Any former skinny guys have had success gaining muscle mass?

[brand404]

its all about a mix of carbs, fat, and protein. From my experience, being skinny for most of my life, when i decided to weightlift with a friend it seemed we both had different requirements..for me i had to eat more carbs than protein while he had to take more protein. We only started noticing muscle definition difference after 2 months minimum.

[Wolfie*]

Thanks for the info gents. Currently working on a solid diet plan. I read up about a cheap diet plan that consists of eggs, chicken, salad, potatoes, fruits, veggies, and tuna. I'm going to add somethings here and there on the plan because I don't want to eat the same things over and over again. If I gain weight in itself I consider it a victory but of course my goal is muscle mass as. I don't want to be a body builder but a good body is what I'm striving for.

[Facade]

Just keep in mind that the only thing that will make you gain weight, is a calorie surplus. This means that you need to be taking in more calories than you burn...
The poster before you talks about macro's, but none of that matters if you are eating in a calorie deficit. If you have all the right macro's but are still eating less than you burn, you will not gain weight. Eating the good stuff is important, but eating enough of them is even more so when you are trying to gain weight. Don't overdo it. A 500 calorie surplus should be enough.

Complement that with a good compound based weight training regimen and you should be gaining the right things. You suggested neglecting your weight training. I personally wouldn't do that. Your body will not get the right stimuli to build muscle and you will just become fat. A common misconception is that protein goes straight to muscle. It doesn't work like that.

[XLR8]

Lots of great tips about diet here, which is critical, but only a few have mentioned your exercise routine, which you also must get right. The important point here is that you should almost exclusively do heavy compound (multi-joint) exercises. That means things like squats, deadlifts, chins, pullups, rows, dips, bench press and shoulder press.

All the time I see skinny guys at the gym wasting their time doing isolation exercises like preacher curls. Forget all that, you might put 1/2 inch on your arms but that's it. Your body grows as a whole, so work your whole body. You don't need many sets, 3-4 sets per compound exercise is enough. Also, go as heavy as you can manage with good form - you won't grow unless you go close to failure on an exercise. When you can do 8-10 reps before failure, add some weight and work back up to 8-10 again.

If you're eating, sleeping, and exercising correctly, you will see a small strength increase every week. Keep at it for a year or two, visiting the gym 3-4 times a week but no more. Over the course of a year or more those small weekly gains add up to massive increases in strength and muscularity. Once you're squatting more than about 250lbs, deadlifting more than about 300, and benching more than about 200, if your bodyfat is less than 20% you'll look fantastic.

[vorgaphe]

I'm a super skinny guy and was 6' 148lbs but by literally eating 4 meals a day and going to the gym on the standard arms/shoulders/chest/back/leg days I've got myself to 162lbs in 10 weeks. It's not great but it's a start and I've found it comes from eating more.

[ELPacman]

OP, how old are you? What do you do daily in terms of work or lifestyle? I only ask because this makes a big dent on the direction you might need to go.

If you sit on your ass all day at a desk job, your not gonna burn any calories until you hit the gym and get your grind on.

On the other end, if your a landscaper or someone who works at a job that requires all day movement, even a waiter for instance, your burning more calories throughout your day than you might realize, thus you require more food intake per day because your burning more than your consuming.

I currently fall in the 1st example of sitting on my ass all day desk job but used to fall in the second category of moving all over the place throughout my work day. I used to have lots of difficulties keeping weight on because I was burning all day and my metabolism was pretty high in my early to mid 20s. This type of weight gain if your having issues with might require a weight gainer protein that will give you significant calories per shake.

If you are in the sit on your ass all day and lost some of your metabolism category where I currently reside, it requires more food monitoring on what you put in and trying to avoid fatty/junk food types of food because they will stay with you until you put in a nice grind in the gym. I actually have more issues losing the weight nowadays as this scenario has taken me.

Early 20s, 5'11, 170lbs, couldn't gain weight for the life of me but I was pretty defined in terms of muscle definition. Late 20s, 195lbs and reached up to 204lbs. Currently sitting at 195lbs and saw my lowest of 192lbs the other day. Currently working on losing the weight for summer and vacation coming up.

Nothing is impossible, it's just discipline and trying not to cheat yourself whether your trying to gain or lose the weight.

[Ryn0]

I can use some tips. Trying to get bigger and I was wondering if anyone has made this transformation. Any advice will be appreciated.

Went from 144 lbs to 200 lbs in just over a year and a half, I'm a bit lighter now about 193. From 20-22 I wanted to just get bigger and it seemed impossible I'd never been able to put weight on before I'm 6 ft 2 so you can imagine a 144 lbs (Just over 10 Stone) guy looking like a beanpole, some of it was just my metabolism slowing a lot of it was eating right and a lot, and changing how I worked out. If you can't eat a lot of food consistently then forget about it. It was pretty bad for me because I skip breakfast everyday as well.

I changed my cardio to only once a week and from long distance running to rowing and HIIT. Lowered my reps, took proper rest days and had all in all a better training regime. It isn't a quick process if you want to put on Muscle, also you will put on fat. Not loads if you are clever but it is impossible to bulk for a long time and not put on fat because you have to be at a calorie excess.

I have some before and after photos and you don't realise how far you've come until you see it side by side.

[KO MX]

i used the method of eat a lot and went from skinny to skinny fat

[angad10]

hey pm me if you want help. i can help out with your diet plan and workout routine and ill do it for free. im a certified trainer/nutritionist from the arlington county in va.

[ELPacman]

i used the method of eat a lot and went from skinny to skinny fat

That's because you just ate... anything.

I know because I did the same. Eating anything with a high metabolism will get you skinny fat because your body is using the metabolism to burn it rather than heating yourself up with cardio and engaging your muscles for growth and stimulation. Thus your weight doesn't go much upwards but you have no definition and just look loose/soft everywhere because it's pure fat on bones.

This skinny fat can be dealt with while eating crap food for as long as your metabolism works on the backend even while your working out. The problem is when the metabolism slows down, even while working out, your still going to get fat, gain weight, or just constantly working out, killing yourself, and seeing no results. I know because I've been thru this rut.

The bottom line is if you don't clean up your diet or switch to cleaner snacking, your not going to get anywhere in the world of muscle building/toning your body. You are what you eat never felt so real than when your truly trying to take control of your body and seeing the results of what you put in it.