BayArea17

New to the forum, I'd like to introduce myself... my name is Brent. I live in Northern California and I work with children with autism as well as attend college. Have gone on and off working out my entire life, but I am ready to start taking it seriously...I figured a forum may help for support. If you'd like to scan through this post (I tend to ramble, the important info is in bold, and questions are in italics)

A bit about myself...I am 5'8" and weigh 160 lbs. I usually fall in the 167 range but I'm currently a bit light. I recently joined a site on the net where you can track your daily exercise acitivies, as well as calorie intake and the software does some evaluations. All in all the program is good, but I've certainly found some flaws.

I set a goal to weigh 172 lbs by July 26 - a gain of 12 full lbs. I would like to achieve this through muscle development and healthy eating.

I am currently unaware of my % of body fat, I know that information would help with my questions and I'll try tomorrow again to get that information while at the gym.

I am currently doing 30-35 minutes of cardio 3-4 times a week, as well as several miles walking several days a week. I am also currently lifting weights three times a week. In inputting all my food into the database over on that other site (not sure if we're allowed to post the name, some places consider it advertising)



Few quick questions....



I have been keeping pretty good track of the food I eat, and today I consumed 1628 calories. 35% was fat, 31% was protein, 34% was carbs. What do you guys think the appropriate percent of my diet should be protein? I was thinking i should try to get that a bit closer to 40% than the current 31% if I intend to pack on muscle.


How many calories should I be eating a day? I try to shoot for around 2000, sometimes I fall short.


I have also inputted all activities I do daily into the site. The cardio calorie counter seems to be pretty good, but sometimes it's hard to know how many calories you are burning while lifting. Do you guys know of a way to better figure out how many calories you burn while working out? I generally do about 6-7 sets of two different groups (ie, triceps and shoulders one day etc)


When doing cardio, I understand the best method to *burn fat* is to do a 1:2 work\rest ratio while doing the cardio. I generally get my heart rate up to about 150-165 while "working" and then down to 100 or so while "relaxing" Other times I just keep my rate at a steady 130 the entire time. I know it'd be difficult to say exactly what type of cardio work out I should be doing without knowing my at rest heart rate, but can you guys comment on this? I dont think I need to shave off *alot* of fan to achieve the body I want... I more so have to put on muscle so I'm not sure the fat burn cardio work outs are ideal for me.


Please don't hesitate to post any relevant questions you'd like to know about me to further help your chances of giving me good advice. Thanks alot guys, looking forward to getting to know the board.

BayArea17

Been reading around the forum and seems you can really only add a few pounds of muscle a month? Maybe my goal to gain 12 lbs is completely not possible in 1.5 months. I figured 6 would come by way of muscle, and 6 would by way of fat as it's generally a 1:1 thing for most?

BayArea17

Lastly, if my questions have been asked a thousand times, feel free to not get well into detail about things, I should be able to find most of the easy information with stickies etc

Thanks Gang!!!

mr intensity

have you ever tried ketogenic diet? i got the best results with it i`ve come down from 20percent to 4 percent bodyfat...... besides i never had to crave for carbs....i mentained my muscle mass

mr intensity

and if you are looking to gain muscle mass aim for no more than 10 to 15 pounds of muscle a year..... it takes time to build muscle even with steroids all these mass monsters like markus ruhl and ronnie coleman they gained 100 pounds of muscle in ten years so if you divide the muscle mass by the years you`ll come down to the figure 10pounds/year..... so its better to have realistic goals...

mr intensity

and if you are looking to gain muscle mass aim for no more than 10 to 15 pounds of muscle a year..... it takes time to build muscle even with steroids all these mass monsters like markus ruhl and ronnie coleman they gained 100 pounds of muscle in ten years so if you divide the muscle mass by the years you`ll come down to the figure 10pounds/year..... so its better to have realistic goals...

BayArea17

thanks for the replies gang, so my goal of weight gain should be about what from now until July 25th?

Also just did my body fat with an online source, measures my abdamien and neck... not a super expensive test but it said 17.4% - I'm sure it's close to correct, though I have the feeling it will be slightly lower when I get it done with a better method shortly.

BayArea17

I don't think it's out of the question that I pack on 3% my weight in weight gains with muscle over the next six weeks ya guys think? 3% would be 4.8 lbs, and I figure a few lbs of fat would be gained in that span as well.. so somewhere around 7-8 lbs gained?

I'm more concerned with looking "cut" than bulked up so I guess the pounds gained isn't the most important factor to me.

sakbar

Are you serious?!

BayArea17

Bueller? Any help certainly appreciated folks. Thanks and good luck with your current goals and dreams!

Merkaba

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

Youre not gonna gain much of anything if you're not eating considerably over your maintenance. 2000 or "sometimes falling short" of 2000 isn't gonna get it done. Post a pic or two, cover your face up if youre self conscious.

Mr intensity, I want to see pics of you at 4%. Seriously.

Ban 2 1/2 's !!!!!!
--------------------------------------------
Some Pics. All Natural