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Hard Gainer

Bcobu1102

Bcobu1102

Morning gents. First off, I am a hard gainer. It takes me up to 3 months to gain one pound. I've been trying to gain weight for about 4 months now and so far I've only succeeded (term used loosly) in losing 7 pounds. I go to the gym 5 days a week and cycle through gym rat routines and crossfit. My stats are:

BP 1RM - 230
Squat 1RM - 315
Deadlift 1RM - 420
Clean and Jerk 1RM - 195

My diet is high in protein with some fat and complex carbs:

Half a protein shake before workout at 5:30, the rest after at around 6:30
Breakfast at 8:30
Snack at 10:30
Lunchat 12
Snack at 1500
Dinnerat 1800
Protein Shake before bed at around 2100

I pound water throughout the day (about 4-5L) which is annoying because I'm peeing all the time lol.

I'm not a huge fan of supplements, so throwing the creatine/preworkout speal at me will kind of fall on deaf ears. I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced this before. I'm currently 72" at 181lbs. Thanks guys!
R,
Ben
 
Pebcak

Pebcak

I can't remember who said it, I think it was one of the Westside guys, but there's no such thing as a hard gainer, only under eaters. They also said something along the lines of stop eating clean if you're trying to gain weight. Just eat, eat again and when food is leaking out your ears eat more.

I see what you weigh but what do you want to weigh? And what does each of your meals consist of? And how much of each in the meals?

Basically it's one kb per lb of bodyweight (yes I know that's not exactly it but who the heck knows how much lean body mass they have) and you eat the weight you want to be. If you want to weigh 200lbs you eat like you're 200lbs so each meal has 200kg of protein.
 
Taylor of Bank Street

Taylor of Bank Street

Relative to me, you Sir are a monster, so take this or leave it, it's more just an observation:

You're doing this:
Bcobu1102 said:
I go to the gym 5 days a week and cycle through gym rat routines and crossfit.
Click to expand...

With this result:
Bcobu1102 said:
so far I've only succeeded (term used loosly) in losing 7 pounds.
Click to expand...

If I were in your shoes, I'd dial back my workout frequency. Crossfit can be about as intense an activity as I'm aware of and your employment may have you doing other activity on top of this. As an experiment for a month, try 3x a week. See how you look and feel, how you lift and what the mirror and scale say.

One last potential tweak: you mention your diet is high in protein but just 'some' complex carbs. I'd ramp up the carbs a bit with some more sweet potatoes.
 
Bcobu1102

Bcobu1102

Great advice guys. I'm kind of addicted to going to the gym at this point, so I think 3x a week would break my spirit lol. I'm definitely going to increase my complex carb load.

I can't eat like crap since eating dirty makes me feel terrible. My meals are usually:

Breakfast: 3-4 egg omelete with cheese, meat, green peppers and mushrooms. 5-6 strips of bacon and 2 slices of wheat bread
Snack - Two Tablespoons of peanut butter and some fruit
Lunch - Potatoes, a bunch of lean meat, sometimes i take rice and cover it with chili and eat that along with some vegetables and some wheat bread
Snack - Usually very similar to the morning snack
Dinner - Very similar to lunch

Thanks again for your input!
 
C

commanderkeen

Gaining weight is easy. You just have to program around your body type. For someone with a 'fast metabolism' I would recommend the following.

1. Eat like a horse. I prefer high protein/fat. For you maybe high protein/carb would fit the bill. If a dirty bulk is out of the question, I would avoid grains and milk products as those might be the culprit making you feel like crap after junk food.
2. Get your 8 hours of sleep a night, at least.
3. Lift heavy with low rep ranges (3-8). Depending on reps, sets should be between 6-3. A 5x5 program wouldn't be a bad place to look. This would place you in the gym 2 or 3 times a week.
4. Eat more

Avoid fast paced cardio and lifting.

If you do this correctly you will gain fat as well as muscle.

Personally, I think 1lb of muscle in 3 months is good progress. If you keep that up for 3 years that's 12lbs of muscle. 6' tall and 195lbs of muscle is big!
 
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thebikingengineer

thebikingengineer

Bump that to 6 eggs in the morning with a potato or two and similar additions for lunch and dinner. It'll go on eventually. I put on about ten lean pounds in 6 months that way while doing 3-4x per week crossfit with a strength bias. I'd lift heavy 3x per week (5x5 or similar) and on off days do sprint intervals or sled work for conditioning and to maintain a lean composition. It depends on your goals, that'll get you an athlete-like physique in time, if you're going for a powerlifter look then more food and less conditioning will be needed.
 
PFP_Dad

PFP_Dad

Simple, your not eating enough and probably working out too much. I had the same problem, but switched to 4 full meals a day with snacks in between and cut my workout to no more than 45 minutes. I limited myself to a few exercises and one muscle group and put on 22lbs in about 4 months. Slam in a couple weight gainer shakes between meals to really boost the calorie intake. It sounds crazy but you may need to be in the 6000 a day range depending on your activity level.

I'm was only 63" and 120 so the difference was substantial. Since getting out I don't exercise near as much and hover around 125. Oh, how I miss only having to workout and play video games.
 
COHunter

COHunter

Just curious, but what is your reason for wanting to gain weight? I'm in no way trying to be snarky, I'm just honestly curious. If it's size you're after I second the recommendation to switch up your workout routine to heavy lifting and eating like a horse.
 
Bcobu1102

Bcobu1102

COHunter said:
Just curious, but what is your reason for wanting to gain weight? I'm in no way trying to be snarky, I'm just honestly curious. If it's size you're after I second the recommendation to switch up your workout routine to heavy lifting and eating like a horse.
Click to expand...

Size is definitely a big part of it. I'm not a skinny dude anymore, but I have had a personal goal for awhile to weigh in at around 190-195. I'm on the tail end of a workout cycle and am going to be going back to 5x5's the middle of August.
 
Pebcak

Pebcak

COHunter said:
Just curious, but what is your reason for wanting to gain weight? I'm in no way trying to be snarky, I'm just honestly curious. If it's size you're after I second the recommendation to switch up your workout routine to heavy lifting and eating like a horse.
Click to expand...

I'd say because at 6ft and only 181 he's under weight.
 
COHunter

COHunter

From the sounds of it you're really lean, but may just have a desire for a bit more bulk. That's cool, no problem with wanting to strive for a certain look. I have a freind that's got your same stats height and weight wise and he looks like he's chiseled out of granite and wouldn't say by any means that he's underweight for his height.
 
Stubblefield

Stubblefield

Bcobu1102 said:
Size is definitely a big part of it. I'm not a skinny dude anymore, but I have had a personal goal for awhile to weigh in at around 190-195. I'm on the tail end of a workout cycle and am going to be going back to 5x5's the middle of August.
Click to expand...
5x5 is an ok program, but if you have been lifting a while it will just not give you enough volume. If you have been in the gym a while you should really be thinking about periodization.

Also, I don't know what type of CF workouts you are doing, but if you are doing it more than 3 days a week you are probably giving your adrenals a beating. I would dial back on the CF and lift heavy if your goal is to gain.
 
alex2363

alex2363

I would eat more and lift heavier, atleast 5 times a week. I had the same issues few years ago. My problem was too much cardio and not enough lifting. So i ate more, 3500 to 4000 calories a day- 150 grm in protein from fish, chicken, steak, turkey. 200 carbs from rice, potatoes, bread. 80 gms fat.

I just stayed within these totals and put on 10 pounds of muscle not fat in few months. The secret is consistent lifting and increasing weight, this will make you crave more calories for muscle growth and over all weight. I too love feeling heavy all year. I mini bulk to 190 pds to 205 pds all year. Size 32-34 waist, visible six pack yet weighing in at 190 pds - 200 pds......... i am a senior member at Bodybuilding. com [ the world's number one fitness site http://forum.bodybuilding.com/]
 
Pebcak

Pebcak

Mad Man said:
Can't gain - lift heavy, eat Maccas...a LOT. PM if you don't know what Maccas is...
Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree with the Maccas part, especially if it stands for McDonalds. However eat, eat more, eat again etc. is good advice if you want to gain weight.
 
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