A month or so ago I got tired of being as skinny as I am (27 5'11 137lbs) and decided to start working out

A month or so ago I got tired of being as skinny as I am (27 5'11 137lbs) and decided to start working out.


I purchased a pullup bar (some iron gym copy) and started my first week with 3 sets of 8 pullups a day, then a few days later 3 sets of 10, and now starting last week it's 3 sets of 10 (chin ups instead of pullups) and 3 sets of 10 pushups, and situps. I have also added a small 1 mile run to this routine.


I'm noticing improvements already, but now I want to change my lifestyle completely. Trying to cut out all sugars from my diet that I can tolerate and I'm wanting to eat things that help me put on weight. I work in an office where I have started eating half a rotisserie chicken and half a bag of steamed vegetables for lunch instead of the usual subway/jimmy johns/wendy's I would usually get.

My questions are about both my current work out, and my diet. In the sticky they recommend eating a lot of grains, however other reading / listening seems to say the exact opposite. What should I be eating? Is there an easier way to get a decent (filling) lunch rather than buying that whole chicken and vegetables? What should my breakfast look like? According to MFP I need to be eating some 2400 calories a day just to gain 4 pounds a week. (My target weight is 170)

With working out, is there something better I should be doing with my time? I'm sure the chin-ups are fine, but what about the pushups / situps? Should I replace those with something else? If I keep up with this for another month I'm going to invest in a kettlebell for more home exercising, but I'm starting to wonder if a gym membership would be worth it?


I know a lot of these questions are in the sticky, and I'm not even sure if Veeky Forums is the place to be asking questions like this, but I usually find some good stuff here, and I know the people here are less likely to recommend fad diets / fake ways to get big.

>is there something better I should be doing with my time?
>I know a lot of these questions are in the sticky

faggot

yikes

read sticky

>Carbohydrates ("carbs"). 4 calories per gram. Despite what you may have heard, these are not evil. They are a necessary source of energy for your body. The problem is that people over-consume certain sources of carbohydrates, most notably simple sugars from soda and candy, and starches from white bread. However, if you have to cut down on one macronutrient, cut down on carbohydrates. People in Western cultures consume far too many carbohydrates on average.
This is from the sticky. Care to help me understand this?

If you're trying to put on weight then you honestly shouldn't turn down a calorie.
You see that whole chicken and those veggies are filling as fuck and kind of what you eat to maintain or drop weight. If you want to put on more mass you're going to have to start getting some more easily digested calorie dense stuff in.
Potatoes, a few more fruit stuff like that.

Lastly, calisthenics are good but you have to go for fairly advanced stuff to put on major muscle mass on top of having a minor bulk of about 250-300 calories.

I would suggest getting a kettlebell or at least a cheap dumbbell set with up to 50 pounds of weight and a cheap dumbbell set.

Dude, you obviously have no experience in lifting. I suggest you join a gym to learn the proper form and make some gains, surrounding yourself with people that wants to do the same.

Leave the home gym stuff to more experienced folks.

I see. Instead of the corn/pea/bean mix I usually get, would one with potatoes be a much better option in this case?

>I would suggest getting a kettlebell or at least a cheap dumbbell set with up to 50 pounds of weight and a cheap dumbbell set.
I'm looking into getting a 35lb kettlebell once I find one at a decent price.
When you say I shouldn't turn down a calorie, do you mean I should just ignore eating healthier foods? Or just not worry about how calorie dense it is. Because I've been 170 before in the past, and the only difference in my diet was soda. I could bring the soda back and easily gain the weight, but probably sweat and fart all the god damn time

I did not say I had experience! I'm just trying to gain weight and some muscle, and I know doing it at home is effective.


Thanks though!

It's saying that carbs, aka sugars both simple and complex, are not bad per se.
But they are bad when over consumed and are not very necessary for the average non athletic person.

But for people who have very high energy lives and jobs, I would say the opposite is true.

You seem to be the type that doesn't do much in your day to day life so the former applies to you. You do not need many carbs to function well.
HOWEVER, you might need more carbs since you want to put on more weight.
Why? Because when you need to put on weight a calorie is a calorie...when it comes to natural fat and natural sugars that is.

If you don't give a shit about short term health and just want to get size no matter if it's fat or muscle then just eat anything.

I do care about short term health though. I don't want to eat things that will tend to make me feel more lethargic, or the like. I know very little about dieting / nutrition but I am aggressively trying to learn more. I spent a very long time drinking / eating whatever I wanted thinking my metabolism was just nuts and I would never gain weight, but never thought about why I sweat, or get acne, or any of the other bad things that happen when you eat poorly.


I want to find the balance of eating healthy, and eating a lot of calories, without spending a shit ton of money. I guess that's the golden question though and there's no perfect answer.


Thanks for your help btw!

Get a gym member ship or buy a power cage and a bench. You want to get big? You gotta eat big and lift big. Start an actual routine and follow it.

I'm saying that you have to take in more calories to put on muscle mass.
Do you know how many calories those meals you're eating are? if you don't then you should really find out.
And try to eat that plus at least 250+ calories (from fat and or carbs)every day to pack on some extra mass.
I'm not saying to outright ignore healthy foods I'm saying that if you're not getting the calories you need to gain muscle/weight from your current healthy diet then you should change things up or add something that is more calorie dense as well as moderately healthy to the mix.

Drink alot of milk (not necessarily GOMAD) but still. And get yourself a set of dumbbells if you're not doing to the gym. With that you can add calf raises, overhead press, shoulder raises, tricep extensions, lunges, and the various curls (do all of them, inluding forearms, not just plain ones). Plus you can add weight to your pushups in a backpack.

Exchange situps for something else, like planks, weighted crunches or russian twists. Sit ups are just plain shit. Look into some bodyweight routines to and add what you will. I would put in nordic hamstring curls and call this post a full body workout.

The OP just said they had a problem with acne when they drank soda.
I honestly think milk would be the worst thing for them.

I'm not sure if I want to get big so much as I don't want to be as thin as I am now. I'm 135-40 at 5'11. That's super underweight. I am considering a gym membership, but only after I have established a routine at home that I have committed to. It's much harder (for me) to say no to something I can do at home.

Milk? Really? I've heard nothing about bad things about milk and lactose in general regarding health.
I will definitely swap situps out for something else, I've heard they were bad often. To be honest when I started I only went with things I knew because I just wanted to start. I didn't want to spend too much time researching waiting to figure out the perfect exercise. Now I feel like I want the exercise so I'm actively looking on improving.

Thanks for all of your help so far.

Hey mate,
I rarely post, but I'm 6' and started out at 130LBS and very weak stats.
Here's 18 months of compound lifting and eating not on a strict diet at all, just focus calories and protein.
Get a gym membership, do squats deadlifts overhead press and bench. Add accessory work like curls, leg raises, and random dumbbell exercises. You will grow.

170LBS in the right photo, by the way.

Inspiration brah

nice

Nice results!

Are these things I can do alone at the gym? I could bring someone along but it's not something I want to do.

Absolutely. Veeky Forums memes a lot, but in all honesty they are right about compound lifting. Look up youtube videos on how to squat and how to deadlift. These will be staples to building muscle mass across your whole body, and they are pretty fun once you get the hang of their form.

Be careful, be motivated, and you will get results.

The most important thing is consistency. I have gone every other day for almost 2 years now, and I find that 3 times a week is what's necessary to see real gains.

Nice sex doll

>2017
>not owning a 3d printed person

Milk is good for you if you are skinny and want to get big.

It's bad for you if you are fat or lactose intolerant.

Nice gains

>6' 130lbs

fuckin hell brah