I went from 132 this time last year to 150+/- today, so YES you can gain weight

[def1]

i went from 136 to 145 in 3 months. Im still lean as fuck too.

[LeetOwnage]

Originally Posted by XTrainer

Looks like I'm alone on this, but I don't think it's funny at all. I actually feel bad for the kid.

The vast majority of gaining advice in bodybuilding/lifting culture is, in actuality, only applicable to the small percentage of people we can rightfully label "hardgainers." I'd say 80% of the gaining literature (articles, books, etc.) out there offers dietary advice that is basically a dressed-up version of "each as much as you can." Sure, there are caveats about food selection and quantity, but the dominant theme by far is "eat as much as you can--then eat more." This sort of advice is only useful to the proportion of the population that has difficulty gaining weight...Well, look at the obesity epidemic all around you: The hardgainer demographic can't be more than about 20-30% of the population. There's probably an equal proportion of "easygainers," and most people fall somewhere in between.

So why does all the gaining literature cater to this small demograpahic?

One, because its easy to give hardgainers advice (eat a lot and lift heavy)...it's a much more ambitious task to help easygainers put on mass without getting fat. So, the authors usually pass on this topic, because it's hard and provokes questions they're not comfortable answering.

Two, I think it's fair to say that a larger proportion (if not total quantity) of ectomorph/hardgainer types gravitate to lifting (they want to get bigger) than endomorphs (they just want to stop being fat, and conventional wisdom says they need to do more cardio ). It's probably not fair to fault authors for writing to the easy audience...still, for those endos who DO want to get into lifting, the information is more scarce, and yet the task is more complicated. It's a bad combination.

So, as an endo who was overweight years ago, I can sympathize with this kid. Yeah, he needs to take responsibility for his ridiculous diet and training. Still, with hardgainer-specific advice being so pervasive in bodybuilding/lifting literature, and easygainer advice being so scarce, it is easy to see how he could have messed up. He actually did more or less what the bulk (pardon the pun) of the popular bodybuilding literature said to do.

/end rant

Geez, way to rain on the make fun of the fat kid parade. Only joking...but that is an interesting bit of information that I hadn't considered before. You would think with the amount of people trying to gain mass without gaining fat, someone would focus on this.

Also, call me a newb, but what was with the smiley face for the heavy cardio comment? I was under the assumption that heavy cardio is never a bad thing for fat loss, but I could be misguided.

[XTrainer]

Originally Posted by LeetOwnage

Also, call me a newb, but what was with the smiley face for the heavy cardio comment? I was under the assumption that heavy cardio is never a bad thing for fat loss, but I could be misguided.

Cardio can and should be part of the picture. Many fat people will do ONLY conventional cardio to the exclusion of everything else (such as strength training, for example). Even if the person's sole goal was fat loss, doing conventional cardio exclusively would not be the optimal choice.

[gomione]

Originally Posted by Steakeater

as long as you didnt end up like this guy

1st Bulk Completed. Opinions greatly apreciated. - Bodybuilding.com Forums

damn he got fat dawg hahahahahaha

[Ziltoid]

Originally Posted by Steakeater

as long as you didnt end up like this guy

1st Bulk Completed. Opinions greatly apreciated. - Bodybuilding.com Forums

Holy Fuck!! This is horrible. I cant even believe that some people were saying good bulk. wtf?!

[joshetc]

Originally Posted by XTrainer

Looks like I'm alone on this, but I don't think it's funny at all. I actually feel bad for the kid.

The vast majority of gaining advice in bodybuilding/lifting culture is, in actuality, only applicable to the small percentage of people we can rightfully label "hardgainers." I'd say 80% of the gaining literature (articles, books, etc.) out there offers dietary advice that is basically a dressed-up version of "each as much as you can." Sure, there are caveats about food selection and quantity, but the dominant theme by far is "eat as much as you can--then eat more." This sort of advice is only useful to the proportion of the population that has difficulty gaining weight...Well, look at the obesity epidemic all around you: The hardgainer demographic can't be more than about 20-30% of the population. There's probably an equal proportion of "easygainers," and most people fall somewhere in between.

So why does all the gaining literature cater to this small demograpahic?

One, because its easy to give hardgainers advice (eat a lot and lift heavy)...it's a much more ambitious task to help easygainers put on mass without getting fat. So, the authors usually pass on this topic, because it's hard and provokes questions they're not comfortable answering.

Two, I think it's fair to say that a larger proportion (if not total quantity) of ectomorph/hardgainer types gravitate to lifting (they want to get bigger) than endomorphs (they just want to stop being fat, and conventional wisdom says they need to do more cardio ). It's probably not fair to fault authors for writing to the easy audience...still, for those endos who DO want to get into lifting, the information is more scarce, and yet the task is more complicated. It's a bad combination.

So, as an endo who was overweight years ago, I can sympathize with this kid. Yeah, he needs to take responsibility for his ridiculous diet and training. Still, with hardgainer-specific advice being so pervasive in bodybuilding/lifting literature, and easygainer advice being so scarce, it is easy to see how he could have messed up. He actually did more or less what the bulk (pardon the pun) of the popular bodybuilding literature said to do.

/end rant

I think there is plenty of advice for overweight people out there. The problem is more about people knowing what they should be reading. If you're skinny you need to learn about gaining weight. If you're fat, you shouldn't be worried about going on a "bulk"

Also, I think that guy in the bb.com link had something wrong with him physically. He said he started out benching 40 for 6 points and worked up to like 130 pounds or something. Even the women in my highschool weight training class could bench more than 40 pounds.

[XTrainer]

Originally Posted by joshetc

I think there is plenty of advice for overweight people out there. The problem is more about people knowing what they should be reading. If you're skinny you need to learn about gaining weight. If you're fat, you shouldn't be worried about going on a "bulk"

No, you missed my point. There's TONS of material out there for people who are overweight and just want to lose weight. There's hardly any for people who are fat/prone to being fat, but want to get stronger and more muscular. There's an unspoken assumption that fat people don't--even shouldn't--care about any aspect of exercise except fat loss. (Which is bull.)

[NamelessMC]

I know it seems like a slow gain, but it was in phases.

The first gain was fall last year. I went from 132 to like 138-139, then my girlfriend at the time came down for winter break, I didn't lift, took a break, gained some fat but stayed at the same weight, then she cheated on me.

I started working out again, but it was mostly getting rid of the bad weight I gained while I was with her, then over summer I gained about 10 pounds.

I was in a "Boot Camp" fitness program with a former basketball coach for Chico State. He had me doing a routine of heavy lifting M/W and conditioning T/Th. Over the weekend he wanted me to run 2 miles on an "honorary" homework assignment.

With about 2900+/- calories a day over summer, I gained the weight I wanted.

My pulls are better. (I went from 8-10 body weight consecutive pull ups to 8-10 25 pound weighted pull ups and 8-10 widegrip pull ups, or 17-20 consecutive body weight pull ups dead weight)

My pushes are much better. (I went from 50 pound DB Bench and 155 straight bar bench, to 80 pound DB bench and 185 straight bar bench)

My squats are better, but not as good as they should be. I basically went from about 185 squat to 305, 5 reps.

My deadlifts, I'm also at a stand still on those. I get to about 275 and then I start to feel really uncomfortable doing them. I need to muster up the courage to move up to 3 plates.

I can jerk and split 135 though and that's the lift I wanted to hit the most.

The point of this thread was because I see naysayers come in and question the stickies, almost always saying they're the exception and it's not true at all. I have a fast metabolism too, I've always been skinny. It really was as simple as eating more and lifting heavy.

[Don Juan]

its a scientific fact you can gain muscle weight... Shouldnt be much of an arguement there.

You did a very healthy and extended weight gain, which is perfect for someone who is healthy and just wants to get stronger. You must be in great shape.

Way to go, man.

[joshetc]

Originally Posted by XTrainer

No, you missed my point. There's TONS of material out there for people who are overweight and just want to lose weight. There's hardly any for people who are fat/prone to being fat, but want to get stronger and more muscular. There's an unspoken assumption that fat people don't--even shouldn't--care about any aspect of exercise except fat loss. (Which is bull.)

Idk, I guess it is hard for me to see how that guy was supposed to know he was predisposed to get fat from trying to do a bulk.