I am here to GAIN weight

TrainerRobin

It's awesome that you have a dietician working out a meal plan for you. That'll keep you on track and I suspect will gear you toward "real" food over too many supplements, but those can be helpful used in a reasonable amount.

One other thing to keep in mind as you're upping your calories: be sure to track not just your weight but your body composition as well.

With all of my clients, I keep a four column register of their weight when I check them in every week. The first is their body weight, the second is their body fat percentage, the third is their weight in fat and the fourth is their lean body weight.

If you don't have someone that can check that for you, you can actually go online and for about $30 buy a body fat monitor that is handheld and for the most part, pretty accurate (very accurate, for the money). And even if it's not perfect, you'll be comparing apples to apples by using the same machine. The point here is that as you gain, you want to stay at a lean body fat percentage and be adding lean body mass to your frame (not fat). Here's a link to the product: http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HBF-306C-Loss-Monitor-Black/dp/B000FYZMYK

Plus, it's another fun "toy" that you'll find yourself using with friends and family too.

Have fun and keep us posted!!

trelm249

ChrisDavey is right on about the style of workouts. Go basic. I will also reinforce the point about getting adequate rest and recovery. Aside from the workout and eating, sleep is mandatory (7-8 hours). Don't shortchange it if trying to grow. I would crank up the protein to 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight and split the calories over 5 to 6 meals throughout a day. That will make it easier.

Have fun.

Egger29

Hey Justin,

Welcome to the world of Fitness Training. You've got some great tips in your post already so I won't contradict or comment on any of the previous.

As a beginner I would recommend you go pick up a copy of "New Rules of Lifting" by Lou Schuler. It's a great reference with most everything you'll need to be successful in the gym for whatever your level.

Nutritionally speaking, gaining weight is a challenge and eating enough calories is not easy (especially if you're eating Healthy).

Basically, For a pound a week gain you're looking for adding an additional 3600 calories a week or 500 / day extra into your diet.

For my own training, I have two scoops of a good quality Whey Protein mixed in 2-4 cups of milk immediately following my weight routine. (Just chug it down in the locker room before hitting the showers). That gives me about a 480 calorie boost from natural sources immediately following my workouts and the timing goes right into re-fuelling the muscles from the training stress.

Cheers!

chrisdavey

Good workout plan Justin.

Re additional isolation exercises: you can do them after your main sets on M W or F if you wish. You probably won't realise it yet but when it starts to get a bit heavier, a lot of these muscles are used in the main compound lifts ie. biceps in deadlifts and power cleans. If you have the energy to do extra stuff then go ahead. I still try to make sure I fit into that 1hr total lifting time frame though. Read something about going too long having diminishing returns. In saying that, I will usually incorporate some calf raises at the end of my session as these are very helpful with bjj. In a few weeks, you will be find out about muscles you didn't even know existed :P (I found most of this was from deadlifting)

Also good advice re the body fat measurements. I use accumeasure ones and just record the mm (don't really care what % it tells me)

st27

Welcome....eat what I can't... Pizza ,Pasta rice...ice cream...Lots of protein shakes for weight gain and lots of seeds and nuts for snacks. And do weight training. You will gain weight.good luck. hug.

jdubs1201

Welcome....eat what I can't...

Haha, I get that a lot!!

I've been doing these protein shakes a few times a day and it's taking some getting used to... especially these weight-gaining ones! Snacking is so far proving to be my biggest struggle. I need to set up alarms on my phone or something, cause hours will go by and all of a sudden it's meal time.

@Chris, I usually don't spend more than an hour lifting weights. I do about 15 mins of light cardio before I start, but then do lifting for 45-60mins. I'm usually done my 3 main exercises in 45 or fewer, so I still have some time to kill.

@Egger29, thanks for the tips man! I'll add that book to my list, along with a few other weight-lifting books I've seen and heard great things about. My buddy also told me to drink a whey protein shake right after a workout, so I've been doing that.

@trelm249, yeah, sleep is good! I've actually been sleeping a lot better since I started going to the gym and getting serious about all this. And as I said about, doing 5 to 6 meals a day has been a struggle to get used to... simply cause I forget. Working on it though!

@Robin... oooooo, toys are always fun! That one on amazon has a bunch of great reviews too. I'll add that to the list too, thanks!!

OK, one more protein shake and I'm off to bed. Thanks all... good night!
-Justin

GiGi76

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Grit_Girl

I once dated a skinny & I currently work with a skinny...they both were always complaining about not being able to gain weight. I'm a little jealous, I have to admit, but I understand the difficulty. Good luck.

chrisdavey

How's progress going mate?

jdubs1201

I'm stuck right around the 157-159 lbs mark. So I HAVE gained 7-9 lbs and have kept them on, but I think I need to up my calorie intake to keep going. I would "like" to be up to 170, but I don't think my current diet is gonna get me there. I also got one of those BMI/Body Fat monitors, so I know that weight increase hasn't been all fat, so that's cool!

The past few weeks have been garbage as far as my diet has gone. I'm still trying to get back on board with that =/ I guess like anything, all it takes is to get away from it for a little bit and then it's really hard to get back into it! BUT, I just hit up the grocery store last night, got a whole bunch of good stuff, so here we go!

Haha, I did some squats the other day that almost made me puke! I haven't lifted so heavy as to get sick yet... think I need to back off a little bit! I actually wanted to share that with you guys on here!

Thanks for asking man!!!

chrisdavey

no probs mate. Good progress. Keep it up

CrimsonScotty

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