robbie380... You're right. Lats are on the back. I meant to say triceps. (please forgive - it was 2am when I started the thread). As far as before and after photos.... Well, I started the 'master plan' when I was in my early 20's. I'm now 34. I didn't take pictures of myslef, and probably should have. There are other factors involved (i.e. skinny people don't like the idea of pictures being taken of their mostly-naked body, there were no digital cameras around a decade ago, I didn't have a polaroid...etc.). Bottom line: no pictures. Sorry. -- droxford
An Engaging topic I will take a different approach to this whole idea of weight gaining. I will begin by first talking about my experience with weight gain and then move on to what creates appetite and why I believe some people gain weight easier then others. <B>My Experience:</B> I have always had what you would call an Ectomorph body. I was thin but muscular and always wanted to gain weight because I thought that would give me the competitive edge in sports. I had many of the same weight gaining experience as many of you. Eating constantly and weight lifting to try to get bigger. The results were minimal for the effort I was putting in. I ended up quitting this type of regiment because a person can only eat so much and stay on a program like this for so long. <B>My second attempt: </B> to gain weight revolved around trying every substance in GNC. To name a few: Weight Gainers, Creatine, Myo-Blast, DHEA, enzymes to stimulate appetite, etc... Again, results were minimal and costly. After my second attempt, I pretty much gave up on trying to gain weight because I thought it was impossible. <B>Hormones: </B> Well, I thought it was impossible until I was given a shot of Prednisone, which is a GC (Glucocorticoid), for a back problem I was having. If you are wondering what GC is, it is a hormone. Doctors prescribed it to me for anti anti-inflammatory reasons. Well back to the story, after having 2 shots of this stuff, I gained like 20 pounds in approximately 2 months. I couldn’t believe it. I definitely noticed the difference. For example, my appetite increased so much. I was eating things that I normally didn’t eat. For example, I usually don’t eat breakfast but when on GC I ate breakfast. In fact, I ate and ate and ate. The strange thing was I loved every bite of what I was eating. In the past, if I attempted to eat that much I would be forcing the food not enjoying it with a belly ache and probably end up throwing up. So, I investigated why GC has this effect by reading scientific research papers. It turns out that GC does increase appetite and it increases the body’s ability to metabolize: both carbohydrates and protein and helps store the metabolized food as energy in the body for future use. The reason why it does this is related to a complex system of preparing the body to deal with stress. I realize this might seem a little difficult to understand but in a time of stress, your body uses up the stored energy, fat deposits, to combat the stress and increases the production of GC during this stressful time, which again increases your appetite and your body will store fat again. That is why people, a lot of people, who are stressed out seem to feed a lot during these times periods and get fat. They attribute Stress as the reason for their appetite, which in fact is completely wrong because Stress actually creates an anorexic effect. Instead it’s the GC that is released in the body, which creates the feeding mechanism inside your mind. If for some reason not enough GC is produce during times of stress your body will not crave food and instead your body will go more into an anorexic state during times of stress. This might be the reason why some people feed a lot while others don’t seem to be as hungry. To show how powerful GC is, people who have very high levels of GC have what you call Cushing’s disease, which causes their body and face to look swelled up. Meaning they look really fat. Having said all of this, I would never suggest taking a GC to solve your weight gaining problems because it can have many horrible side effects if taken for a long period of time. Instead, I give you this story to possible give reason why some people have an easier time gaining weight compared to other people and have greater appetites then others. In my experience there is little that can be done to gain weight. Sure you can work out and eat but in the end the results usually fall short of the effort that one has to place upon themselves to reach their desired goal.
Hey droxford, I am Keith Klein. Now I can figure out who you are. Anyway, does anyone else think that Hulk is a bit short for the body that he has? A bit out of proportion. The head is too big.
Dude, he is supposed to be the Hulk, not a model. Just appreciate his ability to bash things up. By the way, are you a girl? Cause if you are a guy you have serious problems.
Okay, I am not Keith Klein. And I'm also not a girl. Just thought that the computer generated figure of Hulk looks much more like a baby, you know, big head and wide body, but short. Anyway, maybe someone can give me some advice here. I always have this problem. I am thin. Whenever I eat too much, my belly becomes fat, but my limbs stay thin like always. I want to gain weight, but at the same time, I also want to loose some fat at my belly. If I follow some of the weight gain programs, I am afraid that by the time I build some muscles at my arms, legs and chest, I will also have a nasty looking belly at the same time. Now I am doing some weight-lifting (for the muscles) 3 days a week, and swim (to take care of the fat) once a week. Sounds logical? Any better suggestions?
Dude that is exactly what I have done for the last three years. Its simply NOT going to work. I am also skinny and have little bit of flab around my belly. Gaining wieght while trying to lose flab anywhere is not going to work. My trainer told me to up my calorie and protien intake. Keep the carbs and fat intake kinda moderate to low. He says of course I will gain some more wieght in the belly areay. But my chest and arms and lower body will get much bigger as well and that will off-set me looking big in the belly area. Make sense? This is called the mass gaining period or something like that. Then after a coupe of months I will get into a toning period. This is when I start doing alot of cardio (right now I am suppose to do maybe 15 min a week). This will help me trim the excess fat. I just started last week and so far it sounds logical to me.
Hmm...confirms my greatest fear. Makes some sense. But my chest and arms will need to get REALLY MUCH BIGGER for the off-set to work. Now this sounds absolutely logical to me. Thanks for sharing.
This is really a simple solution to a simple problem. The problem is that you don't exercise enough. Therefore your body just collects stored enegy in your tummy as fat. If you want to lose the fat in your stomach area you got to begin arobic exercises such as running, playing basketball/soccer, etc... When I suggest running, I mean it. No walking or swift jogging. You should go at least 6 to 7 miles per hour. Also, I would suggest after your arobic exercise to do 3 sets of 50 sit ups, which equals 150 sit ups. Then, I would lift weights. The particular exercises I would do are: bicep curls (3 sets of 20) Leg extentions (3 set of 10)
I forgot to mention, you still won't get that big in your belly area. Even weight lifting burns calories and tones your entire body. Just work out on your abs by doing crunches and such. That should definitely help. X-trep-X, your method will definitely help him lose the fat, but it won't help him get bigger. And I think that's what he wanted to do right? If he is already skinny like me, he probably doesn't want to get any skinnier.
It sounds like me, like he is the typical male who wants to gain muscle mass and get rid of his fat deposits by doing nothing. The fact is, people are generally lazy for the most part. You gotta go out and exercise and eat lots of protein if he wants to convert that fat into muscle. Doing just situps isn't going to cut it. Plus, there are studies that suggest arobic exercise in conjunction with weight lifting actually helps achieve your goals faster.
