Trying to Gain Weight- 17 Years Old?

What to take?

Healthy Meats:
Tuna
Salmon
Orange ruffy
Truit
Tilapia
Skinless chicken breast
Lean turkey (preferably breast meat)
Extra lean beef (5% or less fat)
Liver (better to make it yourself)
Buffalo
Ostrich
Venison or elk
Protein powder (Whey, Casein, or egg protein powder)
Non-fat cottage cheese
Cheese (white cheese is better than orange cheese)
Eggs (not meat but great source of protein)
Note: try to buy Omega 3 eggs. Omega 3 eggs are much better for you than regular eggs

Healthy Carbs:
Oatmeal (the less processed the better. Stay away from instant oatmeal. Try to find steel cut oatmeal or whole oats)
Rice (white or brown defendant upon time in day)
Pasta (get marinara sauce and stay away from the Alfredo and that. best time to consume post workout)
Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, green beans, or any other dark green leafy plant)
Note: the darker the vegetable, the better. Hence, iceberg lettuce offers very little nutritional value because it is so light in color)
Other healthy carbs: Ezekiel bread, yams, potatoes (preferably sweet potatoes or yams),
Fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, kiwi, grapefruit, grapes, frozen mixed fruit, etc.)
Beans (pinto beans, black beans, gonzo beans, etc.)

Healthy fats:
Coconut oil
Olive oil
Fish oil
Borage oil
Nuts:
Walnuts
Almonds
Macadamias
Pistachios

Here is a sample meal plan (to give you an idea):
Breakfast (shake because it is quick):
1.5 cup raw oatmeal (blend for 2 minutes)
7 raw organic eggs (sounds gross, but it’s not)
Cup strawberries
Meal 2 (pretty much keep this for all my meals):
6-7oz meat
120g brown rice
3oz vegetables
15g healthy oil or handful nuts
2 fish oil caps
Meal 3 (same as meal 2)
Meal 4 (same as meal 2)
Meal 5 (preworkout shake, very important)
Fast absorbing protein (1,3 ratio protein to carbs)
Dextrose Carb source
BCAA’s
During training: carbs/BCAA’s
Post training:
Fast absorbing protein (1,3 ratio protein to carbs)
Dextrose Carb source
BCAA’s
Meal 6 (same as meal 2)
Meal 7 (same as meal 2 but no carbs)
Meal 8 (before bed shake)
scoop Whey casin (slow digesting)
scoop Whey isolate
big scoop natural (make sure it is natural) peanut butter, or oil
Meal 9 (middle of night shake)
Nocturnal meal
whey isolate
big scoop natural (make sure it is natural) peanut butter, or oil

Try to shoot for 6-10 meals/day. When your eating healthy food such as what is listed above, it is pretty damn difficult to get “too” fat. As for meals, make it easy on yourself. Make all your meals (measured out) for the week one day a week and freeze them. This way, it is real easy to keep track of how many calories you are getting. All you need to do is leave your frozen food out before you go to bed, and it is thawed in the morning.
As with supplements remember one very important thing. You can take every possible supplement in the book, but if you are not getting enough calories, you will not gain muscle mass. Food is key. Sure supplements can help, but they won’t do much without proper calories.

Remember too, with following any diet, it boils down to how consistent you are. If you are consistent 3-4 days then slack off for a day or two, you are probably not going to progress the way you want to. To be real honest, most people don’t have what it takes and they just give up. Remember, anything worth having requires a great deal of effort. Either commit to it or don’t because you will waste your time and money if you screw around (i found out this the hard way).

With regard to exercises, don’t get caught up with the 5 billion different options. People tend to over analyze the shit out of training. Truth be told, you only need about 10 or so exercises to get big and strong as hell, literally. These exercises have been proven to work for decades upon decades. Thing is, most of the best exercises are difficult. This steers people away because everyone wants to take the easy way out. If you do these movements, bust your ass by making progressive improvements on these exercises, and keep things simple, I guarantee you will get the results you seek.

Here are the exercises:

  1. Squat
  2. Deadlift
  3. Good mornings (to 45 degrees)
  4. Vertical hanging pull exercise (pullups or chinups var. NOT lat pull down)
  5. Horizontal pull exercise (start off with body weight rows for a few months and then progress to barbell or DB rows)
  6. Shrugs, vertical & horizontal (get full range of motion, or ROM)
  7. Bench movement (if you can’t do your body weight, stick to push ups for a few months)
  8. Standing shoulder press
  9. Dips (not machine)
  10. Bent over dumbbell exercise for rear shoulders
  11. Standing curls
  12. Core movement (ab/oblique)

Don’t feel you need to jump right into barbell bench training right away, esp. at your level. Pushups and Body weight rows will go a very long way for you in terms of foundation.

Hope this helps.

That was the most impractical, overly complicated, and downright retarded advice anyone has given in this entire thread Johnx3.

He wanted to know what to take… so I gave him a list of good foods. I have never met a person new to this sport that just instinctively knew what foods they should and shouldn’t take. Now he won’t have this problem. I also gave him an idea of what a meal plan might look like (not to say it is the right one for him). I gave him a list of basic exercises to preform. I gave him everything I wished I would have had when I first started training.

You just told a novice saying he has trouble gaining any weight to eat nuts and fish and that he needs to be using some super perfect workout shake and ridiculous peri-workout instructions.

WHO has gotten big using only 10 exercises? Show us. Cuz thats not how anyone I’ve ever seen or know personally trains.

“Nocturnal meal…”

[quote]-ironman- wrote:
“Nocturnal meal…”[/quote]

I used to get those.

They seemed to go away when I finally found a girlfriend.

Er…

Fake Edit: Fuck.

I know guys that are 250lbs plus with abdominal definition that eat clean all year round and can make gains. Sure some might not be all natural, but common give me a break… This kid is what, 120 or something lbs? I am sure if he gets in enough healthy meals, he will have no problem packing on mass up till he gets to 200+ lbs. Novices say all the time that can’t gain weight… but the truth of the matter is they have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to eat enough calories. A good majority don’t even know how crucial calorie intake is and put all their energy into supplements that do little without proper calories from whole foods.
Also, if you read my last couple of post you will see that the meal plan was a “sample.” Not to be mistaken on how he needs to eat.

And about the exercises, look at any professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, or strongman. All will have decent strength in all those exercises. These are the bread and butter of any weight training program. There is a reason these exercises have been around so long… It is because they work wonders. I used to to train with a group of about 10 people in my garage. All we had was a power rack, chinup/pullup bar and a make shaft glute ham raise. We were all able to make incredible gains with just the basics. Trust me, you don’t need much.

[quote]mr popular wrote:
You just told a novice saying he has trouble gaining any weight to eat nuts and fish and that he needs to be using some super perfect workout shake and ridiculous peri-workout instructions.

WHO has gotten big using only 10 exercises? Show us. Cuz thats not how anyone I’ve ever seen or know personally trains.[/quote]

bumping to 3500 cals would be a good start, than add by 250cals each week if you dont grow but seriously at 128lbs, i’d be surprise if you didnt gain at 3500…

5000 is fucking too high, I pack fat at 4400 cals and im at 200lbs

[quote]Johnyjohnjohn wrote:
I know guys that are 250lbs plus with abdominal definition that eat clean all year round and can make gains. Sure some might not be all natural, but common give me a break… This kid is what, 120 or something lbs? I am sure if he gets in enough healthy meals, he will have no problem packing on mass up till he gets to 200+ lbs. Novices say all the time that can’t gain weight… but the truth of the matter is they have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to eat enough calories. A good majority don’t even know how crucial calorie intake is and put all their energy into supplements that do little without proper calories from whole foods.[/quote]

I don’t see how anything you just said is even relevant…?

People need lots of calories to gain weight!? YA DON’T SAY

Your “sample” eating program was ridiculous. It is the absolute LAST way someone should be eating who has trouble putting on weight, especially at his age and level of experience.

[quote]And about the exercises, look at any professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, or strongman. All will have decent strength in all those exercises. These are the bread and butter of any weight training program. There is a reason these exercises have been around so long… It is because they work wonders. I used to to train with a group of about 10 people in my garage. All we had was a power rack, chinup/pullup bar and a make shaft glute ham raise. We were all able to make incredible gains with just the basics. Trust me, you don’t need much.
[/quote]

Why would I “trust you”? Do you look like a bodybuilder? Have you achieved what the people here want to achieve with a minimalistic attitude towards training?

Professional bodybuilders, powerlifters, and strongmen are going to be able to lift a crazy amount of weight on just about ANY exercise. Just because they can lift a lot on your arbitrary list of exercises, even though they all do much more than that, always have, and would never recommend your method, you somehow draw the conclusion that people should only be doing this handful of exercises?

And as far as the calorie discussion goes, obviously no one is going to be able to tell the OP exactly how many calories he needs to be eating, but personally if you wanted to count your daily calories I wouldn’t go higher than 3000 right now. That’s just coming from personal experience.

When I started out at 130lbs, I ate about 2800 calories for the first couple months to get the ball rolling and gain 5-10lbs or so, 3500 would have been not only too many calories but too much for me to try and force myself to eat right away, and the recommendation for 5000 was beyond retarded.

[quote]mr popular wrote:
Johnyjohnjohn wrote:
I know guys that are 250lbs plus with abdominal definition that eat clean all year round and can make gains. Sure some might not be all natural, but common give me a break… This kid is what, 120 or something lbs? I am sure if he gets in enough healthy meals, he will have no problem packing on mass up till he gets to 200+ lbs. Novices say all the time that can’t gain weight… but the truth of the matter is they have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to eat enough calories. A good majority don’t even know how crucial calorie intake is and put all their energy into supplements that do little without proper calories from whole foods.

I don’t see how anything you just said is even relevant…?

People need lots of calories to gain weight!? YA DON’T SAY [/quote]

Were you not bashing me for telling him to eat fish and nuts? Guess what genius, those are calories, and yes you can make gains without eating fucking poptarts. You are going to go tell this kid to eat pop tarts? Are you fucking kidding me? Just goes to show your lack of knowledge.

[quote]mr popular wrote:
Also, if you read my last couple of post you will see that the meal plan was a “sample.” Not to be mistaken on how he needs to eat.

Your “sample” eating program was ridiculous. It is the absolute LAST way someone should be eating who has trouble putting on weight, especially at his age and level of experience. [/quote]

It was a sample, what’s so hard to understand. Anyway, what do you know? You are probably not much over 200lbs and still benching 300lbs or less. Why on earth am I wasting my time arguing you?

[quote]mr popular wrote:
And about the exercises, look at any professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, or strongman. All will have decent strength in all those exercises. These are the bread and butter of any weight training program. There is a reason these exercises have been around so long… It is because they work wonders. I used to to train with a group of about 10 people in my garage. All we had was a power rack, chinup/pullup bar and a make shaft glute ham raise. We were all able to make incredible gains with just the basics. Trust me, you don’t need much.

Why would I “trust you”? Do you look like a bodybuilder? Have you achieved what the people here want to achieve with a minimalistic attitude towards training?

Professional bodybuilders, powerlifters, and strongmen are going to be able to lift a crazy amount of weight on just about ANY exercise. Just because they can lift a lot on your arbitrary list of exercises, even though they all do much more than that, always have, and would never recommend your method, you somehow draw the conclusion that people should only be doing this handful of exercises?[/quote]

Why would you trust me? Frankly I could care less if you do or don’t. You say that professional bodybuilders and powerlifters can lift crazy amounts on just about any exercise. Now, how do you think they got their squats and pullups up? From doing leg extensions and lat pulldowns? Once again, you never cease to amuse me.

The basics are fundamental

I am not saying the other exercises that are off my list don’t do anything and no one should ever do them. What I am saying is the exercises I listed should be core exercises in your training program. These exercises will not only make you get strong quick, but they are also known as the best mass builders around. Yeah, you can do other shit if you want, but I personally wouldn’t.

Especially at this kid’s level where he doesn’t have much lifting experience and is exposed to a million plus different exercises. If you are distracted with all the other exercises, you are going to be less likely to put the time and effort into the exercises that are going to build you your base… Without a base, you won’t be a whole lot. Keep things simple for now. I guarantee, with no doubt in my mind, that it will benefit you later on.