From Skinny To Muscular

By Sean Nalewanyj
Natural Bodybuilding Expert & Best-Selling Fitness Author
www.MuscleGainTruth.com

If there was ever one thing that I wanted to change about myself, it was my body...

At a mere 125 pounds I felt insecure, weak, and would do just about anything to pack some muscle onto my skinny frame. I would look at other guys and think, "why can't I just feel average?"

Forget being strong and muscular, I just wanted to feel like I wasn't a toothpick compared to everyone else!

I probably took things too far, and maybe I wasn't as thin as I imagined, but it didn't matter. In my eyes I was nothing. Afraid to show my arms, or take my shirt off, my confidence was down in the dumps.

...But then it happened.

One day when I was looking in the mirror, I realized just how unhappy I was with the way I looked. I realized that I could never be truly happy on the inside until I was happy with myself on the outside. Something inside of head just sort of "snapped".

It was as if my mind had taken a 180 degree turn.

It was on that very day that I decided it was time to change. This time I meant business. No more sitting around whining to myself and complaining about my small frame; it was time to put all the talk aside and get to work.

Talking builds no muscles.

No matter how difficult it was, how long it took, or how many obstacles came my way, I was going to change. I was going to get huge, and there was nothing that would stop me. It was there that my journey from point A to point B began.

After filling my head with every possible piece of bodybuilding literature I could get my hands on, I started putting the techniques to use. After several months of trial and error experimention, I was finally able to narrow it down and figure out what worked and what didn't.

It was really hard at first, but I stuck with it. There were many times when working out would be the last thing I felt like doing, but it didn't matter; I dragged my ass to the gym and lifted. I remembered the promise that I had made to myself, and that was all I needed to keep going.

I started gaining weight. After the first few months I'd put on a solid, muscular 15 pounds. My hard work and persistence was already paying off.

So I pressed on.

I kept on training and I kept on eating. I refused to be defeated; to give up and go back to the way I was. Workout after workout, week after week, month after month, and I was still training.

Sure, I experienced bumps in the road. Inevitably there were obstacles, but I rose above them. When I felt like it was time to pack it in, I dug down deep and kept going. I wasn't going to quit no matter how tough it was.

I did the things that I hated doing the most in order to reach my goals.

Training when I wanted to sleep, eating when I wanted to rest, going to bed when I wanted to stay awake. I watched as months went by, and my size continued to improve. I was finally walking around with my head up high. I kept on training and I kept on improving.

There was no letting up.

Even to this day, I'm still training, and I'm still improving. I can truly say that bodybuilding has been the greatest choice I've ever made in my entire life. It has changed me from the inside out.

I am now confident with the way I look. I don't hide behind baggy clothes anymore, nor am I reluctant to take my shirt off. I feel strong, powerful and healthy.

My life has completely changed for the better. Words cannot describe the feeling of being in great shape. I now know that I am able to set a goal and reach it.

If you're thinking about getting into bodybuilding or if you're just starting out, one piece of advice I can give you is do not quit. No matter what happens, do NOT quit.

Bodybuilding will do so much for you, and you will be eternally grateful if you continue.

There is nothing like it.

It teaches self-discipline, builds character and pushes you to your utmost limits. There is just so much you will get in return, I can't even tell you.

If you're ready to take a stand and finally achieve the powerful, muscular body you desire, go ahead and visit www.MuscleGainTruth.com.


. I'll show you exactly how I did it, and how you can follow the same path.

About The Author

Once an awkward, pencil-necked "social reject", Sean Nalewanyj is now a renowned natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert, best-selling fitness author, and creator of the wildly popular online muscle building program, "The Muscle Gain Truth No-Fail System". Learn how to build muscle and gain weight
in just 24 minutes a day by visiting: www.MuscleGainTruth.com
.

Sean is also the owner and operator of the web's premier muscle building and fat loss support community, currently accepting new members at www.FitnessInnerCircle.com
.

Note to the reader: You are free to reprint and redistribute this article as long as the content is not altered in any way, the links remain live and the author resource box (including this message) is left intact.

6 STEPS TO PUT WEIGHT IN A HEALTHY WAY

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

While most people struggle to lose weight, there are those out there who are trying to gain weight. Whether it is to make a team, or you just decided that being too skinny has a lot of drawbacks, some people decide they have to put on a few pounds. Here's how to put on some weight in a healthy way.

Steps

1. Determine how many calories your body requires per day to maintain your existing weight by calculating your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Find a calculator online or use the following equation (called the Mifflin-St Jeor equation):
   
   • RMR = 9.99w + 6.25s - 4.92a + 166g-161
     
     • w = weight in kilograms; if you know your weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms
       
     • s = height in centimeters; if you know your height in inches, multiply by 2.54 to get your height in centimeters
       
     • a = age in years
       
     • g = gender = 1 for males, 0 for females
       
     
     
   • Your daily consumption to maintain your weight should be:[1] RMR x 1.15 (E.g. RMR = 2000, so the maintenance intake is 2000 x 1.15 = 2300)
     
   
   
2. Calculate how many calories you need to consume per day to gain weight. Add at least 500 calories per day to your daily requirement. If you need 2300 calories a day to maintain your current weight, strive to consume 2800 calories daily. If you engage in any physical activity, add more calories to account for the calories burned through physical activity. For instance, a 130 lb. person who does 30 minutes of vigorous weight training burns approximately 180 calories.[2] On that day, he or she should consume 500 + 180 calories in addition to the daily requirement calculated in the previous step.
   
3. Change your eating habits. Aim for three large meals and 2-3 hefty snacks per day.[3] Drink shakes, milk, or juice instead of water, coffee, tea, or diet soda.[3] Focus on the following foods:
   
   • Breads - hearty and dense (whole wheat, oat bran, pumpernickel, rye) are more nutritious than white bread; cut thick slices and spread generously with peanut butter, jam, honey, hummus, or cream cheese.
     
   • Vegetables - look for starchy vegetables (potatoes, peas, corns, carrots, winter squash, beets) versus watery vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers).
     
   • Fruit - choose dense fruit (bananas, pears, apples, pineapple, dried fruit) over watery fruit (oranges, peaches, plums, berries, watermelon).
     
   • Soups - Go for hearty cream soups instead of broth-based soups. If you have trouble with edema or high blood pressure you may want to avoid all store-bought soup.
     
   • Added oils - in cooking, add a generous amount of oil. The healthiest oils are unrefined (extra virgin) oils such as olive, coconut, canola, palm, and of course butter. The less healthy but still acceptable sources of oil are those high in omega-6 fatty acids (pro-inflammatory) such as safflower, sunflower, and peanut oils. The unhealthy oils are those containing trans fat such as shortening, and the antinutrient-rich soybean oil (aka vegetable oil).
     
   • Spreads! - Spreading delicious calorie-rich toppings on toast, crackers, pita, and any other carbohydrate source is an excellent way to increase caloric intake. Some good high-calorie spreads are guacamole, olive oil, cream cheese, hummus, butter, nut butters, sour cream, cheese slices, mayonnaise. Even better is to mix these with shredded meats like chicken or fish. One of my personal favorites is canned salmon mixed with olive oil and vinegar.
     
   
   
4. Avoid unhealthy, high-calorie foods. Most important is to avoid trans fats, which increase your risk for disease. Foods that are high in trans fats are: pastry products, cakes, cookies, processed meats, margarine, shortening, and packaged snack foods. [4]
   
5. Weight train. This will not only help convert the additional calories into muscle rather than fat, but it will also stimulate your appetite. The added muscle will increase your metabolism, so you'll need to consume more calories per day to maintain that weight. During the first month of weight training, you may experience tremendous gains if you are faithful to your schedule. However, also expect this to level off after this initiatory period (This is known in the bodybuilding world as a plateau). You overcome this by re-evaluating your weight and muscle mass, while altering your diet to include more food and heavier weights.
   
6. Eat more protein. Protein is essential for body function to build and repair muscle tissue. If you don't consume enough protein from raw foods or protein supplements then gaining weight and building muscle will be unachievable. Those looking to gain weight should consume at least 1 gram of quality protein per pound of body weight.
   

Tips

• Drink enough water.
  
• Note that some other things such as how much sleep you get and how frequently you get it will affect your metabolism. If you keep a regular sleeping pattern, your body will have an easier time storing nutrients as muscle.(source?) Also, if you deal with ailments/symptoms such as depression or diabetes, they will affect your ability to gain weight.
  
• Beginner weight trainers are often "afflicted" with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).[5] This soreness is completely normal and should not prevent one from keeping to their weight training schedule. It goes away after a couple days.
  

Warnings

• Remember that anything in excess is bad, so watch out for surpassing the limit when eating proteins and fats.
  
• Be ready for some funny looks, reactions, and possible "interrogation" if you tell people you're trying to gain weight.
  
• Extremely fast weight gain may cause stretch marks and other skin damage.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Gain Weight. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

6 Weight Gain Tips Without Getting Fat

By: Marc David
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Here's 6 simple ways on how to gain weight without getting fat:

Tip 1: Eating Enough Quality Calories

Have you ever asked somebody who's trying to gain weight what they eat?

I did. And the response I received was shocking.

"I just eat."

That's what he said. I just eat.

You MUST know how many calories a day you need for your weight gain goal.

This person desperately wanted to gain weight and every time I saw him the gym he had some excuse as to why it wasn't going his way. And it was usually related to his metabolism.

Let me tell you...

If you want to gain quality weight, you have to eat high quality dense foods and ENOUGH of them. Furthermore... if you want to gain weight without getting fat, then you bulk with the same principles as if you were on a cutting diet. Choose higher-calorie foods when given a choice.

In my years of experience, when I bulked up and gained weight and fat, the biggest mistake I made was not tracking what I ate. I always tracked my diet when I was on a calorie restricted phase (that was a given) but when I wanted to gain weight I just ate everything I could.

Have you ever felt that way?

In order to gain weight, you need to eat more than your usual maintenance calorie intake but not so much as to just store the excess calories and get fat. And you need to eat consistently.

That should have been your "ah -ha" moment.

Gaining weight isn't your cue to eat everything under the sun. In order to gain weight, lean mass and not get fat, you need to eat just over what you body needs to maintain. In this manner, you'll provide your body with all the calories it needs to build muscle but you won't give it so much as it stores the excess as fat.

[ Remember that anything in excess, even protein, can be stored as fat. ]

The key is to gain healthy weight and minimize the fat gains.

Tip 2: Grocery Shopping 101

If you are looking to gain weight, then don't have bare cupboards. Go to your kitchen right now after reading this section and take a look at what you've got in stock.

Make sure your kitchen is fully stocked with the foods you need to eat. Dense foods work wonders for putting on the weight.

Examples are whole-grain breads, vegetables such as avocados and potatoes, kidney beans, lean red meat, poultry and fish.

Bare cupboards = no weight gain!

Bodybuilding doesn't have to break the bank. Many times you can get bulk items for much cheaper than you think. Packages of tuna, turkey, chicken legs, pasta all are great bulking items that don't cost a ton of money.

Perishable items like fruits and sugary laden items and condiments are usually things that cost the most.

Tip 3: Meal Planning for Dummies

Part of performance nutrition is eating 5-6 times a day. Every 2-3 hours you should be consuming a meal consisting of a lean protein, fibrous/starchy carb and potentially a healthy fat.

If you really want to gain weight, you need to eat 5-6 times a day! And it needs to be consistent. This means no skipping meals.

Eating 3 times a day full of bacon and eggs might have worked for some of the past legends but it probably won't do you any good.

Keeping your metabolism high and your system flushed with nitrogen (protein) will ensure you keep all the muscle you are working to build and that you are consuming slight excess calories for weight gain.

If you eat a big dinner but skip snacks and have light breakfasts, that is part of the problem. Healthy weight gain only comes from people who are consistent in their eating and don't skip meals.

Failure to plan your meals ultimately means you won't be eating enough to gain weight.

Tip 4: Nutrient Variety is Key

It happens to the best of us... We get used to eating certain foods and we don't budge. For a bulking diet, this can be a killer as it drastically limits the number of calories you can eat. Plus, you will limit the nutrients and vitamins you will be able to intake. Both are essential to maximum healthy weight gain.

Did anybody ever tell you that nutrients are essential for growth?

Tip 5: Essential Meal Timing

While it might be socially acceptable to eat just 3 times a day, that is not acceptable for those who are serious about putting on lean muscle mass without putting on fat.

You've heard all the benefits of performance nutrition and eating 5-6 times a day but re-read this...

Quality muscle gain without putting on fat requires a high metabolism AND an excess number of calories.

In order to do just that, you need to eat frequently.

That means 5-6 times a day (or more).

Tip 6: Eat, Eat and Eat [ did I mention eat ]

Don't feel hungry?

Eat. Now in most cases, that is against the current movement but in reality, if you want to put on quality mass you have to eat regardless of your hunger levels. Eating based on your mood is not the path to healthy weight gain.

Countless people tell me they cannot eat like a 200 lb bodybuilder.

That's because they are not a 200 lb bodybuilder.

Once they eat more, gain muscle mass, they will be and it will seem like nothing to eat like a 200 lb bodybuilder.

This doesn't mean stuffing yourself, gorging on food or getting sick. It means eating more and more gradually over time in order to prime your body for more frequent meal times. Slowly start adding more food to your portions until you've nailed your perfect weight gain calorie needs.

As you eat more and small but frequent meals, you won't feel stuff and your body will become more efficient at digesting and breaking down foods.

All this means to you is...

A higher metabolic rate and more calories!

The two essential keys to putting on weight without the fat.

:: Additional Tips ::

* Drink plenty of water. With your additional meals and workouts, you'll want to ensure you are properly hydrated.

* Engage in a weight training program. Building muscle is a priority during your bulking phase. Since you will have plenty of energy from your carb sources, you should be fueled and primed to get some of the best and most intense workouts of your life. Now is an opportune time to build muscle.

* Limit your cardio workouts. Cardio workouts are a tool. Use it sparingly depending on your metabolism. If you feel like you aren't putting on weight, reduce the amount of cardio you are doing. If you feel like you are putting on a bit too much fat, increase the cardio.

* Take weekly weight and body fat measurements. By taking a weekly measurement, you can see if the weight you are putting on is fat or muscle.

About the Author

Marc David is an innovative fitness enthusiast and the creator of the "NoBull Bodybuilding System" method on www.nobullbodybuilding.com

He can show you how to reduce your body fat thru diet, how to gain weight or create more muscle thru an abundance of workout tips by training LESS, not more!

Once a self-confessed skinny, "135-pound weakling." Today Marc is a 200 pound bodybuilder who teaches thousands of people to gain weight, build muscle and reduce body fat with a workout and nutrition system so simple that even a complete beginner can understand it!

Marc dispels many "bodybuilding myths", tells you what most people never realize about nutrition, and what the drug companies DON'T WANT YOU to know. visit www.nobullbodybuilding.com

How To Gain Weight – Even If You Are Under Weight

By Vince DelMonte

Here are four 'little known' how-to-action-steps that will force you to GAIN WEIGHT – musle mass that is, even if you are underweight!

Are you sick and tired of people telling you how to gain weight. It probably sounds like this:

“All you have to do is eat, eat and eat some more to gain weight...”

“Weight gain is just a matter of eating...”

“You just gotta overload your metabolism to gain weight fast...”

“You can't build a house without the bricks and mortar for gaining weight...”

Don't throw me to the wolves quite yet. There is certainly truth to these statements and some of these analogies can prove quite powerful, I think I'm even guilty of preaching a few! But the problem with this advice is that it's usually followed up with the same old reguritated blah, blah blah advice that only tells you what to do and does not reveal real world practical how-to-action-steps.

If you are someone who has struggled their entire life, trying to pack on extra muscle mass and still consider yourself underweight than you are not alone. I was once skinny and underweight myself...

People, predispositioned to skinniness, are commonly referred to as “hard gainers.” This is the cool way to label your scrawny frame despite the fact that your body turns into a Number 2 pencil when you wear yellow!

It's not totally your fault you are skinny...

In the skinny guys defence, the reality is that you have been cursed with traits like Lamborghini type metabolisms, giraffe like limbs, and the strength of a senior citizen. You have to fight with every bone in your body to do something about your small frame and to keep up to your male buddies who seem to grow muscle just by sneezing – those muscle freaks pee me off just as much you!

Even though you might think your genetic deficiencies have sentenced you to a life of frailty and surprised looks when you tell others you lift weights; I am living proof that hard gainers with very ‘muscle-unfriendly genes’ can fight back against their genetics and gain muscle weight. I defeated my skinny genetics just after college and I am about to show you four tips that helped me climb from a 149 pound weakling to a rock hard 190 pounds in six months.

Trust me, no body has worse genetics, for building muscle and gaining weight, than a ex long distance runner who abused his body with 60-80 miles of running a week (for over 10 years)!

Skinny guys must play by a different set of rules.

If you are underweight than your first step to gaining weight is to understand that you must play by a different set up rules. I have said this before and will say it again,

“Taking advice from someone who can gain muscle weight easily,

is like taking money advice from somone who inherited a fortune

or is making money illegally.”

You must think outside the box and give up the excuse of being a “hardgainer.” It is time to stop listening to all the naysayers who have told you that is impossible to gain weight because of your genetics. Regardless of what you have been lead to believe, you do have the potential to build an impressive physique that turns heads and even intimidates!

If you have read this far, I am guessing you are ready to longer resemble a micorphone stand! You are prepared to overload your metabolism for muscle growth, to ensure you are never referred to as 'undeweight' or 'skinny' ever again. Start following these simple steps and don't be surprised if you gain an extra ten pounds of muscle weight in the next four weeks.

Four simple how to gain weight action steps to start growing like a skyscraper!

1. Double it up.

One of the most practical steps you can take is to double whatever you are currently eating in the kitchen right now. If you are eating one chicken breast per meal than cook up two. If you are only eating two slices of bread than make it four. If you are eating one handful of nuts than make it two. If you are using only two scoops of protein powder than make it four.

Most likely you are only a few dozen meals short of filling out your underdeveloped body parts and attracting the attention of that sexy girl at your gym. I assume you are already in the kitchen and have the food out. So would you agree, you really have no good excuse not to shovel down a greater percentage of calories by doubling it up!

2. Live your life around food.

Sure you know that you must eat every 2-3 hours but how well do you execute? Set your clock on a countdown timer to go off every 2 and ½ hours so that you reinforce the habit of eating literally not a second late for each meal! Don't turn off the damn beeper until you start chowing down.

Ensure you are eating your first meal within 15-30 minutes of waking up - absolutely no later. This first meal of the day should always consist of REAL food to flood your body will quality nutrients. I question anybodies comittment to gaining weight if they are too lazy to wake up 15 minutes earlier to eat a real meal.

Lastly, don’t be surprised if you are not gaining weight if you do not find yourself spending more time preparing food, more time eating food and more time cleaning your kitchen. You should notice you are spending more time in the grocery store and you should also notice a larger grocery bill each week!

3. Use BIG eating equipment.

If you want to bulk than you have to eat like Hulk. Do you think Hulk eats out of small plate, or a small bowel or a small cup? If you are aiming to get big and huge, you are going to require large amounts of food most likely close to double of what you are currently eating.

So get BIG eating equipment! Get a BIG cup, get a BIG bowel and get a BIG plate. Surround yourself with BIG. Most of the time hard gainers are nothing more than “under eaters.” If you struggle to complete a meal than a bigger serving on a bigger plate will look small!

4. Never train hungry.

How many times have you waken up, whipped up a protein shake and than headed off to the gym? Or maybe you had a long afternoon and missed a few meals and than attempted a weight training workout after work?

I thought this was common sense to avoid, until a few of my skinny clients confessed that they were showing up for their workouts having only eaten a piece of fruit and some crackers within the entire day!

After dropping the 45 pound plate on my foot out of shock they reassured me, they were not hungry. I sometimes screamed back, “Yeah, that’s because your metabolism is in starvation mode and shut right down you skinny pencil neck!”

I understand that training in the morning is the only time for some however I recommend to aim for a minimum of at least three solid meals in your system prior to eating. Or else the biggest meal of your day immedately after your AM workout. Would you take your car out on a long trip with a half empty fuel tank? Not unless you wanted the car to die and push it the rest of the way. So why would you take your body through a grueling training session on a empty stomach?

Here is my promise to you. You have the ability to gain at least another ten pounds of solid weight in the next four weeks by simply applying the advice above. If you are truly committed to your goals of gaining muscle weight and no longer being known as underweight than I believe you will rise to the challenge and take action! Are you with me?
----------------------------------
About the Author:

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training less than before.

How To Gain Weight with One Exercise

By Jason Ferruggia

When people ask me how to gain weight the first thing I ask them is if they do deadlifts. If you are trying to get big but aren’t including deadlifts in your program you are simply wasting your time. There is simply no more effective exercise than the deadlift

From your neck to your calves, nearly every muscle in your body gets activated and receives a powerful growth stimulus from deadlifts

Not only is the deadlift the most effective mass building exercise there is but it is also the most basic and has the greatest carryover to the real world. There aren’t many times in life where you would lie down on your back and press a weight overhead like you would during a bench press. But hardly a day goes by when you don’t bend down and pick something up off the floor. And that is what you do when you deadlift. So it trains you for real life situations and helps to prevent the oh-so-common lower back problems that plague hundreds of thousands of adults

But the bottom line for all skinny guys and aspiring mass monsters is that if you want to know how to gain weight, you gotta learn how to deadlift

Although the deadlift works the entire body from head to toe, it is especially effective at building huge traps, upper back muscles, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings and forearms. Plenty of puffed up bodybuilders have the big pecs and biceps but a deadlifter stands out from the crowd, looking powerful and intimidating with the mountainous traps and thick, ruggedly muscled upper and lower back

To perform a proper deadlift, stand directly over the bar with your shins nearly touching it and feet approximately 8-14 inches apart. Squat down by breaking at the hips and pushing your glutes back. Keep your back tightly arched, chest up and head in line with your spine. Your upper body should be at a 45 degree angle in relation to the ground. Grab the bar with a vice grip and begin to pull up and back. As the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward powerfully, push your chest out and pull your shoulders back to lockout the weight

When you lower the weight, be sure to begin by pushing your glutes back before you squat down. After the bar clears you knees, squat down while maintaining a tight arch in your lower back, allow the weights to touch the floor and repeat

Remember- a lot of deadlifts lead to huge, muscular physiques. If there was only one thing I could teach you about how to gain weight that would be it. Now get to the gym and start pulling some big weights.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com