Cannot gain muscle

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 12:22 PM

I have been working out for 12 weeks now and see zero results in muscle gain.

I eat usually the following

morning shake 9 am
2 chicken breasts potato 12pm
shake 3pm
2 chicken potato or steak and potato 7
shake 10pm

I sometimes substitute a 5 eggwhite scrambled egg meal at the 10pm meal.

I lift each muscle twice a week with 3 days cardio. I am losing fat whcih is a plus, but my chest never has seemed to grow.
I do cable flies, dumbell press incline/flat.

I weigh 195 and am 6'3. I have gone down from 210, but my chest and arms dont seem to grow. Trying to do the usual, lose weight and gain mass. My bodyfat is 20%.

Hope that is enough info. Just a little frustrated. Don't expect too much too soon, but I would think I would notice my chest and biceps growing.

**Mudge** · 06-09-2003, 12:41 PM

It is hard for most people to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time, if your doing it quickly. 15 pounds is a pretty good amount of weight to lose, although over 3 months thats completely reasonable.

I am not a big fan of flies other than the occasional finisher, stick to your mass movements as the basis of the routine. You may also want to try switching things up, sometimes I like to start with inclines instead of flat pressing. I also like to throw in a set of declines, or dips.

As for egg whites, the breakdown is:

Protein of the entire egg: 6.25
Protein of just the Yolk is 2.85
Just the white: 3.5

So 5 egg whites is a mere 17.5g protein. The nightly meal will often need some kind of fat in it, to slow digestion, although most will avoid carbs after 6PM or so if watching bodyfat. Not sure what else is mixed in with the rest of your last meal though. Do you wake up hungry?

**Jodi** · 06-09-2003, 12:52 PM

You are not eating enough at all. You need to to increase to 6 meals a day, add green veggies, slow burning carbs and EFA's. At that little food, your probably losing alot of muscle along with the fat.

**Prince** · 06-09-2003, 12:56 PM

Originally posted by Jodi
You are not eating enough at all.

You cannot gain weight/size if you do not consume enough calories, period.

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 01:09 PM

Hard to have 6 meals with work, but I am a little confused on what I can eat and cannot. I love pasta, but have cut it out of my diet. I am sure it's helped me lose weight, but it is a good source of carbs.

Should I just think of eating everything in site then see if it goes on as muscle or fat?

**Prince** · 06-09-2003, 01:19 PM

one thing I will say is it's very difficult to gain mass and get lean simultaneously.

as far as eating 6 meals, you can use protein bars and shakes at work, or you can bring premade meals.

how much protein are you eating per day?

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 01:22 PM

I am in the middle, not big enough muscle wise to get cut, so I want to put on muscle, but don't want to add fat either. arggg.

I try at least 200g protein a day. my shakes are 50 each then all the chicken I eat. good lord I am tired of chicken.

**Jodi** · 06-09-2003, 01:24 PM

You should be eating closer to 300 G protein, divided out between 6 meals.

There are other protein sources besides chicken and shakes. Beef, Fish (including tuna), Eggs, Turkey

**ZECH** · 06-09-2003, 01:29 PM

You are not going to see much muscle only after 12 weeks. It's going to take longer than that! You have to be in it for the long run.

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 01:31 PM

Think I may go broke with all the food, but it has to be the diet because I am pretty sure I follow correct form when lifting.

How much protein does 2 normal chicken breats about the size of a mans hand have? I don't weigh things so I have no idea weight.

**Jodi** · 06-09-2003, 01:47 PM

Men's hands differ in size!

My guess is approx. 50G

**Prince** · 06-09-2003, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by schuminole
Think I may go broke with all the food, but it has to be the diet because I am pretty sure I follow correct form when lifting.

let's see your training routine.

**Mudge** · 06-09-2003, 01:57 PM

Originally posted by schuminole
I try at least 200g protein a day. my shakes are 50 each then all the chicken I eat. good lord I am tired of chicken.

LoL, I know what your saying. I have to make some kind of adjustment now and again before I get totally sick of something. I use salsa on alot of my food, sometimes I break down and I allow cheese, yada yada.

I also eat tuna out of the can around every other day while at work. To make it more edible if needed, I like onions, black pepper, and fat free Miracle Whip (you may want mayo instead).

I dont know the sodium content of eggs off hand, but I believe it has a fair amount in there. I know that the chicken breasts I buy are pretty good about that though, takes 10 (~330g protein) of them to equal 100% of the USRDA sodium intake. If your cutting out the carbs it is reasonable to say that you will need more protein, the body can be pretty stubborn if expected to work "miracles" on low protein intake. I try to run 1.5g per pound as a minimum.

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 02:31 PM

Monday
chest
dumbell press
12 X 35
10 x 40
8 x 45
6 x 50
12 x35

Incline dumbell
12 x 20
10 x25
8 x 30
6 x 35
12 x 20

Cable fly
12 x 4
10 x 5
8 x 6
6 x 7
12 x 4

Tues
cardio 25 minutes interval

Wed
Biceps/tris

dumbell curl
12 X 15
10 x 20
8 x 25
6 x 25
12 x15

Straight barl curl
12 X 45
10 x 50
8 x 55
6 x 60
12 x 45

Tri's

pushdown with rope
12 X 5
10 X 6
8 x 7
6 x 8
12 x 5

Overhead tri stretches with rope (not sure what there called)
12 X 4
10 X 5
8 x 6
6 x 7
12 x 8

Thurs
Cardio
cardio 25 minutes interval

Fri

Chest again

Sat
cardio

sunday off

monday biceps/tris

etc...

Not doing any lower yet. Not a big fan and try to tone legs by doing stairclimbers for cardio. I'm not trying to get huge just want to gain some m uscle and get lean.

**Jodi** · 06-09-2003, 02:32 PM

You lower body is your foundation. You need to work!

**Prince** · 06-09-2003, 03:01 PM

Originally posted by schuminole
Not doing any lower yet. Not a big fan and try to tone legs by doing stairclimbers for cardio. I'm not trying to get huge just want to gain some muscle and get lean.

Your volume is a bit high for my tastes, and since you're not seeing much results you may consider dropping the volume a little and increasing the weight.

As Jodi said, legs are critical, they're half of your body! Start working them.

**schuminole** · 06-09-2003, 03:03 PM

why does this site promote Steroids?

**Prince** · 06-09-2003, 03:23 PM

where do we "promote" steroids?

**Mudge** · 06-09-2003, 03:25 PM

It doesn't

and almost nobody here is interested in the topic, the forum is here for informational purposes but nobody is promoting it.

I would say your training program is rather 1980s-ish, I would call it overtraining about 2x over.

I do biceps on back day and do 3 sets, think of how small your bicep is in relation to larger muscles. For triceps I like about 6-7 sets, for chest I like around 7-9 sets depending what I do and how I feel. I was never a great bencher but right now its safe to say its my best movement.

Something like back/legs need a fair amount of volume, large muscle groups and different excersizes needed to hit everything, biceps/triceps/chest dont need that much.

**Fit Freak** · 06-09-2003, 07:09 PM

I think you should alter your training routine...try training each bodypart only once per week. Train 4...5 day MAX per week.

As for your diet...IMO you need to decide if you want to gain muscle or lose fat. If you're looking to increase muscle size then definately eat more...not everything in site...just MORE of the good stuff. IMO you crabs are too low for a mass gaining program and I would continue eating carbs throughout the evening.

Try to keep you carbs limited to sweet potato, oats, brown or wild rice, apples, berries, and lots of vegies. For a change I sometimes eat new potatos instead of the sweet variety (their glycemic rating is pretty low if you bake them).

Definately up the protein to 1.5g per lb of bodyweight and increase your fat intake also. Try adding flax oil, olive oil, fatty fish (salmon), nuts, seeds, natural peanut butter, etc. as healthy sources of fats.

Eat 6 times a day......and go easy on the cardio too...it's really a numbers game...if you're natural...which I assume you are...you MUST eat more calories than you burn during the day to gain muscle. If you're not gaining w8...gradually increase your calories.

One more thing bud...START TRAINING LEGS....your legs make up 1/2 your body....I hate when people train the mirror muscles and neglect their legs....

You're never going to develop nice legs by cardio alone...trust me!

Last thing....eating that much protein and training hard too....make it your goal to get at least 4L of water a day...more if you can.

**Mudge** · 06-09-2003, 07:11 PM

Legs help get the rest of the body going too. Compound movements that put the body under heavy load trigger GH release, and squats is definitely up there in importance. I have seen a couple light bulbs with big upper bodies, but stagnation without leg training is not to be unexpected, and it looks really ridiculous IMO.

I have to keep my own cardio to 3 days a week.

**schuminole** · 06-10-2003, 07:55 AM

maybe promoting wasn't right, but I saw it advertising some package I assumed was steroids.

Thanks for the advise on the diet and training.

Couple questions.

diet. I agree the hard part is losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. Is a baked potato with nothing on it ok? Not a sweet potato fan.

On the training. Anyone have a good routine they do for each body part.

7-9 sets? I assume that is with different exercises.

I really appreciate all your help. I am doing this at the advise of my cardiologist and have really enjoyed it. I just need a little direction. The motivation is definitly there.

**Prince** · 06-10-2003, 11:21 AM

Originally posted by schuminole
maybe promoting wasn't right, but I saw it advertising some package I assumed was steroids.

steroids are a reality, especially in bodybuilding, so we offer the information here, it does not mean that IM supports or condones it's use in any way, shape or form.

**Mudge** · 06-10-2003, 12:49 PM

Politically I think you can look at is as, if its illegal ignore it and teach people nothing about it, even if they choose to use xxx substance.

Or, educate people so they dont screw up thier lives since they are going to use xxx regardless.

Either way, much better habit than heroin etc in my opinion at least.

**LAM** · 06-10-2003, 02:13 PM

you need to up your fiber intake to at least 30 grams/day and add in some ALA or R-ALA to increase your insulin sensitivity.

I would also take all starchy carbs out of your diet until you get your bf under control. eat low GI low carbs like beans, lentils, whole wheat pasta, barley, etc...

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Cannot gain muscle

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