I need help getting started

joshemane

Hi all! My name is Josh, and I need to gain muscle mass haha. I'm about 155 pounds, 6 foot 2, and to put it bluntly....I'm built like a praying mantis. Very lanky, long legs, kind of a runner's build more than anything. Very skinny.

Obviously, I want to fix this...I think my main issue is that I don't eat enough, and I'm not aware if I've been eating the right stuff. What I would like is an exercise regimen that basically forces me to eat more...I used to do wrestling back in high school, and because of the huge amount of calories that I would output, I would eat A LOT. I gained 5 pounds the week that it ended...and once it did, I fell out of my exercise pattern.

Now, I want to build up hopefully to somewhere between 170 and 180 pounds before I go visit my family in Oregon, in February...that gives me about 6 months to put on about 25 pounds of muscle. So...what do I do?

Right now, I can tell you that my honest diet consists of waking up, eating cereal (usually frosted mini wheats), having typically a turkey/chicken sandwich for lunch, and I'm a big fan of pasta for dinner (I usually add in ground beef and such)...I have snacks in between, essentially to keep my metabolism going, and it's usually energy bars or whatever snacky food is around. So I know that my diet needs to change, but I don't know what my caloric intake should be, what kinds of foods are really the best to eat, and all of that.

For exercise, I'm joining a gym soon (I'm going to join a Disney gym, because I'm a cast member...but it'll be about 2 weeks before I can actually join)...what kinds of exercises should I be doing? I've heard things like if I would to build muscle, I should minimize cardio, but I'm not sure if I believe that. Also, any good ideas on classes or anything to join, so that I can get that wrestling kind of feel?

Thanks very much, folks!

RodaRose

This link will help:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

janupshaw

You'll get some men to weigh in on your post, but my suggestions are: tell MFP you want to gain a pound or pound and a half a week, then you know your calorie goal. Go heavy on the protein; greek yogurt is a good source. A better breakfast would be bacon & eggs. Lift heavy, skip cardio. Good luck!

cwoyto123

I started out at 6'4" 130lbs, the key is FOOD and LIFTING. Moreso food, as lifting is pointless if you're not eating right.

I need 6500 calories right now to maintain weight, so put that in perspective.

Walter__

You're pretty much going to have to force yourself to eat. A lot.

Like the brah above me said.. lifting + food.

TavistockToad

basically you need to eat all the food - cereal, a sandwich and some pasta just isnt doing it... you're not doing anythign to your metabolism by eating snacks... eat one meal or 17 per day, it doesnt matter as long as you're getting your calories in. based on your stats you'll probably need at least 3000 (my husband is more or less the same size as you).

lift heavy *kitten*... a lot... you can do cardio if you want, but it just means you have to eat more...

to be honest i doubt you can put on 25lbs of muscle... 25lb of weight half of which is muscle is doable though.

Fatandfifty3

You'll get some men to weigh in on your post, but my suggestions are: tell MFP you want to gain a pound or pound and a half a week, then you know your calorie goal. Go heavy on the protein; greek yogurt is a good source. A better breakfast would be bacon & eggs. Lift heavy, skip cardio. Good luck!

This... and use the log to keep track and learn about the nutritional loading of foods.

Gazthegreat

hi buddy,

try this, set your macros to the following:

cals - 2700 per day

carbs @ 45% should give you 1215 cals/303g
pro @ 30% should give you 810 cals/203g
fats @ 25% should give you 675 cals/75g

eliminate all caffeine and adrenaline producing products from your diet

try and get your food from whole foods not cereals etc

try and stick with these numbers and input them every day and monitor your weight to see if you need to add more cals to gain the mass you should be putting on a lb a week roughly when the weight gain stops add another 250 cals a day spread over the same macro range and it should increase again

find a decent coach who will give you a good strength training programme

hope this helps

Patttience

Basically you sound a just my like my brother in law and i think you are on a losing battle. He is now in his 50s and has always tried to put on weight to zero effect.

And like you he just can't eat enough. He does stuff with weights but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I'd say you'd have to work harder to put on weight than most of us tending to obesity would find it to lose the weight.

For exercise he has always done mostly cardio - soccer, tennis and stuff. But as i said he tried weights.
He's tried sustain and so on. He eats very healthy food. But just doesn't eat enough.

But to find out how many calories to go for, try using the calculator on this site. Just look around until you find it because i can't remember where it is either. Or find it by googling. weight loss calculators are to be found all the net most of them will work for weight gain also.

As to what to eat, if you are doing body building type exercises then you need to increase your protein a bit but don't over do it. If you want to add a bit of fat to your body, it will help to increase your fats because they are more calorie dense than carbs but they make your food taste a lot better. But excess carbs also convert to fat so its neither here nor there really.

November_Fire

Basically you sound a just my like my brother in law and i think you are on a losing battle. He is now in his 50s and has always tried to put on weight to zero effect.

And like you he just can't eat enough. He eats very healthy food.

'Healthy' foods generally means low calorie foods. He's not gonna put weight on eating vegetables. He isn't different or 'genetically' predisposed to being slim, he just does a lot of cardio and eats 'healthy'. If he really wanted to gain weight he would have done. It's not like there's a shortage of high calorie food out there. It's just that it's hard for some people to get into the weight-gaining mindset. It's the opposite of what we're taught from kindergarten - ooo apples good, burgers bad, naughty food, bad food. It's not easy to suddenly take in 3000 cals a day. Every day.

...if you are doing body building type exercises then you need to increase your protein a bit but don't over do it.

Chances are he needs more than 'a bit' if he wants to bulk up and build muscle mass. He needs around 0.8-1g of protein per pound of his bodyweight.

But excess carbs also convert to fat so its neither here nor there really.

Excess anything converts to fat.

cwoyto123

Excess anything converts to fat.

Obviously, this is not true.