Skinny... want to gain weight
If you would like to post a reply, then please login (if you already have an account) or register (if you don't).
Sep 20, 2017 12:00:07 #
Hey, it's my first post here beside the introduction thread. I have this weird problem, well maybe not that it's weird, but actually most people here and on other forums are struggling with losing fat, while I want so badly to gain some...
I will just say, that I have no clue about diet and training overall. I was never active physically, just the type of girl that sits at home, read books and goes to party on Friday night so I really don't know what I should do.
I found some tips on the internet and tried them, but nothing seemed to be working. I tried some diets for gaining weight from different forums, websites and even from a newspaper but it didn't work. I read something about calories deficit here on our forum, so I pretty much understood that I need to stick to given amount of carbohydrates, fat and protein and eat more than I need, but I don't know how to put my diet together. I also read somewhere that diets are also dependable on amount of meals per day or that some products can be only eaten in the morning, some after work out and thing is, that I'm really confused because I have sought knowledge from so many different sources, that I don't what I should do now.
I got back to normal eating now and I would love if somebody could point me in the right direction. Alongside my workout at gym I also do cardio 3x week. My workout schedule is 5 days/week - I've found it on some bodybuilding forums and I saw people reporting really good gains thanks to it. I hope someone can help me, because I really want to gain weight!
I'm short - 5'2" and I weight only 84 pounds! I look so skinny and I don't want to be skinny anymore.
And from what I have noticed it's not that common problem, all of my peers are usually either fit or they are fighting with obesity and I don't know anyone who like me is having problem with gaining weight so I can't even ask anybody for an advice..
I hope you can help me, thanks!!
I will just say, that I have no clue about diet and training overall. I was never active physically, just the type of girl that sits at home, read books and goes to party on Friday night so I really don't know what I should do.
I found some tips on the internet and tried them, but nothing seemed to be working. I tried some diets for gaining weight from different forums, websites and even from a newspaper but it didn't work. I read something about calories deficit here on our forum, so I pretty much understood that I need to stick to given amount of carbohydrates, fat and protein and eat more than I need, but I don't know how to put my diet together. I also read somewhere that diets are also dependable on amount of meals per day or that some products can be only eaten in the morning, some after work out and thing is, that I'm really confused because I have sought knowledge from so many different sources, that I don't what I should do now.
I got back to normal eating now and I would love if somebody could point me in the right direction. Alongside my workout at gym I also do cardio 3x week. My workout schedule is 5 days/week - I've found it on some bodybuilding forums and I saw people reporting really good gains thanks to it. I hope someone can help me, because I really want to gain weight!
I'm short - 5'2" and I weight only 84 pounds! I look so skinny and I don't want to be skinny anymore.
And from what I have noticed it's not that common problem, all of my peers are usually either fit or they are fighting with obesity and I don't know anyone who like me is having problem with gaining weight so I can't even ask anybody for an advice..
I hope you can help me, thanks!!
Sep 20, 2017 12:04:19 #
Welcome! It's nice to have you here.
I understand your problem.
I was always more of a skinny person than a fat one as well, so I can kind of relate to you. First of all, most diets you find on the Internet and in the newspapers are load of cr**. You shouldn't take them seriously, I've seen diets like 1000 calories out there, low carb diets designed for a period of few months without any carb loading and so on... So if I were you I would never trust random sources from the internet ever again. Especially as you are clueless it is very important to find a right forum, right community who can guide you or simply pay money for somebody who knows what's what, because it's easy to do some damage that is much harder to repair later on this way.
I knew many people trusting random sources from the internet, like many guys from my gym who were heavy on steroids without even running full tests, overweight girls trying those extreme 1000 kcal diets, looking like zombies after a week.
I could give a lot of examples. Additionally, you shouldn't focus on details like what time of the day is the best to eat fruits or how many meals do you eat per day. Those things may be of importance, but not on your level. The first thing that you should do is make a balanced diet, cut any junk food and slowly add calories from your 0 calories point.
Just make a model like this at first and eat what you want, but avoid junk food - focus more on healthy products, but don't be paranoid either.
If you want more details on how to do this, you can send me an PM and we can talk more about this. Something like this should get you going for a while and you should notice a good progress and a few extra pounds in your very first month.
I understand your problem.
I was always more of a skinny person than a fat one as well, so I can kind of relate to you. First of all, most diets you find on the Internet and in the newspapers are load of cr**. You shouldn't take them seriously, I've seen diets like 1000 calories out there, low carb diets designed for a period of few months without any carb loading and so on... So if I were you I would never trust random sources from the internet ever again. Especially as you are clueless it is very important to find a right forum, right community who can guide you or simply pay money for somebody who knows what's what, because it's easy to do some damage that is much harder to repair later on this way.
I knew many people trusting random sources from the internet, like many guys from my gym who were heavy on steroids without even running full tests, overweight girls trying those extreme 1000 kcal diets, looking like zombies after a week.
I could give a lot of examples. Additionally, you shouldn't focus on details like what time of the day is the best to eat fruits or how many meals do you eat per day. Those things may be of importance, but not on your level. The first thing that you should do is make a balanced diet, cut any junk food and slowly add calories from your 0 calories point.
Just make a model like this at first and eat what you want, but avoid junk food - focus more on healthy products, but don't be paranoid either.
If you want more details on how to do this, you can send me an PM and we can talk more about this. Something like this should get you going for a while and you should notice a good progress and a few extra pounds in your very first month.
Sep 20, 2017 12:12:04 #
You have already taken the most important step forward and in my opinion also the one which is the hardest - you have desire to change your life and your body. Not many people have a courage to do it, so you should already feel proud about yourself! I know that you are confused, but really it's not that complicated, especially as you have everything laid out basically step by step on how to proceed with your first diet. Try to forget everything you read about on any other website and read our guides once more - I'm sure it will all become much clearer for you and it's very important that you do so, because unless you are willing to pay somebody for leading you, this knowledge will be important if you want to move forward, make changes or adapt to certain situations. As for your mistakes so far, there is plenty of them...
a) You shouldn't do cardio at all as an beginner when you want to gain weight - it's great for losing weight and is of use for more advanced people to gain weight, but in your state it will just do more bad than good, because as you are an beginner you can easily overtrain yourself - doing workout at the gym and cardio both for somebody who was never active physically out of the bat is not the best idea.
b) Just like sharon123 has said, you don't need to pay attention what time of the day you are consuming your meal or if you had 5 or 6 meals today - it's totally irrelevant. In your state just focus on basics - eating more than you need and eating products that are fairly healthy.
c) SPLIT training - that's the very common mistake among beginners. You should never start your gym journey with training 1 or 2 parts of your body on single workout session. It will lead to overtraining very fast, your progress will be lesser than it would be on for example light fbw training - which is the one I would recommend for any beginners. Split is like a killer work out, it's something like putting 150 pounds on your barbell, when you are only able to lift 75 pounds. This is how your body feels when you are forcing it with a split method.
So, just read everything we have here again and ask us some questions again.
a) You shouldn't do cardio at all as an beginner when you want to gain weight - it's great for losing weight and is of use for more advanced people to gain weight, but in your state it will just do more bad than good, because as you are an beginner you can easily overtrain yourself - doing workout at the gym and cardio both for somebody who was never active physically out of the bat is not the best idea.
b) Just like sharon123 has said, you don't need to pay attention what time of the day you are consuming your meal or if you had 5 or 6 meals today - it's totally irrelevant. In your state just focus on basics - eating more than you need and eating products that are fairly healthy.
c) SPLIT training - that's the very common mistake among beginners. You should never start your gym journey with training 1 or 2 parts of your body on single workout session. It will lead to overtraining very fast, your progress will be lesser than it would be on for example light fbw training - which is the one I would recommend for any beginners. Split is like a killer work out, it's something like putting 150 pounds on your barbell, when you are only able to lift 75 pounds. This is how your body feels when you are forcing it with a split method.
So, just read everything we have here again and ask us some questions again.
Sep 20, 2017 12:26:24 #
WOW. Those are some amazing replies you got here, you should be thankful for time that both neomeena and sharon123 had to put in. I wish I asked about advice on forum like this when I was starting my fitness adventures. I would have avoided so many failures and also one injury, but anyway - just simply eat more and restrain yourself from junk food - like KFC or McDonalds. I have noticed myself that whenever I eat clean and healthy I'm able to gain weight, but once I supply myself with all this unhealthy stuff I tend to lose weight. It must have to do with differences in metabolism and hormones levels between endomorphs and ectomorphs that Katyaa wrote an article about here on our forum.
We are actually pretty similar, just like you I'm short - 5"4 and I was skinny back when I was starting - it's all genetics, but you can change so much once you start working out and you will do it the right way with right mindset.
I believe in you and I am kind of cheering for you as I was in your shoes when I was starting out myself and because I haven't found any great community who could have set me back on the right track I have made a lot of mistakes on my way, which have cost me quite a lot of wasted time, but now that you are here you won't make them :) Welcome again and go gain some weight, girl!
We are actually pretty similar, just like you I'm short - 5"4 and I was skinny back when I was starting - it's all genetics, but you can change so much once you start working out and you will do it the right way with right mindset.
I believe in you and I am kind of cheering for you as I was in your shoes when I was starting out myself and because I haven't found any great community who could have set me back on the right track I have made a lot of mistakes on my way, which have cost me quite a lot of wasted time, but now that you are here you won't make them :) Welcome again and go gain some weight, girl!
Sep 20, 2017 12:30:30 #
You have had many great responses here, so I'm sure you can manage. I can recommend trying heavy carb diet - it will be probably the easiest because as you are beginner that was never active physically, probably just like most people you were consuming mostly carbohydrates and your body is used to them. The only difference is that you should reduce any fast food carbohydrates. Focus on white rice, buckwheat groats, potatoes etc. You can also buy gainer - it's basically carbohydrates that you drink. I personally love it as often after work out I don't have a desire to eat yet, so I prepare a drink for myself and I'm supplying myself with healthy carbohydrates. Keep in my mind, that you may also have some hormones problems. If you fail to gain any weight even after applying knowledge from this forum, you should run some tests - preferably just thyroid at first. Of course you can do it even now as it's really cheap. I have a friend who is working out and he has hypothyroidism and gaining weight for him is a very hard process.
Of course he managed to put some weight by busting his a** off at the gym and in the kitchen, but if he was healthy he would do much, much better. I don't want to scare you though, but you should always look from a bigger perspective in life. I hope all is well though and you will put some fat in no time :)
Of course he managed to put some weight by busting his a** off at the gym and in the kitchen, but if he was healthy he would do much, much better. I don't want to scare you though, but you should always look from a bigger perspective in life. I hope all is well though and you will put some fat in no time :)
Sep 20, 2017 12:49:30 #
Just like neomeena has said, you have already the most important step behind you, so be more cheerful! You will gain some weight very fast as you have the support and great responses from amazing people here, so don't worry.
Just eat healthy, train and don't think about it too much. Don't weigh yourself every second day, give it some time - look in the mirror more often. For example, what I'm doing now is taking a picture of my current self and then after two months. Sometimes it takes time to see progress and what's the most common cause of giving up? It's lack of gains - I know exactly what I'm talking about, I used to always overthink everything. I was measuring myself every two days checking if I lost this 0.5 pound or not. It doesn't matter, the best approach you can take here is don't panic and take everything slowly and in a smart way!
Just eat healthy, train and don't think about it too much. Don't weigh yourself every second day, give it some time - look in the mirror more often. For example, what I'm doing now is taking a picture of my current self and then after two months. Sometimes it takes time to see progress and what's the most common cause of giving up? It's lack of gains - I know exactly what I'm talking about, I used to always overthink everything. I was measuring myself every two days checking if I lost this 0.5 pound or not. It doesn't matter, the best approach you can take here is don't panic and take everything slowly and in a smart way!
Sep 20, 2017 12:59:02 #
I remember I've read your introduction post two weeks ago and even wished you luck - you were much more confident about reaching your goals back then, what happened? Just like leonaaa said you need to chill more.
There is no point in getting upset, especially as you were doing everything wrong - of course you won't get any results, but don't worry - now that you have posted your thread here and so many people here gave you great responses, you can't really fail, so heads up and start tomorrow or day after tomorrow with a fresh mind and motivated :)
Also, I agree that most people on bodybuilding forums are those that are overweight, but it's not that it's uncommon to be skinny. People that are overweight are just more willing to change themselves, because being fat is less attractive than being skinny for most people, so there is a lot of those skinny people that can't put any weight as well, but they don't feel the urge to do so as much as those that are overweight. I'm personally one of those types of women, that were never either overweight or skinny. I always had big breast, big thighs, but for example skinny arms and slim waist, so I never had any reason to start working out as I was attractive enough for most men and a lot of women were complementing my figure, but I was also very active physically, so it probably factored as well a bit. Point is, I started working out because I love it and I love improving myself in many different areas so if you want to do it in the long-term and you don't want to be average anymore, then you have to love it, embrace it and appreciate it! Don't worry about lack of efforts now, think about tomorrow and improve yourself :)
A bit of motivational speech from me as I felt in the mood. I hope it helps!
There is no point in getting upset, especially as you were doing everything wrong - of course you won't get any results, but don't worry - now that you have posted your thread here and so many people here gave you great responses, you can't really fail, so heads up and start tomorrow or day after tomorrow with a fresh mind and motivated :)
Also, I agree that most people on bodybuilding forums are those that are overweight, but it's not that it's uncommon to be skinny. People that are overweight are just more willing to change themselves, because being fat is less attractive than being skinny for most people, so there is a lot of those skinny people that can't put any weight as well, but they don't feel the urge to do so as much as those that are overweight. I'm personally one of those types of women, that were never either overweight or skinny. I always had big breast, big thighs, but for example skinny arms and slim waist, so I never had any reason to start working out as I was attractive enough for most men and a lot of women were complementing my figure, but I was also very active physically, so it probably factored as well a bit. Point is, I started working out because I love it and I love improving myself in many different areas so if you want to do it in the long-term and you don't want to be average anymore, then you have to love it, embrace it and appreciate it! Don't worry about lack of efforts now, think about tomorrow and improve yourself :)
A bit of motivational speech from me as I felt in the mood. I hope it helps!
Sep 20, 2017 13:06:23 #
I appreciate it greatly! Thanks a lot for all those responses and I'm sorry for not responding for a few days, but I didn't know what to do. I also felt a bit embarrassed about my whining before. I basically came here running and screaming about my lack of efforts and wanted help without even putting enough effort myself to eliminate simplest mistakes, which you were kind of enough to point out for me. I really feel stupid now and I'm sorry again. I did read topics written by Katyaa and the others a few times and I also noted all the tips you gave me. I just want to thank you again for putting so much time to help me, not only for giving me guidelines, but also for motivational speeches which have definitely woken me up from the dream I have been living in. If I want to do something, I have to put enough work into it. From tomorrow I will be starting carb cycling diet with light version of fbw and I will slowly get myself on the track, there is no point in rushing this. This sport is for those that are hardworking, willing to put an effort and patient people. I need to develop those traits and move forward. I've seen many success stories here on this forum, so they were a huge help for my motivation as well. I only hope that I will be able to make my own thread in success stories here so you can see the fruit of the work you had to put in order to help me.
Thanks a lot again, I really appreciate it!
Thanks a lot again, I really appreciate it!
Sep 20, 2017 13:15:17 #
Hey, no worries! That's what we are here for, we are here to help each other. Every single one of us has started somewhere and we were all confused, the important thing is the route you will take later on. I hope you will stay here with us just as you said and you will stick to the fitness lifestyle as this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm sure you will understand what I'm talking about after a few months once you start seeing some real progress :)
Sep 20, 2017 13:42:07 #
Sep 20, 2017 14:04:51 #
I wish you luck and make sure to post your success story once you gain some weight. Don't feel intimidated by other success stories, what matters is what is important for you. so make sure to share this moment with us as well :)
Actually, I'm about to write my own story soon as well. I'm a bit more advanced than you and I haven't achieved anything great really, but it is important for me so I will share it with other like-minded people here :)
Actually, I'm about to write my own story soon as well. I'm a bit more advanced than you and I haven't achieved anything great really, but it is important for me so I will share it with other like-minded people here :)
Sep 20, 2017 14:16:05 #
Thanks a lot!! I'll be waiting for your story Panemoniac and I promise to post my own as well, even if it won't be anything great!