A Beginner Trying to Get Bigger

Training
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[quote]Sandviper wrote:
How’s all the extra calories coming along bro? And for some reason which is obvious, when I randomly threw shrugs or farmers walks in at the end of some training days, I noticed faster gains than I did before I added them. Even on non back days, I decided to throw a couple drop sets of shrugs in with a barbell even when my back was Alil toast from the day before or so which may have been my back day. Just gotta pound thru it, take a nice zma before bed that night as well as a glass of warer(for me) or a casein shake in your situation…
You should be seeing a half pound a week gain in size being young still and assuming the volume is almost muscle failure and most importantly, the nutrion intake is meeting the needs of your goals[/quote]

Haven’t been able to go to the gym as much due to being ill for about a third of December, and then gym not being open on the 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st but I’ve gained weight and improved lifts (not measured weight at the same time of day though so can’t say exactly how much)

I got some whey protein again now so hopefully that’ll help somewhat with getting the calories in.

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Hope you get to feeling better.

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How many shakes a day were you getting in before? And at your age man, your body is in it’s natural prime to be primed… You got this. Focus on that painful like muscle contraction and rep total until you’re feeling the burn.

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Thanks man, usually drink one a day but also have protein powder with milk 1-2 times, shooting for 3,700 calls now

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That’s a good start man. Yesterday, I talked to a friend who is in his mid 40s And 5’10 ~140lbs. He has finally decided to gain some muscle and stop all the endurance running. Said he hired a personal trainer, nutritionist and went grocery shopping cause they have him going from 2500 calories a day to 6500… And a lot of complex movements. Said the first two weeks of it caused him to add 4lbs on and honestly he still looks like a twig but still ripped. Guess its the abundance of calories and shock on his body that he hasn’t been used to.

What I’m getting at, is when you get the numbers higher and don’t give up and allow the extra calories needed for fuel and recovery go to waste, your body will start responding. I know I can’t jump that high that quick and have any results in my physique worth smiling about, but each is different.

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Yeah it’s definitely helping a lot, I’ve just taken the advice of people on here and stopped sticking so rigidly to 500cals more than a TDEE calculator, and using the mirror/how much my lifts increase as a way of seeing if I’m eating enough

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But somehow despite lifts going up, my weight hasn’t. Cautious on whether is should shoot for higher than 3,700cals or just be patient with it?

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Dude, this thread is huge, how many times do people have to tell you the same thing?

It is difficult to accurately measure calories. Most of the time, people underestimate them. Even people who are carb cycling and using advanced diets refer to the scale on a weekly basis to know if they need to add or decrease calories. It’s a trial and error process. You keep getting “error” but not changing the “trial”.

Bottom line: if you aren’t gaining weight, you aren’t gaining muscle. If you gained zero pounds in the past month at 3700, which probably isn’t exactly 3700, what are you going to do? Did you see the above post about the guy eating 6500? I suggest you try eating as much as you possibly can for 2 weeks and see what happens. You aren’t going to get fat in 2 weeks. If you gain less than 3 pounds in those two weeks, keep eating that way. If you gain more, eat a little less.

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I can’t actually disagree with that at all, I guess it’s often in frustration, even when I know myself what I need to do. Will keep it to monthly updates, and I’m sure people are tired of seeing the same thread all the time.

Thanks man

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For the he’ll of it, I decoded to screw my cut today and try the huge jump in calories like a friend is paying someone to have him do basically. Holly hell, I couldn’t even reach it. I hit roughly 5k and I feel even after cardio tonight like I have a pair of cinder blocks for a torso. Given, my sources were 3 cartons of egg whites, 2 met rx7 big 1p0 cookie doe bars, a can of cashews, a lean pocket, I can of chunk chicken breast, 2 bananas and finishing my second glass of milk. Literally too weak almost from all the food, but probably didn’t even hit 5k. I honestly don’t know how the big guys can do 7-8k a day when bulking… I use the my Myfitnesspal app and usually I burn around 23-2450 a day and take in just under that during this cut I started before New year’s… OP, when in doubt eat another egg. Just throw it in there whenever, wherever.

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[quote]Sandviper wrote:
For the he’ll of it, I decoded to screw my cut today and try the huge jump in calories like a friend is paying someone to have him do basically. Holly hell, I couldn’t even reach it. I hit roughly 5k and I feel even after cardio tonight like I have a pair of cinder blocks for a torso. Given, my sources were 3 cartons of egg whites, 2 met rx7 big 1p0 cookie doe bars, a can of cashews, a lean pocket, I can of chunk chicken breast, 2 bananas and finishing my second glass of milk. Literally too weak almost from all the food, but probably didn’t even hit 5k. I honestly don’t know how the big guys can do 7-8k a day when bulking… I use the my Myfitnesspal app and usually I burn around 23-2450 a day and take in just under that during this cut I started before New year’s… OP, when in doubt eat another egg. Just throw it in there whenever, wherever. [/quote]
Heh.

Well… quality of calories aside, heavy cream has around 100 calories a fluid ounce. Two (12oz) glasses will give you a bit over 2400 calories.

I think it requires some serious creativity to get in 7-8k a day on a regular basis. I can’t fathom getting in that many calories from lean meat and rice alone.

Just running the numbers, it takes over two gallons of cooked white rice to get over 7k calories; or, 12 pounds of lean steak; or, 14 pounds of chicken breast.

3 pounds of steak a day, 4 pounds of chicken breast, and a gallon of cooked rice will give you 1800 + 2000 + 3300 = 7100. I’m pretty sure when you’re eating that big, those aren’t the food choices. (I’m pretty sure there are plenty of fats involved.)

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5am the next day and I feel weighed down like crazy from that decision yesterday. Like each morning of this reconstruction mode of a cut I’m doing, I did 15min of fasted cardio and it helped some, But man… I’ll start a thread in the beginners section with progress and pics once I reach my weight level I wanna start fresh from.

This is where I sit right now at 191. I’m 5’8 and 29yrs old. I wanna reach 175(1lb over what the Army says is my max for my height) then say fuck them basically And build back up to 190 but tighter than I’ve ever been. I am calculating a couple years of off-season and contest prep work to get there decently.

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Up 1.2kg and benched a plate within 10 days! 4,000-4,200 cals is working albeit difficult to reach. Thanks for the help and continuous advice when I was repeatedly not eating enough.

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Great, keep it up!

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Gained 1.7kg in two weeks, but I constantly have this sick/bloated feeling when eating 4,200 calories a day. Does anyone have any tips for reducing this feeling or should I just drop down a couple hundred calories?

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[quote]Flight1 wrote:
I constantly have this sick/bloated feeling when eating 4,200 calories a day. Does anyone have any tips for reducing this feeling or should I just drop down a couple hundred calories?[/quote]

What, exactly, are you eating to reach those 4,200 calories.

Because if you’re doing things like SandViper is above, you might be making life harder on yourself by skimping on some calorie-dense foods in favor of “leaner” options in fear of putting on fat…which is fine, if you’re already fat, but NOT fine if you’re still underweight and unable to gain.

Do you drink milk? Is it skim milk or WHOLE milk?
Do you eat yogurt? Is it reduced fat or full fat?
Do you eat chicken? Is it skinless breasts or skin-on drumsticks?
Do you eat beef? Are you eating 95% lean beef or 75% lean?
Do you drink coffee? Do you add heavy cream?

Dan John has written about this before: there are easy ways to dump extra calories into a meal (and they don’t even have to be junk food). Melt some butter on your veggies. Dump olive oil onto your salad. Mix heavy cream into your oats and/or coffee.

This isn’t advice that would be advisable for everyone, but diets aren’t one size fits all. If you feel sick from eating 4000 calories, but you’re working too hard to get it all from what you perceive as “healthy” or “lean” sources, you might be skipping some very calorie-dense AND nutrient-dense foods.

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[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:

What, exactly, are you eating to reach those 4,200 calories.

Because if you’re doing things like SandViper is above, you might be making life harder on yourself by skimping on some calorie-dense foods in favor of “leaner” options in fear of putting on fat…which is fine, if you’re already fat, but NOT fine if you’re still underweight and unable to gain.

This isn’t advice that would be advisable for everyone, but diets aren’t one size fits all. If you feel sick from eating 4000 calories, but you’re working too hard to get it all from what you perceive as “healthy” or “lean” sources, you might be skipping some very calorie-dense AND nutrient-dense foods.

[/quote]

I drink about 1.5litres of whole fat milk a day, i usually start the day with a 1,000-1,200 calorie shake which contains:

  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 800ml Whole milk
  • 2 tbsp oats
  • 2 bananas
  • 1 apple
  • 30g whey protein

I find it difficult to get to 4,200 so I usually eat about 200-300 calories worth of chocolate but a lot of my diet is just:

Peanut Butter, Milk, Whey Protein, Meat (Lean or not, whatever is available), Eggs, Rice, Potato

What would you suggest as other sources to reach the goal without causing a sick feeling in my mouth? Today I took a day off from eating lots and going to the gym and found the sickness in my mouth had largely gone, so I’m sure it’s the diet but I trust there’s a way to work around it

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How many times per day are you eating? Should be at least 4 meals. If you eat 1k kcal at breakfast and have a big dinner of 1,500 kcal, then you just have to have two other 750 kcal meals… or less if you drink a protein shake or have a snack right before bed.

I’m eating close to 4k kcal / day right now very easily and I could bump it up to 4500 without affecting my appetite at all just by adding some olive oil, peanut butter, an extra scoop of protein powder, an extra egg or two, etc. to various meals.

You can also dial back the calories a bit on non-training days.

Edit: I also agree with everything ActivitiesGuy said. And don’t avoid carbs! A big bowl of pasta is a lot of calories and a fine thing to include in your diet, especially in a post-workout meal.

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Normally have about 4 meals and snacks in between,. Today at the gym I actually threw up for the first time since increasing caloric intake, but maybe it was because I had a protein shake 15-20 minutes before I worked out?

I think I haven’t been getting enough carbs so I’ll start adding more rice/pasta/potatoes to get that up, will feedback if the sick feeling doesn’t go

Edit: Just posting some improvements in terms of lifts from the last time I posted (22nd November), 80% of the improvements have come in the last 15-20 days as a result of not eating enough and being ill in December:

Bench 52.5kg → 60kg
T Bar Row 40kg → 46.25kg
OHP (Used to neglect it, but that has definitely stopped) 32.5kg → 35kg
Pull-up 2.5kg dumbell between ankles → 7.5kg
Skull crusher 5kg → 8.75kg
Curl 25kg → 33.5kg

Leg press 50kg → 100kg
Stiff leg deadlift DB 40kg → 50kg
Barbell lunge (largely neglected) 25kg → 30kg
Seated Calf 0kg → 17.5kg

Chest Press 100 → 200 (don’t know if lbs or kg)
MTS High row 50 → 90
Lateral raise DB - Stopped doing it for Isolateral shoulder press (which I lift 30kg)
Lat Pull down 8 metal plates → 11
Preacher Curl 7.5kg → 10kg
DB extension 10kg → 15kg

Squat 75kg → 82.5kg
Deadlift 65kg → 65kg
Lying leg curl 87.5 → 100
Standing Calf 8 metal plates → 10

The 1st and 4th workouts I’m posting lifts I did for around 3-6 sets for 3-5 reps.

The 2nd and 3rd ones I posted were normally the weight I did for 1 set and 10-15 reps

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Looks to me as if getting the calories in was a major break thru in being able to start seeing what it is you’re wanting. Now true to what was said about my routine which again is opposite goal wise of yours, I am leaning out and not looking to gain. But, what was said about some pile oil or a egg Or two added in is a great plan. Also, as long as you’re getting good sleep nightly, I shouldn’t see a reason for these gains to continue.