Gaining weight/muscle

SpinsterSpinster Regular
edited November 2011 in Life
the "Losing Weight: No Bullshit, no fads. How?" thread has inspired me to ask, how to put on weight?

Im "6,4 and weigh between 65 and 70 kgs.

I learnt at school about my body type (ectomorph) and short and intese work outs is how to build muscle mass. so the question Im asking is what foods should I eat? how much and how often? and what works you would suggest?

oh and my metabalism is super duper fast. I'v eat Mcdonalds everyday for six months and had nothing to show for it but bad acne!:angry:

Comments

  • edited November 2011
    I'd like to know about this as well. Ever since I've been living by myself, I've become even weedier and need to bulk up again. My metabolism is also fast as hell, and I've never been fat in my life.
  • PsychlonicPsychlonic Regular
    edited November 2011
    I'm an ectomorph myself and I used to think it was a curse because I was skinny all through high school and looked somewhat frail even though I did tons of manual labor outside of school and was one of the stronger guys (not THE strongest though). Around the end of 2007 I decided to really push myself because I wanted to see what I could do with my fitness potential and I think being an ectomorph is a blessing now. The ability to run nutrients through your body quickly and efficiently is really great for not just building mass, but doing so while simultaneously focusing on cardio and speed. I personally didn't want to be a big slow guy that tired fast, that would have ruined a lot of things. Night ops included. Since then I've gone from 180 pounds (82kg) to as heavy as 249 (113kg). That's at 6'3", myself. It's doable.

    From what I've learned since then, there is a LOT to take into consideration but once you settle on a plan it's easy to follow through. At the most basic level, you need tons of quality proteins and calories. You don't need to do as I do, but I drink raw eggs daily for protein. I've done so since the beginning of 2008 - no salmonella, no bad cholesterol, no fat gain. It's a viable option. Otherwise, you're probably going to be looking at protein mixes. On top of this, lean meats are awesome. Chicken, turkey, elk, venison, bison, fish*. Beef will build muscle too but I try to stay away from it when possible for cholesterol reasons - that's up to you. Interestingly, shrimp is like raw eggs. Something that should be high in cholesterol yet when you consume it all of that cholesterol gets burned off. To say science has a bad grasp on cholesterol is an understatement, but there are a few established cases like this where clearly dietary cholesterol intake does not equate to blood cholesterol levels. I would say keep soy to a minimum. All of the estrogen scandals aside, it's been shown to bind to other nutrients and make them useless, practically removing them from your diet. That's not what you want, you want to be a human vacuum cleaner.

    *- Be careful about overdoing tuna and certain other fish. For most of us this isn't a concern, but you don't want them to be your primary protein intake because of the mercury content. If you start downing cans and cans of the stuff daily, it's going to be a problem. For what it's worth if I just made you paranoid, albacore is the worst of the tunas. Go with chunk light instead.

    The second big thing is recarbing after your workout. My bread and butter is chocolate milk and bananas, sometimes even blended together as a shake. Potassium, fructose, glucose, and protein to help your muscles recover and not feel like shit the next day. You will probably be sore and tired at first regardless, but as time goes on you'll find yourself noticing when you don't recarb after a workout. You can also blend up mixed berries and milk with some yogurt, maybe add a banana. Variety is the spice of life, and you're going to need to start eating a lot more so you're going to need to find new things you enjoy before things start getting boring. It might sound odd but you WILL get bored of certain foods.

    Another big thing is to get some protein intake before going to bed. You don't want to let your body lose weight during this time. Cottage cheese is the stereotypical item for this, but it can be anything.

    Juice is your new best friend. Drink tons of juice and water throughout the day, don't let yourself get thirsty. Once you start workout out hard, your metabolism is going to go apeshit and you're going to burn right through juice while using its nutrients. Apple juice, grape juice, orange juice, vegetable juice, blueberry/pomegranate juice, lemonade. Milks too, but not as often - regular milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk.

    Start reading labels. Look for bullshit. A lot of yogurts have more sugar than ice cream. Fruits are often sugar water with flavoring. Greek strained yogurt is the way to go as is 100% fruit juice. Some will have "100% juice" on the bottle but then it'll have an asterisk with some shit like "from concentrate". You don't want that.

    Snack on veggies and fruit as much as you want. You'll want bananas around obviously, it never hurts to eat more of those. Apples and oranges if you like them, grapes, baby carrots, celery, broccoli, berries, whatever you find that you like. Nuts are great for snacking too, try to avoid oversalted stuff if you can. Granola bars are good. Jerky in moderation is a good thing too.


    As far as working out goes, lifting heavier weights in lower reps will build bulk the fastest. Worth noting though is that doing this has the least impact on your cardio and speed. That's how you get to be the big slow guy. Two ways to go about this are to either build up slower doing more explosive exercises and throwing in cardio, or switching up between bulking and cardio off and on. Say, 3 months bulking then spending some time "catching up" on everything else.

    If you're just getting serious though, I would keep weight down for now. You need to build up your body to handle bulking. If you jump right into the deep end, you're risking messing up ligaments and tendons or pulling muscles. You don't want to get injured, it can set you back and take away months of hard work.

    Finally, my take on supplements - You don't need them. If you're going to take them do so in moderation, get educated, and don't go overboard. Creatine is supposed to help enough for you to notice, but there are also studies that suggest it's harmful to your kidneys over long periods of use. As far as I know, this hasn't been confirmed or documented in depth. All I'm saying is, tread with caution and have some foresight for your long term health. Massive caffeine supplements will give you energy but it's not going to do your heart any favors. I would say just use these things to get out of a slump. I have my occasional morning where I just don't want to do shit so I drink a bunch of coffee to wake up and get a boost. If I could be bothered, I'd probably use creatine just as sparingly - maybe a week straight every other month.

    Anyways, hope this can be of some use.
  • ThirdRockFromTheSunThirdRockFromTheSun <b style="color:blue;">Third<em style="color:pink;">Cock</em>FromThe<em style="color:brown;">Bum</em
    edited November 2011
    Just a quick headsup. Before you start thinking about become a huge tank-like mother fucker, you have to remember that genetics fit into the whole equation too. The chances of me becoming a body builder who had a slim father and a short mother is very small indeed.

    Don't be disappointed if you don't get the results you want, any muscle is better then no muscle at all, and at least you'll feel better about yourself for knowing you worked hard at it.
  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited November 2011
    Psychloni thanks for this amazing advice, OP, honestly being slim is a blessing. I am on the losing side and I am trying to go back to being slim, it seems sitting infront of the computer isn't the best thing to do :(
  • RemadERemadE Global Moderator
    edited November 2011
    I've managed to put on half a stone (7lbs) in 3 years. Believe me, I know how hard it can be to put weight on.
    Less physical exertion but some workout as muscle weighs more than fat, more protein, unsaturated fats and a good amount of minerals and vitamins to keep your body somewhat balanced with the upped fat and protein intake.

    Worked for me, and I started the change about 2 months ago.
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