Gained 14 Pounds In 6 Months w/ HFT

[Justin_Negrete]

 Male, 24y, 132lbs, 5'7 1/2

I used to be crazy long distance runner, til i realized i looked like hell. Decided to start lifting weights again this past summer. I was down to 118 lbs, a skeleton pretty much. 6 months later im at 132, using Waterbury routines, and really trying to eat the right things at the right times.

Currently doing the HFT program.

Wake up, take BCAAs, 1/2 serving of Surge, and start workout.

Breakfast

1 cup egg whites
1 omega 3 egg
1 oz cheese
2 tablespoons salsa
1/4 cup mixed beans (lentil, chickpea, and kidney)
1/4 cup mushrooms
Roma tomato
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup (dry measured) oats
10 grapes
2 fish oils (om3ga3)
Multi+
1 Alpha Male

Snack

1/2 cup plain FF yogurt
1.25 scoops Metabolic Drive
1 teaspoon flax oil
2 teaspoons greens+
2 tablespoons mixed nuts (almonds/pecans)
10 small cranberries
1/2 cup water
1 cup milk

Lunch

5oz Chicken breast
1/4 cup mixed beans (lentil, chickpea, and kidney)
Cabbage, tomato, mushroom
Spinach salad
Vinegar
2 fish oils
1 beta-alanine

Snack

1/2 cup plain FF yogurt
.5 scoop Metabolic Drive
.75 scoop casin/gemma protein blend
1 teaspoon cod liver oil
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon cacao nibs
1/4 cup blueberries
1 cup milk

dinner

5-7 oz lean meat (chicken, bison, etc)
1 cup (cooked weight) quinoa,
1/2 cup yam
spinach salad
1 fruit (pear or banana)

pre bed
1/2 cup ricotta
1 scoop Metabolic Drive
2 tablespoons almonds
cinnamon
1/2 banana
1 cup milk

[IronWarrior24]

To be honest, your diet looks a little too clean and precise for what you need. You just need to concentrate on eating anything in sight to put some muscle on. Be sure to keep lifting too of course.

[forevernade]

Yeah, dont cut the yolks, the meat doesnt have to be lean, infact its not even desireable, you are tiny! If you are willing to spend so much money on specifics, why not have a few whey shakes a day? Seriously, just dont think about how fat you are going to get, BECAUSE YOU WONT. If you are lifting hard, you need to be using the ‘seefood’ rule - See food? Eat food!
Otherwise you will have little progress like you have experienced so far. With hard weight lifting, your fast metabolism, just staying alive is burning enough energy to make you skinny - you don’t want your body burning more than you eat.

[shadowmoses]

Berardi follower or what Your diet is good mega clean, I would suggest you drop any exact diet at your level(also it makes life no fun) and just concentrate on eating a load of protein and good fat and save carbs for post workout, If you eat loads and keep it clean you will grow very nicely.

Coconut milk/Olive oil mixed with Metabolic Drive is your best friend…

[PozzSka]

IronWarrior & forevernade: If he is gaining weight like this he doesn’t need to do the “seefood” diet. If he wants to keep it clean for health reasons or simply so he can minimize fat gains, good for him.

I say if you like what you are doing, and you are still gaining weight (20 pounds in 6 months is pretty good, too) keep doing what you are doing. The difference between 10 and 12 grapes for breakfast, however, doesn’t matter.

Just remember to keep increasing the calories and the macros along with your weight gain.

good job so far, keep eating.

[goochadamg]

I agree with PozzSka. Eating a shitload of food would likely just make him fat. You can only gain so much muscle, and eating more food won’t increase that amount.

The only results you’ll see from a “seefood” diet vs. a properly planned diet is a gut. I learned this the hard way. I always knew it, but I still made the mistake.*

*In my defense, I quit smoking shortly before going on the seefood diet. (5 months since I’ve had a cigarette!)

[IronWarrior24]

[quote]PozzSka wrote:
IronWarrior & forevernade: If he is gaining weight like this he doesn’t need to do the “seefood” diet.[/quote]

Regardless of whether he is gaining weight or not, he is still skinny. He needs food, lots of it. If he did gain muscle on the diet he posted, imagine how much more he could have gained if he just ate and didn’t worry about the exact portions.

If he wants to keep it clean for health reasons or simply so he can minimize fat gains, good for him.

He could probably stand to gain some fat anyway, as long as muscle comes along with it.

I say if you like what you are doing, and you are still gaining weight (20 pounds in 6 months is pretty good, too) keep doing what you are doing. The difference between 10 and 12 grapes for breakfast, however, doesn’t matter.

Why don’t you make up your mind one way or the other? First you say his diet is good, then you criticize the grapes. That is in fact what I was saying was wrong with the diet. It is just too exact. You say that you disagree with me and then you come back and say that the same thing is wrong that I was saying was wrong in the first place.

[IronWarrior24]

[quote]goochadamg wrote:
I agree with PozzSka. Eating a shitload of food would likely just make him fat.[/quote]

There is no way that the OP is going to end up fat as long as he keeps lifting. Look at him. He is skinny. He needs food, not a strict diet.

You can only gain so much muscle, and eating more food won’t increase that amount.

Actually it will. There is no way that the OP gained the maximum amount of possible muscle in that time period, and there is no way that he is gaining the maximum possible amount of muscle with his current diet. So, eating more food would help.

The only results you’ll see from a “seefood” diet vs. a properly planned diet is a gut.

I would not consider this a properly planned diet for his goals.

*In my defense, I quit smoking shortly before going on the seefood diet. (5 months since I’ve had a cigarette!)

You can’t possibly imagine how ecstatic I am right now just from knowing this, but what does that have to do with the OP?

[PozzSka]

[quote]IronWarrior24 wrote:
Regardless of whether he is gaining weight or not, he is still skinny. He needs food, lots of it. If he did gain muscle on the diet he posted, imagine how much more he could have gained if he just ate and didn’t worry about the exact portions.[/quote]

Sure, instead of 14 lbs. he would have gained 20 lbs. But is his body able to synthesize the extra protein and calories into more muscle, or would he have gained 10lbs muscle 10 lbs fat, instead of 10lbs muscle 4 lbs fat (those numbers aren’t real, i’m being hypothetical)

[quote]
He could probably stand to gain some fat anyway, as long as muscle comes along with it.[/quote]

I’m sure he did gain some fat, it is next to impossible to gain muscle without gaining some fat, but at what percentage? If he gained 80% muscle that’s great, he shouldn’t gain weight just to gain weight, he should gain lean body mass.

[quote]
Why don’t you make up your mind one way or the other? First you say his diet is good, then you criticize the grapes. That is in fact what I was saying was wrong with the diet. It is just too exact. You say that you disagree with me and then you come back and say that the same thing is wrong that I was saying was wrong in the first place.[/quote]

I’m saying his diet is fine, but i do agree with you that counting grapes at his level isn’t going to matter.

You weren’t only saying that his diet was too exact, however, you were claiming he needs to eat more to gain weight. The fact is he is gaining lean weight, so he doesn’t necessarily need to eat more, yet. He’ll need to slowly increase his calories as his weight goes up to maintain the current rate of muscle gain.

Not only that, his diet is also very healthy. Kudos to the OP.

[PozzSka]

[quote]IronWarrior24 wrote:
There is no way that the OP is going to end up fat as long as he keeps lifting. [/quote]

Because everyone knows that everyone who lifts weights is super lean.

[quote]
Actually it will. There is no way that the OP gained the maximum amount of possible muscle in that time period, and there is no way that he is gaining the maximum possible amount of muscle with his current diet. So, eating more food would help.[/quote]

Maybe he could have gained more, but he wouldn’t really know until he tried. Maybe gaining 30 lbs a year is ok for him. Actually if he gains another 15 in the next 6 months, that would be tremendous

[quote]
I would not consider this a properly planned diet for his goals.[/quote]

Why not? His goal is to gain weight (I’m assuming with minimal fat). He did that, so apparently his plan was perfect. He got the results he was after.

[IronWarrior24]

[quote]PozzSka wrote:
IronWarrior24 wrote:
Regardless of whether he is gaining weight or not, he is still skinny. He needs food, lots of it. If he did gain muscle on the diet he posted, imagine how much more he could have gained if he just ate and didn’t worry about the exact portions.

Sure, instead of 14 lbs. he would have gained 20 lbs. But is his body able to synthesize the extra protein and calories into more muscle, or would he have gained 10lbs muscle 10 lbs fat, instead of 10lbs muscle 4 lbs fat (those numbers aren’t real, i’m being hypothetical)[/quote]

Why is it that you think that any additional mass gain would have been only fat and not muscle?

[quote]He could probably stand to gain some fat anyway, as long as muscle comes along with it.

I’m sure he did gain some fat, it is next to impossible to gain muscle without gaining some fat,[/quote]

That’s not what I’m even arguing against. I said that he could stand to gain some fat, meaning that he might look a little better physique-wise with some fat on him instead of just being really skinny.

but at what percentage? If he gained 80% muscle that’s great, he shouldn’t gain weight just to gain weight, he should gain lean body mass.

If he gains more weight, he is going to gain more muscle too, as long as he is lifting.

Not only that, his diet is also very healthy. Kudos to the OP.

Sometimes a diet to get all around healthy isn’t so good a diet for gaining mass, which is what he is trying to do.

[IronWarrior24]

[quote]PozzSka wrote:
IronWarrior24 wrote:
There is no way that the OP is going to end up fat as long as he keeps lifting.

Because everyone knows that everyone who lifts weights is super lean.[/quote]

Did I say “There is no way that anyone is going to end up fat as long as they keep lifting”? No, I said there is no way that the OP is going to end up fat as long as he keeps lifting. Yes, there are people who lift and are still fat. The OP is not one of these people. He is a naturally lean person.

It is going to be relatively hard for him to gain enough weight to get fat. Maybe you should actually read the posts or if you do read them, maybe you should ask someone for some help in understanding them before you post.

[quote]Actually it will. There is no way that the OP gained the maximum amount of possible muscle in that time period, and there is no way that he is gaining the maximum possible amount of muscle with his current diet. So, eating more food would help.

Maybe gaining 30 lbs a year is ok for him.[/quote]

Maybe, but then again, maybe not.

Actually if he gains another 15 in the next 6 months, that would be tremendous

Yes, but gaining greater than 15 pounds in the next 6 months would be even more tremendous.

[quote]I would not consider this a properly planned diet for his goals.

Why not? His goal is to gain weight (I’m assuming with minimal fat). He did that, so apparently his plan was perfect. He got the results he was after.[/quote]

What I’m saying is his results could have been greater if he ate more, as I’ve stated many times before in this thread.

[mthomps]

Frankly, I don’t see how telling a beginner to simply “eat” is good advice. What this results in is poor eating habits, which the OP doesn’t have.

Your body can only gain so much muscle in a givin period of time. While he is super lean and most likeley will not have any issues with gaining too much fat, telling him to eat junk to gain weight is pretty irresponsible advice to give to anyone, let alone a begginner.

That being said, my advice to you OP is keep on doing what you are doing. You have a great diet there for your goals. If anything, eat more clean food. There are plenty of clean foods out there that are dense in calories.

Eat stuff like natural peanut butter, raw nuts. 90% lean ground beef by the pounds.

Also, 2 things I suggest to change are eating whole eggs instead of egg whites, simply because it equals more calories ingested. The other is since you are trying to gain, measuring out all those exact proportions, in my opinion, is not necessary. If I were in your situation I would simply eye the proportions leaning more toward the bigger side of things.

jesterspaz, kudos to you. You have a goal and you are doing what you need to do to reach it. Keep eating clean and lifting mean. In time you will be big and lean. Keep up the great work man!

[IronWarrior24]

[quote]mthomps wrote:
Your body can only gain so much muscle in a givin period of time.[/quote]

Yes, but again, what makes you think that he gained that amount?

While he is super lean and most likeley will not have any issues with gaining too much fat, telling him to eat junk to gain weight is pretty irresponsible advice to give to anyone, let alone a begginner.

I didn’t say eat junk. I said don’t worry about being so precise and just focus on eating. That doesn’t require him to eat junk.

That being said, my advice to you OP is keep on doing what you are doing. You have a great diet there for your goals. If anything, eat more clean food.

So which is it? Do you want him to keep doing what he is doing or eat more?

Also, 2 things I suggest to change are eating whole eggs instead of egg whites, simply because it equals more calories ingested. The other is since you are trying to gain, measuring out all those exact proportions, in my opinion, is not necessary. If I were in your situation I would simply eye the proportions leaning more toward the bigger side of things.

This is exactly what I have been saying all along. Do you realize that you are telling him how great his diet is and then going and telling him to change it in the exact same way I have been telling him?

[wooldog]

IronWarrior, weren’t you one of those people criticizing me on my cookie thread? I guess you changed your mind?

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1892402

[IronWarrior24]

You must be a pretty advanced poster to be able to find a person’s previous threads to try to prove them wrong. Yes, I did criticize you on your cookie thread. I don’t understand how you feel that I changed my mind. When in this thread have I advised the OP to regularly eat meals consisting of cookies? I said focus on eating more. You can easily eat more while still keeping your diet clean if that’s what he wants to do.