Newbie

**bendudman** · 18-08-2010 02:29 PM

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and fairly new to this in general.

I've been working out for three months now with fairly good gains, toned up and added 7kg. I'm quite slight, 5'10" 77kg currently. I've been given a good program that I’m sticking to but I want to put on some serious bulk. I'm taking 2-3 protein shakes a day and just started to take creatine. Is there any other supplements anyone can recommend to add weight as I feel I struggle to a bit.

Cheers,

Ben

**MJ.23** · 18-08-2010 02:46 PM

You wont like my answer.

Food, food, food, food ,food ,food. Eat more food!

IMO max of 2 shakes a day. I will never have more than 2 a day. They are meant to supplement a good diet and by having 3 you are shifting the balance towards your food supplementing your supplements!

To gain weight you need to be in a calorie excess. Work out your maintenance calories and add on 15-20% for optimum weight gain. Achieve as much as you can through diet and if you cant quite make it with the food add on a protein shake to make up the numbers.

IMO theres no such thing as a hardgainer. Everyone will gain mass if in a calorie excess so theres nothing hard about that!

Good luck!

**Medic** · 18-08-2010 02:48 PM

yea dextrose or maltodextrose (same thing effectively and dirt cheap).. take around 50grams in ur post workout drink and you will soon bulk. also another great healthy way is to add oats to your shakes. (mp do ultra fine oats that you can put into your shake as well. other natural products for gaining weight could be from increasing healthy fat intake: a teaspoon of olive oil every now and again or putting natural peanut butter into your shakes... even ice cream (as long as you dont get the designer ones) offer half-decent calories (due to the milk content etc)

in summary.. dextrose and oats and peanut butter in ur shakes 3X a day and you;ll see good results in no time (:

**bendudman** · 18-08-2010 03:25 PM

Thanks for the suggestions.

Are dextrose and maltodextrose simular to weight gain supplements?

Thanks,

Ben

**sendos** · 18-08-2010 03:34 PM

Yes, you'll pretty much find them in every weight gain product out there. Don't go overboard on simple carbohydrates like that though. There is bulking up and then there is just getting fat, taking dextrose/malto outside of straight after training is a sure fire way to pile on the fat.

My advice is to take it slow tbh, add calories gradually and if you find your self getting fat cut them back a bit. Don't make the mistake of eating everything in sight, IMO thats a stupid idea unless you really struggle to put on weight; an extra 500 calories on top of mantinence is more then enough to gain muscle.

**Tauren** · 18-08-2010 05:45 PM

How quickly are you adding weight? If its anything like 1lb a week I wouldn't change a thing.

**bendudman** · 18-08-2010 10:02 PM

Hi Tauren,

It would be around 1lb a week.

**Tauren** · 19-08-2010 01:11 AM

Assuming your training is half decent, and your strength is increasing, then you are probably getting it right, or a lot more right than wrong

I would relax, if you start adding weight a lot more quickly theres a good chance it would be mainly/entirely fat.

**Ratty_90** · 27-08-2010 04:13 PM

The all round answer for every question on this board: Oats.

200g oats a day spread throughout your protein shakes will add around 700 calories to your diet a day, in one of the healthiest ways possible.

Cant believe im the first to say it personally.

Dont just pile in refined sugars when you can have oats, you will seriously regret it a year down the line.

**TRC** · 27-08-2010 04:42 PM

what ratty says, why bother with malto/dextrose when Oats are dirt cheap anyway. You could always get some coconut oil for the shakes to give it a sweeter(in my opinion) taste than olive oil, even some shredded coconut or coconut milk.