[Tim9000]

(11-01-2012 02:44 PM)RioNomad Wrote:  

(11-01-2012 02:29 PM)Tim9000 Wrote:  

I'd be really skeptical about the overeating plan. I think it's terrible advice but it's floating around online and in every gym. I'm a shorter version of you, and decided to go that route and gained a pound a week for about 20 weeks. 90% of it was flab though evenly distributed so it took me a while to realize what was happening. Burning that weight off took a while and I gained a permanent thin layer of subcutanious fat over my stomach. We don't have bulky muscles for hormonal reasons, not because we don't eat enough. All of the men in my family are low muscle mass whether they're fatter or thinner. Hit the gym but don't expect dramatic results, and tweak your nutrition but don't go more than a couple hundred kcals over your usual intake.

If you gained 90% flab, then your diet was obviously way off, or you were not lifting enough and/or correctly.

You CAN expect dramatic results if you eat right, and lift heavy. Just because you didn't get good results, doesn't mean it's impossible. Go over to bodybuilding.com and look at all of the before and after pics of average posters on their forum. Or the dozens of other forums out there with similar success stories.

I was lifting heavy. It was definitely way too much food for me. I guess its possible that some people are low muscle mass for lack if calories but it seems pretty unlikely for any middle class Westerner. A lot of the before/after photos I remember seeing were real young guys in their final growth spurt anyway (i.e. 18 to 22 year olds) when men thicken up after reaching max height. When I started my over eating plan I was older than t hat and had been lifting for five years. I'd venture to guess that a thin man over the age of 25 would be a lot closer to my situation than the young new lifter/eater.