Newb

[redblazertrav]

Ello all, so figured i'd looked around and I've been wanting to change a bit for while and from the AoM I got directed here, I forget how. I liked the vibe of the site and posts so I figured I'd pop in here to get a feel if what I desire is even feasible, from a practical stand point, vs pie in the sky.

However I don't really buy my own food, still living at home, having just graduated college and simply not sure if I can afford that: I work at a $$ NATIONAL PHARMACY/CONVIENCE STORE$$ so I should be able to get a multi vitamin or fish supplement if needed. Looking around I noticed that its appears better to not excerises every day, but perhaps every other or every few days, or at least not doing the same routine everyday. go running other days or something else. However is there a way to eat (the right kind and or number of) calories and such without buying all separate food from what my family buys, or buying some food specifically just for me(I already got started on my plan with v8 juice, since I have never really been a any veggie or fruit person- would the message board or interwebz have any concrete steps or ideas?

THe PDF available look really solid and digestible, is there a PDF of the Rebel Strength guide? I assume the Rebel Fitness guide is for weight loss/muscle and the strength guide is weight gain and muscle- proportionally. I don't really wanna look like the hulk but being I guess proportionally bigger(if that makes sense). Also working retail, I can't really eat lots of meals, I can have some snacks(now that I'm a shift supervisor wooh!) in that I can go to the office but sitting down is not practical per se unless it's the two times a week I'm managing.

I emailed steve and was pleasently suprised at the response(ie that I got one at all mad props) Here is what I wrote. I've had problems when I was younger putting on any weight, I could eat pancakes, steak you name it, I was still a toothpick. college and highschool was better, i stopped looking like a rail but I am still skinny, and while I'm sort of happy size wise I wish I had more muscles and yeah being vain better(ie some/killer) abs but really I just want to have better fitness, work outs and some mor muscles and sure self confidence in how I look. When I would run, or even do pushups I felt a bit happier, so perhaps for me it is true that the work outs I'd like to do would improve my mood. Not having a large group of people to talk to I've always kinda been that kid off in the corner reading which I like, the books i mean the lack of conversation would sort of suck, but that's probably my own making; I mean I do talk a lot, hell I talk way to long most of the time, even if I'm by myself(cann't you tell)

That being said I shall start with the beginner bodyweight circuit for a month, two or however long as I try to A) use a system already done or figure out what works best with me.

i saw your website and figured that some of it makes sense but was trying to figure out if any parts would be applicable, since I've always been kinda scrawny and don't seem to put on much weight(at least none from anything but beer) I usually am 132 pounds and while I don't want to lose weight(or really be bulky) maybe take what I do have and become stronger, proportionally. It seems the diet part at least sounds intriguing, but is there a method that wouldn't really make anyone lose weight, I mean 130 pounds is still apparently skinny, but it's a far cry from toothpick on the school yard. would either method appear to work, and I really liked the idea of the beginners work out circuit, something to be done at home, from whatever one has lying around. I do about 75-100 pushups a day, 25 in morning then others spread out, though recently I'm trying to reduce it just to two sets of 50 each, before work and after work.

-Travis

[Junglizer]

Hello and welcome! So I'm assuming you're in more of the bulk up category and not the weight loss category? Is this correct? I'm in a similar boat as you, if that is indeed the case. 6'2" about 145. Pretty skinny, never really cared that much about fitness/diet since I didn't need to (from a weight loss perspective) had the good metabolism and all that. The Rebel Strength Guide (RSG) is also a collection of PDFs, and I'd highly recommend it. It is a lot of material. If you're looking to gain weight (muscle), you'll really need to eat a lot of protein/calories. I guess the simplest way to explain it is this:

Right now you mentioned that you do quite a few push-ups, but if you don't eat enough protein/calories you'll actually be burning more than you take in. This means that when your body is rebuilding the muscles, it will never "grow" more. The ones you have will get stronger, yes, but you'll never really gain much NEW muscle, because your body cannot support it. I've talked with Steve also, he says, I believe this is in the RSG as well, that pretty much every skinny guy he's talked to says they're afraid of hulking out and being way too bulky from eating too many calories/protein. Yet everyone that says that could probably gain 10 straight pounds and no one would notice, or basically, they'd have to gain crazy amounts of weight for their fears to be rationalized.

Eating loads of protein/calories while working out/strength training, causes your body to gain weight, this extra weight is "converted" if you will to good weight as muscle. Not exactly a good sciencey explanation, but that's the way it works out in my mind.

[Junglizer]

As a bit of motivation, I will say this. Even I have been doing pretty badly at keeping up eating breakfast and doing my workouts, but even still, with more exercise than in the past, I have noticed that my shoulders and back muscles have filled out, even if it's just a little bit!

[redblazertrav]

Coolio, Junglizer thank you for the feedback and advice. I'm about 5'6 and 125-130 depending upon when I weigh myself.

I'm unsure as to how to eat, at the moment I figure that is my block, well that and lifting anything bigger then a milk jug: I'm dead scared of going to the gym for fear of screwing up. I will do this beginner circuit for a while at least till I am comfortable with the movements there so I don't look like a complete tool. For example

Food:

Breakst: one cup of coffee(with french vanilla creamer)

Lunch: trail mix of raisins, peanuts cashews, almonds and M&M's and a glass of water

After work snack: 1 chocolate chip cookie and a bananna

Dinner: Parents ordered Thai food:

I had a large plate, but I made smaller portions then usual and Could still see the plate underneath

*White rice,

*pad thai(those noodles with peanuts on top and chicken

*spring roll x 2

*UNKNOWN NAME: More chicken in a pineapple sauce

I'm unsure what counts as carbs, vs protein vs other stuff, I know meat = protein but I don't know how it is made or any of that stuff, I have heard talk of this paleo diet/lifestyle? is that applicable in muscle building, or just to lose weight. I definitely know that I should eat more fruits and veggies but at work that is rather hard, are there any suggestions or tips from people who might have had similar jobs or other experiences in retail?

-Travis

[Junglizer]

Looks like your diet is really holding you back. I know mine is and I probably eat a lot more calories/protein than you do! The paleo diet/lifestyle is quite healthy and good in my opinion, but it's not really something that works when you're trying to gain weight/put on muscle. At one point, when Steve was on it, eating pretty much all of the time, he LOST 8 pounds! Lost weight trying to gain it. Since you're still living with the 'rents, you might just try sneaking stuff on the grocery list.

Some really easy ways to get protein is eggs. Hard boil 'em and put them on a salad, eat them plain like that (I usually have ketcup or something), scrambled, fried on sandwiches. Good stuff, and super cheap! Lots of meat too. And almonds are probably one of the best snacks you can have. Lots of protein in those, I usually get the Blue Diamond brand, because they have "flavors." This allows you to mix and match a bit so you don't get tired of them. You should probably be eating more meat, but another fairly easy way to add protein and calories is milk. Whole milk works the best, I believe it's either 8 or 16g of protein per 8oz cup. That is a lot. They say that you need aprox. 1 gram of protein per 1lb of body weight per day. So that would be about 130 grams of protein! You might look at how much some protein powder is at your store. This is mostly a combination of soy/whey proteins and some other stuff. There is a kind that I really like that Steve recommends, but I'll have to check over lunch what it's called. I do know that it is more expensive, but with good reason. It's pretty much the closest you can get to "straight" protein powder. None of this energy blend BS. That is actually a hindrance, because your body shouldn't be ingesting too much of some of the other things, so you can't have more then like 2 scoops a day. If you buy some make sure it has 23g of protein per scoop/serving. I think this is pretty close to the standard as maximum. Vanilla flavor seems to work the best for shakes as well. I'll give you a recipe also.

I mentioned sort of how it works, but I'll sort of explain it again. You're trying to gain weight, just weight period, that's the goal. Now you want to have a lot of protein (from meat, eggs, nuts, etc..) because your body converts the fat/protein in these foods to actual body fat slower than other things, like carbs. This is why diets that cut out carbs work for weight loss. Your body turns these starches, from stuff like bread, pasta, grains, into glucose (i think?) anyways it's a sugar form that your body uses for energy. That's great! But when you don't exercise right away, or consume them post-workout since it's in a sugar form, it gets converted to actual body fat fairly quickly. Bad deal, no one wants that. So You eat A LOT of protein/calories. This way, when you work out, you'll have enough good fat consumed so your body has the energy and nutrients/protein to repair your muscles and help them grow! Yay! Once you hit the size/weight you want, or actually a bit more, then you cut out some of your calories, but continue to workout at the same level. This is the "toning" process, so you're actually burning the fat. This would be the way you get actual muscle definition. This might be a good point to switch to paleo, if you're interested in that.

I just do body weight stuff, no gym for me! It's good to do an exercise in each of the 4 categories. Push/Pull/Legs/Core. Pushups, pull ups or chin ups (pull ups are pretty tough), squats, and something like reverse crunches, or planks. In some of the body weight work outs, I believe it is 4 sets of your maximum full reps. with a two minute break in between sets. Buying a decent pull-up/chin-up bar that fits in your door frame is really all you need. I got a pretty fancy one for about 30 bucks, and that's because I have really deep door frames.

[Junglizer]

I too, used to fail pretty bad at eating breakfast. In fact, one of my challenges on here pretty much revolved around "eating" breakfast every day. I say "eating" because I have found that some form of protein shake is a lot easier for me, since I've pretty much never actually eaten breakfast since elementary school. This makes for a good post workout shake also:

8oz whole milk

------

| 1/3 cup oats

| 1 cup frozen strawberries (about 10 whole ones)

| 1 handful frozen spinach (the sliced, or at least not whole leaf)

| 1.5 scoops protein powder (vanilla works best)

| 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (1 tbsp is a serving, it has 120 calories)

------

These items can all be combined in a plastic sandwich bag and kept in the freezer. This way you only have to dump it into the blender and add milk. Blend for about 30 seconds. It actually tastes quite a bit like a strawberry-vanilla milkshake, despite it's appearance. Don't worry about the oil, oats and spinach, you pretty much can't taste them at all.

[Junglizer]

Optimum Nutrition (ON) Protein Powder is what I've got. A bit more pricey, seems fairly cheap if you order it online, but it's got none of the extra crap you don't need.

[Crooked]

Just want to offer a counter to what's been said about paleo - my brother (5'11" or so) went from 160 lbs. to around 180 while eating paleo and lifting heavy, so it IS possible; it just requires a strength focus, I think.

Breakst: one cup of coffee(with french vanilla creamer)

Lunch: trail mix of raisins, peanuts cashews, almonds and M&M's and a glass of water

After work snack: 1 chocolate chip cookie and a bananna

Dinner: Parents ordered Thai food:

I had a large plate, but I made smaller portions then usual and Could still see the plate underneath

*White rice,

*pad thai(those noodles with peanuts on top and chicken

*spring roll x 2

*UNKNOWN NAME: More chicken in a pineapple sauce

It seems like your diet is pretty high in sugar and pretty low in protein. I would echo the advice to try to incorporate eggs. If you can have 3-4 scrambled eggs for breakfast every day, that would really help with your protein intake (and it's easy to make). You could also add vegetables to an egg scramble and so get some more nutrients into your diet.

For lunch and snacks, I would recommend you try bringing some things like canned tuna, beef jerky and protein bars to work. If you work at a pharmacy/convenience store, you might be able to get protein bars at work, which would be convenient indeed. You might be able to bring protein shakes with you to work also - blend up protein powder with some frozen berries and you should be good to go. Many people also recommend drinking milk to help put on weight.

In terms of dinner, make sure your meals are centered around meats and vegetables - you can see if your parents would be willing to get rotisserie chickens at the grocery store and cut them up into meal-sized portions.

Hope this helps!

[Junglizer]

Just want to offer a counter to what's been said about paleo - my brother (5'11" or so) went from 160 lbs. to around 180 while eating paleo and lifting heavy, so it IS possible; it just requires a strength focus, I think.

Yes, I'm sure it's possible, since one of the main things you need is protein when adding muscle, and that's what paleo really focuses on. However, in his situation, I don't think it would be the best choice, since he has limited control over what food is purchased. And crap loads of dairy is pretty helpful too

[redblazertrav]

Cool cool thanks for the suggestion. Yes we have a whole section on protien shake sand such, I should look at them on break, since I can buy some and stick them in my locker- I made myself two scrambled eggs this morning, I'd have to make them really early on days I gotta be in there by 6:30, I figure I might try for a breakfast burrito down the road(anyone know the Fairfax/DC area- Anitas Chorizo burrito). Anyway baring that, I guess I shall try to have more meat and fish, dad does grill a fair amount, and if I started requesting more he'd either teach me or just make it...How more expensive would it be(guestimations fine) to add more meat, or just go to the shop and get stuff myself, or even shakes: I'm sort of intimidated by the kitchen: I can make a cheese quesodilla fine Did the begginer body weight routine again today and felt rather wiped, Not sure how to keep my knees from bowwing during the squats, but I certainly have felt more energetic today..though that migth have just been generally cos it's my day off:rolleyes:. Thanks for the suggestions and help. When I go in to work tomorrow I'll look at the protein stuff.