150 lb pound guy here looking to bulk up

[unknownman]

post some names of the protein shakes I should buy most guys tell me eat Tuna, chicken beast and lean stakes any advice from anyone is welcome

[GynO_DuDe]

Make sure you have 3 egg whites for breakfast, tuna or chicken as part of your lunch, tuna or chicken again as part of your dinner ... Having protein 3 times a day will EASILY bulk you up over time.

No need for protein shakes ... OR just buy some, but just make yourself a shake to have straight after you come home from the gym, or to take with you while your training as it helps repair muscles.

But personally i'd rely on the foods to bulk up then a bitta shake.

[Fat-Elvis]

What kind of exercise you do is as important as what you eat.  Make sure to eat lots of calories, protein, healthy fats, and carbs.  Do lots of compound exercises (with FREE WEIGHTS, not machines), like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc.  Doing isolated exercises like bicep curls when starting out, especially on machines, is useless.  Lord I wish I knew all that when starting out....

[moobius]

any quality Whey Protein Isolate will work. preferably one without a buttload of sugar in it. ISOPURE is a pretty good one but you can find bulk WPI on the net for good prices.

look for something that has ~25g protein, 0 carbs, 0 fat per serving. anything far off of that and you're paying top dollar for sugar...

Post workout take 50g of the WPI (that'd be 2 servings) mixed with water and 25-50g of sugar (i use instant hot cocoa mix).

if you wanna bulk up, you're going to have to get serious about what fuel goes into your body. i'd highly recommend (very highly) that you get a notepad and write down EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth for 1wk. and not just " ate a turkey sandwitch for lunch", but "LUNCH: turkey sandwhich: 2 pieces bread - 4g protein, 25g carbs, 2g fat; 4 oz turkey: 20g protein, 0g carb, 1g fat; 2 tbsp mustard"

until you look at what you eat in this type of detail you really have no clue what you're feeding your body. at the end of the day add up your calories, your proteins, carbs, fats and see what your diet really looks like...

report back what you find out and we can tweak it from there.

[domsnips]

Mate do not listen to anyone when they say that protein is the thing that is going to bulk you up you need carbs and you need fat aswell. Elves is correct when he said free weights are the trick. Please do not fall for the tribulus supps  and things like that not good for anyone that has got gyne or has had surgery and does not want it to come back.
Ok really simple though as elves said compound movements and stay away from the machines.

Ok you need 2450 calories a day from the weight that you have given me 1950 calories are going to be used as fuel for you body to burb during the day the rest are going to be used to fuel your workout and for muscle growth.

A generall rule is 40% protein 40% carbs 20% fat

All good foods carbs have to be complex things like brown rice, pasta, potatoes the list goes on stay away from sugar.
and fat has to be good fats to like omega fatty acids, olive oil, great things to be used are almonds to get the fat content that is needed.

Calories in each food
1gram protein has 4 calories
1gram carbs has 4 calories
1gram fat has 9 calories

I could just keep going on and on about this but a great site to check out would be WWW.JOHNSTONEFITNESS.COM these guys on there are great and they really know there stuff and of cause I can keep helping you with your weight program. Just ask and you will receive.

[skyhawk]

Lets not forget testosterone. I'm talking about the Testosterone your body makes. Testosterone is manufactured from cholesterol so it is important to maintain adequate cholesterol levels to maintain adequate steroid hormone levels. This may go against everything you were ever taught. But it is human biology 101.

Maybe you should toss out the egg white, and eat the yolk.

[moobius]

Mate do not listen to anyone when they say that protein is the thing that is going to bulk you up

wtf? of course you need more calories, but without more protein you're not gonna grow. protein + healthy fats are whats gonna allow you to grow. protein to give you the amino acids necessary to build the muscle and energy from the fats for your body to do the building.

peanut butter is a good calorie dense food that should be quite helpful to you.  any lean meats are excellent, fish, chicken, turkey, lean cuts of pork/beef... for fats: avacado, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, almond oil, flax oil, etc. adding a tablespoon or two of these into your diet on a daily basis will help you meet your energy requirements (and they are quite healthy for you).

nuts are good. peanuts, almonds, walnuts, etc...

[dcvet]

Agreed that additional calories will make you grow, but the TYPE of calories will dictate whether the growth will be in your muscles, or around your waist.

You didnt mention your body type and what your metabolism is like - this is very important.  If you have a relatively high metabolism, you can get away with eating a lot of everything.  If your metabolism is relatively lower, than I would keep the carbs low to moderate and up your calorie intake through protein mainly.

Personally I find it difficult to consume my required protein intake (while training) through food only, so I suuplement with shakes.  Usually about two ISO WHEY (Ultimate Nutrition) will do it for me - that's and extra 100 grams on top of what I consume in the form of food.

Remember its about body composition, not just weight.  There are 5'10" 180 lbs people that are fat and unhealthy, and 5'10" 180 lbs people that are musclular with low body fat and very healthy 

[moobius]

good advice there dcvet! but even if your an ectomorph you dont' wanna try to bulk by eating cookies and icecream. ecto's will be  more successful with higher % carbs, but you are what you eat... eat shit and you'll be rewarded with a spare tire.

whey protein is an excellent way to help meet your daily protein requirements. the general concensus is 1g/lb of body weight... but if you're training really hard core you can up that to see better gains. i saw much better gains at 2g/lb of bodyweight when really wrecking it in the gym... couldn't keep it up though b/c it was a full time job just trying to keep putting that much food down on a daily basis.

[slyblackdragon]

go to www.muscletalk.co.uk put your diet/training/cardio in the appropriate forums and we will gladly help. I have the same username over there.

[irish lad]

hello.. wont spend too long on this..im currently training to become a fitness instructor in my 2nd year now..im quailfied to an extent and also study a lot of nutrition.. il keep it short and simple.. increase the calories,increase the excercise, sleep more often if possiable after a workout go lie down for an hour or 2 if you can as your muscles grow and repair the most when your sleeping also after a workout make sure to get the protein into your system asap this is the window of oppurtunity.. id strongly recommend creatine supplyment if your serious about bulking up... creatine works like this.. you will pack on size if you take it but if your not working out enough taking creatine can make you put on fat..but if it is possiable try working out twice a day once in morning and once afternoon for 3 times a week and you'l get the full effects of creatine as it will really pack on the muscle either way taking creatine will get bulked up.. also try get a gym buddy as this will help your muscles to failure piont when you really feel the burn..and he can spot you incase muscles give way.. when your increasing your calories remember that protein = 4 calories   carbs = 4 calories  fat = 9 calories... also testostorone is a major factor.. so creatine,workout,protein,sleep,creatine,workout,protein,sleep you more than likely cant work out twice a day with work but if you could you'd get some serious results

[slyblackdragon]

Please explain how creatine could possibly make you fat considering it contains zero calories? Also, explain how training twice per day sounds remotely like a good idea unless you are on tons of gear? This just goes to show you that most personal trainers have no idea what they are talking about.

[Twin Peaks]

I'm no expert in the area of weightlifting or nutrition, but I have put on 30 lbs in the past year from lifting.  This time last year I weighed 149 lbs.  I now weigh around 177-181 depending on how much water I'm carrying.  There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread.  In the gym, I do agree with doing compound exercises.  It is EXTREMELY important to do exercises like the bench press, dead lift, and squats if you want to get big really fast.  All of theses exercises work numerous muscle groups all at the same time.  You will be amazed with how draining these exercises are.  After a good set of deadlifts, you'll feel like you just sprinted a mile.  It's also beneficial to do supersets.  There are many variations of supersets and I won't get into that now, so just do a google search to learn more about them. But in a nutshell, I basically never take rests between any of my sets.  I usually try to do ab or calf exercises between my main sets.  I also like to break up my workouts into different groups throughout the week.  Instead of hitting every muscle everyday, I'll do chest/shoulders one day, back/legs the next, and arms the day after that. That has seemed to work pretty well for me.

In terms of nutrition,  I eat a lot.  I try to consume 2700-3300 calories a day.  I eat a lot of chicken, turkey, tuna, peanut butter, almonds, wheat bread, and fruits.  I need to work on vegetables a little more.  I also drink about 64 ounces of water a day.  For supplements, I take a good amount of whey protein as well as weigh gainer.  The weight gainer gives me a lot of complex carbs as well as some protein.  It's an easy way to get about 900 calories. I typically consume about 150-250g of protein, 300-400g carbs and 90g of fat a day. It's important to keep saturated fat levels relatively low (<25g a day).  I also take fish oil and green tea extract. 

Doing all this has worked pretty well for me.  I also only gained about 1% body fat over the past year.  Once I hit 195, I will start a shredding cycle to bring down my body fat %.  Hopefully this gives you an idea of what it takes to gain a decent amount of muscle mass.  Just be patient and don't expect overnight results. 

[9Wolf]

Agreed that additional calories will make you grow, but the TYPE of calories will dictate whether the growth will be in your muscles, or around your waist.

You didnt mention your body type and what your metabolism is like - this is very important.  If you have a relatively high metabolism, you can get away with eating a lot of everything.  If your metabolism is relatively lower, than I would keep the carbs low to moderate and up your calorie intake through protein mainly.

Personally I find it difficult to consume my required protein intake (while training) through food only, so I suuplement with shakes.  Usually about two ISO WHEY (Ultimate Nutrition) will do it for me - that's and extra 100 grams on top of what I consume in the form of food.

Remember its about body composition, not just weight.  There are 5'10" 180 lbs people that are fat and unhealthy, and 5'10" 180 lbs people that are musclular with low body fat and very healthy 

Bingo, that's good advice right there.

[9Wolf]

Please explain how creatine could possibly make you fat considering it contains zero calories? Also, explain how training twice per day sounds remotely like a good idea unless you are on tons of gear? This just goes to show you that most personal trainers have no idea what they are talking about.

Actually, I've read, in more places than one, that said physiologically it's more beneficial to work out twice daily. You might be misinterpreting the poster and thinking he means doing the same routine twice, which is not what I think he really means.

Any biological chemical or compound does not need to have 'calories' to make you fat. It can react or cause other reactions that can make you fat. In Creatine's case, I don't think it will make you fat though, maybe just bloat you out like crazy if you're not working out or taking enough water.

We don't have to resort to calling anyone out specifically because of their information or mis/information. Most everyone is on here trying to help.