If you’re one of those just starting out at the gym and your goals are to put on some muscle - PLEASE read on.
The NUMBER ONE thing you need to get RIGHT is your
Picture yourself treating your car with the best polishes and waxes, the best engine oil, luxury leather seats, xenon lights, the best tyres, everything, but you dont bother filling up your fuel tank. Makes it pretty useless doesnt it? Or imagine trying to build a brick wall with just cement + water, without any bricks. Can you imagine what the wall is gonna look like? The same applies here. You need to consume sufficient protein (the building blocks of your muscle) if you wish to
Unfortunately, most people dont (even those who have been working out for many years) and then they wonder why they aren’t growing like the guy next to them in the gym, and eventually give up.
Perhaps it would help you understand if you realise how your muscles grow in the first place. Did you know, that your muscles don’t grow in the gym when you’re working out - but when your body is at rest? It’s true. That ‘pumped’ and enlarged muscle feeling you get during your workout isnt growth taking place - it’s the feeling of your muscles getting engorged/filled with more blood - thus, the pumped effect. During your weightlifting and strength training workout, your muscles are getting broken down. This is basically stimulating growth. Then, in order to rebuild and repair your muscles after that (growth), your body needs protein - and it needs enough! So, we go to the gym not to grow muscle, but to stimulate/trigger muscle growth. :)
So, how much protein does your body need if you wish to grow muscle? This depends entirely on body size, including the amount of
So, if you weigh 60kg, multiply that by 2.2 to get your weight in pounds.
60 x 2.2 = 132lbs. Which means, you need 132g of protein a day. (If you weigh 60kg but are overweight - you may want to estimate your lean bodyweight lesser than 60kg).
So, for the example above, whether or not consuming any more than this would bring you any benefits is another issue altogether, but any lesser won’t give you good and fast gains and thats for sure. Dont mistake this for a protein diet - it’s not. It’s just a diet rich in protein which will help your body recover efficiently and sufficiently from your workouts. Get your protein intake right before you even consider supplementing with creatine.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Over the past 6 months, I’ve been taking Muscle Builder with 28g of protein amount per serving (with skimmed milk) and I do try my best taking it 3 times a day, which comes to almost 90g of protein a day. I started with taking Maximum Weight Gain for three months but switched to the previous as I see no result in helping me gain weight / look bigger in the latter. Not to mention that I try as much as I can to increase my meat intake throughout the day.
FYI I weigh around 38-39kg (should be around 84lbs and with your calculation, almost reaching your ideal protein intake) with tiny 5′1″ frame and although I do yoga almost everyday (as I’m an instructor) and alternate my days with weight training and cardio, I still don’t gain weight / seem bigger. I know I’m pretty toned and very lean but I think I’ll look better with slightly more mass.
My question is: does the fact that I won’t bulk because 6 years of yoga have elongated and stretched my muscle or is it just my protein supplement not working?
Thanks in advance.
Dear Instructor,
It’s not the yoga. If anything, I believe it would give you an edge over the average athlete as you are way more flexible and more in tune with your body!
You mentioned that you weigh 38 - 39kg. Now that’s pretty light. You’re most likely what people refer to as a ‘hardgainer’. You can eat and eat till the cows come home, but you just never seem to put on weight. Am I right?
Here’s an excerpt on what a hardgainer can be defined as:
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“A Hardgainer someone born with no special genetic ‘gifts’ which enable them to pack on muscle mass quickly. Such people cannot gain lots of strength using VOLUME training, but a hardgainer can make impressive gains using less frequent workouts with considerably less volume.”
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What you basically need is to consume more overall calories, meaning you need to increase your food intake (your protein is fine - you need to throw in more carbs, and don’t be afraid of fat!) Also, your workout routine needs to be different from the average guy.
Read all about it here: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/body-building/hardgainer-faq/
I’ve got friends who are hardgainers who have successfully bulked up to possess amazing physiques. Hope this helps clear your doubts?
Yes, a little bit but thank you again. This would mean my spoonfuls of Baskin Robbins and half a dozen of Dunkin Donuts I consume everyday are contributing to my overall calories. And no, never am I afraid of fattening food as they are my best friend!
Yoga Instructor,
Hmm.. if you really are consuming half a dozen of Dunkin Donuts (yummy!) everyday, it looks like alot of your calories per day is coming from err.. a junk source. You might wanna go easy on the doughnuts and substitute it with somethin else?
Anyway, if you aren’t putting on weight with exactly what youre eating now - it simply means you’re not consuming enough calories. There’s no doubt about that. If you’re wondering how is it you can eat so much without gaining weight - well blame that on your high metabolism.
Perhaps you could try counting calories. Eat exactly the same as you’re doing now, but add an additional ~500 calories per day. Try this for a couple of weeks. Weigh yourself after 10 days and see if you’ve gained any. (FYI, it takes an EXCESS of 3500 calories in total to gain just 1lb of bodyweight). :)
DANGER - WRONG FORMULA!!!
1g protein/lb of body weight will wreck your kidneys and your training, among other bad things.
USRDA = 0.85g/kg of body weight for normal individuals. If you’re an Olympic-calibre athlete, you can *at best* double that (1.7g/kg). If you’re not an Olympian but are active, use your discretion to estimate where you fall in that range.
In the example given, if we assume our 60kg/132lb althlete is halfway between normal and Olymian, that works out to 1.3g protein times 60kg body weight, or about 80g protein a day.
To go from pounds to kilograms, divide by 2.2. For example, if you weight 180 pounds, that’s 180/2.2 = 82kg.
Additionally, the calories in an active person’s diet should be split approximately like so: 20% protein, 20% fat, 60% carbs. That’s not a hard and fast rule; experiment to see what works for you. But keep in mind it’s unlikely any active (and otherwise healthy) person would want carbs to be less than 60% of their calories. Believe it or not, weighlifters need almost as many carbs as marathon runners do.
As for Yoga Instructor, DM speaks truth to you in this respect: Lose the junk food and substitute it with more nutritious sources of calories. But you want to knock your protein down to probably 55g or less (don’t forget to adjust your other calories up accordingly). Try it for a few months and watch what happens.
Dear NO!!!:
Thanks for the comments. If you want to put on muscle, you need a minimum of 1g protein /lb of bodyweight. The USRDA is just a guideline for normal individuals. Hardcore bodybuilders can sometimes consume up to 4000 calories a day - these guys take up to 2g protein per lb of bodyweight. I also wouldnt compare an olympic calibre athlete to a muscle-gaining bodybuilder. Both have different goals.
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