OcUK Health Seekers: Post your progress pics

Fair enough. I've just never managed to gain much weight even when eating two cooked meals and a big breakfast a day!

How's this seem diet wise?

Breakfast: 3-4 cups raisin and nut muesli, fresh fruit and pot of yoghurt
Lunch: Large chicken sandwich and banana
Dinner: Lasagne, big plate of pasta or big plate of baked potatoes with tuna/cheese

Throughout the day I'll usually snack on fruit, post-workout two glasses of full fat milk and a banana or tuna on toast.
 
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That diet seems like it's exactly what's limiting you! :)

You probably need to triple the amount of protein you're eating, just as a very rough guess (30g for sandwich, 10-20 for dinner, 10-20 for milk throughout the day).
 
Diet is always the limiting factor in those who 'cant' gain. Since i last visited ive trained a couple of 'hard' gainers, and to be honest the only HARD part was getting them to flipping well eat!
 
IceBus said:
Do you reckon that's ok calorie wise but just lacking in protein? If so I'll get onto the protein shakes.
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People may 'frown' on the protein shakes a little and advise you get the protein from foods, but if you're like me and it is just easier to drink the shakes rather than spend £XXX on extra food, then it's worth it.

Currently I'm having shakes purely because I don't have the money to by the amount of food I need, but hey, hopefully it's working :)

Keep at it as everyone has said! And try and eat what you can extra
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
Diet is always the limiting factor in those who 'cant' gain. Since i last visited ive trained a couple of 'hard' gainers, and to be honest the only HARD part was getting them to flipping well eat!
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Where have you been?!

Icebus, can't really tell how your diet is calorie wise. A safe bet for now would be to eat more protein and see what happens, but preferably from whole food first and shakes as a fall back.
 
Some from today...Poor I know, but it's something to work from

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And one of the leg for funsies
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And some comparisions from early 2009...Not much has changed other than me putting on weight...A good thing as I was a tad skinny then (Recovering from starving myself thin basically)

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Hey guys, FF , delvis, ice etc glad to see everyone motoring on. The short version is i came down with what appears to be coeliac disease, questions still abound as its not officially diagnosed but i come within a country mile of gluten and i start feeling like a cancer patient with AIDS. Im serious anyone who thinks it'll just result in some diarrhea is misguided i genuinely thought i was dying.

Anyhow, with that in check im back in the iron game, about a year out of my peak im looking to shed the bodyfat and get my lifts back to where i was mid cycle. Most surprisingly i am still lifting more than i ever did before dabbling in the dark side, this answers a lot of the questions i had about long term pros/cons of artificial means.

For the forseeable im staying natural to see where i can get myself, its very possible that gluten issues may have held back my natural ability for my entire lifting career so will be interesting to see how the cleaner gluten free lifestyle helps me progress.

Kudos especially to Freefaller from what i have seen you have achieved more naturally than almost anyone i have come across, real inspiration to anyone.

Delvis - re last pics, seriously, EAT! Whatever you eat now you need to double it, whether its oats in shakes or piles of spuds with your chicken you must be at least 500-1000 cals a day short to still be so slim. Also throw any complex training plan you have out the window and start hitting the big compounds, hard, often and with volume. Forget accessory movements and fancy techniques. I have trained hard gainers and apart from diet the second biggest thing they do wrong is train too long with two many useless calorie burning exercises. Focus on big deadlifting big overhead pressing big rows and big bench/incline bench.
 
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Ultra_Extreme said:
Delvis - re last pics, seriously, EAT! Whatever you eat now you need to double it, whether its oats in shakes or piles of spuds with your chicken you must be at least 500-1000 cals a day short to still be so slim.
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Hello

Glad you are back, and sorry to hear about what has happened, hopefully things will continue to get better for you :)

Thank you for the input though, I must point out, in-between both pictures I haven't been training much, primarily to moving house, and not wanting to go to a gym (Yes I know, I suck) However, I am now eating a lot more, and intend to put the weight on but in a good way :)

I'm also training a lot harder as I have the correct equipment this time!

But in all seriousness, I hope you are well. And I will take your eating comment and go forth :)
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
Also throw any complex training plan you have out the window and start hitting the big compounds, hard, often and with volume. Forget accessory movements and fancy techniques. I have trained hard gainers and apart from diet the second biggest thing they do wrong is train too long with two many useless calorie burning exercises. Focus on big deadlifting big overhead pressing big rows and big bench/incline bench.
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Damn edits! :p ;)

Thanks again, not sure if I have a complex training plan...Pretty much do Legs+Shoulders / Chest / Back (Mon/Weds/Fri)...Only really to isolations on my shoulders (lateral raises etc)

But once again thank you, it is all helpful!
 
Great progress Delvis - I see what you mean in terms of similarities :) In all honesty though, you've got a lot more lean muscle on than me - particularly your arms and lats which you've made huge improvements with.

My only problem at the minute is that I enjoy cardio too much to want to cut down on it while lifting. TBH I don't really want to be huge, I'd just be happy to be lean and put a bit more size on my arms and chest. I think Im always going to be slim, I'd just like my arms to get a bit bigger :)
 
IceBus said:
Great progress Delvis - I see what you mean in terms of similarities :) In all honesty though, you've got a lot more lean muscle on than me - particularly your arms and lats which you've made huge improvements with.

My only problem at the minute is that I enjoy cardio too much to want to cut down on it while lifting. TBH I don't really want to be huge, I'd just be happy to be lean and put a bit more size on my arms and chest. I think Im always going to be slim, I'd just like my arms to get a bit bigger :)
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Thanks dude :)

Yeah, it's something I'm proud of actually (Lats) although it could just be posing. I'm hoping after a few months i'll get my noob gains and see what happens :)

Just keep at it though, try cutting the cardio down a little bit for the time being then, and see how things pan out, keep on the compounds and you should see some gains soon enough. Oh and obviously EAT! As Ultras just pointed out to me.

That's my main issue, i'm scared of putting 'too much' weight on, as I used to suffer from thinking I was too fat when I was younger, dieted to oblivion and now i'm steadily putting weight on. To be honest, it's mainly tummy fat which is annoying...But that'll shift soon
 
Delvis said:
That's my main issue, i'm scared of putting 'too much' weight on, as I used to suffer from thinking I was too fat when I was younger, dieted to oblivion and now i'm steadily putting weight on. To be honest, it's mainly tummy fat which is annoying...But that'll shift soon
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No problem - always cool when other folks notice a difference.

This was my problem the last time I tried to bulk, I was chugging back oat shakes etc. and obviously got it totally wrong and put on more flab than muscle. This time I'm going about it in a way more controlled fashion and seem to be gaining about 0.5kg every 3-4 weeks which I know is slower than other ways of doing things but I know it's not fat I'm putting on. Cardio I'm only doing 3x a week sub 1hr but in this heat I feel like I'm sweating out my soul, so it may be more mental than having any real effect. I'm toying with the idea of a half marathon in September, so may need to reassess if I go for that and put gains on hold.

I'll be interested to see how things go when I up the protein in my diet. I'm also going to switch to hammer curls as I'm not seeing much change with bicep curls (whereas my triceps seem to grow for fun).
 
Never thought I'd post a photograph but the 2 posters above have inspired me so I shall put one on, at least if I do, I now have to stick with the gym to give an update at some point in the future!

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Crap photo from a crap camera with a crap 'pose' but you're not missing out on anything! :p
 
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