Gaining weight and muscle.

[Fake Alias]

Hi, right now I eat 3 meals a day, I find it hard to eat more. I eat cereal or eggs in the morning, pizza or sandwhich at lunch and meat, pasta or fish at dinner. I find time to work out (curls, pushups, bench) for 10 mins every other day. I have enough equipment I just dont have much time to use it. I go to sleep at 12:00, wake up at 7:00. I am 18 and weigh 140 and I wanna weigh 180.

Starting this week, with your help, I am going to schedule work outs and heavier/more meals to gain weight and strength. I am thin and not very strong and I really want to change this.

I need to know how often to work out/run and how many meals to eat a day and what to eat. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[chavos]

140 to 180 isn't a good idea, on the face of it. I don't think that you need to add that much bulk to get significantly stronger. Eat what you're hungry for, and watch for getting actual nutrition, and not just carbs and protien. Your wieght will adjust itself, IMO. If you put on muscle, you'll be hungry for more as your body burns more fuel. If you want to go for more than that...i'd ask your doctor. Getting heart disease from putting on too much wieght would be the suck.

Your biggest obstacle as i see it is time-a good workout probably takes more time than that. Find a work out buddy-someone to compete with, have spot for you, and to have as support. It will help you stick with this.

[Fake Alias]

What should I be eating? What gives lots of protien and what protien bars or shakes are good?

[chavos]

I'd be looking to eat regular meals-making sure that you're eating plenty of meat, trying to minimize how much saturated fat you're taking in. Chicken, fish, lean pork...things like this. If getting 5 a day of fruits and veggies isn't your strong suit, take a men's multivitamin-you'd be surprised the difference it can make when trying to add muscle mass and recover from tough workouts. Powerbar has a pretty tasty high protien version, but i'm personally a fan of real meat if i've got the time to cook.

[Leviathan[NCV]]

As a first reccomendation, head to http://www.abcbodybuilding.com and sign up on their forums, they can provide a lot more information than I can.
Second, you'll need to eat, preferably some six 3-350 calorie meals a day, hungry, not, eat. Eat natural foods as much as possible, plenty of veggies, and plenty of healthy protiens such as fish (tuna is your best friend... just get used to life without mayo), chicken, pork, beef (go for lean steaks), nuts (in moderation), dairy products (eggs, plain yogurt cheese, milk). If you dont have the time to cook all of those during the day, getting a good whey protien can help, mixed with milk, and even a tablespoon of pb. Working out regularly is great, but rest is key to growth. Make sure you sleep at least 8 hours a night. When you work out, try to fit a schedule isolating muscle groups, for example: Monday biceps, tuesday calves, wensday upper back, thursday thighs, friday triceps... You get the picture. Start with the heaviest weight you can do an 8 rep set with, and then when you work to failure with that weight, slowly remove the weights 10 lbs at a time untill your down to a moderate weight, and furthermore exaustion. It seems like a long process but actually takes no time at all.

Good luck.

[Antagony]

If you weigh 140, then bulking up to 180 probably isn't the way to go. This I know, because I'm in a similar boat.

Focus on working out before you focus on food. You want to do that because you'll naturally get a lot hungrier, and you'll do best to eat natural foods. Those protein shakes and what-not aren't going to help you much (if at all) at this point.

Very important -- You may actually lose some weight when you first start your heavy workouts. This is a good thing. You're burning off excess fat (even though you're already skinny) which means you'll get some super-packed muscles. Don't worry, you'll more than gain back what you had as long as you keep working out.

Eat high-carb stuff before you work out (1 hour to 1.5 hours before) and eat protein stuff after you work out (again, 1 hour to 1.5 hours after).

---
Disclaimer: I'm no health expert. This is from talking to other people and from my own experience, being a skinny guy like you. So read into more sources.

[kingal]

140 to 180. I did that over a period of 2 years.

It is possible, and only possible by being smart about it. I was a cyclist, and I needed to stop in order to not burn all the fuel I was eating.

Start with 3 meals + 2 shakes a day. To make shakes easy, buy something like EAS myoplex or something like that. After that is a habit, move to 4 meals + 2 shakes a day. The key is eat good, not burgers and pizza, but lean meats, veggies, fruits, etc. Gaining is as much about carbs as it is protein, and fats.

It worked for me. I got to 6-7 meals a day including shakes. I was working out 5 days a week - balanced between easy and hard. I was sleeping 8 hrs a night and drinking close to 1-1.5 gallons of water a day.

The key: get professional help, a trainer (even if its to get started), and a nutritionist (to guide the calories in the right direction.

[RemyLebeau97]

140 to 180 ??, First, how tall are you? Im 6"0 and weigh 161 lbs right now, Im trying to make it to 180 also. Only thing I have been doing is working out 5 days a week, taking my creatine, drinking tons of water, and eating a lil bit than I normally do. I don't really know the key to gaining weight just yet but I know eating has a lot to do with it. I personally wouldn't spend money on weight gainers but I would look into creatine if you wanna bulk up. I use Cell-Tech creatine, people using have reported gaining just a little over 11 pounds in as little as 8 weeks. So check into that, good luck.