Going from Skinny to Defined/Muscly - Need Nutrition and Exercise Advice :)

[Tyleralp1]

I hope this thread will also be useful to others in a similar situation to me.

I feel as if I'm a point where I want to change my general physical physique. Not only does this have to do with a bit of the social influence/confidence, but am tired of seeing myself as the stick (quite literally ). For years I've been called skinned, the small one, and borderline anorexic and is something I would like to change.

For those of you that don't know me, I'm 17 years old, with a height of approximately 170cm, weighing only 47Kg. I have started getting into the gym life, though to be honest, I'm a bit clueless. Also, I've been told by several mates that in order to achieve good results, I've got to have a good diet - something of which is probably lacking at the moment. I know it should be high in protein and carbohydrates, though not entirely sure. My goal is to increase all round strength, muscles and general build.

This is where I turn to you guys:

If there is any general advice, or suggestions you could share on this situation, it would be greatly appreciated. Though more specifically, is there any tips for starting of gym. Such as any good exercises, or links to good program routines, which may help me achieve this goal. Also in terms of diet, what types of foods should I be eating? Any examples here, or links to sites with good meals plans. Anything really, would be very appreciated.

It's been far too long, and hope now I can gain the necessary information to make a  positive change

[TommyLie]

I started with a similar situation to you. 180cm, 58kg, super high metabolism. So I'll offer you my advice. The best thing you can do is go and get a few personal training sessions, that's what I did and it helped me get started. I would highly recommend a personal trainer if you don't know how to correctly do each exercise, because some, if you don't position yourself correctly, can cause severe damage to your body which can take years of recovery eg Dead Lifts.

The first thing to realize is that everyone is going to have an opinion on the 'best workout schedule', what I have found is you need to trial a few and see what works best for you because everyone's body and lifestyle is different. Your trainer will write you a good program if you ask them to.

Getting bulk from lifting works like this:
1. Go to the gym and lift weights. This fatigues your muscles and, in fact, breaks them down and they actually will be weaker immediately after a gym session. This is good.
2. Go home and as soon as possible eat something full of protein (The general consensus is within 30 mins of finishing lifting get some protein for maximum effect - the longer you leave it the less effect it has). Protein will essentially repair your broken muscles, and if you eat enough, they will repair stronger than before.
3. Don't workout the repairing muscles for at least one whole day to give them time to repair fully. Get a GOOD nights sleep (Very important - don't stay up till 3am, go to bed before 11pm), and don't drink alcohol after working out.
4. During the 'rest' period, you must eat a lot of food if you want to gain weight. It can be basically anything as long as there is plenty of protein and carbs. Generally around 30g of protein and carbs per meal is a good standard to have. Try and eat around 5 meals per day of this nature.
5. repeat.

Carbs will give you energy to work out, and also help transport protein to your muscles. One big thing to realize is that putting on muscle is much more dependent on diet and sleep than the workout. The workout just gets your muscles in a position where they have the ability to grow, then you feed them protein, and sleep well, and they will grow. If you just workout everyday and do nothing else, you will get weaker and probably injure yourself.

Make sure you drink A LOT of water as well, 2L per day minimum. A healthy human body only needs one eggs worth of protein per day which is around 10g I believe (to remain healthy), so when your eating hundreds of grams of it per day, you need to make sure any excess that does not go to your muscles is washed through you. Otherwise it accumulates in your kidneys and you will develop kidney stones, which I've heard are not fun. So DRINK LOTS. I have two 1L containers in my fridge which I strive to finish both everyday so I know I've got my daily 2L.

That's basically all the theory you need to know. As for a good workout program, for our body types (Tall, slim, high metabolism), the most effective form of weight training is 'high intensity interval training' or HIIT. Basically that means you will lift high weight, only do a few repetitions, but do more sets. As oppose to lifting medium weight, lower number of sets, higher number of repetitions. For the latter, you may generally do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. For HIIT training you would usually do 5 sets of 3-6 reps. It's also best to spend no more than 1 hour at the gym, because as you start working out your body releases the stress hormone (Can't remember its name), and this hormone eats away muscle. So go in, hit it hard, then get out and eat.

[TommyLie]

Personally I do the '5x5 workout', and it has done wonders for me.

[Only Cheating Yourself]

I hope this thread will also be useful to others in a similar situation to me.

I feel as if I'm a point where I want to change my general physical physique. Not only does this have to do with a bit of the social influence/confidence, but am tired of seeing myself as the stick (quite literally ). For years I've been called skinned, the small one, and borderline anorexic and is something I would like to change.

For those of you that don't know me, I'm 17 years old, with a height of approximately 170cm, weighing only 47Kg. I have started getting into the gym life, though to be honest, I'm a bit clueless. Also, I've been told by several mates that in order to achieve good results, I've got to have a good diet - something of which is probably lacking at the moment. I know it should be high in protein and carbohydrates, though not entirely sure. My goal is to increase all round strength, muscles and general build.

This is where I turn to you guys:

If there is any general advice, or suggestions you could share on this situation, it would be greatly appreciated. Though more specifically, is there any tips for starting of gym. Such as any good exercises, or links to good program routines, which may help me achieve this goal. Also in terms of diet, what types of foods should I be eating? Any examples here, or links to sites with good meals plans. Anything really, would be very appreciated.

It's been far too long, and hope now I can gain the necessary information to make a  positive change

Wholy crap man thats skinny.  Eat if you want to stack on muscles, eat!  Seriously go and eat eat eat eat eat, lift.

[Einstein]

Eat heaps of carbs. or take this = god hahaha

[Tyleralp1]

Thank you all so much for these replies!!

I have definitely taken all your advice on board and making these small changes little by little. It's great to see a lot of people pitching it, particular from personal experience.

My biggest problem is, eating..Motivation for gym and exercising is no problem, but eating a lot more is quite hard.

Anyways thanks to all

[TommyLie]

Before I started lifting I barely ate anything. I basically forced myself to eat uncomfortably large amounts for a few weeks until it became natural to eat a lot, and then, If I didn't eat a good meal every 3 hours, I would feel hungry.

You've just got to pile down the food, it will be hard but you've got to force yourself. If your dedicated enough you'll do it.

[chasej]

I good program that worked for me when I started out was doing 5 sets. Consisting of between 4 and 8 reps.

The first set at 4 reps and then increasing 1 rep per set until all the 5 sets are done.

Start at the heaviest weight you can finish all the sets with in perfect form, don't push yourself to hard but also try to make progress, going heavier and heavier as you feel ready.

Probably a good idea to get a personal trainer for a session or two also so you can learn the correct form to do weights so you don't fuck up your back over the long term.

[Hehetymen]

How much does everyone ITT lift? Squat/bench/dead?

[Tyleralp1]

I can barely bench 20...

[Only Cheating Yourself]

I can barely bench 20...

Dude, please eat!  I replied like a month ago, if you want to up your bench, you need to eat.  Your 16 and can't bench 20kg, not sure if serious?  You do know 20kg is the barbel, so you can't bench the barbel? 

[swagsxcboi]

Dude, please eat!  I replied like a month ago, if you want to up your bench, you need to eat.  Your 16 and can't bench 20kg, not sure if serious?  You do know 20kg is the barbel, so you can't bench the barbel?

Don't listen to this clown ^
Everyone has to start somewhere, if you're benching 20 at the moment then that's fine, just make sure you improve!

[brenden]

I can barely bench 20...

Are you trying to raise your bench though?

Dude, please eat!  I replied like a month ago, if you want to up your bench, you need to eat.  Your 16 and can't bench 20kg, not sure if serious?  You do know 20kg is the barbel, so you can't bench the barbel? 

Don't be rude.

Don't listen to this clown ^
Everyone has to start somewhere, if you're benching 20 at the moment then that's fine, just make sure you improve!

Also don't be rude (just so I don't have to go through this thread later deleting a petty argument plspls) but I like the support and agree.

[chasej]

Are you trying to raise your bench though?
Don't be rude.
Also don't be rude (just so I don't have to go through this thread later deleting a petty argument plspls) but I like the support and agree.

20kg isn't that bad either, I started off with 22kgs and a few months later I'm doing 40-50kgs depending on the type of lift.

Once you get into a good exercise habit and diet you can improve really quickly.

after 2 weeks you normally begin to notice differences in your strength, 4 weeks start to look muscularish, 2 months is plenty of time for a fair transformation.

[Orb]

20kg isn't that bad either, I started off with 22kgs and a few months later I'm doing 40-50kgs depending on the type of lift.

Once you get into a good exercise habit and diet you can improve really quickly.

after 2 weeks you normally begin to notice differences in your strength, 4 weeks start to look muscularish, 2 months is plenty of time for a fair transformation.

hey tyler

47kgs weoww

I'm in the same situation as you except i've probably started this journey ages ago.

Now to this day i'm still in the grind of slow muscle building... think I started at around 25-30kg bench
a year later probs 40-45
But working hard while it might not change your body shape that much (don't think mine changed too much apart from more bulk around the arm and shoulder area, still a stick though ) it'll have a change in other places, eg I play basketball and i've felt that it's improved my performance in high stress situations