Paranoid about Looks

[Richey]

Anyone else have weight issues, im quite scrorny! and find it hard to aquire a pair of jeans that suit my size, and as a guy who is 21 i look about sixteen and i just wish i looked older, i was friends with a group of girls who always talked about the muscley and gorgeous guys and seemed to talk me down. Also im too scared to get my hair dyed, i find it a challenge just to show up for a haircut sometimes. I work out alot but i just look the same, im trying to buff myself up because im sick of friends saying that i look weak! for a guy, my nickname used to be chickboy! im not overly skinny im just not buff! im somewhere in between, now girls are always talking about how they dont want to get fat, well im the opposite, i just want to put on more weight so i can feel like a real man, argggg! i guess its just the English in me, my metabolism is so fast that i could eat an entire supermarket and id look the same.

 

[fallenfeather]

I used to be very thin and weak looking too. By age 23 I had decided I was tired of looking skinny, weak and young so I started to make changes. I started working out religiously 5-6 days a week, keeping cardio to a medium level and focusing on weights. You have to eat alot of food to gain decent size and you have to keep it healthy. It's important to eat every 2-3 hours, little meals with alot of protein in each meal and work really hard during the workouts, lifting heavy weights.

It took me almost a year to really get the hang of it but in th elast 2 years I've put on almost 2 stone of muscle and I am much happier about my appearance now. I fill out my clothes much better and people consider me to be quite muscley and quite strong. It's superficial I know, but it makes me much more confident.

If you want any advice on diet/training give me a shout and I could help you with a weights routine and diet plan if you want.

 

[easy]

Fallenfeather,

I'm very tall and skinny as well. I went to this fitness centre before, lifting weights and doing other stuff, but I stopped doing because of extreme fatigue and social anxiety. I think my workout schedule was too hard for my body or something..


I'd like to gain some weight/muscle again. Now, do you think this could be done at home, with my two dumbells and excercises without weights? I'm not looking for an Arnold Scharzenegger body or anything like that, just want to get a bit stronger.

 

[fallenfeather]

Hey! There are lots of exercises you can do using just your own body weight and still build up some size but ideally it's better to invest in some weights gear. £100 should get you a basic setup that will cover most of your needs from argos if you are on a budget. However, if all you have is dumbells then you can still make a good start with those. A huge factor to remember is diet. If you don't eat enough quality food you won't put on much size. This is equally as important as the exercises themselves. Your body wil only grow muscle if you take in more calories than you burn off each day. This could also explain the fatigue you mentioned. If you don't fuel your body in preparation for the exercises you can get fatigued easily and even dizzy.

Do you know the basics for the exercises etc? ie. sets of 3x8 (this can vary) and so forth?

 

[Falcon]

I'm in the same boat, very tall and very very skinny. I used to work out as well, but never gained any muscle (just got toned).

I got a personal trainer who taught me two very important things. For people with my build/metabolism,

1) when it comes to working out, less is better. No more than 3x/week, each muscle group no more than 1x/week.
2) food and caloric intake is far more important than how you work out. Get a good diet, eat at least 4000 cals/day with a ton of protein.

So far I've gained 10 lbs