annoyingly thin

[colossus]

Hi Kerry

I'm a 19 yr old male, been weight training hard for approx 13 months now, and for the past 10 months I've been training John Hodgson's routine (on the back page of the CNP magazine):

Monday- delts, traps, triceps

Tuesday- lats, lower back

Wednesday- cardio

Thursday- Biceps, fore arms, chest

Friday- legs

Slight problem- I'm tall and pretty thin (about 6'4" and weight fluctuating between 163 and 169 lbs over the past 3 months) so gaining weight in the form of lean muscle is posing a massive challenge. I'm currently consuming around 4000 callories/ day, 260g protein/ day, 250- 300g carbs per day, 8500mg creatine/ day, 4000mg glutamine AKG/ day, and at least my RDA of vitamins plus anymore is a bonus. I always train with good form and slow reps. I seem to be getting a lot stronger but not much bigger (i.e. 110lb flat bench press on my working set which I never would have dreamed of 12 months ago, yet my pecs don't even seem much bigger when they're relaxed). I eat 7 times a day every 2 to 3 hours. How can I improve my diet/ training to get faster muscle gains?

Thanks very much

Sam

[colossus]

kk - It was always going to be a big ask Sam at 6'4", your limbs are long which makes a lot of the movements a lot harder for you, especially isolation movements. This obviously doesn't mean that you cant gain mass but it will always be an uphill battle.

4000 kcalories a day should be enough but the only way you truly know is to weigh yourself once a week on the same scales, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after you have been to the toilet, this is your true body weight. if you weigh yourself in the middle of the day, your body can fluctuate a lot (which you state) because of fluids.

You say that you are on at least the RDA of vitamins, but you are not taking the recommended dosage of Creatine so are you sure you are taking enough vitamins and minerals.

What I would do if I were you, for 3 months is cut out all isolation movements and only use compound movements, weigh yourself as I have explained, if you are not gaining muscle, add extra kcalories, in the form of carbohydrates as your protein intake looks ok.

[colossus]

Thanks for the advice and quick response! I'll give that a shot over the next 3 months.

Much appreciated

Sam

[colossus]

No problem mate.

[colossus]

Sam,
I suspect that you have your macros miscalculated and this may well be a big factor in your gains being limited If indeed you are taking in 4000 calories with 260g protein & 300g carbs then this means in order to reach the 4000 calories (as the protein & carbs add up to 2240 cals), you must be taking in 195g fats which is a lot by anyones standards, even if the fats are clean sourced. It may be worth posting your exact daily intake on here with serving sizes so we can be sure.

[colossus]

Ninepack

At the moment the weight gain supplement I'm taking (now 4 times a day) has 690 callories, 62g protein and 94g of carbs per serving. However 160 of those callories 'do' come from fat... Plus my intake of food on an average day, the numbers add up (I think).

I haven't actually bothered to work out my exact daily intake- the figures I posted are educated estimates as what I eat varies from day to day.

[colossus]

So your initial estimate of carbs & protein is indeed way off as from the weight gainer alone, you are getting just shy of 370g carbs & 250g protein. Add you solid food to this & your macros might well add up to the 4000.

Anyway, four servings of a high calorie weight gainer is a little too much liquid food & you really do need to get some more solid food in there instead.

I think perhaps it's time you stopped guessing at the figures & worked out your diet properly or you may find your gains severley limited indefinetely. Building muscle is not a complicated process, but it does require consistency & a meticulous attention to detail, especially when it comes to diet.

[colossus]

Good point- yeah I do consume quite a lot of 'liquid food' and I have realised this for a while and I know it's not a good thing. The most I could do is replace one of the shakes for a meal of the same nutritional value (I'm a very busy guy). This would bring my callorie intake from supplements to just over 2000, so the other 2000 would come from food.

Thanks for the advice