No matter what I do I can't seem to gain weight

[AerysIII]

I'm a college student currently sitting at 6'0 150 lb. For over a year I've been trying to gain more weight, and my goal is to hit 160 by the summer. Only problem is that this has been my goal the entire time, and even a year later it looks I haven't advanced an inch toward achieving it.

I've been going to the gym for an hour a day 5 days a week for about 6 months now. Before that I did a 3 day split at an hour and a half each day. Monday I work chest, Tuesday shoulders and triceps, Wednesday legs, Thursday back, and Friday biceps. Each day I usually do 4 sets of 4 different exercises. For each exercise I use a weight such that it's tough for me to go past 12 reps. From what I've read about sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (basically just when you're training for size vs strength) this seems to be the optimal number of reps. I'm not sweating too much when I work out though. I figured this was just because I'm really thin and don't really have a lot of excess calories to burn, but I guess it's also possible that I'm just not going hard enough. I'm open to any and all suggestions if anyone can see anything wrong with my routine.

I have a meal plan where I'm allowed 2 meals a day, so I try to cram as much as I can into those. I have a scoop of peanut butter and a protein shake with milk every morning after I wake up and another after I finish working out. With every meal the dining hall usually has either a roast chicken or pork so I almost always have two plates of that with rice and vegetables, along with 3 glasses of milk with each meal. I even calculated the amount of protein I'm eating every day and it came out to about 170 grams, which should be more than enough given my current weight.

But despite all this I still haven't seen any gains or any changes on the scale. Seriously what's wrong with me? Do I have a ****ing tapeworm or something?

[BenD4Me]

simple, you arent eating enough.

[Falcon8334]

what is your calorie maintenance? it's not that hard just eat more

[magician27]

you are not eating enough. if you depend on cafeterias for your nutrition you cant have idea about your caloric intake. and i think you need more than 2 meals to gain weight if you are not eating until you throw up. naturally you get full until you eat some decent amount. but calories may not neccesarily add up to surplus, if you are not on surplus , you are wasting time at gym. try to eat more a lot more carbs than you are now

[Kepar]

You do chest only on mondays and takes you about an hour and a half? Either you are resting too much between sets, goofing around the gym on doing way too many exercises per muscle group. Every workout should last between 45mins and an hour. Mine take usually about 55mins resting 1min between sets.

I think you're wasting time and energy training biceps and triceps only. Switch to a push/legs/pull routine and do each workout twice a week, so your week would look like this:
Monday: Chest and Shoulders
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Back and Traps
Thursday: Chest and Shoulders
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Back and Traps
Sunday: Rest

Focus on compound movements, for example:
Chest: INCLINE BENCH PRESS, flat bench press, CHEST DIPS
Shoulders: overhead shoulder press, arnold press, upright rows
Legs: SQUATS, lunges, stiff legged DEADLIFTS, leg press
Back: PULL UPS, pulldowns, any type of ROW (dumbbell, tbar, whatever)

The exercises on caps are a must. If you feel like your arms are not getting worked enough, then you're not going hard enough. And if you still wish your arms would get a better workout, throw in a couple of isolation exercises at the end of your workour. Triceps on chest/shoulders day and biceps on back day.

And yes, EAT EAT and EAT. I find it very difficult to be in caloric surplus eating only twice a day. Try to eat 5 to 6 times a day. One of those meals could be a high caloric protein shake.

Hope it helps brah

[sakau2007]

Eat a lot more. Go with a proven full body routine. Follow it. Eat. And eat more.

[AerysIII]

Kepar, I go for an hour a day now. I used to do an hour and a half 3 days a week, now I do an hour a day 5 days a week. And I'd eat 5-6 times a day if I could, but the problem is that with my meal plan as it is, I'm only allowed to go into the dining hall twice a day, wherein I try to cram in as much as I can. The rest of what you guys said sounds awesome though, and I really appreciate it. Any ideas on small snacks I can eat outside the dining hall for a college student with limited meal options? Would a couple scoops of peanut butter work?

[magician27]

Kepar, I go for an hour a day now. I used to do an hour and a half 3 days a week, now I do an hour a day 5 days a week. And I'd eat 5-6 times a day if I could, but the problem is that with my meal plan as it is, I'm only allowed to go into the dining hall twice a day, wherein I try to cram in as much as I can. The rest of what you guys said sounds awesome though, and I really appreciate it. Any ideas on small snacks I can eat outside the dining hall for a college student with limited meal options? Would a couple scoops of peanut butter work?

steal some from dining hall to eat later lol peanut butter is pretty dense in calories but dont know if you wanna have most of your calories from fat

[sakau2007]

Kepar, I go for an hour a day now. I used to do an hour and a half 3 days a week, now I do an hour a day 5 days a week. And I'd eat 5-6 times a day if I could, but the problem is that with my meal plan as it is, I'm only allowed to go into the dining hall twice a day, wherein I try to cram in as much as I can. The rest of what you guys said sounds awesome though, and I really appreciate it. Any ideas on small snacks I can eat outside the dining hall for a college student with limited meal options? Would a couple scoops of peanut butter work?

yeah. i occasionally carry a bag of raw peanuts with me and eat anywhere from a half cup to cup a day just having a handful here and there. that is over 800 calories and lots of "good" fats

also... peanut butter and banana sandwiches. can be made for very cheap and give you a pretty decent amount of carbs and protein. especially when washed down with a glass of milk.

[justlaxin3]

As said before you gotta put it down. And my secret for packing the calories in easy...PB and jelly sandwiches. Easy 500 calories that you can down in 6 bites. Add in a big glass of milk, 700 calories easy. If ya wanna really go balls deep, spread a tablespoon or two of olive oil on the bread before you put on the PB and jelly. Easy 900 calorie meal that you can literally down in under 2 minutes.

[Kepar]

Yes. Nice ideas. Peanut butter is definitely helpful when trying to add calories to your diet. But I think preparing your daily meals or snacks with anticipation is the key. If you have access to a kitchen, you could prepare yourself many things to eat throughout the day. Make yourself some sandwiches and pack them in ziplock bags or tupperware or whatever and take them with you. Also try to find cold pressed coconut oil and add it to anything you drink or even take shots of it. Buy cottage cheese and eat before going to bed. Buy snickers bars (although I'm totally against hydrogenated oils and think NOBODY should ingest it) Btw hydrogenated oils are also found in most commercial peanut butters. Partial or fully hydrogenated, both are venom to your body. A quick google search will tell you why. I always buy either organic or natural peanut butter and always check the label to make sure its free of it.

Not being able to put on weight might be also caused by food allergies or intolerance. As Elliot Hulse said, check your poop profile. If you have constant diarrhea or constipation or stomach cramps or whatever that's out of the ordinary, you might be poisoning your body. This would directly affect your bodys ability to absorb nutrients. Many people overlook this, but as you might tell from my signature, I learned it the hard way.

If you don't mind me asking, where do you study? How come you have access to a gym 24/7 but have access to the dining hall twice a day?

Hope it helps brah

[AerysIII]

If you don't mind me asking, where do you study? How come you have access to a gym 24/7 but have access to the dining hall twice a day?

I go to BU. Gym's open till 11 and I can go whenever the **** I want. But with my meal plan as it is I'm only allowed to swipe into the dining hall twice a day, and can eat as much as I want while I'm there. Thanks for the tips though I appreciate it.

[SuffolkPunch]

I could easily hit 1500 calories on each visit to the food hall... Pile on meat, veg, potato or pasta or fries. Then lots of desserts.

[Euell]

you arent eating enough

[Cranz]

you arent eating enough

and you are training way too incorrectly. Hitting x1 a week and dedicating a whole day for biceps is completely un-optimal for a drug free lifter. On top of that you aren't also tracking progress so you are probably not pushing yourself for that extra 5 pounds or one rep.