Stuck at 165

You may want to try the Natural Hormonal Enhancement Bodybuilders Eating Plan. I too was in your situation. I would increase my eating until I was eating upwards of 5000 calories per day. I would still be hungry and all I would gain is layers of fat. I have been on the NHE Bodybuilders plan for about 3 weeks now and have put on about 5 lbs of lean mass and hardly any fat. The solution is not just to eat more, but also to eat smarter.

Why would anyone recommend massive eating to this guy? Ok- maybe the calorie calculator would be of some use, but Massive eating is too restrictive to someone who has a super fast metabolism in my opinion. Its just harder to get as much calories when you cant combine carbs and fat in the same meal. At least that is what I found. I do better when I eat carbs fat and protein all in the same meal. Why do massive eating when you could try the skinny bastard diet or the POW diet?
-Jason

Unger, I agree that if you don’t gain you just have to keep increasing cal, but in my case increased cal where being thrown off as excess heat. Even with massive over eating I still couldn’t gain weight. The only thing that will help you gain weight would be the addition of Alcohol. Granted this will not lead to the weight gains of muscle, but more fat. It sounds like Brian wants any kind of weight gain, either fat or muscle. Overeating with Alcohol included will result in weight gain. I can almost guarentee it.

yeah john, and next time someone asks for advice on losing some fat just tell’em to go shot heroin, it works wonder for getting ripped!

5000 calories is never enough (over 8 meals btw)

Brian, I have made the best gains by eating the same foods every day…sounds boring, but it has worked for me so far. MEAL ONE (Pre Training) Chicken breast, 1 Cup chocolate milk, 1 cup Carrots, 2 slices rye bread MEAL TWO (Post-Training) 2 Chicken breasts, 2 whole eggs, 2 cups broccoli, 16 oz. (fresh) O.J., MEAL THREE 2 chicken breasts, 2 cups spinach, 2 slice rye bread MEAL 4 Repeat Meal One MEAL 5 protein shake (made with 8 ounces O.J. MEAL 6 6 jumbo egg whites

Okay, I know that some of these things that people are suggesting are complex. And really, the trick is to keep it simple. I agree with the food log, but I too have been too lazy to make one. Why? Simple. I don’t know how much the chicken I eat at lunch weighs. I was thinking of bringing a balance to the restaurant (I work near a mom & pop restaurant and they make special meals for me … sweet deal, huh?) and weighing the before and after chicken. But I’ve just been too lazy. Where the hell do you get a gram balance?

I was stuck at 172lbs for about 2 months and I thought “Man, if I train harder, I’ll grow”. But I didn’t. Some reps went up, sure, but no increase in mass. Then I decided to eat more.

Here’s what you do … standardize your meals - ie. eat nearly the same thing every day (or say, eat the same thing every Monday, and then a different same thing every Tuesday, etc.) Make sure it’s healthy - but you know how to do that. Now, start eating 4 eggs every morning after the day you’ve worked out - whole eggs with some flax (I’d recommend fish oils too, but frankly they’re stinky - eat them when you’re alone at night). Do this for two weeks and weigh yourself. If you’ve gained more than a pound a week, dial back to 2 eggs a day for two weeks. If you don’t gain weight, increase eggs. Etc. Once I started doing this, I gained about 1 pound a week (just less than one pound actually).

I don't care what you eat in the morning now, add eggs. Your body can handle it, even if you're getting lots of carbs then(mr. Berardi might disagree). Your body is in its best healing time in the morning after a work out, and I think that's the best time to get high quality calories (I mean, other than the post-workout nutrition ... that's a good time too!).

There. You’ve read our advice. Lots of people said “eat more”. A few advise keeping a calorie counter (and I agree that’s probably the best solution). If that’s too tough, take my advice. Add eggs and flax in the morning, warm up whatever body part you worked the day before and give it lots of good stretching that day - it’s easy to do, you will incorporate stretches into your workday once you think about it.

Oh, and whoever wrote that “you’ve been 20 since high-school?” owes me some Windex, because somehow coffee was spewed all over my monitor when I read that.

PS: one more thing. Work your legs. We don't know if you're doing that, but you gotta do it. And think "stablizers ... hmmn, how can I throw more stabilizer exercises into my day? Stabilizers are often ignored and so, there's a whole bunch of newbie muscle that can grow there. Your biceps may have hit the "well, I'm a little more advanced, so I'll only grow through blood-sweat" wall - but by doing off balance movements (use your head) there's a lot of muscle that's ready to go