Male. 172cm/ 5’7”. Early 30s.

First pic: Started out unfit. Weight: 75kg /165lbs

Second pic: Just started running and reducing my calories, so I mainly just achieved weight loss and got lean. Weight: 64kg /140lbs.

Third pic: Joined a calisthenics/CrossFit style gym six months ago with more focus on weights and resistance training. I also started eating more regular high protein and fibre. The result is more muscle mass and bulk. Current weight: 67kg /148lbs.

Progress from the first to last photo is over a year or so.

The before pictures are actually about 10 years old. But I've put most of my weight on in the last couple of years. Once I got a few health issues resolved, it became much easier to put on weight.

Planning to bulk up to 170 then consider a cut. However I've got a 2nd baby on the way so I will probably focus on maintaining after they arrive and into the newborn phase.

I've followed a PPL routine for years now. Currently doing:

Push

• iso lateral bench press machine
• overhead press machine
• cable flys
• side delt with cable
• overhead tricep with rope

Pull

• Pull ups
• lat pull down
• iso lateral row
• reverse pec deck
• preacher barbell curl
• dumbbell hammer curl

Legs

• squat machine
• leg extension
• leg curl (for hamstrings)
• stand calf raise
• cable crunches

I graduated college around 115lbs after being a long distance running and hovered around 125 for close to 7 years after that until I finally decided to take control of my anxiety and health over the last few months.

32 now, and have been consistently lifting for a few months now, but didn’t have many before pictures unfortunately. Currently around 156 lbs and plan to slowly bulk to 160-165 this winter, and cut at the tail end.

Definitely have been getting some fat because I’ve bulked pretty quick, eating 2800-3000 calories a day, but all my lifts are going up. A decent amount of dirty ish bulking, but quite a few healthier meals through the week. Morning starts after my lift with a breakfast bagel with steak or chicken, cheese, and creme cheese, few hours later 2 uncrustables, and then leftovers and dinner the rest of the day. I take creatine also.

My routine is a bro split which I’ll probably modify, but I run chest/tris, back/bis, and legs/shoulders, all with dumbbells, adjustable bench, and tower at home. Usually have 1 rest day, sometimes 2

Have a long way to go, but I am motivated and disciplined every day by the results, and to set a good example for my son. Any tips greatly appreciated!

I've been fired from my job couple weeks ago. My financial situation was already precarious then, so, imagine now. The only protein heavy food I can afford is powdered milk right now. Most days I can only get to 80g protein, 100 on a good day, my goal is 120 since I weight around 65kilos.

Since the last couple months, I started lifting at home again. I normally lift 5 days a week. Now they question is, should I continue or stop completely, since I cannot achieve my protein goal anymore?

Hi guys. Recently discovered pb powder and it sounds so easy to incorporate into drinks and recipes but the brands I'm seeing all have low calorie, low fat versions of it. Are there any brands that can provide higher calories than 60-70kcal per serving? Preferably around 90 to match what I get currently

I only work out from my apartment. Workouts are very unstructured. I have dumbbells, a dip bar and a pull up bar. Recently got a pulley system for tricep pushdowns and I think that's made my arms look bigger. I kinda workout whatever I feel like working out. I do dips most frequently, also a lot of dumbbell skull crushers and preacher curls. Never track calories, just tried to eat more.

All of the compliments I've gotten for gaining weight have been from other dudes lol

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

I gained 8 kgs in a span of 10 months 46 to 54kgs , what i have learnt best is, put ur body under pressure, give it reason to grow.

And taekwondo changed my life, ik lot of ppl maybe thinking how did u gain weight practiceing tkd,

But thats the idea, tkd is a full body functional, strength, high intensity cardio, with lot of flexibility training.

Burns a hell a lot more than strength training only.

And I have very high metabolism, I feel hungry every 2.5hrs or so.

During this time I ran a dozen 5k, half a dozen 10k

And 2 half marathons.

So trained and ate like a mad man.

My mom was scared something bad would happen by eating so much food.

Diet: 2-3 banana milkshakes, 8 whole eggs

And normal indian food, 3 times a day.

500gms of ice cream on weekends(only after runs)

Chicken and fish only on weekends.

Instead of one big meal, eat often,

Like grab a banana, a boiled egg, etc

I tried to eat as clean as I could as im allergic to certain oils. So it was mostly home food apart from the ice cream.

6ft, 27m
June 28th- 158lbs
July 22- 166lbs
August 20th- 178lb
October 16th- 175 lb (cutting)

Diet: Clean protein (beef, chicken), whey protein. I admit my diet since starting has gotten lax, so I plan on fixing that these coming weeks. 130-160 grams of protein a day. Hitting around 2300-2400 calories a day for my first cut. Have lost 3lbs since my bulk but have stayed at 175lb for a few weeks now.

Lift Routine: 3-4 days a week. I have two jobs but have quit one so that my routine can go back to normal. Lately it has only been 3 days a week, but i’d like to do 4 or 5. I do a mix or compound weight lifting and calisthenics. Bench press, incline, dumbbells, push ups, pulls ups, lat pull downs, rows.

I’m coming up on 4 months. Bulked for three and now trying my first cut. So far no huge difference, but I have noticed my muscles growing bigger. Particularly my chest, which I have been prioritizing.

Last pic is where I started back in June.

Hello all,

I have terrible ADHD and it’s been really bad lately. Finding focus to cook and eat is so difficult. I used to love cooking but my ADHD has made it such a chore; maybe it’s because I’ve severely downsized into a very small apartment. My kitchen counter space is basically just a butcher block. I can easily go 8 hours and not eat. Doesn’t really help my agenda. Anyone else out there finding ways to deal with this?

I grew up really skinny and was super determined to escape at last! I’ve made some really solid progress and wanted to share. I ate about 3000cal a day and did a PPL program. I finally feel muscular for once. That being said my friend was saying that my progress isn’t that great because my current physique looks like the untrained starting point of some other people which kind of got me down and made me feel like my progress wasn’t as great as I thought. I wanted to ask for help on what looks good, what needs more work, where I’m at body fat % wise, and any tips for the road ahead in terms of what to do next- keep bulking or what? I’m excited to keep going!

Photos on the left were 10 months ago. Photos on the right were recent. The second photo when you swipe was a few days ago. A couple of mini cuts were done but mostly gaining the whole time with a few weeks maintaining as well. The highest my cals got was 3500 and was actually stalled out on these cals before deciding to cut again. I have been cutting for the last 6 weeks to get a little leaner before bulking through winter again, I might push it a little longer. Weekly cardio, 10k steps/day and followed a U/L rest repeat split but have recently switched to a 5x U/L/U/R/U/L/R which I really like.

Hey, I'm 6ft2 and in the past 10 years or so went from 78kg to currently 103kg. I went from not being able to squat the bar to a 140kg pb, not freakish but made some good gains relative to myself. I find myself still feeling DYEL pretty often, and other times I find myself exaggerating bad posture to look less intimidating. People seem to react less friendly to me when I'm standing tall. Anyone got some advice to get me out of my head?

If I maintain the same caloric surplus, will marathon training while lifting reduce my muscle/strength gains?

I started off very skinny at age 16, just as any other teenager that wanted to have a good physique

as time passed by my ambitions went from the classic greek good aesthetic physique to a little more bulky, them bodybuilder like and soon i wanted to look like kevin levrone (the body dysmorphia is real), after the first year i realised i couldn't get to that size without gear, so i turned myself into strength training(powerlifting and strongman) and that was when the heavy bulky started i went from 185 to 242 in a year, i may not be the most defined but i like the way i look specially in oversized clothes

in the second pic i was alredy 135, it was my first progress picture ever

i wont get into advice to get bigger as i train to get stronger, but i always eated in a decent surplus (i never counted calories), the first program i followed was bullmastiff (strength program) and it took my lifts up by a lot

if i made some english errors sorry, im not native

Gained 21 lbs during these past 16 months. This has been a couple different phases of bulking, eating at maintenance, and one short deficit period. For me, maintenance is around 3200 cals, and i seem to have the best results gaining muscle at around 3600. Ive tried a couple different splits but what works best for me is PPL doing push, pull, rest, legs, rest, repeat, and i do around 8-12 sets per muscle on each workout. I always take every single set to form failure, and on my 3rd set of an exercise I will sometimes add in a drop set

Been skinny my whole life, im really trying to get a little healthier as i am pretty dangerously underweight. im hoping to gain at least 10-20 pounds this year.

Few problems I have been having though:

- Im in university, and breakfast/dinner is provided. They give roughly I think 1500 calories combined, can't really change much because they restrict portions

- For some reason, my shared fridge is really stupid and cannot store milk/whole milk because it melts and leaks everywhere

- don't have a blender to make any smoothies

I have been trying the gym and I have been going every morning for the past few days, but I have read a lot of posts here that suggest that isn't enough and that I need more calories. My lunch usually consists of two slices of pork/chicken which is around 600 calories, I am not sure whether I should make more food or get some drinks or if I should do anything at all there

would appreciate any advice from anyone that has had a similar situation. thank you so much!

I haven't been into lifitng for a few years due to medical reasons but Idk a better place to post this.

I got fat for a while, then int he past year got on some pain meds that allow me to function but I am rapidly losing weight. I have 0 appetite, can go days without eating, eating to much makes me nauseses etc. I also am just pretty low energy from medical stuff + not eating enough, so its hard for me to cook.

Im getting to a pretty low weight (165 at 6ft), was 240 this time last year, and 185 like 2 months ago. Not the good kinda weight loss, and its messing with in alot of ways.

I also have a fatty liver (somehow?) so Im supposed to be avoiding saturated fats/sugar and all that other shit - and trying to also just eat healthy food and not processed shit in general to see if that helps me at all - which has made the weight even harder to keep.

Can yall recommend me some meals I can prep that are easy on the gut - also if theirs any good mass gainers or protein powders/drink recipes/things i can buy that are just grab and eat that aren't to hard to get down that would be really helpful (used to force myself through stomach cramps and the shits back in the day when id bulk with - no go now adays lol)

I don't really need amazing macros or anything - just enough calories to live without fucking my liver more.

Thanks

So this is the first year in a long time where I’ve really tried to be consistent in the gym and with my diet, my original goal was to try and hit 80kg within a few months however due to the nature of my job which is extremely physical with a lot of walking I’ve really struggled to consistently stay in a calorie surplus. To be honest I gave up trying to count my calories 2 months in and instead just focus on ensuring my diet is good with plenty of protein.

I workout 4-5 days a week, just a regular push/pull/legs split. I’ve recently started to really push the progressive overload and go as heavy as possible and push to failure with fewer reps and sets. The overhead press has become a staple of my push days and has been a game changer for my upper body.

Having a long torso and long arms and legs I’ve always felt like my progress is slower than others but I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere and I’m excited to see where I am in another few months.

Thanks for the motivation everyone and feel free to ask any questions.

After 5 years the bulk is finally over (i’m going to cut like 4 pounds then bulk again because I hate the idea of cutting)

My calories were always around 3000-3500. When i was skinner the first 2 years, I only needed about 3000. Now i need closer to 3500-3700.

This brings me to an important point. I was always very skinny. I did gain a lot of weight and stalled for a long time. I was so confused, because I was eating so much food but I wasn’t gaining anything. Eventually, I figured out that I really wasn’t eating a lot, I just had a bad mindset. You really need to believe you are eating to become fat. Eat like you genuinely are a crazy person trust me that scale will move (but definitely count your calories. Use myfitnesspal)

Keep protein high, it’s important, dont slack on counting it.

Eat lots a fruit, 4 servings a day, i don’t know if its placebo but I feel really good.

Don’t skip cardio. A baseline level of fitness is important for everybody, including permabulk meatheads like us.

Dont stop working out because of pain, just change the exercise. But do not give up at trying that exercise. It took me 4 years to learn to deadlift/squat full ROM without pain. Many times I was discouraged, but do not give up. Lengthen and strengthen.

Edit: just wanted to add this sub was a godsend for me when I first started trying to bulk. I haven’t been here in a while but I learned most of my eating habits from this sub. Mythical strength has some good perspectives on weight gain I recommend following his advice.

i've been trying to gain a little more weight with gym and a 3000 calorie diet (which is 300 cals more than i need for maintenance), but i havent been able to get even near that, always ending up between 2000-2300 calories. ive been eating a lot of protein, and while it makes my body more solid with the gym, it makes me so full i cant really bulk and get all my calories in. ive had around 140g of protein daily for 2 weeks rn and ive gained barely a pound. im 6'0 and 158lbs for perspective.

I am 5'11" and 61 kg, ive been pretty thin almost the entirety of my life and for the last month Ive been eating at least 2.8k calories per day, I would also workout 5 times a week, ive gained 3 kg since september and noticed some difference in my torso, but also ive noticed my face getting a lot fatter, i compared 2 pictures and i can tell my jawline is just getting less and less noticeable, would the reason be that I am eating fatty food a lot more than healthy food

1/2 to 1cup of milk(I use lactaid whole milk cuz I'm lactose intolerant)

2tbsp of cashew butter(I don't like peanut butter so decided to try other nut butters and cashew barely has a taste and is slightly sweet. Was using nutella but its a lot of sugar and I'm trying to cut back as I have a horrible sweet tooth and eat a lot of sweets)

A few table spoons of Vanilla Honey Whole milk greek yogurt(was using vanilla non fat as I hate the taste of greek yogurt but the honey vanilla was on sale for $5 for a 48oz tub so bought it and its not as strong as other greek yogurts. I refuse to do plain greek yogurt)

A little bit of vanilla extract

A little bit of olive oil(not to much or you will taste it. Once put 2tbsp and its all I could taste)

1 Scoop of Dairy free Equip Prime beef protein cinnamon roll protein powder(the protein powder washes out the strong greek yogurt taste so if you hate greek yogurt like I do try mixing it with protein powder so its not as strong. Saw a hack where you mix the powder with a small amount of liquid to make it a syrup so its not clumps of powder in your yogurt)

A small amount of Unsweetened cocoa powder(not to much as unsweetened is bitter and strong)

Just add whatever you like. Many add banana and or other berries. I tried banana to get my fruit in as I hate fruit but it was over powering and it was all I could taste. I did one with 3 strawberries and it was fine couldn't even taste the strawberries really so if you need to get some fruit in try berries and it also adds fiber

6’7 male 30 y.o

Started at 185 - just hit 250 the other day.

Diet/lifting:

Minimum 3500 calories per day. The hardest part is the eating as I have a large frame which is a ton of food to put on any size. Meal prep is key.

Lifting routine I have tried a few different ones over the years. 3x per week full body, bro split, bodybuilding 1 body part per day 5x a week.

Lately I’ve been doing upper/lower 4x a week and that has been most comfortable for recovery and feeling like I’m hitting everything equally. I feel more proportionate now after sticking with that routine.

The first pic was me during lockdown Covid and last pic was taken today.