-- Weightlifting & Nutrition Thread -- v9.0 Optimized

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 5:28am

Useful Links
Men’s Health detailed routine (very helpful)
Men’s Health Fitness Forum
Diet Plans (for gaining, not losing)
Explanations of exercises
How to tone up those abs

Most of you probably didn’t expect a thread like this from a skinny guy like me, but I don’t think the old one still exists, so here’s a new one.

Some beginning weightlifting suggestions can be found on these websites, such as this:

www.getbig.com:

Great - you’ve decided to try bodybuilding. Perhaps you want to build mass, tighten up your midsection or slim down; those are all possible with strength training. Whatever your reason (and you should definitely write down your goals for starting and your realistic expectations of what you hope to achieve in the short and long term),m you should follow a clearly defined program.

Don’t expect us to provide you with any so-called success; let’s state for the record right now that some training methods are smarter and better than others, but nothing resembles a secret. Our role here is to teach and guide you through your first three months so that you can take your training to the next level and design a personal routine that meets your needs.

Is there one program that’s right for everyone? No. Did you really expect that one routine would serve the needs of the female college basketball player who wants to make a more dominating presence on the court, the 45 year old businessman looking to firm his body and improve his health, and the young man interested in competitive bodybuilding? Every person who trains has different motivations, desires and genetic potential, and each must make his or her own adjustments in putting together a particular program. It’s really not so difficult. But before you get started, here are some points you’ll want to consider.

Get a physician’s release if you are over 40 or have had any sort of previous injury or impairment.

Be realistic but positive. Assess your current condition and where you want to be in three months, one year and five years. Keep focused on your goals and know you’ll achieve them.

Commit yourself to three months before making any judgements about whether it’s working or not. The truth is, you’re probably a bit impatient, and sculpting your physique takes time. Changes take place incrementally, but three months is long enough to notice some significant changes in strength and size. Persistence and dedication are characteristics that all successful bodybuilders have in common. Do you?

Designing Your Exercise Program

Before getting into your program, you need to develop an understanding of how and why you’re building your exercise routine. Although we’ve gone ahead and designed a program for you, just about everything in ti can be changed depending on your particular circumstances. Your primary objective here, as a beginner, is to build a solid foundation - and not just any training program will take you there in an efficient manner. Study the following points to better understand your bodybuilding program.

Bodypart Training

Bodybuilders group exercises by bodypart and train one muscle group at a time. Working one are with 1-3 exercises ensures that you train it thoroughly. Experience says that this type of training is the most efficient for bodybuilding. (Circuit training, on the other hand, allows you to do movements for different bodyparts back to back with no rest in between).

Every major muscle group should be developed to prevent muscle imbalance and the risk of injury. The major muscle groups include legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes), chest, shoulders, back (Trapezius, lats, erectors), abdominals and arms (biceps, triceps).

Exercises

You can choose from any number of movements that target a particular muscle group, but beginners should stick with the basics to develop a solid foundation. The first exercise you do for a given bodypart should be a compound movement. (A compound or multijoint movement, unlike an isolation exercise, has movement at two or more joints and thus brings in a greater number of assisting muscle groups. Note: Some bodyparts like biceps, triceps and calves can be worked with pre-dominatantly isolation exercises.)

Some basic movements can be done in a number of ways; for example, you can do a bench press with a barbell, with dumbbells or on a machine. Eventually, you’ll learn how to do them all and use the in your training arsenal.

Two similar exercises can target a muscle differently. For example, the bench press is a good exercise for most of the chest, but the incline press (essentially a bench press done on an incline bench) works the upper pectorals more effectively. When you put exercises together to form a routine, you’ll want to include those movements that hit the same muscle in different ways. That’s why you normally include 2-3 exercises when you work each bodypart.

Weights

During the first couple of training sessions, you’ll want to go pretty light just to get a feel for how to do the movement correctly. After you feel comfortable with the form, begin adding weight.

Even an experienced lifted should always do his first set as a warm-up with practically no weight to flush to target muscle and connective tissue with blood. On the second set, add a couple of small plates and do the exercise again. Was it still east? If so, and assuming you used good form, add more weight. If you struggled to reach 12 repetitions, add just a little bit of weight. (Adding weight on successive sets is called pyramid training and is one of the safest ways to train.)

Continue adding weight until it becomes tough to complete 8-12 reps. Your goal is to train in the range where you reach muscular failure at 8-12 reps. Once you find a challenging weight, stick with it. So you’ll become stronger and be able to increase the number of reps. Once you can do 12, it’s time to increase your training poundage by about 10%. At this heavier weight, you won’t be able to do 12 reps, but with time you’ll once again be able to. Keep working in this fashion.

The principle behind this type of training is known as overload. It states that for improvements to occur, you must impose a demand on your muscles greater than what they’re accustomed to (for bodybuilding purposes, about two-thirds of your maximal strength). Your muscles compensate for this strain on the cellular level by adding protein to grow thicker and stronger. At that point, the same load is no longer sufficient to induce further changes, more load must be added. That is, you must progressively add training stimulus to make continued improvements.

Keep track of your training poundage by recording your weights, sets and reps in a training log alongside a list of your exercises.

Some bodybuilders swing and heave, cheating for the sake of pushing heavier weights. Remember, the name of the game here is not weightlifting, but rather bodybuilding.

(to be continued)

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 5:33am

(continued from above)

www.getbig.com:

Sets

A set is a combination of any number of reps of a single exercise. As a beginner, you’ll normally want to do 1-2 light warm up sets of each movement (especially the first movement for a given bodypart) before doing 1-3 heavier sets. That equals 2-4 total sets per exercise.

Reps

A rep is a single execution of one exercise. if you do a set of 10 bicep curls consecutively, that’s 10 reps. During your first week or two, keep the weights very light so that you can complete about 15 reps in good form. This is a change for you to practice good form while you work on your neuromuscular coordination and lean the proper ‘feel’ for the movement. Developing that feel with become even more critical later on because it will tell you if an exercise is working.

After that initial break-in period, to build size and strength you want to do 8-12 reps per set (after your warm-up set of 15 reps, which you should do at the start of each exercise). Use a weight that allows you to do the recommended number of reps and still reach muscle failure.

Muscle failure means that you cannot do any more reps with good form. If you can’t do eight strict reps, the weight’s too heavy. If you can do more than 12, the weight’s too light. Adjust the weight for your next set. (Note: The numbers eight and twelve are not arbitrarily derived. Exercise scientists have conducted numerous tests and have found that working with a weight about 70% of your one-rep maximum produces the fastest results. Most bodybuilders can lift about 70% of their one-repetition maximum 8-12 times).

Though you don’t have to train to muscle failure to grow, you need to come pretty close. Bodybuilders call this intensity. How do you know if you’re close to working at 100% intensity? Simple: If you can do another rep with good form, do it! If you can do still another, do it.

After you build you base, you may want to experiment with a program that alternates periods of high reps (which build muscle endurance) to medium reps (builds muscle mass) with low reps (builds strength and power) and back up again. This is called cycling. The idea here is to progress to a higher level of strength each cycle. (Note: Advanced strength athletes like powerlifters use slightly different training methods, most notably the number of reps, that do bodybuilders. You’ll get stronger as you build muscle, but training to maximuse strength isn’t identical to the type of training that maximizes mass.)

Proper Form

We’ll say this again and again, but it’s far better to use a weight that allows you to perform the movement correctly than to cheat with a heavy weight that will, sooner or later, result in an injury.

Speed of Movement

Use a smooth, controlled motion during all phases of the lift. This deliberate rep speed produces the greatest results for bodybuilding purposes. Super-fast reps with ballistic movements and jerking can be harmful to muscles and connective tissues, while slow training accomplishes very little. In general, most bodybuilders use a formula that approximates a two-second positive contraction (raising the weight), a momentary squeeze of the muscle at the point of peak contraction, and a two-second negative contraction (lowering of the weight).

Breathing

Most people don’t think much about breathing until they begin lifting weights, but it should still come naturally. Start each set with a deep inhalation and exhale as you push through the most difficult part of the lift. Inhale at the top (or the easiest portion of the lift) and exhale as you push.

Rest between Sets

In general, rest as long as it takes for you to feel recovered from your previous set. That normally ranges from 45-90 seconds. Larger muscle groups take a bit longer to recover; smaller muscle groups clear low pH levels are are ready to go more quickly. Don’t fall into the all too common mistake of talking with your buddies for 3-4 minutes between sets, during which time your muscle can become cold. This is counterproductive and lengthens the time you spend in the gym.

If you want to emphasize strength, take a little longer rest between sets. On the other hand, less rest means you won’t be able to lift as heavy, but you’ll be stressing your endurance. Of note: How much you can lift on a given set and the number of reps you do are directly related to the length of your rest period.

Use a Full Range of Motion

Use a full range of motion in your exercise movements. You want to work each target muscle through its natural range of motion for complete development and to prevent injury.

Training Frequency

Say you train your entire body on Monday. Should you do it again on Tuesday, or wait until Wednesday? The answer is that your body requires a minimum of 48 hours to fully recover after exercise, sometimes even longer. Physiological processes at the cellular level require rest and nutrients before you can train that same muscle group again. A good rule of thumb: If you’re even slightly sore, you’re not ready to train that bodypart again.

If you’re an advanced bodybuilder and split up your workout into, for example, one day for upper body and another for lower body, you can train on consecutive days as long as you don’t repeat the same workout. As a beginner, you don’t want to go more than 96 hours (four days) without training the same muscle group again. Timing too infrequently results in submaximal gains.

The answer for the beginner, then, is to train every 2-3 days (or three times a week). A Monday - Wednesday - Friday (or similar) schedule is ideal.

Training Duration

If you follow the exercises, sets, reps and rest prescription, you should complete your resistance training in about an hour. Never mind those two hour plus sessions; who could possibly maintain the high level of intensity and mental fortitude of a marathon training session? What matters is the quality of your workout measured by the intensity you create, not the length of time you spend in the gym. Remember that.

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 5:38am

As for nutrition, people seem to agree more on it than they do the weightlifting aspect of a good fitness routine. Whereas there are several contradicting views on weightlifting, nutrition seems more straightforward. Again, a useful article from www.getbig.com :

www.getbig.com:

Daily Caloric Intake

This is an area that has been used and abused a lot over the past several years. At one point, high calorie diets are in and a year later low calorie diets are back in fashion. The same holds true for Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats. Opinions seem like they’re changing on a daily basis and they are! The following formula is tried and true. lf you follow it and make adjustments where they’re needed, you can’t help but to achieve nutritional nirvana. Many complex formula’s for figuring daily caloric needs have been introduced. My formula is a simplified and effective version.

Take your current body weight or a realistic body weight goal (Up or Down), and multiply it by your desired factor (either 12, 15, or 18). If you want to lose weight or have a slower metabolism, multiply your weight by 12. For maintaining your current weight, multiply your weight by 15. And for hardgainers or those looking to gain weight, multiply your weight or desired weight by 18. This is a starting point for figuring out your daily caloric needs. (Example: Male who is 200lbs x 15 = 3000 calories per day, Female wh is 130 lbs x 15 = 1950 calories per day). You may need to adjust your caloric need by 50 - 100 calories per day should you stagnate and not be achieving your desired goals. This formula also works as a nice starting point for a bodybuilder looking to figure out the different caloric needs over the course of a year.

A Pre-Contest bodybuilder would use their desired body weight multiplied by 12. An off-season bodybuilder would use their weight or desired weight multiplied by 15 or 18 depending on how fast their metabolism is and how lean they want to stay in the off-season. I personally use my body weight multiplied by 15. This allows me to grow and stay very lean in the off-season. This formula works equally well for both men and women.

After figuring your daily caloric needs, you now need to figure out how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fat you’ll take in per day. Roughly 30-35% of your calories should come from protein, 50-60% from carbohydrates and 10-15% from fats. Each gram of protein or carbohydrate is equal to 4 calories. Each gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Your calories should be partitioned somewhat equally throughout 5-6 meals or more per day. Higher calorie post workout meals are encouraged and will be discussed later in this article. Although vitamins and minerals will not be discussed in detail in this article, I do recommend everyone use some type of Mega Multi Vitamins or Vitamin Pack on a daily basis. Such supplementation provides daily insurance and eliminates the worry of meeting required needs for general health and recovery.

Protein

Protein is essential for the repair and growth of muscle tissues. The amino acids derived from proteins form the building blocks for all cells in the human body. Without protein, your organs, hair, nails, immune system and every other part of your body would not survive. Those who work out need to supply their bodies with enough protein to carry out the bodies regular day to day functions along with recovering from your daily workouts. Daily protein requirements for active people have been disputed for years between sports medicine professionals and those who decide on the US RDA’s. My personal opinion and that supported and accepted by most sports nutritionists and bodybuilding experts is 1 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This is a perfectly safe and very effective amount. Any less and your recovery and growth will suffer. Higher amounts of protein don’t seem to be any more beneficial, either.

Your protein intake should be approximately 30 - 35% of your total caloric intake. A 200 lbs male eating 3000 calories per day would want to consume 250 grams of protein per day, this would be 33% of his total calories. A 130 lb female eating 1950 calories per day would want to consume roughly 160 grams of protein per day, this would be 33% of her total calories. Your protein intake should be divided somewhat equally throughout all of your meals. If our 200 lbs male consumed 6 meals per day, he would want to consume 35-43 grams of protein per meal. If our 130 lb female were eating 6 meals per day, she would want to consume 20-30 grams per meal.

Best Protein Sources: Protein Powders and Supplements, Turkey, Chicken, Fish (White), Lean Red Meat, Egg Whites.

(to be continued)

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 5:43am

(continued from above)

www.getbig.com:

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the bodies preferred energy source. For the purpose of this article, I will break them down into two categories: Simple carbohydrates and Complex carbohydrates, Complex carbohydrates are carbohydrates that are broken down slowly and elicit a mild blood sugar response. With the exception of post workout meals, complex carbohydrates should represent the majority of the carbohydrates in your diet.

Simple carbohydrates are only recommended during the first two hours following your workout. The reason for this is simple carbohydrates elicit a rapid rise and fall in your blood sugar levels. This not only causes you to feel sluggish and tired but it also causes such an insulin spike that the body begins to convert and store those simple carbohydrates as fat, sometimes even before the simple carbohydrates leave the liver. Needless to say you’ve triggered hormones that are more conducive to fat storage than they are to fat burning and muscle building.

However during that two hour period following your workout, often considered the post workout window of opportunity, your body and your muscles are very receptive to simple sugars. Spiking your insulin levels at this time will not only help to begin refilling all your depleted glycogen stores but will also help you recover and feel revived from your intense workout. It is believed that 60 - 80% of your glycogen replenishment (carbohydrate storage & replacement) needs to take place within two hours after training. In other words, the quicker you can get the carbohydrates into those hungry muscles, the better your chances of having a great workout the next time out. It only makes sense that simple carbohydrates would work the quickest and get the job done with no drawbacks. But remember this is really the only ideal time for simple carbohydrates in your diet. During all other time frames, complex carbohydrates will help you to sustain a nice steady energy level that delivers a steady flow of carbohydrates to the muscle.

Carbohydrates should make up 50-60% of the calories in your diet. As with proteins, you need to space your carbohydrates throughout your meals for the day. A good ratio would be 1 - 1.5 grams of carbohydrates per gram of protein in all your regular meals and 2-3 grams of carbohydrates per gram of protein in your two post workout meals. I mention two because one should come immediately at the gym usually in the form of a drink or bar or both depending on your size, and the other should come about 60-90 minutes later in the form of a meal at your home, office or other destination. These two meals should represent 30-45% of your total calories and carbohydrates for the day. If you use a higher carbohydrate pro workout meal (60-90 minutes prior to training), its perfectly fine to make adjustments in your other meals ratio’s to balance out your daily percentages.

If you do eat foods that contain simple sugars, an easy way to combat the insulin spike is to simply make sure your eating complete meals. In other words, taking in protein with simple sugars, or for that matter any carbohydrates will slow down the absorption rate for a much more favorable and growth promoting blood sugar profile.

Best Complex Carbohydrate Sources: Oatmeal, Brown Rice, Beans, Hot Air Pop Corn, Green & Yellow Vegetables, Shredded Wheat, Yams, Sweet Potatoes.

Best Simple Carbohydrate Sources: (Post Workout). American Body Buildlng’s Critical Mass, XXL, Bulk Force, Amino Force, Carho Force, Steel Bar’s, Amino Power, Super Shakes (The product of choice depends on your size and caloric needs). Foods include Boboli Pizza with Fat Free Cheese, Whole Wheat or Buckwheat Pancakes, Whole Wheat Pasta’s, Syrian Bread sandwiches with real turkey or chicken, etc.

Best Meal Replacements: American Body Building’s High Voltage.

Fats

All the fat you need should occur naturally in your everyday diet. However, if your fat intake is extremely low (below 10%), I would recommend supplementing a tablespoon of flaxseed oil, olive oil or even a serving of peanuts just to make sure you get your essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids do play a role in growth, recovery and day to day well being. My recommendation is your daily caloric intake consist of 10-15% fat.

Mid Night Meals

At one time or another you’ve probably been warned not to cat anything before bed or in the middle of the night because it will turn immediately to fat. This is Dead Wrong! One of the biggest mistakes a bodybuilder can make is to go 10 or more hours without eating. If you eat every 2 - 4 hours during the day to prevent catabolism, what logic could convince you to fast every night for 10 - 12 hours. This might be the easiest way to interrupt recovery and growth on a daily basis. The following recommendation might be the most important growth promoting tip you’ve ever received. Eat 1 - 2 times during the course of the evening. I’m not talking about a full meal but rather a small protein based meal. Carbohydrates are not all that important during the middle of the night simply because you’re not doing anything but sleeping. However, protein will help to prevent catabolism and, during the all important Growth Hormone releasing sleep, promote anabolism. l’d recommend either drinking a protein shake, taking some amino’s, eating 3 - 4 egg whites or having a cup of cottage cheese just before bed and then once again in the middle of the night when you get up to go to the bathroom. All you need is about 75 - 125 calories in each meal and don’t forget to include them in your daily counts. Start eating in the middle of the night and you’ll be growing around the clock, and don’t worry, I guarantee you won’t get fat.

Summary

As I stated in the beginning of the article, nutrition is by far the most important factor and is almost always responsible for either success or failure in bodybuilding and most fitness programs. Although very complex, a basic understanding can guide anyone in the right direction. As you progress in your bodybuilding and fitness programs and gain further understanding of the relationship between performance, recovery and nutrition, you’ll be able to find certain nutritional strategies and manipulations that will help drive you to new heights. In future articles, we’ll discuss such strategies and manipulations. Until the next issue, good luck to all and hopefully bodybuilding’s nutritional jigsaw puzzle is a little easier for you to understand now.

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 5:53am

Now that I’ve covered the basics and reasons behind workout routines and nutrition plans, here is an actual routine. Supposedly, this is the routine Brad Pitt used for Fight Club. It can be found at various places on the intarweb.

I think I’m gonna give that routine a try, because I would love to look like this, minus the cigarette and shadowy eyes of course.

However, I have some questions about that routine. What are: nautiless press, pec deck machine, arnold press, hammer curls, push downs? Also, what’s the difference between: seated rows, and t-bar rows? And what is “laterals” for shoulders? Lastly, what does MHR mean on the treadmill?

Oh also, where are his legs and abs workouts? While I hear his legs are small, surely he has to do something else for his abs…

darthJones · October 5, 2004, 7:37am

anyone know what toby maguire’s workout routine is. he was able to do that within 3 months on a vegetarian diet (or so i’ve read). that’s awesome.

erco · October 5, 2004, 7:41am

MHR = Maximum Heart Rate
Laterals = Pulling weight down from above your head to work your back.

LOL, you wanna look like Brad Pitt? I find that funny, don’t know why.

EDIT: Toby was on Yoga Yoga Yoga workout.

The_Fireboy · October 5, 2004, 7:54am

I was wondering if anyone was going to make this thread again, I was thinking about it last night, but I’d feel stupid since I’m not muscular and only looking to get that way. But for your questions, check Bodybuilding.com I think it was posted in the last thread, they have an area of the site that tells you (With pictures) just about every strength training exercise you could think of.

And as of right now, I’m doing 8-10 reps and 5 sets. But my friends keep telling me to put on a lot of weight with less reps will work just as good, if not better. Anyone know if I should be doing HIT? Or just stick to my current ways of doing things?

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 9:01am

Hey, don’t feel bad. I’m in the exact same boat, and that didn’t stop me. :karate:

As for Toby McGuire, I don’t know the details, but I remembering hearing he got that way in 5 months, not 3, and I think he strayed from his vegetarian diet a bit to get at least a little bit of protein. I also believe he spent roughly 5 hours a day doing exercises. A regular weight workout, probably some aerobics, and like someone else mentioned lots of yoga.

I’m gonna try that Brad Pitt routine, like I already stated, coupled with some leg and ab workouts. Only thing I need now is a nutrition plan. All those numbers aren’t easy to interpret in terms of food. I need someone to lay me out a weekly menu.

margalis · October 5, 2004, 10:38am

Just as good at what?

Low reps at high weight gives you bigger, stronger, twitch muscles.

High reps at low weight gives you endurance muscle and a better cardio workout.

There isn’t any better, it just depends on what you want. And nothing says you can’t mix them. Personally, I would rather be lean and muscular than just plain big.

The_Fireboy · October 5, 2004, 11:54am

I don’t know too much since I just started as well, but from what I read is, it’s a calorie game, and the best thing to eat would be anything with protein. And only a few carbs like starchy carbs as rice and what not, and then fibrous carbs like green vegetables but I’d look up on it, since I could be wrong (Or the entire article I read could be a lie. :xeye: )

I had a similar question, I have a good protein intake for my body (I eat just about nothing but steak as of late.) But would something like whey protein shakes be worth it as I’m only trying to lose body fat currently, but retain as much muscle as I possibly can.

System_1 · October 5, 2004, 12:31pm

Just don’t push it to the limit with the lifting, unless you don’t mind a prolapsed colon.

True_Tech · October 5, 2004, 2:53pm

i personally frequent the mens health forum they always give good advice and i’m following the homegrown muscle program they have links below
homegrown muscle

the fitness forum

if you’re a beginner like me homegrown is a good program to follow till you have enough knowledge to start your own

ask them what you should eat and you’ll get plenty of replies and links about a weekly plan and how you should eat and i’ll tell you now what they’ll tell you,eat 4 to 6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism boosted so it burns more fat and calories

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 6:45pm

But is that what someone like me, who weighs 130 pounds, wants? I’m one of the few people out there who aren’t trying to lose weight, but gain it. I don’t wanna put on fat though, I wanna stay lean and just add muscle.

After looking at that link briefly, I would indeed like to look like this and this. Or at least somewhere between Pitt/that. I just don’t wanna get too big ya know.

System_1 · October 5, 2004, 7:06pm

Heres an assload of articles about weight gain diets and what not.

Romie · October 5, 2004, 7:13pm

Yayyyy, it’s back.

I’ve been meaning to start another thread, but I don’t come to the boards as much anymore… damn school…

System_1 · October 5, 2004, 8:06pm

i’m interested in toning down my midsection.
could you guys point me toward the right direction/website/diet?

I’m doing alright so far, but i can tell i’m not doing the right thing by just doing 100 sit-ups at night. so yeah, i’d appreciate some tips.

System_1 · October 5, 2004, 8:23pm

nautilus is just a brand that makes workout machines.

so he is just doing a bench and incline bench machine.

CrouchingTiger · October 5, 2004, 9:12pm

I think you might find this useful: http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/abs/absFULL.html

It basically says you’re going to need to cut the fatty foods (it explains how to figure all that out), and NOT do situps. Crunches are more effective, whereas situps are too easily done improperly, causing strain on your back and not enough focus on your abs. Also it says situps will add bulk to your obliques (love handles) which would increase your midsection. Not what you’re looking for. Do crunches and leg raises, as described in that article. It’s a fairly short read. Read it.

And cool LordViper, I thought that might be what it was. What about the other exercises I had in question? RPDrookie said hammer curls are just as if you were holding the dumbell like a hammer, vertically. What about the rest?

Also that Men’sHealth link seems very informative, but I’ve only skimmed over it as of now. I’ll add that to the first page so newcomes can find the info quickly.

True_Tech · October 5, 2004, 9:53pm

yeah thats what you want cause you always want to burn fat so that you gain more muscle and less fat but gaining just means you eat more calories then you can burn theres plenty of calorie calculators on different sites where you put in your stats and it tells you how much to eat to get this and this so to like gain so much weight, you’d eat so many calories. gotta love technology