How do I gain muscle mass by working out, instead of loosing weight?
Hello, My name is Sam and i’m a 20 year old college student. I want to start working out gain muscle mass, but not loose any weight. I’m 5’2″ and only weigh around 90 pounds. Both of my parents are skinny, and we all have fast metabolisms. I want to get in shape, but I’m afraid by working out I’ll loose weight instead of gaining muscle. I need some suggestions on what type of workout I should do to gain weight.
Thanks,
Sam
November 20th, 2010 at 5:12 am
You will gain muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. Try eating 5 to 6 small meals a day. (Make sure it’s not junk food). Drink plenty of water. I myself workout 5-6 times a week. You need to intake a lot of calories and protein. Take in at the very least a gram of protein per pound of body weight a day. Take protein especially after your workouts. Good luck.
November 20th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Hi, I’m guessing you are a girl Sam? As in Samantha?
You should do high numbers of repititions with relatively light wieghts.
You will never put on as much muscle as a boy would, if you were doing the same exercises. Sorry. That’s nature for you, it is unfair to girls!
November 20th, 2010 at 6:10 am
You should try doing a high protein low(er) carb diet and do about 30 minutes to an hour of Cardio and Weight per day. This is how the muscle builders do it. Also try a protein shake, it’s enriched with nutrition to help you build muscle and not lose weight. A good one to try is something like this.
http://www.imedmart.com/Met-Rx/Protein-Plus/Vanilla-2-lb-.html
November 20th, 2010 at 6:46 am
If you do high repetitions with light weights than you will not gain as much muscle as you would if you were to do high weights with low repetitions. Light weights will help you to tone, but to really add muscle you need heavy weights with about 8-10 repetitions. The weight should be so heavy that once you reach 8-10 reps you should not be able to lift anymore. If you can still lift more, than increase the weight.
Also, try drinking ensure plus calories or boost plus calories in addition to your regular diet. Each can/bottle has 355 calories. I have always struggled with gaining weight, but once drinking 2 of these per day, I put on 25 pounds in around 6 months.
Also, if you want to add muscle you should make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet. Protein is the major muscle building nutrient. Good luck!
November 20th, 2010 at 6:47 am
Man I know how you feel! I was 6 tall and 100 pounds when I first went to college. I could eat a whole cheese cake and lose weight. I worked out and ate constantly but got very little results. I found out at about 25 that I was doing it all wrong. When your naturally skinny you have to not only adjust what you eat but when you eat. Don’t worry about working out and losing weight when your trying to gain it. You would be surprised at how much of a visible difference it makes if you lose 5lbs of body weight of fat (even though your skinny you do have some fat on you) and put on 5lbs of muscle. Your weight will have stayed the same but the physical transformation and how you look will be night and day. The site below outlines a program tailored around skinny people trying to gain weight. The guy that designed it used to be one of us “skinny guys” when he was younger to. It has meal plans, tells you what to eat and when to eat it as well as exercises to help you gain the weight you want.
November 20th, 2010 at 7:37 am
I have had the same problems in the past and the only way I have found to gain weight is this http://howtobuildmusclenaturally.blogspot.com/
The program has worked for me and many other perpetually skinny folk out there. The fact is a body builders routine is completely wrong someone who is starting to put on weight and there are many people out there going through these BB routines which are completely useless for them.
Check out the site it is all explained.