My Goal.

[E36Guy]

Alright.. so Im too skinny and have always thought so. I have been steadily working out 4-5 days a week (short times though, only 30 or so minutes per due to lack of time in my day) and am now over the 165lbs mark.

So Im 6'4" tall and 165lbs. I really dont have a certain time frame that I want to be at my goal, but ideally; I feel I should be up in weights around 190-200.

Ive found that the past 3 months of steady working out, Ive gone from 155ish up to my 165-168. Hmm.. 3 months to gain 10 lbs. It's going slow.. but Im happy to see that much.

Based on that, if I continue this trend it should take me another 9 months to reach the desired 195. I hope I can speed it up a little.. I would love to be at the target weight by Christmas 07 instead of the calculated Feb/March 2008.

Anyone have some useful tips on how I can get there? Thanks.

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Weight Log

Friday 5/25 - 169.4
Friday 6/01 - 168.8
Friday 6/08 - 167.4
Friday 6/15 - 166.2
Friday 6/22 - 165.0
Friday 6/29 - 168.0
Friday 7/06 - 171.2
Friday 7/13 - 168.0
Friday 7/20 - 166.8
Friday 7/27 - 170.0
Friday 8/03 - 165.4
Friday 8/10 - 167.0
Friday 8/17 - 170.2
Friday 8/24 - 165.7
Friday 8/31 - 168.2
Friday 9/07 - 168.0
Friday 9/14 - 168.4
Friday 9/21 - 167.4
Friday 9/28 - 165.8
Friday 10/5 - 164.8
Friday 10/12 - 167.8
Friday 10/19 - 166.2
Friday 10/26 - 164.8
Friday 11/2 - 165.2

Take 2:

Friday 12/14 - 160.2
Friday 12/21 - Oops..
Friday 12/28 - This take 2 isn't starting off well. Keep forgetting.
Friday 01/04 -
Friday 01/11 - 160.8
Friday 01/18 - 161.2
Friday 01/25 - 162.0 So far, so good.
Friday 02/01 - 160.2 Ah crap.
Friday 02/08 - 160.0 Son of a..
Friday 02/15 - 159.4 Oops.
Friday 02/22 - 161.2
Friday 02/29 - 158.2 Crap!
Friday 03/07 - 162.1 Hmm.. better.
Friday 03/14 - 160.4
Friday 03/21 - 162.5
Friday 03/28 - 160.2
Friday 04/04 - 161.8
Friday 04/11 - 164.3
Friday 04/18 - 162.8
Friday 04/25 - 163.0
Friday 05/02 - 164.7
Friday 05/09 - 167.4
Friday 05/16 - 166.0
Friday 05/23 - 168.1

[Sportsmedjosh]

Post your meal plan for a couple days and also your work out protocol to help gives us some background infomation on you.

[E36Guy]

Umm.. not that far into it.. I'm really terrible with food.

I eat whatever I have. Im on a very tight budget and so I scrape by with little bits of food. Im on the college guy (cereal, top ramen, waffles, PB & J sandwich, microwaveable/oven baked frozen foods) type meals.. Not so great.

And to be honest, I dont know much about what home workouts will be correct.. I just do multiple sets of arm workouts with dumbells (curls and other things Im not sure how to describe but found them online somewhere at some point), and then a bunch of pushups and sit ups. Plus Ill wander over to our apartment exercise room and do 10 or 15 reps of bench pressing a few times.

I'm really in the dark when it comes to working out and what exactly I should do.. I know there is a whole science to it; and I have no clue what it is.

[LoveGuinness]

first off i would suggest keeping a food diary. and you can eat healthy while on a budget. what do you want to spend a week or month on just food? i can try and help you piece together a shopping list.

[E36Guy]

Oh.. I dont know. I just need to come up with a couple meals a day that are low budget. I dont have time in the day to eat or prepare much.. so it makes it tough for me.

I wake up at 5:30am to leave for work at 6:30. I get home from work at 3-4pm. I have to leave for night school at 5:30pm. So basically I have from 4pm-5:30 to fit my food/workout/last minute homework in. Then I get home from class around 10pm and try to be in bed by 11:30 for the following days alarm goes off at 5:30am again. That is my mon-friday. Sat and Sun is wide open schedule.

Freetime: 4pm-5:30pm and 10-11:30pm. What can I make and eat in that amount of time? Thanks for the help! :)

(i should probably start preparing a lunch too.. I usually only eat twice a day. At 4pm and at 10pm. Probably not too good for me. :()

[Sportsmedjosh]

Hmm, what about the weekends?

[E36Guy]

What about them? I usually dont do much extra workout wise.. and tend to still eat junk. :( It's more common though that I make it out to the beach and get some surf in. Which is pretty good workout for me. hehe. Fighting those waves.. :)

other than that.. my weekend has playing pool, drinking occasional beer, and relaxing from a hecktic week.

..and still some regular pushups/situps/machine bench press.

[Sportsmedjosh]

Take that weekend plan your meals cook some chicken freeze it or whatever prepare your meals on the weekend for the week. Maybe you should use your weeks more effectively for working out. This is just an idea though, take the time and see how you can rearrange your plan for at least 3 days of working out.

[E36Guy]

I totally wish I could use my weeks more efectively for working out.. Unfortunately.. Work>School>Workout.

The weekend food preparation might work out for me though.. Hmm.. Good idea.

[Soup Nazi]

Alright bro, your pre and post workout meals are going to be the most important ones you can have.
For a hard gainer, you need to eat a mix of complex and simple carbs as a pre workout meal and simple carbs immediately after for your post workout meal.


Pre workout meal should consist of oatmeal with raisins, or sweet potatoes with some sort of fruit, this should be consumed 30-45 minutes before starting to lift.
*You need to count the carbs of both foods you take in for a total of 60-100 grams depending on how fast your metabolism is, I'd start out with 80g, since you are able to gain weight, but still have some trouble.

Post workout meals should be of simple carbs, some sugary sports drink(gatorade) and a couple slices of white bread along with your favorite protein shake.
*Again, count the carbs, you need to eat 70-100 grams of simple carbs, I'd recommend you start with 90 grams, since you're a hard gainer.

Eat a lot of fruit, switch sugar with honey, it will store energy in the liver and this will keep you with energy without having to break down muscles, look for high fructose corn syrup instead of natural sugar in foods, it will slow down your metabolism.

Eat whole wheat bread instead of white bread throughout the day, add some peanut butter for every meal and in no time you should be huge.

Keep us posted, also, read this for more info on metabolism and nutrition.
ABC's of nutrition and its direct affect on your metabolsim.


And about lifting, work out one muscle group a day, try to work out 5 days a week and don't stay doing anything longer than an hour at a time, and for every sports and/or cardio you do, eat complex carbs before and after.

[E36Guy]

Wow.. that's going to be tough to get down.. but hell, Ill give it a shot. :) Thanks man!

[Soup Nazi]

Oh, I almost forgot, you need to eat a lot for breakfast, something like 8 egg whites and oatmeal.

[E36Guy]

Doh.. I dont eat breakfast usually.. I dont feel hungry in the mornings because I usually dont eat dinner till after 10pm. Then I sleep for a few hours and then wake up, still not really hungry. Should I just work on eating anyways? I suppose another meal in the day cant hurt me. hehe.

[E36Guy]

Oh and when you talk about Oatmeal.. I cant help but picture processed junk like this:

Are you talking the REAL oatmeal stuff.. or does the processed stuff mentioned above count for the same?