Skip to main content

weight gain

i seem to be gaing fat

tom
tom g thomas annal
3 Post(s)
3 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2015
Posted

hi iam 53 and just started at the gym in dec benn going 3 to 5 day a week weights on 3 days and carido and yoga on 2 days my diet is the same as when i was doing nothing wicth is mostly healthy but my waste size has incresed 2 in and i belive i should go shoping for a training bra any sugestion i have been thinking replacing breakfest and lunch wih protine bars and shakes

JoeHurricane
JoeHurricane p Jordan Matthews
1.5K Post(s)
1.5K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: December 12, 2013
Posted
Posted By: tom

hi iam 53 and just started at the gym in dec benn going 3 to 5 day a week weights on 3 days and carido and yoga on 2 days my diet is the same as when i was doing nothing wicth is mostly healthy but my waste size has incresed 2 in and i belive i should go shoping for a training bra any sugestion i have been thinking replacing breakfest and lunch wih protine bars and shakes

Hey @tom!

 

Firstly, you should post further questions like this in the relevant @forums. Such as 'mucle gain' or 'diet and nutrition' or 'weight loss' depending on your question.

 

Secondly, good to hear you have started at the gym! haha.

 

It is all well and good saying you eat healthy, but do you know your macros? The amount of carbs, protein and fat you are eating? What about how many calories you are eating each day? Training is nothing without a good diet. Go to the @mealplan page, and you can figure out your BMR, and then watch the video to figure out how to calulate your macros for your goals.

 

I don't know if it is a good idea only living on protein bars and shakes. You need to eat a variety of food to make sure you get your micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) in order for your body to properly absorb macronutrients.

 

Are you just doing cardio and yoga, or are you weightlifting as well? Also, what type of cardio are you doing? Try doing some HIIT for maintaining muscle AND losing fat.

 

Is your overall goal to gain muscle or lose fat? What is your current body fat %?

 

If you can answer a few of those questions, we can help you out more. Be sure especially to post your macros!

 

Jordan

SHF Athlete MS Athlete Partial Fitness YouTuber
jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: tom

hi iam 53 and just started at the gym in dec benn going 3 to 5 day a week weights on 3 days and carido and yoga on 2 days my diet is the same as when i was doing nothing wicth is mostly healthy but my waste size has incresed 2 in and i belive i should go shoping for a training bra any sugestion i have been thinking replacing breakfest and lunch wih protine bars and shakes

Tom,

 

Well being almost 51 myself, I can say you are never too old to start. Even though I have been lifting consistently since I was 20 years old, I still understand the challenges of people our age. I will share with you some advice from my years of lifting and eating healthy. I won't go into too much detail as there is lots of info on this site and it is meant to inform you and guide you not to be condescending :-)

 

1) Do not replace meals with protein shakes and protein bars. Avoid protein bars as they are just glorified candy bars hiding under the banner of protein. They have just as bad an effect on insulin as a candy bar. Protein shakes are meant to supplement your meal plan not replace meals.

 

2) Skipping meals causes your body to go into "survival mode" whereby it slows your metabolism and fat burning. To lose weight in a healthy and sustainable manner, you need to eat sufficient calories from nutritious foods every day and regularly.

 

3) I am confident your diet is not healthy. Many people have been mis-informed by the government and food manufacturers as to what is healthy and what is not. 99% of the junk sold in the supermarket is devoid of nutrition and fooling people by using terms like "low fat", "heart healthy", "low cholesterol", "low salt" and all the other gimmick phrases. Unless you are buying and cooking your own food from scratch and from nutritious sources, you are eating a typical processed food heavy diet. If the foods in your kitchen come in a box, bag, package, bottle, sleeve, or some other packaging and have more than 1 or 2 ingredients listed on the label, it is processed. Processed food is heavy in man-made sugars (sugar uses 50 different names so it doesn't always say "sugar" on the label), is devoid of nutrients, and has too little good fats and cholesterol and too much salt and artificial chemicals. If the food you were eating was truly nutritious, you would not have the weight problem you are facing. People make the incorrect assumption that people are over-weight because they eat too much. Actually they eat too much because they are over-weight. Being over-weight means your body is malnourished nutritionally and it is constantly having you eat searching for what it needs because it is not getting the nutrients it needs from the food you are eating.

 

4) Nutrition is 95% of the battle and exercise is 5% - you can't out exercise a bad diet. It is good you are working out 3-5 days a week and doing cardio, etc. Unfortuntately until we get you meal plan in order, you are taking one step forward and one step back.

 

It would be helpful to get an idea of the foods you eat in a typical day. We would also need to get your weight and some idea of your body fat percentage to calculate your required calories and how to portion out your macros of fat, protein, and carbs.

 

It sounds like a lot but it really isn't and we can help with the calculations. As for cooking your own food, it is actually more cost-effective and not as time consuming as many people believe. Cooking up some chicken breast and eating it with boil-in-the-bag brown rice and a plate of raw vegetables can be prepared in 15 minutes. If you prepare in bulk, you can have meals ready to eat as fast as the time it takes to re-heat them.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
tom
tom g thomas annal
3 Post(s)
3 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2015
Posted

thanks guys i guess i need to do some research on my diet i do mostly cook all my meals from freash produce and pasta comes from the organic side i work in hvac service so lunch is usally at the dinner but i have a lot of salds or the soup and 1/2 sand breakfast is usally a glass of oj and a couple of scrambled eggs on weat toast dinner would be 6oz of salmond or an 8oz strip steak and then ther is the chicken breast with a veggie like green beans or spinich i lean torads thr green veggies with pasta or patatoes and a glass of low fat milk also i only drink water with lunch i also will do a salad nights with nuts often as far as my bmi i have not been measured but my gym is having a mesurment night next week i plan to attend as far as my work out i am trying to work all the main groups on monday is chest, triceps and calves on wed sholders, quads and hamstrings on fri back, biceps and abs and on tue and thur is yoga for an hour long class then ride the bike for an hour wicth is about 7to8 miles

JoeHurricane
JoeHurricane p Jordan Matthews
1.5K Post(s)
1.5K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: December 12, 2013
Posted
Posted By: tom

thanks guys i guess i need to do some research on my diet i do mostly cook all my meals from freash produce and pasta comes from the organic side i work in hvac service so lunch is usally at the dinner but i have a lot of salds or the soup and 1/2 sand breakfast is usally a glass of oj and a couple of scrambled eggs on weat toast dinner would be 6oz of salmond or an 8oz strip steak and then ther is the chicken breast with a veggie like green beans or spinich i lean torads thr green veggies with pasta or patatoes and a glass of low fat milk also i only drink water with lunch i also will do a salad nights with nuts often as far as my bmi i have not been measured but my gym is having a mesurment night next week i plan to attend as far as my work out i am trying to work all the main groups on monday is chest, triceps and calves on wed sholders, quads and hamstrings on fri back, biceps and abs and on tue and thur is yoga for an hour long class then ride the bike for an hour wicth is about 7to8 miles

The foods you listed look pretty good @tom.

 

The things to try and make sure of are that your pasta and bread is whole wheat, and ifyou are having fruit juice try and make it freshly squeezed, otherwise you probably get added sugar in packaged bottles.

 

Basically what you need to do now is figure out the macros from all of those foods so you know how much protein, carbs and fat you are eating each day, as well as total calories. It's good to be eating clean foods, but even too much clean food will lead to fat gain.

 

In terms of measuring your BMI, I wouldn't worry about it that much. The BMI scale isn't really reliable for determining whehter or not someone is healthy or even overweight. BMI takes your height and weight into account only, and there is a set number that is deemed 'good' or 'bad' depending on those numbers. But it doesn't take into account muscle mass or anything like that. Imagine if Arnold judged himself with BMI - he would have come out as obese, but we all know that isn't the case!

 

Judge by things like body fat percentage instead, but even then you don't have to get too worked up - you can have rough guesstimates but overall you want to look good and only you can determine when that is.

 

Good to see you are working every muscle group. What rep range do you typically work in? Generally 8-12 is recommended for muscle gain, but depending on your genetic make-up it can vary from person to person. You should consider doing abs 2-4 times a week too.

 

Have you seen this video?

 

 

Figure out those macros if you can!

 

Jordan

SHF Athlete MS Athlete Partial Fitness YouTuber
muscular strength
 You must be a Member to view or reply this tread. Please Log In or become a Member .