Looking to gain muscle mass without bulking

I know it can be hard to eat that much healthy food in a day so here is what I personally suggest. Eat smaller and more frequent meals. Try starting the day with a light breakfast, like a smoothie and some eggs, so you will be hungrier throughout the day. I would recommend getting a majority of protein later on. For example you could have lots of fruit, healthy fat, and complex carbs early on and a big source of protein and veggies for dinner. For me not having carbs in the evening gets me a better sleep as well. Having nuts, seeds, and dried fruit as a late night snack could help a lot too. Hope this is useful and good luck!

Hey Arlander, sounds like we're in a similar training situation. I took about five years off of training and lost all the muscle (and fat) I had worked hard to build. What I'm doing differently this time is that I now know the importance of macros and caloric intake.

When I bulked previously I did so by eating too much fat, and consequently gained a bunch of fat along with muscle. This time I'm eating much more carbs and keeping a log so I can track weight and if the calories I'm consuming are moving me in the right direction. I now know that ~2,800 calories will keep me around 186 lbs at 6'6". I want to get to 200 lbs, so I'm going to start eating a few more hundred calories a day to see where my weight plateaus next.

I think you'll find that if you monitor your food intake, your weight and fat, it will become clear you need to up your calories when you aren't gaining weight/muscle.

Best of luck in your training, and hope to see you update this thread when you've reached your goals!

T