Please all! Help answer this skinny newbies Q's

[MrP]

Picture this, 18 years old, 5'11", 125 pounds! Well thats me, extremely shitty. No, I'm not anorexic, and yes, I do think I am skinny. Ive been this way my whole life, and it sucks. It's not that I dont eat, people are always commenting on how I always seem to be eating something. I am not very active either, for the most part I play videogames, watch TV, sit on my computer, hang out at clubs (no dancing ), and sit around at my friends houses. All is not lost though, I am very healthy, low body fat (maybe too low), low chloresterol (doctor says i'll never have a problem with it), and everything else is perfectly fine (I just had a physical), and for the muscle I do have, I am pretty cut (its not impressive looking unless you wanna look like a chick though ). The only thing wrong is that I am way under my ideal body weight. Ive been trying to gain weight for a very long time, I eat as much as possible, even taken those weight gain shakes (the gnc ones). Everyone always blames it on my metabolism, which I am sure plays a major role in it, but after reading these boards I know that it's also my fault, if I eat enough of the right shit I know that it is possible to gain weight. What's brought me to these boards is reasearch on steroids, which is what I was goign to try to help me gain some weight. I still feel feel that these would really help me in my quest, but after reading people's opinions on those who take juice for an easy way to gain weight, I've decided to give the natural way one last shot. I'm gonna give it my all, too.

So far what I have learned is that the key is too eat many meals a day (5-6) and to take in as much calories as possible during those meals, splitting up the calories into the best ratio of fat/carbs/protien. Also, getting plenty of sleep also seems to be very important. I have a few other questions that I hope some of you can help me with.

1) Can you give me examples of meals that you guys would recommend for me? I am looking for meals that are easy to prepare, hopefully not too expensive, meals that will be good tasteing (or at least not too offensive) and some that would be easy to take with me to work and eat during my breaks/lunches. It seems to me these factors will be what determines if I can stick with it (which i really want to do). The more examples I get from people the better, because the more variety I have the less sick i will get of the meals.

2) Would it be necessary for me to go to the gym? I know it sounds silly, but I would really prefer to do workouts at home until I have gained a little weight. I am quite self-concious about my weight, and going to the gym puts it unto to much scrutiny for my liking. I have a bench and weights in my house, I could possibly get some more (not to expensive) equipment. I WILL go to the gym if necessary. I'll suck it up.

3) What kind of workout would you guys recommend for someone like me? I assume only some weight training because I dont want to burn off to much calories doing something stupid like some cardio. Hopefully a workout that I could do at home. (sorry, i know these are in the wrong forum)

4) Maybe a silly question, but I've been known to smoke pot (only drug I do... besides alcohol), this won't have any negative affect on me gaining weight will it? It seems to me it might even help, it increases my appitite and helps me sleep better. Also, I don't drink alcohol a lot, once maybe twice a week, will this be okay? (the bartender is always telling me the paralyzers i drink will make me fat, so maybe this too, is a good thing )

5) What other tips can you guys give me that might help me? Like should I avoid sugar (i drink lots of pop!)? Drink lots of water? Take any vitamins? Try out that creatine? Anything else you guys can think of that might help me!

6) I know I said that i decided against taking steroids, but I might as well ask... Do any of you guys think that it would be good for me to try anything out? Maybe a small does or something to help me out? Or even something that isnt a steroid that will help me either slow down my metabolism (if possible/wise) or help me gain weight quicker in any other way?

I apologize for the length of the post. I am just trying to cover everything I can think of. Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

[p0ink]

1) Can you give me examples of meals that you guys would recommend for me? I am looking for meals that are easy to prepare, hopefully not too expensive, meals that will be good tasteing (or at least not too offensive) and some that would be easy to take with me to work and eat during my breaks/lunches. It seems to me these factors will be what determines if I can stick with it (which i really want to do). The more examples I get from people the better, because the more variety I have the less sick i will get of the meals.

Man, at your weight, you really dont have to worry about what you eat as long as you are eating. eat everything in sight, and do it often. You seriously need to be eating every two hours, and even though your body will tell you it cant eat anymore, rest assured, it really can. I used to gag down my final bite at each meal...eating for me was never about enjoyment, it was more of a chore. Some of the stuff i personally enjoy while bulking are oatmeal (the real kind, not the sugar shit), peanut butter, milk, eggs, baked potatoes, and N-Large (BEST weight gainer I have ever used)....shit soooo much different stuff.

2) Would it be necessary for me to go to the gym? I know it sounds silly, but I would really prefer to do workouts at home until I have gained a little weight. I am quite self-concious about my weight, and going to the gym puts it unto to much scrutiny for my liking. I have a bench and weights in my house, I could possibly get some more (not to expensive) equipment. I WILL go to the gym if necessary. I'll suck it up.

I used to have the same dilemna as you when i first started, but not working out in a gym and having access to different equipments really hindered more than it helped. No one will really give you a hard time if you arent being like so many other shitheads there flexing and whatnot in front of the mirror. Just bring in a discman with some fucking angry music and tune everyone else out. Everybody has to start somewhere.

3) What kind of workout would you guys recommend for someone like me? I assume only some weight training because I dont want to burn off to much calories doing something stupid like some cardio. Hopefully a workout that I could do at home. (sorry, i know these are in the wrong forum)

Heavy compound movements like bench, squats, deadlifts, presses, etc. 3x a week.

4) Maybe a silly question, but I've been known to smoke pot (only drug I do... besides alcohol), this won't have any negative affect on me gaining weight will it? It seems to me it might even help, it increases my appitite and helps me sleep better. Also, I don't drink alcohol a lot, once maybe twice a week, will this be okay? (the bartender is always telling me the paralyzers i drink will make me fat, so maybe this too, is a good thing )

Alcohol and smoking weed will not get you far in working out. If you care that much, you would cut it out...

5) What other tips can you guys give me that might help me? Like should I avoid sugar (i drink lots of pop!)? Drink lots of water? Take any vitamins? Try out that creatine? Anything else you guys can think of that might help me!

Stop drinking fucking soda. It is loaded with sugar and phosphates. Drink a gallon of water day, give creatine a shot if you feel so inclined to do so. Use a good multi-vitamin, and get a weight gainer like N-Large 2

6) I know I said that i decided against taking steroids, but I might as well ask... Do any of you guys think that it would be good for me to try anything out? Maybe a small does or something to help me out? Or even something that isnt a steroid that will help me either slow down my metabolism (if possible/wise) or help me gain weight quicker in any other way?

You do not even need to be thinking about using steroids or any other meds at this point. You will grow well enough from just eating and training...wait a few years.

 

[Dryloch]

I can give you some advice from my own firsthand experience and a lot of reading.

I first want to say that even though it seems now that you can eat whatever you want and drink sugar sodas all day it will not be like that forever. What will eventually happen is that as you get older your insulin receptors will become desensatized and when that happens you will have no problem putting on weight, and not in a good way either. That is also when you will start having the cholesterol problems. If you start eating right now you will avoid all that and then your cholesterol really will never be a problem.

Ok let's start with working out at home. You can get started with just a set of dumbbells and some 5 and 10 pound weights for them. The key to gaining size is not to do a ton of reps with light weight. You want to lift enough weight that after 6 or 7 reps you are struggling and need to take a short rest and then do 7 more. You can find a ton of good dummbell exercises at www.abcbodybuilding.com You won't need weights at all for your legs and stomach there are plenty of good exercises for those that don't need weights at all. I may get flack from the pros for saying this but a good book would be Weightlifting for Dummmies it has a ton of excercises in it also.

As for what to eat. Tuna Fish is one of natures perfect foods for people doing weight training. If you do not like Tuna then canned chicken is almost as good. Sams Club sells 5 big cans of chicken for under 10 bucks. Just about any grilled meats are good too. Healthy vegetables are good as well, things like: salad vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and eggplant. Stay away from garbage vegetables like: Potatoes, Corn, Beans etc. Those vegetables do not have enough vitamins in them to make up for the high amount of starches and sugar they contain. This also goes for their good friend pasta. Bread in moderation is fine but stick to the real Whole Wheat kind and don't eat a whole lot of it. Unfortunately that leaves out everyones favorite Pizza. I will be 100% honest. I used to eat pizza all the time. I also used to have no energy and be overweight.

At least make an effort to eat less of that stuff if you feel you cannot cut it out completely. I really do think the soda is the main thing that will speed up how fast the health problems catch up to you later in life. I would strongly suggest that you switch to diet. If you really don't like the diet sodas there is one out now that you may not have tried. All the diet sodas out use Equal(Aspartame) except for one company. Diet RC Cola and Diet Rite are made with Splenda instead of nutrasweet. I think they taste much better then the nutrasweet ones. You might also try drinking unsweet tea that you add Splenda packets to yourself. Sams Club sells 700 Splendas for 14.99 which is way cheaper then at the supermarket.

Ok Vitamins. There are two main things you may want to take. One is obviously a multivitamin. Most of the reading I have done suggests that the US RDA is a bunch of crap. Look for a high potency multivitamin. The other thing you may want to consider is Fish Oil capsules. Most people do not get enough of what are called Omega 3 Fatty acids. Fish oil capsules are a good source of it and you don't have to drink a spoonful of castor oil like in the good old days. Once again they sell it cheap at, you guessed it, Sams Club. I am a cheap SOB so I like to tell everyone where the good deals are

I can't write you a book here but thankfully someone else did it for me. If you really want to become an expert on all the stuff I told you about then get this book. Protein Power Lifeplan by Drs Michael and Mary Eades. It will really help you understand why you can eat whatever you want now but why it will eventually catch up to you. It also goes into more detail on vitamins and Omega 3 and all kinds of stuff. It is only 9.95 just make sure you get that one and not their older one called just Protein Power it is not as thorough.

Good luck and I will check the thread again later if you have any more questions.

 

[The Terminator]

Dryloch, you are advocating too clean a diet for this guy IMO. He is quite thin and could easily get some decent size by eating alot more liberally. First off Mr.P you should track your eating habits for the next 3 days. Keep a journal on everything you are eating. You need to really know how many calories and how much of each macronutirent you are consuming. The reason I say that is ALOT of people trying to gain weight are not getting nearly as many calories as they think they are. 2nd, Start lifting weights asap. Mr.p you really need not worry about what you are eating at all, the more calories you can get the better. Try spacing your meals out to like 6-7 a day, and not meals that make you feel really full and bloated otherwise you might still feel that way when it comes time to eat again in 2 hours. and we can't have that.

 

[MrP]

So far its working!! Basically i've just been trying to eat stuff with lots of calories in it, I eat whenever I feel I possibly can (or every 2-3 hours, even if i have to choke it down). The scale says im gaining weight, I dont think it is just temp variation either, because I havent been able to break the 125 barrier EVER! I am always between 120-125. But as I speak I am actually 127 pounds... and i just went to the can . I gues it just goes to show that you can gain weight, just takes effort. It is a lot of effort, but from what i hear, if i can do this for 21 days i will develope a habit and it will be easier. I havent really been eating very healthy, we will see what kind of pounds im putting on in the next week to see if i need ot change this. Here is a sample of my diet (what i have eaten today).

-4 helpings honey nut cheerios (700calories), orange juice, banana
-chef boyardi beef ravioli 3 helpings (640calories), grape juice, jello pudding snack (80 calories)
-personal pan double pepperoni pizza, bowl of chocolate ice cream (snack )
-2 quarter pounder king burgers from burger king with cheese.

one more meal to eat before i go to bed, itll prolly be something retarded like some chunky soup, im totally stuffed right now.


What do you guys think? Do you think that that kind of diet is TOO unhealthy for a guy like me? I cant imagine myself gettign fat, but i guess anything is possible, should I wait to see if this starts putting junk in my truck before i worry about it? I did cut out on the pop and the alcohol for now.
thanks for all your responses

 

[TheProject]

Bump for the skinny guys out there. Excellent post, p0ink!

Eating for me is a chore too. I'm struggling to take in the amount of food I am, somewhere in the range of 3500-4000 cals/day.

I use the Optimum PowerMass 1000 gainer shakes at work with skim milk because that's the quickest and easiest thing for me to do at work.

I'm 6', and last July I was 176lbs, 19.5% b/f. Now I'm up to 188lbs, b/f at 11.6%.

Other staples of my diet, most of which have been mentioned:

chicken
95% lean ground beef
top sirloin
tuna
oatmeal
brown rice
potatoes

 

[The Terminator]

Mr. P try taking in more protein with the types of items that The Project has listed. Ans start hitting the iron!