# GAINING LEAN MUSCLE



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi,

I need some help on gaining lean muscle! Please help!

Last year I weighed 10 st 7lb in January and by December I weighed in at 13 stone. In all honestly I only gained about 5lbs of muscle and the rest was fat. My waist increased by about 5 inches!

I am now 25 years old, 6 ft tall and weigh in at 11 st 2lbs. My waist now is only 31.75 inches.

On reading previous threads and having not posted on a forum before I think it's best I outline my current diet and training.

Diet:

7am: porridge in cooked in skimmed milk with linseed, grounded almonds, blueberries and cinnamon. I also have one scoop of casein protein mixed with a pint of skimmed milk

10am: peanut butter sandwich in wholemeal bread. Banana.

12pm: chicken sandwich in wholemeal bread with salad, no butter or mayo or anything.

3pm: peanut butter sandwich in wholemeal bread.

6pm: chicken with potatoes and carrots and brocolli

7pm: bio yoghurt & whey protein shake in skimmed milk

9pm: 5 egg omlette (only one yolk) and one third tin of beans

11pm: casein protein mixed in a pint of milk.

I also snack on cashew nuts throughout the day.

I have one cheat meal a week where I have a take away curry.

Training:

I do a workout rota of 'A', 'B', and 'C'. On the 'A' workout I do max weight on low reps of 8, 6, 6. Then on the 'B' workout I do medium weight on reps of 12, 10, 10 and the 'C' workout low weight on reps of 15, 12, 12. I alternate so I'm only doing one of each workout a week on different bodyparts.

Wednesday: Alt. dumbell curls, straight barbell curl, bench press, straight bar tricep pushdowns, ez french press, incline dumbell flyers. week 1: A workout, Week 2: B workout and week 3: C workout. Then back to the A workout and so on. Then after two workouts of each type of workout I will increase the weight at a rate of 2.5kg.

Friday: Squats, Leg Press, Knee extensions, Laying ham curl,standing calf raise. week 1: B workout, week 2: A work out, week 3: C workout.

Sunday: Deadlift, Lat pulldown, seated row, military press, dumbell llat raise. week 1: C workout, week 2: B workout, week 3: A workout.

I'm mainly using the 'A, B, C' workouts to gain muslce whilst keeping fat to a minimum.

Any advice is gratefully accepted. My main aim is to gain pure muscle and I assume that means roughly a 1 pound gain every month!

I know its very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time but is it possible to gain muscle and keep fat gains as to a minimal!

Thanks,


----------



## ah24 (Jun 25, 2006)

Firstly diet to me looks pretty good! Obviously you can always improve a diet as there is no 'best' diet but that looks pretty good to me. Just maybe swap *one* of the peanut butter sandwiches for another chicken sandwich.

Also, how big are the portions? Its ok you saying 'porrige in...' but we need it to be more accurate - id recommend 100g oats to 300ml S/skimmed milk.

Your chicken sandwich, how much chicken in it? I usually put 3/4 of a chick breast in it then eat the other 1/4 after the sandwich. Good to see you snack on nuts but id change from cashews to almonds.

As for the training, i started to read it but really tired so had trouble understandint it and skipped it - sorry! Doesnt look too bad though. To be honest, training isnt so important, aslong as the diet is spot on and your stimulating the muscles (but not over-training) you will grow. Thats what the IFBB pro John Hodgson told me 2 weeks ago anyway!

I just go for a 4 day split, chest & bis, Legs, Shoulders & traps and back & tris.

*EDIT:* Yes it is possible to put on lean muscle with minimal fat gains. Just make sure you stick to your diet religiously. Where you have your cheat curry once a week, try shifting this to every 2 weeks


----------



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi, cheers for that.

okay i'll swap one of the peanut butter sandwiches. I use to have a tuna sandwich instead so I think i'll go back to that.

In reference to size of the portions:

7am: 70 grams of porridge in 300ml of skimmed milk

12pm: 2 chicken breasts in the sandwich

6pm: 2 chicken breasts with 150 grams of potatoes

I think i'm consumng enough calories and protein. The casein shakes I have are 30 grams of protein and the whey protein is 50 grams of protein. i'm sure my diet comes to about 2800 calories - 3000 calories and about 270 grams of protein.

Last year I consumed 5000 calories a day, and I did put a lot of weight on but it was too many calories as 80% of the weight I put on was fat!

thanks,


----------



## Delhi (Dec 8, 2005)

So when you started out you had around a 26 inch waist? (You said you gained 5 inch and are currently sitting at 31.75) to me the amount of weight you gained and the figure you have given for waist measurements + muscle gain + fat gain do not add up

I also have concerns with your diet.

It is too clean for a start, you want to bulk up but you only "Allow" for 1 cheat meal per week. Also I do not know a single person that could sustain that diet for any period of time.

You might think I'm a tool here and I might be wrong but I'm going to ask you to post your *REAL *diet. Only by being honest with me can I help.


----------



## tofeeman (Apr 26, 2006)

hey buddy welome to the board...check out the post HOW TO GROW on this board hope this is more helpful for you.


----------



## chrisj22 (Mar 22, 2006)

Too much bread IMO.

Stick to low GI carb sources, such as pots, rice etc.

Del is right though. Post up last weeks diet for example.


----------



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi,

In reference to my waist I had a 32 inch waist and in getting from 10stone 7lbs to 13 stone my waist went to about 37 inches. I then went on the above diet on the 1st january 2007 and now have a waist just under 32 inches and weigh just over 11 stone. This is the exact diiet that I eat and I have followed this diet strictly since the 1st January 2007 and only started the one week a cheat meal at the start of march! I only cheated once in the period from january to march and that was on my birthday. It is difficult to follow such a strict routine but when i first started woorking out I went for siix months with a clean diet and never drank or anything though I was told I became (unknown to me) very aggressive during this period.

The above diet is exactly what i ate last week apart from on the monday I had a take away curry.

thanks


----------



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi,

Just to give you an idea of how I've changed since the 1st January 2007 to early March I have posted two photos.

Thanks


----------



## chrisj22 (Mar 22, 2006)

No way in your first pic were you a 37 inch waist dude....


----------



## Delhi (Dec 8, 2005)

Ahh right that clears things up a bit mate.

Right you say you want to add size yes?

Then you need to stop that diet mate and move onto a "Bulking diet". First things first the good news for you here is you can start to have some more cheats............the diet you are on would work for losing weight but you want to grow.

Here is a sample diet you could use for a few weeks, but you do not have to be so religous in application you can sway a little when bulking IMO so long as you monitor fat levels honestly. So on occasion you can have a Mcdonalds LOL

8:00 >100g Oats with bananna and protein shake

11:00 >Tuna, tomoato wholemeal bread 2 pieces of fruit

13:00 200g Chicken, 70g rice

16:00 Same as 13:00

18:00 Protien Shake

20:00 200g Turkey, with some veg, potatoes

22:00 Casein protein drink before bed

*Remember* you will need to have a proper training routine in place too that is conductive to growth. You can find one of these in the training section.


----------



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

HI,

thanks for the example diet DELHI I'll give it a go.

the reason i stayed on the above diet even though I was losing a lot of weight on bodyfat was I increased the calories by 500. so still eating the same kind of food but had the porridge in milk instead of water and the protein shakes in milk instead of water and increased portions etc. i thought this might be enough to keep my bodyfat low yet increase lean muscle. so cheers ill give your diet a go and see how it goes.

But yes i can promise you that i am the owner of a 37 inch waist in the 1st picture. i wish i had a side view to show you how large my stomach was. if i put on weight my arms and legs stay the same but all the weight goes to my stomach for some reason and i look like im pregnant also im sucking my stomach in in the picture as we all do!

Cheers


----------



## scott134 (Jan 31, 2007)

Hiya, congrats on the weight loss first of all. To lose the weight you were probably 'under-eating' by about 500cals a day, which is normal calorie defecit when trying to cut fat. So by adding only 500cals to your diet you should be back to around maintainence calories. You'd need to add another 500 to gain weight.

Try Delhi's diet and let us know how you get on after a few weeks.

I'd also try sticking to your heavy weight routine while bulking and concentrate on adding weight and getting stronger.


----------



## 2005neillife (Feb 26, 2007)

Hi,

As a workout to grow and gain lean muscle how is this??

Wednesday: ALL DONE FOR 3 SETS FOR 8,6,6 REPS: Alt. dumbell curls, straight barbell curl, bench press, straight bar tricep pushdowns, ez french press, incline dumbell flyers.

Friday: ALL 3 SETS FOR REPS 8,6,6: Squats, Leg Press, Knee extensions, Laying ham curl,standing calf raise.

Sunday: ALL 3 SETS FOR REPS 8,6,6: Deadlift, Lat pulldown, seated row, military press, dumbell llat raise.

With this I'll raise the weight every two weeks?

cheers


----------



## scott134 (Jan 31, 2007)

On Wednesday you may be better starting off with your big compound moves first while you've got more energy and lift heavier. So start with bench press and then follow it with the other chest exercise. Same for your arms, start with the BB curl. Also found straight-leg deadlifts good for hams, don't know if you've tried those.


----------

