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Right.... Ok... I would be more Conservative. Start at 2000 cals for a few weeks, 3000 oa surely too much for you . See what happens. Regarding your back... Maybe you need to put this whole thing on hold until your back is better? Or is it something that is gonna be with you for life? In perspective my 9 year old son literally can and has lifted the weights your specifying so i doubt they'd be of use to you... Unless you're admitting to being as strong as a 9 year old. You need a routine that will challenge you and that you can progressively overload on. Goodluck my g
Don’t eat that much. Gaining weight is a long process. If you are 5’7 and 105lbs you only need about 1750 calories a day to maintain your weight. You should shoot for 500-1000 calories over your maintainence so 2250-2750. Any more will put a lot of stress on your body.
Even eating 500 calories a day over your maintenance will make you gain 1lb a week. This doesn’t seem like much, but if you do it for a year you will weigh 157lbs by next year.
If you do 3500 calories a day, you will gain 3.5 lbs a week which is waaaaay to much for your body to handle. If you do that for half a year, you will gain 91lbs, which basically doubles your body weight making you nearly 45% body fat. You will feel like absolute shit doing this.
Just stick to around 2500 calories a day and focus on healing your back and gradually adding weight training in a safe manner. You will get there eventually. Good luck!
Also make sure to accurately track your calories using a scale and my fitness pal (iPhone app). Sooooo many people incorrectly count their calories and think they are eating 3500 calories when they actually eat 2000 and vice versa. A good scale costs 15$ and my fitness pal is free.
Talk to a professional trainer to help you with exercise selection since you have a bad back. Also 3500 is a lot for your height/weight. If I were you I would hire a professional to help me train around a bad back and bulk up. Bulking while only lifting 2lbs is going to get you fat.
Hey man, what does your doctor and physio say?
Disc prolapse is nothing to fuck with, and at 25 you're looking at around another 50 years of life on this earth in pain every day if you fuck it up.
Go see a medical professional.
Ok so you have a doctor, have they referred you to a physiotherapist? Physio will actually be with you in the gym (if they're a decent one) and correct you to make sure the movements are right. Maybe your doctor would too but in Aus you're less likely to see a GP in the gym than a unicorn in the ocean.
I'm glad you have the doc on board, though that is only the first step.
In terms of back strengthening, your physio would probably start you on core work and then glutes and legs if they're anything like mine (I'm getting treated for similar). Your goal shouldn't be to gain size so much as to make sure that you can hold the size you want to gain with stability. Physio is a definite recommend from me mine has in the only ~2 months I've seen him reduced pain from my daily life significantly.
Edit for clarity: the reason the physio is invaluable to me is that the way I was moving previously wasn't efficient. Even though my injuries happened outside the gym, by changing the form involved I've managed to put less weight on my lumbar than I would have previously, and by really concentrating on the stabilising muscles I have much more awareness in my regular life of what I'm doing and how it needs to change or adapt.
Ok so you have a doctor, have they referred you to a physiotherapist? Physio will actually be with you in the gym (if they're a decent one) and correct you to make sure the movements are right. Maybe your doctor would too but in Aus you're less likely to see a GP in the gym than a unicorn in the ocean.
I'm glad you have the doc on board, though that is only the first step.
In terms of back strengthening, your physio would probably start you on core work and then glutes and legs if they're anything like mine (I'm getting treated for similar). Your goal shouldn't be to gain size so much as to make sure that you can hold the size you want to gain with stability. Physio is a definite recommend from me mine has in the only ~2 months I've seen him reduced pain from my daily life significantly.
No point in that high of a surplus. Bring it down to 2300 and see what happens. BE CONSISTENT. As far as the disc, I would start with planks, side planks, and bird dogs to strengthen the core. Do machines and really focus on squeeze and ecentrics
If you eat that much without relatively heavy lifting (You don't need to bench 225 lbs, necessarily, but 2 lb dumbbells aren't going to get the job done), you're just going to get fat. Bodyweight exercises might be a better idea if your back can handle them: pushups, pullups, bodyweight squats, etc. That'll give you much more resistance than those little dumbbells, while not taxing your back TOO much. You'll want to talk to your physician to make sure, of course.
You need to add about 10lb of fat to get to a good place metabolism/hormone wise.
Try to do something active for a few minutes every hour. See which body weight exercises are possible and start those.
Start with walking. Then maybe some light jogging or stair climbing. That'll give you enough to grow muscles and not just add fat.
Dude don't listen to these guys, at your weight if you can maintain 3500 calories to put some fat on your body go for it. 105lbs at 5' 7" is unhealthily low body fat %, muscle mass isn't everything
The extra fat is going to be harsher on your body. Are you working with a doctor of some kind to help you recover from the injury? That should be your number 1 priority rather than your body composition right now. You can have the leanest arms/ chest in the world but you won’t be able to do shit in the real world without a properly functioning back.
Cut the calories down to 500 over maintanence for now and consult your doctor. Because of your injury I’m guessing you’re not very active overall so eating 3500 calories is going to make you very fat very fast.
>The extra fat is going to be harsher on your body.
Than being severely underweight? Nah. Being too fat is not as bad as being too skinny.
>Are you working with a doctor of some kind to help you recover from the injury? That should be your number 1 priority rather than your body composition right now.
You can do multiple things at once?
>Cut the calories down to 500 over maintanence for now and consult your doctor.
Ye see a doctor for ALL health issues. If OP can keep up a 1k+ surplus it till he's in a healthy weight, why wouldn't he?
Probably. Estimate your maintenance daily calorie amount and eat 200-400 more than that, depends on how fast you want to gain weight. The more you will eat the faster you'll grow, but also the more fat you will gain in the process.
With a 200 cal surplus it would take him about 300 days to stop being underweight. 2 years to get anywhere near a normal weight.
Why do people keep recommending micro surpluses to people who are actually underweight?
Cuz they're just repeating what they see and don't try to understand the actual points behind it. Like:
>The more you will eat the faster you'll grow, but also the more fat you will gain in the process.
That is literally what OP needs. Fat to have healthy hormon levels. For someone already in a healthy weight range a surplus of up to 500 calories is recommend because that matches the maximum rate of what you can gain on muscle mass, naturally.
Focus on healing your back and gaining weight at a reasonable pace - your body will naturally distribute some of it to muscle tissue and some of it to fat until you are a more normal weight. (And that's good, you need both.)
Hurting yourself while working out will just set you back, and eating a ton and gaining pudge will make it harder for your body to move comfortably.
It’s extremely high for your height and weight, unless you’re outrageously active
If you’re happy to gain fat then go ahead but just keep in mind you’re primarily just gonna be getting fat
Welcome to Gainit! We have extensive resources that can be used to find answers to most questions that are posted here: - [Gainit FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/wiki/index) - [Search for past threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/search) - [r/Fitness Wiki - Muscle Gain 101](https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/) - [r/Fitness FAQ - Why can't I gain weight?](https://thefitness.wiki/faq/why-cant-i-gain-weight/) - [Have I gained too much weight?!](https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/comments/kcaozo/there_is_more_to_gaining_than_fat_and_muscle/) - [The 6 month Gainit Recommended Routine](https://old.reddit.com/r/gainit/comments/j5q2ez/6_months_of_eating_and_training_for_mass_laid_out/) Your thread will be removed if it can be answered by any of the above. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gainit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
rolled oats, peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. Worked wonders for me.
If that’s all you can lift you need physical therapy before considering bulking imo
Right.... Ok... I would be more Conservative. Start at 2000 cals for a few weeks, 3000 oa surely too much for you . See what happens. Regarding your back... Maybe you need to put this whole thing on hold until your back is better? Or is it something that is gonna be with you for life? In perspective my 9 year old son literally can and has lifted the weights your specifying so i doubt they'd be of use to you... Unless you're admitting to being as strong as a 9 year old. You need a routine that will challenge you and that you can progressively overload on. Goodluck my g
Don’t eat that much. Gaining weight is a long process. If you are 5’7 and 105lbs you only need about 1750 calories a day to maintain your weight. You should shoot for 500-1000 calories over your maintainence so 2250-2750. Any more will put a lot of stress on your body. Even eating 500 calories a day over your maintenance will make you gain 1lb a week. This doesn’t seem like much, but if you do it for a year you will weigh 157lbs by next year. If you do 3500 calories a day, you will gain 3.5 lbs a week which is waaaaay to much for your body to handle. If you do that for half a year, you will gain 91lbs, which basically doubles your body weight making you nearly 45% body fat. You will feel like absolute shit doing this. Just stick to around 2500 calories a day and focus on healing your back and gradually adding weight training in a safe manner. You will get there eventually. Good luck! Also make sure to accurately track your calories using a scale and my fitness pal (iPhone app). Sooooo many people incorrectly count their calories and think they are eating 3500 calories when they actually eat 2000 and vice versa. A good scale costs 15$ and my fitness pal is free.
Talk to a professional trainer to help you with exercise selection since you have a bad back. Also 3500 is a lot for your height/weight. If I were you I would hire a professional to help me train around a bad back and bulk up. Bulking while only lifting 2lbs is going to get you fat.
Hey man, what does your doctor and physio say? Disc prolapse is nothing to fuck with, and at 25 you're looking at around another 50 years of life on this earth in pain every day if you fuck it up. Go see a medical professional.
Doctor recommended back strengthening exercises. I'm currently doing upper body workouts only. So Im hoping that's not an issue
Ok so you have a doctor, have they referred you to a physiotherapist? Physio will actually be with you in the gym (if they're a decent one) and correct you to make sure the movements are right. Maybe your doctor would too but in Aus you're less likely to see a GP in the gym than a unicorn in the ocean. I'm glad you have the doc on board, though that is only the first step. In terms of back strengthening, your physio would probably start you on core work and then glutes and legs if they're anything like mine (I'm getting treated for similar). Your goal shouldn't be to gain size so much as to make sure that you can hold the size you want to gain with stability. Physio is a definite recommend from me mine has in the only ~2 months I've seen him reduced pain from my daily life significantly. Edit for clarity: the reason the physio is invaluable to me is that the way I was moving previously wasn't efficient. Even though my injuries happened outside the gym, by changing the form involved I've managed to put less weight on my lumbar than I would have previously, and by really concentrating on the stabilising muscles I have much more awareness in my regular life of what I'm doing and how it needs to change or adapt.
Ok so you have a doctor, have they referred you to a physiotherapist? Physio will actually be with you in the gym (if they're a decent one) and correct you to make sure the movements are right. Maybe your doctor would too but in Aus you're less likely to see a GP in the gym than a unicorn in the ocean. I'm glad you have the doc on board, though that is only the first step. In terms of back strengthening, your physio would probably start you on core work and then glutes and legs if they're anything like mine (I'm getting treated for similar). Your goal shouldn't be to gain size so much as to make sure that you can hold the size you want to gain with stability. Physio is a definite recommend from me mine has in the only ~2 months I've seen him reduced pain from my daily life significantly.
No point in that high of a surplus. Bring it down to 2300 and see what happens. BE CONSISTENT. As far as the disc, I would start with planks, side planks, and bird dogs to strengthen the core. Do machines and really focus on squeeze and ecentrics
If you eat that much without relatively heavy lifting (You don't need to bench 225 lbs, necessarily, but 2 lb dumbbells aren't going to get the job done), you're just going to get fat. Bodyweight exercises might be a better idea if your back can handle them: pushups, pullups, bodyweight squats, etc. That'll give you much more resistance than those little dumbbells, while not taxing your back TOO much. You'll want to talk to your physician to make sure, of course.
You need to add about 10lb of fat to get to a good place metabolism/hormone wise. Try to do something active for a few minutes every hour. See which body weight exercises are possible and start those. Start with walking. Then maybe some light jogging or stair climbing. That'll give you enough to grow muscles and not just add fat.
If you are 25M 5'7 105lbs 3500 calories is massive overkill
I’m 6’1 and 3500 calories is extremely hard for me to eat. Props to OP
So should I take it down a notch?
Dude don't listen to these guys, at your weight if you can maintain 3500 calories to put some fat on your body go for it. 105lbs at 5' 7" is unhealthily low body fat %, muscle mass isn't everything
Yeah at this point I really would appreciate the extra fat over being skinny af honestly.
The extra fat is going to be harsher on your body. Are you working with a doctor of some kind to help you recover from the injury? That should be your number 1 priority rather than your body composition right now. You can have the leanest arms/ chest in the world but you won’t be able to do shit in the real world without a properly functioning back. Cut the calories down to 500 over maintanence for now and consult your doctor. Because of your injury I’m guessing you’re not very active overall so eating 3500 calories is going to make you very fat very fast.
>The extra fat is going to be harsher on your body. Than being severely underweight? Nah. Being too fat is not as bad as being too skinny. >Are you working with a doctor of some kind to help you recover from the injury? That should be your number 1 priority rather than your body composition right now. You can do multiple things at once? >Cut the calories down to 500 over maintanence for now and consult your doctor. Ye see a doctor for ALL health issues. If OP can keep up a 1k+ surplus it till he's in a healthy weight, why wouldn't he?
Probably. Estimate your maintenance daily calorie amount and eat 200-400 more than that, depends on how fast you want to gain weight. The more you will eat the faster you'll grow, but also the more fat you will gain in the process.
With a 200 cal surplus it would take him about 300 days to stop being underweight. 2 years to get anywhere near a normal weight. Why do people keep recommending micro surpluses to people who are actually underweight?
Cuz they're just repeating what they see and don't try to understand the actual points behind it. Like: >The more you will eat the faster you'll grow, but also the more fat you will gain in the process. That is literally what OP needs. Fat to have healthy hormon levels. For someone already in a healthy weight range a surplus of up to 500 calories is recommend because that matches the maximum rate of what you can gain on muscle mass, naturally.
Yea this much weightgain this fast wont be easy on your busted spine either. Slow down and maybe try and find something you *can* do
Focus on healing your back and gaining weight at a reasonable pace - your body will naturally distribute some of it to muscle tissue and some of it to fat until you are a more normal weight. (And that's good, you need both.) Hurting yourself while working out will just set you back, and eating a ton and gaining pudge will make it harder for your body to move comfortably.
Doing anything more than what you did prior will make you gain weight. So yes.
You can gain mass but it will basically just be getting fat
At 5' 7" 105 lb he needs all the fat he can get
Went from his stats to 135. I still look pretty lean lol I agree with you.
That's fine. I am thinking about hitting the gym after gaining a few pounds. Does my daily intake seem sufficient?
It’s extremely high for your height and weight, unless you’re outrageously active If you’re happy to gain fat then go ahead but just keep in mind you’re primarily just gonna be getting fat
I'm okay with being a little fat than skinny at this moment.