Beginning to bulk

[MadBillJohns]

Hi guys, first post here, go easy on me. ;o)

Just after a bit of guidance really!

I'm a skinny guy (ectomorph is it?) & I attempted weights a year ago but to avail as I wasn't getting any gains at all, more toned than anything, despite eating relatively healthy in the process.

After a holiday away I've decided to give it another bash seeing as my motivation has reappeared from nowhere - I've looked at countless number of bulking up websites & forums & have a pretty good idea how many calories I need, food etc. which will help me gain. I looked back to a year ago & to my surprise when actually thinking about what I ate I was only eating around 2,000 calories - nowhere near enough I know.

I suppose what I need some advice on is an adequate eating plan that works around my job & hobbys. I work 5days a week, 7:30-4:30 & play Football on Saturdays. How would I go about getting a constant flow of calories? I understand I need to be hitting around 5,000 a day to notice improvements.

I have a physical job & have calculated that I burn in & around 2,000 calories per day (this won't include my weight training sessions which is around 500-750?) so I need to eat A LOT.

I'm 24 5"11 145lbs. Not the biggest. Would 170lbs be an achievable & realistic goal to aim for? I need to spend a few days to plan everything including meals, when to train etc aswell as somewhere to store all my info about what I've eaten? Like a calorie counter?

Many thanks in advance.

[GazzyG]

At 145lbs you won't need anything like 5000cals to start with in order to see gains.

Take what you eat normally to stay at your usual weight then add 500cals.

Once your gains begin to slow, add 500 more. And so on. I've not really had to eat much more than 3000cals a day to keep seeing decent gains.

As for your goal of 170lbs - easily achieveable. I started off at 150lbs less than two years ago and this morning weighed myself at 202lbs.

Also, Fitday.com is a very good website for keeping a journal of what calories you consume.

Hope all that helps.

[Cards]

145 at almost 6 foot, you need to eat everything and anything that's not nailed to the floor. Then, when you're no longer hungry, you need to eat more.

[MadBillJohns]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

150lbs to 202lbs....that's impressive!

[Allen Cress]

Don't worry so much about counting calories right now, just focus on eating often and a lot with snacks inbetween like natural peanut butter & mixed nuts

[yayeti]

How much should you look to gain per week if you want least fat gain possible?

[Whoopipally]

How much should you look to gain per week if you want least fat gain possible?

Fat gain is inevitable, but for the majority about 2 lbs a week is a good pace imo.

[Allen Cress]

How much should you look to gain per week if you want least fat gain possible?

On average 1-3 lbs a week, depending on if the individual is really thin. Now this is a average, it doesn't mean every single week you will or should gain weight. One week you may gain 2 lbs, the next only 1, and the next zero. Be patient and consistent.

[yayeti]

If normal muscle gain is so variable week to week, how can you judge if the amount of calories you are getting is adequate? If I am cutting with 1800, where do I go if I want to gain muscle as fast as possible with minimal fat gain, once I am done cutting. Ive seen plenty of formulas where you use a multiplier anywhere from 16 to 20+.

How do you find that magic number of total calories that allows maximal muscle gain? If you start off adding 500 calories to your diet, and you come to one of those weeks that you gained 0 lbs, you might mistake this as a problem with your diet and start adding more which would mess things up.

And one last question...would I gain muscle faster if I said fuck it and didn't care about fat gain, instead of trying to stay lean?