Skinny all my life.

bamarush1094 wrote: »

I am 39 years old and I decided to bulk up. I am 6' 2" and started at 170 lbs. Ithe hit me when I was on vacation to see my mom and she said you are too skinny, ithe must be your job. I have always been skinny and lost wait very easily. I was taking Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and was struggling with guys close to my age and weight but couldn't hang. Had to quit over finances but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that it was time to gain more strength and weight. I have considered myself strong but getting into this app, I realized that I wasn't taking in enough calories and getting into the gym, realized that I lost a lot of strength. Nendless to say, I have gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks and increased the amount of weight lifted each day. My goal is to gain 30 lbs by the end of December.

If this is your goal, it's going to be mainly fat. Men typically max out around 2lb of muscle per month and that is if all things are good (protein, training stimuli, rest, etc..).

bamarush1094 wrote: »

That's just a goal or perhaps wishful thinking. I am on a clean diet and am in the gym 5 days a week and work a very physical job at a sawmill but I was only injesting around 1500 calories a day and was only eating until satisfied. I changed my caloric intake and maybe I might make 190 or more in two months but I will not let myself get fat. I have always been active, just simply not weight training or eating enough.

What kind of program are you following? It is a structured lifting program, like one of these or is it self designed. If it's the latter, get off it and go for a well designed program. Your goal is to provide an active stimulus, get stronger and force your body to grow.

And yea, it's definitely wishful thinking if you want muscle with a little fat.

Sounds like me all over again. When I was at the age of 36, I was sitting at 165 lbs. (I'm 6' 3"). Push to hit your goal but... if you gain 30 lbs. by end of December, you're going to just be all fat. Plus, trying to force that much food into your body all of the sudden will most likely make you feel like crap. Even if you were to, as some say, move to the dark side and take steroids, you could gain a lot of weight but it would be mostly water.

I'm now averaging 200 lbs. at age 47 and have maintained that for several years (sticking point). Here is the secret... time and consistency. It took me three years to jump from 170 lbs to being able to hold 200 lbs steady (11% body fat). My suggestion, FWIW, would be to set smaller goals. I set a first goal of 180 lbs. I started eating a little more but not overeating, and adding in some protein shakes (one first thing in morning, one after workout). I started at the gym with the Starting Strength program. Not going to lie, it isn't the funnest program (maybe just because I hate squats) but it does build a solid base. Hitting 180 was like a dream come true for a skinny guy. Then I set the next goal at 190 lbs. Once I hit the 190 lbs. I moved away from the Starting Strength and tried some other workouts because I needed a change. To get from one goal to the next I had to keep increasing my food intake, but not drastically.

The good and the bad. The good news is, once you get there you will like the way you look. The bad news is, sleeping is not as comfortable at a higher weight and you will not have the same energy level. I could run a basketball court all day at 170 lbs. but at 200 lbs., not so much.

Sorry for the long winded reply. Keep after it, just make sure you set realistic goals or you may get frustrated and give up.

Colt1835 wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

bamarush1094 wrote: »

I am 39 years old and I decided to bulk up. I am 6' 2" and started at 170 lbs. Ithe hit me when I was on vacation to see my mom and she said you are too skinny, ithe must be your job. I have always been skinny and lost wait very easily. I was taking Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and was struggling with guys close to my age and weight but couldn't hang. Had to quit over finances but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that it was time to gain more strength and weight. I have considered myself strong but getting into this app, I realized that I wasn't taking in enough calories and getting into the gym, realized that I lost a lot of strength. Nendless to say, I have gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks and increased the amount of weight lifted each day. My goal is to gain 30 lbs by the end of December.

If this is your goal, it's going to be mainly fat. Men typically max out around 2lb of muscle per month and that is if all things are good (protein, training stimuli, rest, etc..).

I'm about to start lifting soon. It seems like 2 pounds of muscle a month is the max according to most of my sources. This really worries me because I feel like it would be impossible to gain muscle without gaining fat. I know some fat gain is inevitable, but what's an optimal surplus to aim for when trying to gain muscle?

If you are worried about fat gains, you can look into a recomp but it will slow down the speed of muscle gains. And two lbs of muscle also assume about 2 lbs of fat (roughly 500 calorie surplus per day), but this also assumes that your training and nutrient are on point, you haven't gained a lot of muscle in the past from similar cycles and genetics is on your side.