Yet another beginner.....diet advice wanted.....current pics

[schismatic]

Hi guys,

Been lurking on these forums a while now. I'm a 5' ft 8" guy, weight 67kg. Have always been fairly skinny and have had a 'fast metabolism' (whatever that really means!), meaning that I have struggled to put on weight. Also in the past, I didn't use to eat enough which hasn't helped. I

I'm now determined to try to sort myself out a bit and starting adding muscle mass so that I don't look as skinny - I want to look more filled out.

As recently as Christmas, I weighed less than 10 st, but for the past month I have been drinking Impact Weight Gainer with some Isolate Whey and whole milk, having this twice a day.

I have also been doing some training at home as I am not a member of a gym. I have access to a pair of DBs which I can put 20KG on across the two in total. I have been training 3 times a week at home after work. Here's my current training:

3 sets:

DB Squats - 10 reps
Decline pressups (feet up on the sofa!) - 10 reps
Crunches - 10 reps
DB Shoulder Press - 10 reps
Plank - 1 min

In addition to this, on the days when I am not training, I run probably about 2 miles. I used to run 10k type distance about 6 months ago, but I stopped because of a foot injury. I'm now back running and I will be stepping this up a fair bit over the summer because I'm doing the Great North Run.

Here is my typical daily diet:

Breakfast (6:30am):

2 pieces of wholemeal toast with butter and marmite
glass of orange juice
Impact Weight Gainer with added Isolate Whey scoop in 500 ml of whole milk

Mid-Morning (10am):

Granola/oat bar
1 or 2 glasses of water

Lunch (12:30pm):

Chicken tikka sandwich (2 slices of seeded batch bread, salad, mayonnaise)
2 x satsumas
Cereal bar
Glass of water

Mid-afternoon (3pm):

Apple

Get home about 5:45pm, have a snack of yoghurt (about 1/2 of those 500ml tubs)

Workout about 6 - 6:15pm.

PWO: Impact Weight Gainer with added scoop of Isolate Whey, 500ml of whole milk

Evening meal (7:30pm):

chicken breast, new potatoes, veg
or
steak, potatoes, veg
or
chicken stir fry, rice,
or
salmon fillet, potatoes, veg
or
spag bol / chili con carne

Just before bed (9:30 - 10pm):
1 x MP daily vitamin, 3 x zinc/magnesium caps (they help me feel a bit brighter when I wake up)

Here are some pics of me currently at 67kg:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

I would really appreciate it if you could critique my diet and training, constructive criticism is wanted! I'm not out to become massive, I just want a bit more muscle and a bit more tone on my body so I don't feel so negative about it.

Cheers!

[MissVanda]

What do you mean by 'so I don't feel negative about it?' What are the things you don't like and what effect does it have on you? I only ask becasue if you can isolate the areas then it can really add some good incentives and goals to a workout routine and highlight certain things that can be targeted and prioritised. Looks ok to me, but you have to be happy.

[Fred]

The way to ut muscle mass on is very simple. Approach it in the same way as someone who wants to 'get massive' would. Stop about five years sooner than this 'get massive' person. Job done.

You need to eat lots, probably more than you are eating now and go to a gym/get a barbell, bench, power rack and weights at home. Train at the gym 3 to 4 times per week, compound lifts. Lots and lots of info in the beginners section.

[hodi]

Hi dude, 2 posts in 3 years?! Epic!

I think you need to consider joining the gym or increasing your home kit perhaps. Have you had a squizz at a guy called scooby on youtube? He does lots of home training ideas, and its totally nuts!
Also try being more precise with everything for the first week or two at least, work out maintenance calories, add some then record everything on something like myfitnesspal. Or look at some of the less cut then bulk plans like intermittent fasting. Certainly I think you wold do well to pop some more mass on there over the next months as a priority.
You could also try adding some creapure and some more preworkout mix.
And get a training log going to get that post count up!

[Billv0]

You can add alot more volume on your bodyweight workouts. i found certain exercises can be trained daily for several weeks before taking a break then there were others that needed more recupe time. The pressups was one of the daily ones i could do and i dont know if this was just my imagination but im sure it was building up the serratus muscles or the muscle behind that which was really quite odd since i was doing it more for chest.

Log your time it takes you to do each set and how many reps (keep adding reps) you did if you cant beat your time or do less reps take a day off and try again. Its crude but simple.

[McPeedster]

Quote

Also try being more precise with everything for the first week or two at least, work out maintenance calories, add some then record everything on something like myfitnesspal

difinetly download myfitnesspal - i saw Hodi's comments - checked it out and now can't believe I never used it before and its brill. give it a go - will definetly help keep track of what you need to eat!

thanks Hodi for that btw

[DamianWalker]

get on gomad diet with a proper gym routine, should sort you out

[schismatic]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've started using My Fitness Pal today, very impressed!........here's my diet for today, it's fairly typical of what I would eat in the day:



Once I have got my diet sorted, I will happy to start looking at how I can improve my training, but I think it's best that the diet is correct first else I won't have the right building blocks in place.

With regards to the 'negative' comment, I just want to have a better physical appearance that I can have a bit more pride in, I also want it so that I can prove to myself that I can achieve goals that I set.

At the moment I am still largely sticking to the bodyweight exercises like pressups, crunches, but I am also adding some DB squats and DB overhead presses as well.

As I am looking to increase muscle mass, what is generally considered the best set range and rep range? Should I be looking to do ~5 reps, or more like 8-10? How about sets?

Thanks for the advice so far guys, I am starting to see the beginnings of gains and I'm already feeling a lot more positive! Cheers!

[hodi]

Looks good dude, nice one! I'd go for 8-12 reps if I were you.

[MJ.23]

Looks like you are using a lot of shakes matey.