I'm naturally lean, and have a smaller bone structure for my frame. Would've been a stereotypical 18th century Englishman, in other words. I'm 6'0", about 160-165, but want to put on enough weight that I convince muds to stay away but not challenge me.

I eat a lot of lean meat and take protein shakes after working out 3-4 times a week, but still can't seem to gain, possibly because of my high metabolism at my age.

What are some good, cheap foodstuffs that are the absolute best for packing on lean muscle, if I eat them in enough quantity and often enough during the day?

Have you tried the GOMAD (Gallon Of Milk A Day) plan? Eat 4 or 5 normal, healthy meals a day and drink one gallon of whole milk in between. Not all at once, a large glass every couple of hours. The plan calls for a 30 day regimen followed by another 30 days of toning up to reduce the extra fat you'll gain.

Another way is to drink 3 protein shakes (the instant, meal replacement kind that are about 400 calories each) throughout the day in addition to 4 or 5 normal, healthy meals.

How many calories are you consuming per day? At your present height and weight, I'd venture to say you need over 5000. Start counting calories like an anorexic girl, only for the opposite reason.

For absolute cheapest, consider pinto beans. Or adding 2 or 3 cans of canned beans per day.

Milk is really essential. For a gallon I think you get 2400 calories for (around here) $3.50. Throw in a large container of Hershey's chocolate syrup and you've got another 100-200 calories per glass. I once gained almost 20 pounds in a 3-4 week period drinking two glasses of chocolate milk with every meal. You go that route, you'll feel like a beached whale all day, but it is effective.

Another thing is going and buying a bunch of food to prepare individual meals with, storing them individually. I've found having food on hand, ready to go, makes it much easier to live up to a routine of intense eating. Sometimes you just don't feel like cooking or even going out to get something. Having it there stored makes it much easier.

For example, go out and buy some rice-a-roni, or those $1 packets of dry pasta and sauce (surprisingly good, add milk, water, and optional butter for meals like alfredo pasta). Cook all those up at the same time, adding a source of protein, like those things of Polish sausage, or you can buy those pre-cooked chunks of chicken. Stuff like that. Go out and buy it all, cook it all up, having enough meals for the week stored and ready to go.

Very cheap, and lots of meals on hand ready to go. Also, I find it better to have those pre-cooked meals smaller than say, a big dinner you would normally eat. That way you can have 4-6 of those smaller meals a day. Drink the milk in between.

Thanks guys. Is fat free milk the way to go, or 1-2%, or whole? I can't stand the taste of whole milk, plus it seems to go sour quicker. Those weight gainer shakes are also an idea, but many of them are loaded with sugars and fat. Would that be offset by doing cardio? Thanks again.

Thanks guys. Is fat free milk the way to go, or 1-2%, or whole? I can't stand the taste of whole milk, plus it seems to go sour quicker. Those weight gainer shakes are also an idea, but many of them are loaded with sugars and fat. Would that be offset by doing cardio? Thanks again.Whole milk is what the GOMAD plan dictates - more calories. I suppose 2% would suffice, but you won't gain as much as fast (Whole milk is a little over 3%). As for weight gainer shakes, I would avoid the sugary ones. In my opinion sugar isn't good for you.

Farmer's walks. Walk with dumbbells for long periods of time. Increase when you feel you are ready.

Trying to gain lean mass is counter productive.

Gain mass for a set period of time, 6 weeks is good. Don't worry about gaining fat. Your workouts should be heavy weights with low reps and low sets to encourage muscle growth, like 3-5 reps and 3 sets with the heaviest you can manage and go for failure.

After this 6 weeks do the opposite for 6 weeks, a low calorie diet with lots of lean meat, cut carbs and fat from the diet. Your workouts should be to encourage fat loss, high reps 15-20, 6 sets per exercise, and cardio.

Don't be afraid of natural fat found in steak and bacon and eggs. Fuck that "lean meat" bullshit. It's especially healthy if its organic/freerange/whatever but not always possible but still better than a lot of manmade "low fat" nonsense. Besides eating big to get big, eating carbs is in order for you. So rice and potatoes with your meals is what you'll want.

Rep ranges on exercises don't matter and I'll probably be one of the only people to ever tell you this. One won't make you big while the other small. Pick a range that you like and every time you hit it, increase the weight next time. For example: say I really love to do 2 sets of 8 reps. I'll warm up with a few lighter sets/lbs and pick a weight and try it out. Maybe I hit 8 reps on both so next time I'll increase the weight by 5lbs or so. When I try again I may have hit 7 on the first and 5 on the second. Okay well I rest up and next time I go exercise I felt stronger and hit 8 for both again. Now time to increase the weight again. Rinse and repeat. This will be an important key to your progress.

Also, stay away from the machines and do the "basics" that recruit more muscle, stabilizers and all that jazz. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, bent over rows, pull ups/chinups, dips. Lots of videos on the internet to show you how to do them. Focus on getting strong (which means increasing the weight whenever you hit your desired rep range) and you'll get big too (with the eating).

In addition to this whole GOMAD thing, it was done in the past with squatting. Warm up a little and then one all out set of 20 reps, taking as many breaths at the top to catch your wind and keep squatting. When you hit 20 reps increase the weight by 5lbs.
http://www.leehayward.com/squats.htm

I'd probably just ditch the protein powders and use the money to buy a good cod liver oil supplement and you can just drink chocolate milk as your "recovery" drink after working out.

What are the benefits of cod liver oil, Georgie? I may look into it. I take multivitamins as well.

What are the benefits of cod liver oil, Georgie? I may look into it. I take multivitamins as well.

I think semen has a lot of vitamins.

Rep ranges on exercises don't matter and I'll probably be one of the only people to ever tell you this. One won't make you big while the other small.

True, it's not the low reps that encourage growth, it's the high weight, but if you go heavy you aren't going to get out that many.

What are the benefits of cod liver oil, Georgie? I may look into it. I take multivitamins as well.Some bodybuilders take cod liver oil for the omega 3 and vitamins A and D. But it won't do a thing to help you bulk up, which is your current goal.

For some people there is a psychological impediment they must overcome in order to gain weight while bodybuilding. A great many lifters lift with more effort than they need to to get big but never put on the body mass they want because they don't eat enough food.

Ask any up and coming lifter about his regimen and he will talk about his routines, sets, techniques and methodologies. Ask any monster lifter about his regimen and he will talk about food.

Lean meat and protein are essential physiological requirements for building muscles but they are only parts of a bodybuilding diet, and if you rely on them you will not get big - you will likely lose weight - because taken alone or as a replacement for some part of a normal diet, high protein diets are weight loss diets.

Here's what you do to get big. Have a serving of fat and carbs with your protein rich diet each time you eat protein. Make rice and put butter on it. Make a batch of chocolate chip cookies without the chips (use canola oil not butter. You get roughly equivalent calories but you can eat way more canola oil cookies than butter cookies - and thirty years from now you won't have a heart attack) every few days and eat at least two good sized cookies after each protein, carb, and fat meal.

If you do this, you will start to get bigger and stronger in the gym. At first you will be pleased with the results, but then you will get nervous. You will worry that you are getting chubby. It won't happen while you're lifting. While you're lifting you'll be making gains and pumping up like never before. But on your off days you will notice a little more chub around your guts and if you get in front of a bathroom mirror under a fluorescent bulb you'll look like crap and worry that your face is losing definition. Don't worry about that faggot bullshit. Keep eating and getting stronger. Push your big three lifts - squats, bench, rows. After a few months you will have gained some serious weight.

And that is when you can cut some of your carb and fat intake and lean out. And with the new muscle you will lean out really quickly. Just be careful not to get into a situation where your diet is making you weaker again.

And remember this when you start to worry that you're getting chubby: you are dramatically more attractive to the opposite sex carrying muscle under a little fat, then you are looking lean-jawed and scrawny.

YouTube- How to Increase Your Testosterone Levels Fast & Naturally

What are the benefits of cod liver oil, Georgie? I may look into it. I take multivitamins as well.

In the olden days it was a commonly used "supplement" by people. Extremely common. Then for whatever reason it has became somewhat unknown, especially thanks to all that "eat low fat" nonsense that came out years ago. Gives you your essentially fatty acids and nice and natural dosages of Vitamins A and D and all that jazz.

Here's an article about it:
http://www.westonaprice.org/Cod-Liver-Oil-The-Number-One-Superfood.html

I use Blue Ice Fermented Cold Liver Oil. More pricier than some of the other stuff out there but it's extremely high in quality. I rarely shop organic as it's too damn expensive for me but I try to stick to "natural" foods so to speak and buy organic here and there.

http://www.greenpasture.org/retail/?t=products&a=line&i=fermented-cod-liver-oil

Here's what they say:

Many of the great historical cultures had one sacred food which they relied on to ensure strong mind, body, and spirit: Fermented fish/fish liver oil. The Mighty Roman Soldier was given a daily ration of fermented fish oil. The Stoic Scandinavian Viking had a drum of fermenting cod livers outside the door of his home. Grandma always had a bottle of cod liver oil in the back cupboard.


As for those multivitamins, don't go too crazy with them. I'm personally a little weary ingesting ridiculous amounts of synthetic vitamins and then peeing an odd color. I would definitely spend most of your money on actual foods. If anything go with some less potent one a day multi if you just want to cover all your bases so to speak.

Something like this:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/country/daily.html?CJAID=10409943&CJPID=2309305

Another health thing wise would be to replace your regular table salt with some Celtic Grey Sea Salt. Much more nutritious. It's another one of those things, in addition to the cod liver oil, that I basically go for "high quality".

http://www.celticseasalt.com/Celtic_Sea_Salt_C3.cfm

You can buy them in big bags and save. I just leave out a filled cup to let it dry (yes it's that natural that you actually get it wet) and then put it in a grinder and there you are.

Make sure you eat your eggs, the WHOLE thing. Even if you can't afford the organic ones (which I can't) you can usually buy them in big numbers for fairly cheap. My local grocery store sells like 5 dozen for 6-7 bucks or so ...completely making that number up but it's pretty damn cheap anyway so good for those on a budget.

Lot's of nutrients and protein in that whole egg and that evil cholesterol is actually good for you. Cholesterol is used to make testosterone and it actually makes up your cell walls. There's a bunch of bullshit that's come out.

Highly recommend reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories.

Also, I don't know if you eat much red meat (I eat a bunch of it, I usually just get the discounted steaks and freeze them and just put them in the fridge the day before I want to eat one and let it thaw), but consider having a medium rare steak once or twice a week. Besides the protein it has a lot of nutrients in it and natural creative which will help you build muscle and gain strength.

I guess that's the end of another rant from me. As you can tell I'm an extreme proponent of animal products. I'm right now attempting to cut out a lot of the junk I was eating and go low carb-ish. It takes time but after adjustments I hear the body can run perfectly fine on fat (both the one you eat and your own deposits).

Make sure you eat your eggs, the WHOLE thing. Even if you can't afford the organic ones (which I can't) you can usually buy them in big numbers for fairly cheap. My local grocery store sells like 5 dozen for 6-7 bucks or so ...completely making that number up but it's pretty damn cheap anyway so good for those on a budget.

Lot's of nutrients and protein in that whole egg and that evil cholesterol is actually good for you. Cholesterol is used to make testosterone and it actually makes up your cell walls. There's a bunch of bullshit that's come out.

Highly recommend reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories.

Also, I don't know if you eat much red meat (I eat a bunch of it, I usually just get the discounted steaks and freeze them and just put them in the fridge the day before I want to eat one and let it thaw), but consider having a medium rare steak once or twice a week. Besides the protein it has a lot of nutrients in it and natural creative which will help you build muscle and gain strength.

I guess that's the end of another rant from me. As you can tell I'm an extreme proponent of animal products. I'm right now attempting to cut out a lot of the junk I was eating and go low carb-ish. It takes time but after adjustments I hear the body can run perfectly fine on fat (both the one you eat and your own deposits).

Yes, the war against meat is pretty fucking gay. If our ancestors were doing it for thousands of years, no 130 pound Jewish hipster can convince me otherwise. My roommates, since I live in Brooklyn, are pretty disgusted by meat but I tell them to go fuck themselves anyways.

I would like to move to the countryside and be able to get access to a gym that isn't filled with the Jew York investment banker types that just want to look good for whatever degeneracy they have planned for the weekend. I imagine it is more affordable too and don't have bloated gooks checking themselves out in the mirror like we have here. I'd even consider investing in a personal bench press to be able to work out at home, since it's more liberating. Also living near a Walmart would be great because food is exponentially smaller in the country than it is in this hellhole.

In the olden days it was a commonly used "supplement" by people. Extremely common. Then for whatever reason it has became somewhat unknown, especially thanks to all that "eat low fat" nonsense that came out years ago. Gives you your essentially fatty acids and nice and natural dosages of Vitamins A and D and all that jazz.

Here's an article about it:
http://www.westonaprice.org/Cod-Liver-Oil-The-Number-One-Superfood.html

I use Blue Ice Fermented Cold Liver Oil. More pricier than some of the other stuff out there but it's extremely high in quality. I rarely shop organic as it's too damn expensive for me but I try to stick to "natural" foods so to speak and buy organic here and there.

http://www.greenpasture.org/retail/?t=products&a=line&i=fermented-cod-liver-oil

Here's what they say:


As for those multivitamins, don't go too crazy with them. I'm personally a little weary ingesting ridiculous amounts of synthetic vitamins and then peeing an odd color. I would definitely spend most of your money on actual foods. If anything go with some less potent one a day multi if you just want to cover all your bases so to speak.

Something like this:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/country/daily.html?CJAID=10409943&CJPID=2309305

Another health thing wise would be to replace your regular table salt with some Celtic Grey Sea Salt. Much more nutritious. It's another one of those things, in addition to the cod liver oil, that I basically go for "high quality".

http://www.celticseasalt.com/Celtic_Sea_Salt_C3.cfm

You can buy them in big bags and save. I just leave out a filled cup to let it dry (yes it's that natural that you actually get it wet) and then put it in a grinder and there you are.

Thank you for this info. I didn't know that about sea salt. I will go to the store tonight and pick up some cod liver oil as well. Right now I only cook with olive oil so I have been off to a decent start.

Dont take advice from Blobby Bandozy the overwieght retard could pass for a huge turtle , his only secret is not working and welfare cheques the fat idle darky .

If I want to work out at home for the time being, since the gyms here are packed with niggers, what are the most basic exercises to do that will lead to the most weight gain? I am willing to invest in some equipment, even though I have a solid barbell right now with 145 max on it.

I actually did some squats just now, three sets of 20. That really saps your whole body, even an hour later. wow.

I also have been drinking a half gallon of milk roughly every day, but my Jew roommates thought it was disgusting because drinking milk is apparently a gentile thing. I'm going to start drinking more and I may also crush my roommates' skulls with a 5 lb weight one of these days

Squats are awesome...

Okay. Working out at home without much equipment.

When I was a kid I often found myself in circumstances where there were no weights - my stepdad didn't like when I worked out and he threw my gear away on several occasions. Even so, I was able to build a lot of muscle by doing this simple pushup routine.

The Dirty Fifteen (Sometimes called the Dirty Dozen):

Stand facing a wall and lean forward and do a pushup off the wall.

Then get into the front leaning rest (pushup position on floor) and do a single pushp off the floor.

Stand and do two pushups off the wall.

Return to the front leaning rest and do two pushups off the floor.

Stand and do three off the wall.

Do three off the floor.

Continue counting up one pushup at a time on the wall and then repeating each new set on the floor.

When you get to twelve you can stop, or start counting back to one.

I call this exercise the Dirty Fifteen but that's because I used to do it to fifteen and then back down to one. These days, however, I have access to a quality gymnasium and I haven't needed the Fifteen in a decade.

Lay off the milk. A buddy of mine built himself up to a gallon a day and got a kidney stone at 23. Eat more good food.

Lay off the milk. A buddy of mine built himself up to a gallon a day and got a kidney stone at 23. Milk doesn't cause kidney stones. Your friend had other issues.

You may be right, Odin. But the guy is 40 now and he's never had one (kidney stone) since.

I think milk is good food, but I think a gallon a day is un-healthful.

It looks like overconsuption of milk could cause Kidney Stones.

Here is a link to the Mayo Clinic's page on Kidney Stones and the causes of them.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/kidney-stones/DS00282/DSECTION=causes

Note the second paragraph:

"Kidney stones form when the components of urine — fluid and various minerals and acids — are out of balance. When this happens, your urine contains more crystal-forming substances, such as calcium and uric acid, than the available fluid can dilute."

Again, this is not my area of expertise. But clearly loading milk means loading calcium.

Yes, I discussed this with a friend of mine an hour ago and we decided that a gallon of whole milk may be a tad excessive. I think I can achieve a daily caloric intake of 3000 calories with the addition of the milk. I think it will help, A LOT. Because if I'm eating 2200 a day, do I need to take in another 2400? For my bodyweight, I should be aiming at 3k - 3.5k a day, I'm assuming?

Also, are bodyweight exercises effective at all? I hear differing stories about 'em, so I've never been too sure.

Thanks mates.

Body weight exercises are cool, and pushups are an especially good body weight exercise, but as a general rule, body weight exercises aren't the best way to build muscle.

I say this because the general rule of building muscle is: It takes bigger muscles to lift heavier weights. It's like Georgie said in his excellent post: "Pick a range that you like and every time you hit it, increase the weight next time."

The key words in the above quote are "increase the weight next time." Body weight exercises are good and you can build some muscle with them but, obviously, you cannot "increase the weight" by any sizable amount in the short term. Consequently, body weight exercises will lead to a training plateau that will be, for all practical purposes, permanent.

In the case of the Dirty Dozen, the body weight exercise of pushups is turned into a very challenging and continuous pyramid set. The Dozen is a challenge. The Dozen will build muscle. But eventually, the adherent of the Dozen will plateau if he isn't doing other exercises that allow for an "increase in weight."

The simple truth is: Eating more food and conditioning your body to lift heaver weights is how you get big.

Getting muscular is, as a culinary exercise, no different then getting fat.

After doing those squats, I have been starving all day, even though I've been eating every 2 hours. Amazing stuff.

Bodyweight exercises have their place. Good for building up strength endurance and giving yourself a break from freeweights.

Without equipment you can do things such as

Lower Body:
Squats
Lunges
Sprinting/Hill Spritings
Jump Roping

Upper Body:
Pushups
Dips
Pullups/Chinups
Body Rows (a reverse push up - get a bar about the height of your belly button and grab on underneath and pull yourself up as if you were in the opposite of a pushup so to speak)

I have been doing squats for a week plus a couple days now and I feel stronger. My lifts have improved slightly. Will keep everyone updated. :)