body can synethsize (based on the average person... your results will vary).

Do NOT replace breakfast with a protein shake. A protein shake is NOT a meal replacement... it's called a supplement because that's what it is! It supplements your daily intake, NOT replace it.

STOP eating all that junk and fast food. "Detox" yourself of carbonated pops and alcohol, high sugars (such as choclate bars/candy), and trans fats.

Eat lots of salad.



Whew... okay, so I'll tell you what worked for me.

I'm 20, 6'2, and 225 lbs. BFI of 14%. I'm not huge, but I'm a good size and proud of it because 2 years ago I was 6'2 and 160 lbs. Big difference in weight.

I hit the gym 4 days a week with heavy weights. I vary my routine and my excersizes to encourage growth. I have a protein shake 15 minutes before I work out, and 30 mins after.

I get lots of sleep and I enjoy lots of cardio. I don't have any pictues, but I can tell you that it can definately happen. It takes sweat, determination, and persistence. Trust me, I know that you won't see results the next day... but you will in a month, maybe two, maybe three... but they will come. There are no downsides to living a healthier lifestyle.

I try to equalize my calorie intake throughout the week. I try to eat roughly 250 calories more per day then what I burn... search for your daily calorie intake calculator and you should find one on bodybuilder.com or something.

Look up stuff from John Berardi. He wants to sell you a book, but he offers a lot of good, free information.

And, most importantly, take all of this to heart. Fitness is a lifestyle, not a hobby. It will take blood, guts, and tears to get your results but you will get them.
 


thanks, good stuff!

P.S.
lol @ having 4 weight gaining threads on one page while most americans struggle to lose weight.
 
True that eh? But at the same time most of those principles can be applied to weight loss..

Eat healthy, train, and eat healthy some more :)

All you really need...
 
How about a losing weight guide?

I'm like 6", 220, trying to turn some fat into muscle, I go to the gym everyday, not taking any proten or shit yet, haven't seen the need to.

Only thing I do consistently is bench, I maxed 275 yesterday.

I don't really clean/squat on a consistent basis.
 
ltn1dr said:
How about a losing weight guide?

I'm like 6", 220, trying to turn some fat into muscle, I go to the gym everyday, not taking any proten or shit yet, haven't seen the need to.

Only thing I do consistently is bench, I maxed 275 yesterday.

I don't really clean/squat on a consistent basis.
Click to expand...

You're doing the shitty fat guy workout, eh?

been there, done that.

EAT HEALTHY!

Get a REAL workout plan including stamina training / fat burn, stick to it.

Do not get suckered into the benchpress/bizeps only workout also known as "disco workout" or "friday night special".

emp out
 
ltn1dr said:
How about a losing weight guide?

I'm like 6", 220, trying to turn some fat into muscle, I go to the gym everyday, not taking any proten or shit yet, haven't seen the need to.

Only thing I do consistently is bench, I maxed 275 yesterday.

I don't really clean/squat on a consistent basis.
Click to expand...

You can't "turn" fat into muscle... fat must be burned. You can burn fat and develop muscle, but never just convert fat to muscle. As well, fat needs to be burned across the body... in other words, you can't just get rid of that gut you've got... you have to lower your over BFI.

Work your entire body- do a circuit when you go to the gym. Make sure you're doing at leat 30 minutes a day of decent cardio, and eat well and eat properly.
 
ltn1dr said:
How about a losing weight guide?

I'm like 6", 220, trying to turn some fat into muscle, I go to the gym everyday, not taking any proten or shit yet, haven't seen the need to.

Only thing I do consistently is bench, I maxed 275 yesterday.

I don't really clean/squat on a consistent basis.
Click to expand...

You MUST squat ~ work all the muscle groups. You won't get anywhere by just benching. IN fact I can't remember the last time I flat barbell benched ~ incline & falt DB's & dips work awesome.

And WORK those damn legs ~ they are the biggest muscle in your body and if you bench that much you SHOULD be squating around 350lbs+

As for the FAT ~ CARDIO ~ Lots of it. Benching won't do it for you.

EDIT: Add some attachments ~ a 2xweek training (currently) ~ Doggcrap ~ & How to SQUAT for huge arms.
 

Attachments

Haha, weight gain is the new weight loss. I smell a new wave of self-help blogs coming :)
 
John Berardi's stuff is fantastic. I just started in on it but already I feel way better than I used too.
 
NYDAz said:
To lose weight : eat a little and drink a loooooooooot of water or liquids ;)
Click to expand...

No. You need to figure out your daily maintenance calorie intake. That's the amount you need to intake to do your day to day activities without gaining weight or loosing weight.

Then you need to adjust it in small incriments ie: drop it by 200 calories per week until you are reaching optimal weight loss of 2-3lbs per week.

That is also including CARDIO.

There is no need for someone to starve themselves because it's unhealthy and then they will feel like crap.
 
Xrproto said:
No. You need to figure out your daily maintenance calorie intake. That's the amount you need to intake to do your day to day activities without gaining weight or loosing weight.

Then you need to adjust it in small incriments ie: drop it by 200 calories per week until you are reaching optimal weight loss of 2-3lbs per week.

That is also including CARDIO.

There is no need for someone to starve themselves because it's unhealthy and then they will feel like crap.
Click to expand...

Actually, not only is it unhealthy to starve yourself, it is also counter-productive.

If you starve yourself, your body will go into "starvation" mode and keep ALL THE FAT it possibly can to help you survive this "bad" period.
Also, as soon as it gets food again, it will store everything it can from the food.

This is a mechanism that kept our ancestors alive during tough times, but also keeps todays fat people fat.

The best advice is to reduce caloric intake into just under the maintenance level, as suggested, while keeping up with exercise. You should also be doing OK if you just skip the fast food and eat healthy.

Get 3 regular meals a day. Train your body to expect and receive those three meals at set times. This will fight off hunger attacks and fast food binges and also help digestion and sleep.

Eat slowly. Take your time. Your body will now when it is satisfied and release a hormone to let you know. Sadly, that takes up to half an hour after food intake begins. The "full" feeling we know after gorging on a big, fast meal is actually the full stomach pressing against the inside of the belly. Not recommended. Slow down.

Sleep enough. During sleep, the appetite-reducing hormone (leptin? Gotta look it up) is produced and sent into the body. If you do not get enough sleep, you'll be hungry more during the day.

::emp::
 
Actually you should be eating 5-6 (reasonably sized) meals a day. This way, your metabolism learns to process food far more effectively and you're never really hungry.

When you eat 1-2 big meals a day and starve yourself for the rest of the day, your body pretty much does what 'emp' just mentioned. Starvation mode. Your body will rape the food for all its worth and store as much fat as it can because it thinks it may be a long while until the next meal comes along.
 
The 5-6 meals a day is disputed.

Some say it's the way to go, others condone it.

::emp::
 
I'm still slightly overweight for my frame (6'4"). I used to be 254 lbs. I've dropped 30 pounds so far and I'm still losing weight. Not sure where I'm going to stop at. Here's my routine and how I did it.

I eat slow carbs. Items that wont create a spike in my insulin response. If you eat food that does spike your insulin then it signals your body to start storing food as fat. A really good site to learn about this is http://www.glycemicindex.com. Get the book New Glucose Revolution. This book teaches you what to eat so that your insulin doesn't spike. So I wouldn't consider this a diet because it doesn't limit what you can or can not eat. Consider food like chemistry. Certain foods digest faster than others. Other foods digest slower. And some can level out and regulate digestion (like vinegar).

I eat six meals a day. Sometimes seven. Three main meals and three snacks.

As for working out. I'm considered a hard gainer. I don't gain muscle mass easily at all. So I work out three times a week, one group of muscle each day to failure and let them rest for no less than four days. The days in between when I'm not weight lifting I do cardio to burn the fat.

Just my two cents.
 
emp said:
The best advice is to reduce caloric intake into just under the maintenance level, as suggested, while keeping up with exercise. You should also be doing OK if you just skip the fast food and eat healthy.

Eat slowly. Take your time. Your body will now when it is satisfied and release a hormone to let you know. Sadly, that takes up to half an hour after food intake begins. The "full" feeling we know after gorging on a big, fast meal is actually the full stomach pressing against the inside of the belly. Not recommended. Slow down.
::emp::
Click to expand...

Good advice. My wife is the slowest eater I know, which means I have become about the second slowest eater I know. When you eat slow, it's amazing how fast other people eat. When we eat with her sister and bro-in-law, we hardly get 1/2 way done and they are already done and looking for seconds. A lot of that comes from the fast paced (hectic) life style people lead. Hurry hurry, run here run there. How do you taste your food when you eat that fast? Learn to cook, savor and enjoy your food.

Cutting out soda will help you lose weight. I stopped drinking it and lost 10 pounds, and I wasn't overweight to begin with. Soda is nasty shit. I average about 1 can every 2 weeks. Don't really miss it.
 
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