Skinny person need muscle! Please Help?

[Tonysok]

Hello everyone,

I’m new to this community, but I’m looking for some information, advice, and suggestion on bodybuilding. At age 19, I find myself unhappy with my body condition and would like to change. Currently my attribute are height: 5 foot 9 inch weight: 140 pounds and body: slim & slender. I’m not looking to become a pro power lifter who can lift 300lbs or anything of that like. But I’d like to be able to pick up my lady and carry her under my arms without difficulty. My goals are to reach 165lbs or so and quote a “Tone & Define Physique.” I have a fast metabolism rate and it’s very difficult for me to put on the pounds. I have done some research on bodybuilding on the web. But I still have some unanswered question. I planned on starting a routine in the beginning of June. Which will consist of eating a clean diet daily (5-8 meals) and a 3 day split workout routine (leg, arm, and body.) For my diet it seem like I’m getting a lot of protein with low carbohydrates and fat. I figure protein is what help you build muscle, carbohydrate just filled you up, and fat is just fat.

A sample of my daily meals and snacks are:
-wake up
0230 Meal one – 6oz can tuna, 2 boil egg, 1 half slice of toasted bagel, 1 tablet ‘One A Day’ dietary supplement and 15oz water
0500 Snack one – 1 sportpharma promax bar and 10oz water
0730 Snack two – 1 Fruit (Banana, Apple, Orange, etc) and 10oz water
0930 Meal two – 6oz can tuna, 2 boil egg, 2 slice of bacon, and 10oz water
1200 Meal three – 3 boil egg, 3oz cottage cheese, celery/carrot, 8oz water
0100 Snack three – 10oz sportpharma promax shake (mixed low fat milk)
-nap
0430 Meal four – 12oz can chicken, 1 boil egg, celery/carrot, and 10oz water
0800 Meal five – 8pc hot chicken wing, potatoes wedge, celery/carrot, and 8oz water
0900 Snack four – 10oz sportpharma promax shake (mixed low fat milk)
-sleep
My questions here are (keep in mind I’m trying to bulk):
-Am I getting the right amount/ratio of protein, carbohydrate, and fat?
-Am I eating too little, too much, or too frequently?
-How much calories should I be getting in each meals and snacks?
-Are the food nutrition okay?
-Am I drinking to much water or should I rotate some with fruit juice etc?

As for my workout I’ve planned to work Legs on Monday, Arms on Wednesday, body on Friday, rest in between and weekend. Also I’m not doing any cardio workout. I have no time to hit the gym so everything is done at home with a total gym, a set of changeable barbell and dumbbell. For legs I have the barbell dead lift, barbell squat, and barbell lunge as exercise. Arms barbell drag curl, barbell curl, and barbell reverse curl. As for my body I’m force to use a total gym, unfortunately I have no room for a bench, and most of my chest, shoulder, and back exercise uses this machine. I don’t want to attempt bench pressing a barbell on a total gym, without a spotter and fear of dropping the barbell on myself. Some of the other exercise for my body are barbell row, barbell lean (not sure of correct name but I place the barbell on my shoulder and lean forward using my waist), dumbbell flye, and dumbbell bench press.
My questions here are:
-Are these exercises enough to gain mass with my diet?
-Is there more great exercise I can do with the equipment I have to target the major muscle?
-How many repetition and set should I be doing?
-How would I figure out what amount of weight should be used?

Some other miscellaneous question and concern I have are:
-I never get a full 8 hour of sleep a night. The only exception is Friday and Saturday night if I don’t go out. The reason being I work split shift 3am – 9am and 5:30pm to 7:30pm so the most I get nightly is 5hrs and I get a daily day time nap of 3hrs if I choose. It’s out of my control at the time being. Is the 8hrs of sleep in one long session a major factor?
-Supplement, I know I have promax bar and shake, but pill wise I also have an unopened amino maxx 2200 by Sportphama should I use it if so when?
-Between Centrum and One A Day which should I take, the reason why I been taking One A Day’s cause it has no Iron, I read somewhere us men get enough Iron in our diet, is this true?
-Body fat I don’t know my body fat, what’s the average or ideal body fat percentage for a person my height/weight, and how is that measure? Same for body measurement do I just take a measuring tape and wrap it around my waist, arms, shoulders, chest, leg etc to get my measurement?
-And my last question, to reach my goal of 165lbs of lean muscle, how far would I need to bulk up in order to reach that 165lbs mark after the cutting phase with low body fat?

Any advice and suggestion are welcome and I greatly appreciate it.

Thanks, Tony

[MiloMan]

Read this:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hreadid=101841

[Tonysok]

Thanks for the link MiloMan but it doesn't answered all my question.

[DawgPound]

The first recommendation I would make when you ask a question or questions is you should make it easier for others to read. You have so much packed in there that it is hard to deciper. Shorter text will be much easier to read and will probably elicit more answers. That being said, I would either make it easier to read or split your questions into separate threads. You can post the supplement questions in the supplements forum.

I'll try and answer some of your questions though.

If you are beginner, you can make gains w/ your equipment although optimal gains will be made w/ better equipment.

I'm not a nutrition expert, but for your daily protein intake, it should be your bodyweight in ounces.

I would just drink water since it can be difficult to get a gallon a day.

It seems like you can't do anything about the sleep situation, but I do think it is better to have continuous sleep.

[sehnsucht]

Am I drinking to much water or should I rotate some with fruit juice etc?

the body just excretes too much water, thats why there is no such thing as water poisening. Juice is water, but with sugar....I'd stay away, or dilute it


For my diet it seem like I’m getting a lot of protein with low carbohydrates and fat. I figure protein is what help you build muscle, carbohydrate just filled you up, and fat is just fat

carbs are nessisary, as is fat. they are a source for energy, and at the first thing used by the body as soon as you do aerobic workouts. If your building, I would not cut these out from the diet, but obviously watch the bad fats ( homogoniated oils, saturated fats and what not)

Protien helps synthasise muscle, and you should do a analysis of your average diet before you add protien suppliments to your diet. The muscle is 15% protien ( I am unsure on this figure, correct me if Im wrong), so protien is important, but not everything. Good fats are Omega threee ( again I could be wrong), which are like fish oil, and olive oil. try and incorperate these in your diet, they are good for you. I should take that advice, I just dont have the money to indulce in such luxuries at this time...but if you do, defintly do so.

As for your workout, read the stickys , they spell everything out better than I can. Be sure to get plenty of rest, and stick to your routine, and you'll be on the right track.

[ComfortEagle]

Originally posted by sehnsucht

the body just excretes too much water, thats why there is no such thing as water poisening. Juice is water, but with sugar....I'd stay away, or dilute it

I agree, stick with water, however drinking too much water can actually lead to hyponatremia--when the sodium concentration in your blood drops extremely low--and it can actually cause death.

I just thought I'd point that out--you'd have to take in an outrageous amount of water for this to happen, and most likely be sweating hard (for a long period of time) for this to happen. Unless you are a marathon runner, you don't have to worry about it.

[Mantra_Locust]

I'm just curious, how much water is too much? I drink roughly about 2 gallons a day... Though I'm sure you'd have to drink far more than that to get hyponatermia....

On a Side note, nice name ComfortEagle, my entrance music is actually that song Cake rocks!: )

[ComfortEagle]

Originally posted by Mantra_Locust
I'm just curious, how much water is too much? I drink roughly about 2 gallons a day... Though I'm sure you'd have to drink far more than that to get hyponatermia....

I don't know how much water would be too much. I wouldn't worry about drinking 2 gal/day, though. The main concern with hyponatremia is sodium concentration, though, so as long as you are taking in enough sodium in your food so that the concentration stays high enough, your ok.

On a Side note, nice name ComfortEagle, my entrance music is actually that song Cake rocks!: )

Thanks Cake is an awsome band.

Also, we have another person in here named after a song/album from a kickass band: sehnsucht. Rammstein is my one of my top two or three favorite bands.

[BigRedd21]

Hey there pal I think that I have the answer to all your questions. I am new to the community, but I have been lifting for some time now. And I have managed to put on 60lbs in 1 3/4 years. I think I could help.

Nutrition

Calories a day
(Bodyweight x 45) = the calories you need a day
! sounds a bit much but believe me you need this much... It worked for me!

Protein - a 60gram shake every 3 hours. From the time you wake up, until you go to bed. after 6 hours another shake is required, when you are sleep.


Carbs -
(bodyweight x 7 to 10)

!Nutrition is important every day. But it is the most important on the Rest days. Because this is when u do the most growing in weight. !!!No Cardio( Sleep as many times a day as you can!!!
Sleep is when you grow the most. Sleep is most important on the off days. So if you are not sleepy but you have 2 hours before the next meal, what are you going to do? SLEEP!!!!!!

Work Out

2 body parts a day... Rest every other day. ! that is one rest day between each workout day, except saturday and sunday. Those are both rest days.
3 exercises per body part with 4 sets of 8 - 10 Reps each body part.

Try this for 3 months I promise you will gain 30 to 50 pounds.

!!!!! Never work out on an off day. and only train each body part once a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tonysok]

Thanks BigRedd thats alot of useful information. The previous two week I manage to put on 5lbs but this pass week I didn't put on any weight I'm at 150lbs today the same as last Sunday.

Here's what I'm doing:

Workout; 2 day split Monday and Thursday w/ no cardio
Monday: Chest, Back, Shoulder, and Abs
Thursday: Leg, Arm, and Abs
-Basic stuff Deadlift, Squat, Lunge, Row, Bench Press, Shoulder Press, and Flye.

Meals and snack: Are eaten between a 2 1/2hr to 3 1/2 intervel
-Do scamble egg still had protein as boil ones? In one of the other forum it said that raw egg are useless, I was wonder it this was the same effect to scamble egg?
-Protein shake, is it normal for you to get sick and have to use the toilet almost everyday from shake?

Sleep: Weekdays 4hr at night and a 3hr nap in the day. Weekend I get my full 8hr.

Thanks, Tony
'150lbs; 15lbs more to go'