Weight Gain

**McMurf** · Posted On: 12/20/2007 10:44pm

I'm pretty sure that you should eat equal portions throughout the day, and also if you do this instead of taking huge main meals, you will be able to cram more food and gain mass, your original goal.

**SunTzu** · Posted On: 12/20/2007 11:13pm

Originally Posted by Raining_Blood

Most athletes do not eat enough fat to gain weight but with that said you are eating to much of the wrong types of fats. Your eating mainlytrans fats where you want to be sticking more towards 'essential fats' ie the fats from peanuts, fish, vegetable oils.

You are also eating to much during the main meals and not enough during the snacks. You want your snacks to be almost the same size as your main meals.

Basically get rid of all the crap your eating and replace it with healthy food. Eating healthy and putting on mass are not mutually exclusive. My normal diet is pretty clean with maybe one cheat meal a week and the only thing I change when looking to put on mass is to eat more of what I was already eating and try to get most of the carb intake from grains instead of fruit.

:thumbsup: What he said. Saturated/transfatty foods really sap my energy, and it looks like most of your fats are of that type. Whole flax seeds are great, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
You'd probably do well to take your shakes as or with a snack, so you can eat larger and more complete meals. Drink a big ass glass or two of milk just before bed. Eat some complex carbs at every meal. And make sure you're getting lots of complex carbs and protein at breakfast, I think yours is undersized for your weight.

**namaste** · Posted On: 12/20/2007 11:18pm

Originally Posted by McMurf

I'm pretty sure that you should eat equal portions throughout the day, and also if you do this instead of taking huge main meals, you will be able to cram more food and gain mass, your original goal.

This makes sense, thankyou!

**ironlurker** · Posted On: 12/20/2007 11:52pm

Originally Posted by namaste

My weight training program that I have going is still wrecking my ****, but I don't seem to be gaining much muscle anymore.

How long have you been using the program? Sounds good to me, but there's a chance you may need to mix it up a little if you've been doing it for a while. Yes, people over-exaggerate the whole adaptation-new-routine-every-month but a little variety can get you going physically and mentally.

Do you go to failure on that last set every session? Might not be a good idea.

Diet- think the other posters have said this in their spot on comments, but it looks like a lot of processed foods with the meat pies, sausages, etc. They're cheap and more fun to eat for protein/fat then the ol' chicken breast, but they can make you feel like crap. Also, they add a shitload of salt into your diet. Your abs could be disappearing due to fluid retention from too much salt and not enough water. If you have an ethnic market near you, or one of the low-cost grocery chains, you can get fresh meat cheap and dirt cheap frozen or fresh fish fillets.

Brings up the water issue. This is a good calculator. You might not be drinking enough water = feeling crappy and , ironically, retaining fluid.

I notice you have coffee now and you didn't before. If you actually did, disregard, otherwise introducing more caffeine can screw with your insulin levels and it acts as a diuretic= dehydration= crappiness.

Someone posted about the GI, and potatos kind of suck, solid starch.

Blood mentioned the vegetable oil, and it's not a bad option to get some good fat in. I use smart balance to supplement. Doesn't really taste like anything, and you get the best fats and 120 calories in one teaspoon.

Also, age might be a factor too. Macho's posted some threads about age and testosterone.

And last but not least, sleep. You need sleep for growth and recovery. You're getting up at six, when do you go to bed? If you're not getting 6-7 quality hours you're going to be limiting yourself.

**namaste** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 12:21am

This all very helpful information, much appreciated.

I think I started to feel like crap because in the past two weeks I've started eating crappy processed food again, and I'd been off that crap for like half a year now.

I'm getting around 7-8 hours of sleep a night, and sometimes have naps during the day on the weekend (yes i suck)

I'm not going to failure on every set of everything, but if I feel like the muscle area didnt get worked enough, I'll hit it with a set to fatigue. Seems to work well.

**Raining_Blood** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 1:19am

Namaste about your question about breakfast and post workout meals, you ideally want to carbo load which basically involves having the most calories in the morning and then less at night. The principle being is the calories intaken in the morning can be used more because of higher activity levels than calories ingested at night. Your post workout meal should basically be maltodextrin and protein. This is hard to get from food alone which is why shakes like Surge from Biotest are so good. In this meal you want to be ingesting enough total calories to adequately recover from your workout but generally you want to be eating very fast acting carbs and fast digesting protein.

Edit
You may also need to evaluate what type of personal trainer you have on your hands. Most personal trainers are highly undertrained and have very small knowledge basis. Im not saying this is the case here because I dont know enough details but this may be the situation.

**SunTzu** · Posted On: 12/21/2007 2:46am

RB, what do you think of adding small amounts of fats like post-workout shakes? It seems to make a fairly significant difference in next-day soreness for me if I have 3-7g versus none.

**heyguy** · Posted On: 12/22/2007 12:38am

its been said but milk after workouts; preferably with something like cereal and a dairy pill so you don't have the shits in my case. and most lifters I know say natty peanut butter. And are you opposed to taking creatine?

**Raining_Blood** · Posted On: 12/22/2007 5:25am

SunTzu, I haven't really read any infomation about fats post workout so this is just my opinion. I can't see any harm in taking small amounts of fat post workout and you mention that you feel that they help so why not. Just make sure as previously mentioned they are the right type of fats. Also most post workout shakes contain moderate amounts of fat. Basically if you feel its working keep doing it.

Some of the essential fatty acids are believed to be anti inflamatory in nature so this could contribute to your feeling of reduced DOMS.

heyguy, milk is a awesome food, probably the best around but isnt really suited for immediate post workout consumption. Post workout you want to turn your body from a catabolic state to an anabolic state as quickly as possible. The proteins found in milk are not digested that quickly and it has relatively slow release carbohydrates. The same argument holds for natural peanut butter. Both will have some positive gains but there are better options.

**SunTzu** · Posted On: 12/22/2007 6:47am

I haven't been able to find anything I would trust either, which is why I asked. I read somewhere that having some fat helped with the transfer of nutrients throughout the body but never saw any actual data to support it. I've been playing around with various formulas for post-workout, adding EFA or Flax powder seems to be what helps. I tried MCTs and they didn't seem to do dick except make me queasy, so maybe the anti-inflamatory theories hold some weight.