i don't know what I'm doing help me

annaclaireblack

hi all! I've been tracking my macros for a while now, hitting them most days. i just lowered my calorie intake, i wasn't losing any more weight. I'm at a weight I'm okay with now, but i want gainz! i want to gain muscle while keeping my fat off, any tips? I'm 5'8 and weigh 137.

AnvilHead

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300326/most-helpful-posts-goal-gaining-weight-must-reads#latest

psuLemon

AnvilHead wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300326/most-helpful-posts-goal-gaining-weight-must-reads#latest

After reading these then look into a recomp. If you bulk you will gain both muscle and fat. If you fear fat a better option will be the recomp but it can be slower.

StubbsJp

The best thing you can do is be consistent: with the gym and your diet. When at the gym, use compound lifts to engage more muscles and to "stress" the body more; when the body is stressed, it adapts. Keep your repetition range between 8 and 12. Select a weight where you almost struggle with on the last rep. Anything less is too light, anything more is too heavy for that rep range. Proper form is a must as well: the human body is built for specific ranges of motion, and your body will react to training better when you use the proper bio-mechanics. With the diet, find your baseline amount of calorie intake, and raise it. Just eat clean and keep with the macros.

SamMarriottPT

Its natural that you will gain a little bit of fat while gaining muscle, in fact its pretty much impossible to not gain one without the other! Keep your calorie surplus window very small to minimalise the amount of weight you gain. For a healthy 'lean gain' phase, I'd suggest around a 300kcal surplus to start with, and you should be targeting around 0.5lbs weight gain per week. This way, you should be mainly be gaining muscle and not be gaining that much fat!

psuLemon

StubbsJp wrote: »

The best thing you can do is be consistent: with the gym and your diet. When at the gym, use compound lifts to engage more muscles and to "stress" the body more; when the body is stressed, it adapts. Keep your repetition range between 8 and 12. Select a weight where you almost struggle with on the last rep. Anything less is too light, anything more is too heavy for that rep range. Proper form is a must as well: the human body is built for specific ranges of motion, and your body will react to training better when you use the proper bio-mechanics. With the diet, find your baseline amount of calorie intake, and raise it. Just eat clean and keep with the macros.

The rep range actually doesnt matter as much as total volume. There was a recent study, which i will try to find, but it compared 7 sets of 3 reps vs s set of 7 reps. But produced the same results except 1 RM was greater with 7x3. So the main thing is keep increasing total volume.

SideSteel

psulemon wrote: »

StubbsJp wrote: »

The best thing you can do is be consistent: with the gym and your diet. When at the gym, use compound lifts to engage more muscles and to "stress" the body more; when the body is stressed, it adapts. Keep your repetition range between 8 and 12. Select a weight where you almost struggle with on the last rep. Anything less is too light, anything more is too heavy for that rep range. Proper form is a must as well: the human body is built for specific ranges of motion, and your body will react to training better when you use the proper bio-mechanics. With the diet, find your baseline amount of calorie intake, and raise it. Just eat clean and keep with the macros.

The rep range actually doesnt matter as much as total volume. There was a recent study, which i will try to find, but it compared 7 sets of 3 reps vs s set of 7 reps. But produced the same results except 1 RM was greater with 7x3. So the main thing is keep increasing total volume.

Agreed, and fortunately we aren't restricted to one rep range.

However, for practical reasons it tends to be easier to accumulate volume in a moderate rep range compared to a lower rep range. I would say that for the goal of hypertrophy it makes sense for most of the training to stay around the 8-12 rep range, but not all of the training

DancingMoosie

What about 5x5? I usually follow a program similar to sl 5x5, but change it a little to suit my needs. As for op, follow a structured program and either do a lean bulk (200-300 cal surplus) to gain, or eat at maintenance and recomp.