A problem I can't solve

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retired_im-jd

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My name is Josh. I'm new to worldfitness and hope to learn a lot to come. I am 20 years old and probably not going to grow any more. I'm 5'7" and can't seem to gain any more weight than 123 pounds. I can lose weight but can't gain it. My ankles are skinny (8 inches in diameter). My torso is small.

Plain and simple. At 123 pounds and my height, I'm tiny.

What can I do to bulk up. I've been trying to eat a lot of chicken. I also eat a lot of bread which I love. My worst problem is my job. I do valet so I run 3 miles minimum a day (depending on how busy it is). What can I do? I'm sure by running so much there must be a way to take advantage of this. Perhaps by making it more of a muscular workout than a cardio workout? What can I do to gain some healthy weight and gain some nice lean, cut muscle? I hate having this skinny appearance. I'd appreciate any insight what-so-ever.

Thanks,

Josh
 
In addition to my problem, I also am trying to eat 5 full meals a day. I eat lot's of chicken and green beans. I rarely take a whey protein shake. No supplements. I consume large amounts of water. I work out 1-3 times a week. Is there anything I'm doing wrong?
 
Thanks for the link. I'm going to continue my 5 meals a day. Perhaps try to fit another in there. So far I've gone for 2 days with 5 a day. As far as supplements are concerned, not sure if I want to take that route. A gallon of water a day seems like a lot. I don't drink that much, maybe half. Is this another cause of why I'm so skinny?
Thank you for your help! I'll keep everyone posted see show how the progress is coming along.
 
supplements arent necessary so you dont have to go there if you choose not to. at least do a couple of cups a water a day. good stuff and important for the body on many levels. :)
 
I've just learned how to bulk up myself bro. What I do is eat about every 3 hours. I eat lots of protien and carbs! I eat 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day for my fat intake. I eat however much it takes to not make me think about food for 3 hours.

My diet is: 40% protien, 40% carbs, and 20% fat
 
Since it's really hard for me to measure the calories i take in because lack of information of what i eat and where, I'm just going to eat every 3 hours. Full meals; poultry, meat, potatoes, green beans, and some of the fats (extra virgin olive oil and i guess that's it).
i hope to gain a good amount of weight. What is a reasonable gain within 2-4 weeks? I'm thinking maybe 2 pounds? This of course includes muscle as I work out my lower and upper body.
 
just keep an eye on your bodyfat % and if your waist is growing faster than your biceps. just take care with it. ;)
 
my waist does seem to get bigger faster. why is that? what can i do to stop that?
 
either reduce calories or more add activity like cardio. some gain on the waist is to be expected but thats ok.

whats important is to not let it get out of hand. when it comes time to reduce bodyfat you want to be spending as little time as possible doing that. with experience you'll learn just how far you can let it go.
 
hey man, its just genetics.
some people can bulk and gain very low fat and a good amount of lean mass.
Others gain decent lean mass, but get stuck with a buncha fat.
And some people are right in between.

Ive been bulking for almost 2 months and i went from 180-200.
Im meso/endo, so i know that a proportion of the weight i gained is fat... i still take the same waist size tho, its just a lil more snug thats all.

As much as i have recognized good muscle gain, i also accept that fat has invited itself to my body... no problem tho.
my mentality is, when im bulking.. i am determined to gain muscle.. even if it means i gain fat... whatever it takes!!
The cutting phase right after is for burning that fat... then you start to get nice n ripped (and when ya have a good bulking phase, the hard work really shows itself off)

Bulk as clean as you can, but if your still gaining fat along with muscle .. dont worry about it... theres not much you can do (unless you want to lower muscle gains).
remember, it'll all be worth it in the end!
Cya man
 
I don't know but when you are working out, do you do more CV work than weights, you should maybe do 30 - 45 of cv work a day, I suggest for you 30, but do them weights, eating raw eggs helps put weight on but there are quite horrible
 
im-jd, I had the exact same problem except I was 6' 3", and 135 lbs.......yea sad. What you need to gain weight is really hard work and determination. Go out and buy some Meal Replacement Powder (MRPs). These are drink mixes that have about the same nutrients as a regular meal. I recommend Met-rx or something close to that. Drink about three of these (MRPs) a day in addition to your regular meals and you will see the pounds start to add on. Now when you do weight work, do weights that push yourself to the limit. This will force your body to use the extra proteins you've been packin up with your MRPs on your muscles. You will begin to see results after about 10 weeks, but will really be noticable after about 20-30. Good luck.

Mike
 
I've been eating 4-5 Full meals a deal and I do CV at work whether I like it or not. I do valet which requires me to run back and forth for cars all day long. I can say I run AT least 3 miles a day (on my 3-day work week schedule). My weight is still fluxuating from 123-125. I also hit the weights 2-3x week.

I may just go out and buy MRPs on top of the 4-5 meals and see what happens. Let's just hope I don't die of a heart attack at 25 from this. LOL
 
im-jd, yours is the kind of story I've heard over and over again on different fora. And never have I heard it turn into a success story. I don't like to disappoint you, but you'll just have to accept the fact that you're genetically cursed, like me, and a few others. It is simply impossible for us to get the body we'd wish, at least by natural / estetically accepted means... I dunno in which way taking hormones would help... but I suppose you also don't want to start doing that.

I'm not saying you can't change anything about your body, you'll probably have noticed some changes already, and if you haven't, they probably would appear after half a year of training or so. It'll just go like 5 to 10 times slower than with other people (you'd gain 1 pound of muscle in half a year while another person would have gained 5-10 pounds of muscle), and after a year or two, you'll be at your so-called 'genetic maximum', your body just won't be able to produce more muscles... any more nutricients will be turned into fat or excreted without being used :x

But still, no matter how small the changes might seem and no matter how unfair it is that you have to work so hard for them, they are probably worth it. You can't chose who you are, that's a matter of pure luck (or randomness, if you prefer) - you can however chose what to do with that which is given to you. Be sure you can be proud of that.
 
March 23.

I am weighing in to let you guys know that I still am at 122.5.

I find this absolutely appalling. In addition, I'll continue to work out 2-3x a week and eating a lot. Afterall, most people can't eat like me. They envy it as I envy their ability to gain muscle mass quite easily.

Despite the fact that I want a better body, I'm leaning towards an opinion that just doesn't care anymore.
 
how many calories have you added since last month? with your fast metabolism and your job and hitting the weights, you're gonna need a buttload of calories to cover all that and then some
 
Depends on your age as well as the high level of activity. If you're in your teens, with that kind of activity, you're not going to gain much, but it doesn't mean you can't gain more once you're in a more relaxed situation and if you start adding protein between meals..
 
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