Advice for a skinnyfat weakling

[melody]

Why are you taking a weight gainer?!

[Greg C]

Why are you taking a weight gainer?!

Concur. Lose the gainer. Rest of the diet looks ok to me (fwiw). Tweak your calories down eating the same things (less the McDs) until you find your personal maintenance level (this will require logging everything that passes your lips). Then stay there and continue to lift. You'll recomp (slowly) and continue to get stronger.

[Corrie]

Trizzay I'm very similar to you and here is what I've learned.

I was 5'5 140 probably 15-18% bodyfat. I ate shitty and did SS and went up to 170 but I gained a lot of fat. My lifts sucked because of form and I started cutting. I cut back to 155 and though my stomach got a little flatter my muscles didn't start popping out all of a sudden, I hadn't built enough muscle.

Now I'm eating a much cleaner diet and trying to gain 1-3lb of bodyweight a week. I'm up to 164lb and my lifts are all going up steadily.
My plan is to eat what it takes to get my squat to 315 and then evaluate where I want to go from there.

At that point I feel like I have enough strength to take a break and cut some fat for a little while or keep on going if I feel like it.
As someone who has done bro type workouts all their life I noticed a distinct difference when I was trying to cut fat at 170 and squatting my bodyweight compared to when I tried it at 160 and doing curls and shit squatting 95 pounds. Once you can lift more you can do more work and cutting comes a lot easier.

Also, what are your goals? Are you doing this for aesthetics? If so SS may simply not work for you because it requires you to gain some fat. Evaluate your whole situation and make a decision and stick with it. And do your best to clean up your diet, it really makes a difference.

[skipbeat]

your diet stinks, it's all quick easy carbs with little protein. why are you eating so much bread on top of rice? weightgainers are for skinny lactose-intolerant* kids. what's a half scoop of whey? lol.

I am baffled that you feel guilty eating mcdonalds when your diet is probably crappier than mcdonalds lol.

pick either rice or bread, cut down on the carbs in general, cook some eggs in the morning (it takes 10 mins to cook/eat/wash dishes), and up the protein

* I remembered this time Jamie :- P

[Trizzay]

really? i get around 200g of protein a day, thought that was enough? how much protein should i be shooting for then?

not sure if you misread and thought had both rice and bread in the same sitting, which would be a bit absurd.. i said i will have one or the other along with whatever source of protein I choose + vegies.

Keep in mind diet i listed though was me saying fuck it and just trying get the most strength I could so it's was essentially a bulking diet and from a strength gaining standpoint its worked for me, obviously I have now decided that don't need such an aggressive bulking plan anymore so I'm going to be cutting down on the carbs and trying even harder to eat clean thanks to everyones advice, much appreciated. Hopefully this can help me get my bodyfat down a little before my season starts so I'm not slowed down by the extra weight i've put on which is hopefully counterbalanced somehow by the strength gains lol.

[Mr_Rogers]

I'd follow Greg C 's advice, lose the McD's and weight gainer and I think you'll notice a huge difference. I don't really eat bread any more (I have it with my bacon and eggs on the weekend) and I limit rice to suppers. A typical day for me will be 2-3 eggs mixed with 2-3 egg whites, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt and a pear for breakfast. Lunch I'll have about a cup of ground beef (turkey, deer, etc) mixed with peppers, mushrooms, oats and BBQ sauce, about half a cup of sweet potato hash and about 2 cups of mixed greens. For an afternoon snack I'll have about 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and some carrots. For a pre-workout meal I'll have 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of chocolate almond milk, 1 banana, peanut butter and two scoops of whey protein (all in a shake) and an apple. I'll have the same shake after my workout and for supper I have 1/2-1 cup of rice, 1-2 cups of greens and whatever meat I can find (I had 1.5 steaks last night). Since I've cleaned up my diet and focused on getting more calories I've been able to add 1-3 lbs per week. I started off pretty scrawny though at 145lbs (66kgs) and I'm now hovering around 180lbs (82kgs). I've gained some fat, but I consider it to be a reasonable amount. Get rid of the junk and I think you'll be much more pleased with the type of weight you put on.

[Gwiz590]

I agree with this advice. Eating clean and dropping carbs on non training days is the best way I have found to not gain that much fat. It took me a long time to figure this out unfortunately which resulted in me dieting myself down from a weak/fat ass at 6'3 240 and I lost all my muscle. I went from 240 to 170 over the course of a year or so then still wasn't happy so I started lifting weights to gain some back. That went nowhere then I found these SS workouts and I'm back up to 190. Still pretty skinny but I'm progressing on my lifts and I'm maintaining around 13-14% bf. My biggest advice would be to figure out your maintenance calorie intake and eat 500-750 over that on training days and right around it to 250 over on non training days while limiting refined carbs. Good luck!

[StrongLiftMyBalls]

Oh and my diet,

For breakfast I make myself a shake of half a cup of oats, 1.5 cups of skim milk, one scoop of whey, one tablespoon of pb and a banana

The rest of my meals will be either 2 cups of brown rice or 4 slices of whole meal bread with either 2cans of tuna, or steak or chicken, to get me around 40g of protein a meal + green leafy vegies

Post workout I take a weight gainer shake (cytogainer)

Before bed I mix one cup of cottage cheese with a handful of walnuts and half a scoop of whey. Sometimes I add an apple and a tablespoon of pb as well..

When I'm rushed for time between uni and work sometimes I have two cheeseburgers from McDonald's drive thru *guilt*

Maybe you just wrote this badly but it sounds like you are only eating two meals a day? one of which, breakfast, is also a liquid meal. The way i read it is that you are getting some protein from the milk, some from the PB, some from the tuna and the cottage cheese. SOME meaning not a huge amount, or at least not enough. The rest of the protein is coming from the shakes. Personal opinion is that you want to be getting at least 80% of your protein from animal sources and then top up with shakes. not the other way around.

Post workout you want to be eating 50% of your daily calories (again personal opinion). ie: a fuck ton of real protein and quite a lot of carbs (this is highly debated topic).

Listen to what the others have said, mr Rogers's diet sounds pretty much fine. There is no set rules for dieting but yours manages to break it.

[skipbeat]

really? i get around 200g of protein a day, thought that was enough? how much protein should i be shooting for then?

That's enough protein for me, if it all comes from solid food (although I am weak). With shakes I'd aim a little higher.. also, I was under the assumption that incomplete proteins (aka proteins not from dairy, meat, fish) don't count towards the total.

not sure if you misread and thought had both rice and bread in the same sitting, which would be a bit absurd.. i said i will have one or the other along with whatever source of protein I choose + vegies.

I misread, my bad.

Post workout I would eat a shit ton of regular food, don't bother with the shake. I'd chase my breakfast the following morning with a protein shake (not weight gainer)

[Trizzay]

Mr rogers those meals sound delicious and I shall be copying some of those for personal use

Just clarifying, when I say 'the rest of my meals' i'm referring to the 3-4 meals I have inbetween my breakfast and pre-bed meal to bring my meal total to 5-6 meals a day, would not be able to stomach a caloric surplus any other way.. I didn't bother listing them individually because they are all just the same variation of carb/animal protein/vegies.. didn't realise it would cause so much confusion :\.


Anyways I appreciate all the advice from everyone, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only person that's been in this situation before.. I've already started limiting the bulk of my carbs to meals pre and post workout.. and trying to hit around 2700 cals. I missed my my last squat rep on 102.5kg today but every other lift is progressing fine, only time and will tell if my bellyfat wants to disappear