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best way to get big in 4 weeks?

3

3nm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 30, 2006
991
0
hello,

i have about 4 weeks till school starts again and i'd like to gain as much weight as possible. i'm 5' 11" and was 133lbs in summer '07. now i'm about 145lbs and would like to gain an extra ~20lbs. i understand that realistically i can't expect to gain much in 1 month as it took me over 4 months to gain ~12lbs. i'm hoping that; however, i'll get better results in these four weeks since there's no stress from school.

what i eat/drink:

290-350 cal every 3-4 hrs (beef/grilled chicken breasts/fruits/cheese/pasta/peanuts/protein bars/etc.)

~1/2 gal of red cap organic milk everyday (my bod seems to recover much faster since i started drinking milk again)

1 bottle of chocolate milk after workout

(taking a break from muscle milk since i had been drinking that for 3+ months, stopped eating hard boiled eggs cos i'm getting tired of them.)

what i do:

upper body (including tri/biceps) followed by an 1.5mi run. rest 2 days.

lower body followed by an 1.5mi run. rest 2 days.

TIA. :)
 
Not a clue, I've been trying it for ages, if I exercise it all just melts away and i turn into a curveless twig, if I don't exercise I don't have the appetite to eat enough to gain weight.
 
have you tried drinking milk? i think i gained 3-4lbs in 2-3 weeks from drinking milk. :)
 
you see, i used to run 5k every other day. if i cut any further, i'm afraid i won't be able to catch a thief on the street. :eek:
 
Serious post:

STOP RUNNING! It's eating up all your muscles

MORE WEIGHT TRAINING: 3-5X a week, and SPLIT IT UP, 1-2 body parts at a time.

EAT MORE: to gain weight you need tons of complex (and simple) carbs and protein (and fat). And add pre-workout meals of 30-40g protein, 20g of complex carbs; post-workout meal of 30-40g protein, 30g of simple carbs.


Simple as that
 
BiTurboMunkie said:
have you tried drinking milk? i think i gained 3-4lbs in 2-3 weeks from drinking milk. :)
Click to expand...

I used to drink masses of the stuff until i realized that it made me smell like a dog :D

From the sounds of things you're doing plenty. Of course, it all depends on your body type as well. You can't force yourself to put on too much weight in too little time. And eat carbs, or you'll end up on the Atkin's diet ;)
 
zakatov said:
Serious post:

STOP RUNNING! It's eating up all your muscles

MORE WEIGHT TRAINING: 3-5X a week, and SPLIT IT UP, 1-2 body parts at a time.

EAT MORE: to gain weight you need tons of complex (and simple) carbs and protein (and fat). And add pre-workout meals of 30-40g protein, 20g of complex carbs; post-workout meal of 30-40g protein, 30g of simple carbs.


Simple as that
Click to expand...

Yep- running will tear off weight like crazy. Lift weights correctly (get someone to show you, like a trainer) and eat!
 
Oh, dear... Why do you want to be bigger? I used to be like a rake until I was in my mid-20s. Then the weight just piled on. Now I'm embarrassed with clothes. You don't know how lucky you are. God has a design for your body. Don't screw with it. Girls will like you more for your personality (or pant package, if my email is to be believed) than your waist and stomach measurement. Trust me. Find something else to worry about.
 
That two day rest thing sounds excessive. And if you can't catch a thief in a single mile, then you need to work on sprinting, not long distance :) Also, you might want to try to do some of you upper body and some of your lower body in the same day, and then after your one day of rest, do the other parts of your upper and lower together.
 
Keep running and stop trying to put weight on. Running will help your aerobic fitness and whilst you're young enough, help build lung capacity that will stay with you for life. Any weight that you put on will require constant maintenance to avoid it turning into flab. Find a sport to play and train for that rather than doing pointless vanity weights.
 
MrSmith said:
Oh, dear... Why do you want to be bigger? I used to be like a rake until I was in my mid-20s. Then the weight just piled on. Now I'm embarrassed with clothes. You don't know how lucky you are. God has a design for your body. Don't screw with it. Girls will like you more for your personality (or pant package, if my email is to be believed) than your waist and stomach measurement. Trust me. Find something else to worry about.
Click to expand...

good question. i guess i'm not satisfied w/ my small... ... ummm... body frame. if i put a skirt on i'll probably look better than andrea jung. :eek:

but really, i started strength training for martial arts. but i guess after seeing the bigger dudes at the gym, i kinda wanna have thick arms and broad shoulders too.
 
BiTurboMunkie said:
good question. i guess i'm not satisfy w/ my small... ... ummm... body frame. if i put a skirt on i'll probably look better than andrea jung. :eek:

but really, i started strength training for martial arts. but i guess after seeing the bigger dudes at the gym, i kinda wanna have thick arms and broad shoulders too.
Click to expand...
So AJ is a man just like you.:D My point is... why? Why broad shoulders, wide whatever? You think anyone's going to be impressed?

I'd give anything to be skinny again.
 
You'll have to eschew the cardio for a heavy-as-hell 5-day weights split (I repeat: STOP THAT CARDIO.) and you'll also have to really work at eating. If you eat 300 calories every 3 hours, that is still only 2400 calories per day! Nowhere near enough for your target weight man. Try to get 3500+ calories a day. You can lower your protein to carbs/fat ratio, just so long as you're eating at least 170 grams of protein per day.

You sound like you have a good idea of how to eat already. Everyone knows how to eat carbs, but protein... that gets tedious! Milk, chicken breast, tuna, cottage cheese, and steak should be as much of your diet as possible. If that's not enough, then go to the whey protein shakes like you mentioned.

It's not a magical concept, it's called a bulking phase. Do one! Though you should try to make it 3-4 months if you want some real lasting results and not to look like a twig. You have a while left before summer anyway, so you may as well bulk.
 
☝ and try not to burn any calories by taxing the heart into beating. What a waste.
 
Yep, you need to eat way more. I don't know what a half gallon of milk is, but it sounds like you are still under 3000 calories a day. If you are working out everyday and eating well with the intentions of 'putting on weight', you need to be eating 4000-5000 calories of the food required to bulk up (lean meats, proper mix of carbs/protein/fats, etc). Depending on your age and your avg heart rate during your workout, you are probably burning more than you are taking in!

Chuck Liddell supposedly has to eat 4700 calories a day just to MAINTAIN his weight at 205. If you are trying to bulk up and you are working out frequently, you really need to eat more. Cut the running back too, you'll never put on weight doing that. Run/bike/elliptical to warm up and get blood flowing, then go hit the weights! You aren't trying to run off the food you ate, you want that food input to be there for recovery from your awesome workout. Tear the muscles down and let them build back up. Alternate body groups on different days so tired muscles can recover and rebuild.

It will be difficult at your size to put on 20lbs of weight in a month but doing what has been mentioned here and by others should get you on the right track.
 
Alternative: Eat 4-5 small, healthy meals a day (Diatetic diet is a good start), get plenty of rest, and let your body do what it was designed to do... what your genes say it MUST do. And if that's not good enough to impress who you're trying to impress, screw them.
 
yeah muscle milk doens t work really well to gain weight, it's a low carb protein shake, i actually use muscle milk to lose weight, try a high carb protein shake too, stop running so much and you are doing wayyyy too little weight lifting if you wnat to grow, the amount of weight lifting you are doing is almost as much as you should be doing to mantain muscle mass let alone build...
 
An initial rule of thumb would be to consume 1.5 gram of protein for every kilogram of your destination weight. In US terms eat 175g protein everyday. Try to increase fiber intake and complex carbs especially in the same meal as the bulk protein.

As stated you need to stop by GNC and get into a shake 2+ times per day. They have Weight Gainer 1800 (mix with milk) that you should use instead of glasses of milk.

You do have to hit the gym more frequently:
Monday: Back/Lower Body/ABS
Tuesday: Triceps/Chest/ABS
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Biceps/Shoulders/ABS
Thursday: Dead Lift/Squats/ABS
Friday: Rest
REPEAT

Pickup The Abs Diet (it's bright orange) unlimited excercises and their proper techniques.
 
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