How to gain weight?

missaspl
missaspl Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,

I'm 178 cm and I weigh 50 kg. (I know, I'm really skinny, but I'm natural that way and I have a fast metabolism).
I don't want to lose any weight, but I would like to gain some weight, although not in body fat, but in muscles.
I don't exercise at ALL, the last time I exercised was 3/4 years ago in high school and then not that often.
I just want to tone my muscles and look more fit, especially CHEST, BUM and LEG muscles.
Could anyone please advise how many calories I should eat per day and what kind of food (can I keep eating junk food?) and what kind of exercises would be good for my targeted body areas (chest, bum,legs)?

P.S. Also I tried 30 min exercising with Insanity Workout today - is it good for gaining muscle mass (as I wouldn't want to lose any weight)?

Thanks very much

Kind Regards,

MissAsPl

Replies

  • FullOfWin
    FullOfWin Posts: 1,414 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/686963-large-collection-of-info-for-beginners
  • julesan902
    julesan902 Posts: 79 Member
    Do you have a gym membership or access to gym equipment? If you'd like to gain weight, you would need to eat ~ 500 calories above your maintenance. So if you're 50kg (110lbs) your maintenance calories should be 14/15 x BW. For bulking, add 500 calories.

    If you'd like to gain weight (muscle, not fat) try to avoid as much junk food as you can and eat lots of meat, eggs, milk, bread, anything to hit your caloric intake (that is relatively good for you). To make sure you're gaining muscle, not fat, you need to lift weights while you're in this "bulking" phase. So that means chest exercises such as: dumbbell/barbell bench press, incline bench, chest flyes, chest press etc. Legs/bum: squats squats squats. You can add isolation machines such as: leg extensions, calf raises, leg curls, stiff-legged deadlifts. Also, try to avoid cardio if you want to gain. You'll get decent cardio from the weights you'll be lifting, and it'll help you gain weight faster.

    Hope that helps.
  • missaspl
    missaspl Posts: 3
    I'm a female and I'm not really into the weightlifting, and I was looking to do all the exercises at home without any equipment.
    Thanks for the info, really great explanation, at least I can get my head around all this...
    P.S. Can you explain a bit more about cardio?? What exactly it is and is it for weight loss?

    Thanks a million
  • missaspl
    missaspl Posts: 3
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/686963-large-collection-of-info-for-beginners

    Thanks :)
  • Lonewolf1507
    Lonewolf1507 Posts: 507 Member
    Cardio is running, walking, cycling or anything else that will get the heart rate up while you are doing it, they will work for toning the leg muscles but will assists in weight loss.

    Swimming could also help tone the upper body, but again you would need to watch what you eat so as not to lose weight.

    Andy
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    The only way to gain weight and have that weight be muscle rather than fat is to lift weights. You will not gain weight doing cardio. If you eat at a surplus and do not lift weights you will gain weight and it will be fat.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    Make sure you're avoiding white carbs
  • jayche
    jayche Posts: 1,128 Member
    Eat above your caloric maintenance + calories burned from exercise.
    Insanity isn't optimal for bulking, pick up a hypertrophy-dominant weight lifting routine.

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