QuestionI am trying to gain muscle weight. I weigh about 175 and am 5'11 24 year old male. I have started to work out been about a month but i haev been active my whole life. was in the military play hockey every week i work on my feet. But i have always been that guy that can eat or do anything and am pretty skinny. most of my weight is in my legs. im trying to devlope a bigger upper body. I haev talked to someone about what workouts to do but they said for me to gain muscle weight i need to have the calories to build muscle and to eat 5-6 times a day. My question is i go to college full time and work full time what can i do and what should i eat to gain muscle weight not fat and how can i manage to eat 6 times a day.
AnswerHi Mike, very sorry for the delay, but I had a little bit of water in my computer, and had to get it fixed, so I without internet for a a few days.
Okay, about your question--you want to gain muscle weight! Well, your friend was accurate in telling you that you need to eat more calories, eat 5-6 times per day and lift weights. You do have a busy schedule, but it is still very easy to see at least a 10 lb muscle gain in about 6 months, if you do your weights 4x week, 45 min session. As far as eating 5-6 times a day, if you buy a good quality protein shake or meal replacement, and consume 2 per day, that leaves you with 3-4 solid meals--salad, veggies, lean meat/fish/poultry, and some complex carbs--oatmeal, potato, brown rice, etc.
You can easily prepare 3-4 mini-meals consisting of a veggie, protein source and complex carb the night before your work/classes, and bring them with you in a tupperware. For your stats, I recommend 30-40 g protein (7-8oz meat/fish) and 30-40 g of compex carbs (a 150g potato, 1 cup of brown rice, 1 cup of whole wheat pasta) per meal. You can have as many veggies as you want. Make sure you drink 1/2 gallon water minimum throughout the day.
If you eat 3 or 4 solid meals like this, and supplement with 2 shakes--one after your workout, and one before bed (or for breakfast), then you should have no problem accomplishing your goals with a good solid workout program. If most of your weight is in your legs right now, that's actually a good sign, because you have alot of muscle in your legs, and it shouldn't take long to put on upper body size---good news for you! It's much harder to put on lower body size, so you have the advantage here. You just need regular training and eating, and once you do that, size is inevitable.
www.getbig.com is a good site for articles about training, as is www.bodybuilding.com.
good luck mike!
