Help me with my weight goal!

bsurb

What's up everybody? Brandon here. I started at 146ish beginning of June I'm now 151 since Iv been working out, taking creatine and trying to eat eat eat.

Right now my goal is 3,500 calories per day but I try to even go beyond that. But it's hard.

I want to know if the progress so far is good, what can I do to reach 170 and start getting ripped and maintaining the weight. I have a very fast metabolism but haven't been active for this purpose.

Also as far as working out I kind of do my own thing when I going to the gym. Monday I will hit chest and some triceps for just over an hour and I'm always sore so I know I'm working hard enough. On other days I will do biceps alone so on and so forth how do I get my size bigger? For how do I know these workouts are working? I see articles everywhere on fitness routines and work out plans but as long as you were lifting heavy and going until failure it should be working right?

I've had small skinny arms my whole life and my goal is to have decent sized arms and look ripped.

usmcmp

I think you should look into following a progressive lifting routine that is already built by a professional. You'll get more out of the workouts than you will doing random things you want to do. The reason programs work is that they often start with compound lifts as the foundation of the work and they consider overall muscle load as well as volume. Being sore isn't really an indication that you're doing a good job, you can make progress and never be sore.

Doing random exercises for an hour may also build imbalances. You'll work things you like rather than doing the things you need. You want decent sized arms you need more than an hour of chest and triceps. You need back and shoulders to build decent sized arms. To get a solid back you're going to also need some legs because posterior chain includes back, and a solid back supports building chest and shoulders, which support building arms.

bsurb

Who do you recommend as far as workout routines

usmcmp

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Rusty740

usmcmp wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Yeah, this^^ is what you need. A good program with progressive overload will be your ticket to good muscle growth.

I saw the word "ripped" in your post so that brings me to cutting.

When you do get up in weight to where you want to be. Getting ripped means to take the fat off of that muscle. While you gain weight on a bulk you are gaining about 50% muscle and 50% fat, give or take. So you'll need to get on a calorie deficit after you are up at the weight you've decided, strip off a few lbs to show off the muscle.

Oh yeah, you don't need the creatine, it's pretty minor in terms of the 'importance tree'. Take these 'levels of importance' as pretty rough, but you'll see supplements don't do a whole lot if you haven't got the lifting program down pat.

Calories (50%), good lifting program (30%), macros & meal timing stuff (15%), supplements (5%) (creatine, protein powders etc.)

bsurb

So at 150lbs, hardly any body fat maybe 2-4% my fitness pal has me aiming for about 3,500 calories per day.

50% carbs at 356g. Protein is 87g at 20%. And rest is fat

Just trying to figure out how much I need to consume to "bulk"

usmcmp

Protein is suggested to be at .8 to 1.0 grams per pound of lean body mass. If you really are absolutely shredded at 150 pounds like you are claiming you should be eating 120-150 grams of protein daily.

Rusty740

bsurb wrote: »

So at 150lbs, hardly any body fat maybe 2-4% my fitness pal has me aiming for about 3,500 calories per day.

50% carbs at 356g. Protein is 87g at 20%. And rest is fat

Just trying to figure out how much I need to consume to "bulk"

That's a tough one. 2-4% body fat and you'd almost die (not kidding), just FYI so don't bother thinking you're at that range, no offense. You'll be ripped around 12% with a Fat Free Mass Index of at least 20, probably 20.5 is more like the bottom end. Google it

At 150 lbs on a bulk shoot for 100-120 grams protein, 250-350 grams carbs and get about 75 or so grams fat at least. Those are a bit rough, but it's the right range. I'm 146 today and on a bulk too, so I have these in my mind.

3500 calories is going to be on the high end for 150 lbs, but if you are very active then yeah 3500 would be ok, maybe more, maybe less. For reference, I'm bulking on 2500-3000 (my TDEE is 2100) and I sit on my butt each day and play sports once per week and lift weights 3x per week and I'm going up 1 lb per week or so. The only way to check is to plan on gaining about 1 lb per week, and weight each day and average it. Much more than 1 lb per week and you might be gaining more fat than you want. 0.5 lbs per week is fine. 50% will be muscle within this range.