Skinny to Strong

A while ago I decided to switch to eating clean because I was unable to lose any more fat while maintaining muscle with my junk food diet. However a few days later I discovered that I lost a considerable amount of muscle as a result of my work related travel and my tendency to eat less as I was trying to lean. As a result I decided to go back to mass building phase and increased my food intake. But the sad news is that after all my efforts to eat clean and eat a lot, I am still losing weight (and fat too, which is good). For an ectomorph eating clean means it is even harder to put on weight. In the last 3 weeks (about the time when I first started to bulk up), my fat % went down from 9.92% to 9.46% and my weight from 122 lbs to 120.8 lbs. This eating clean thing is killing me. It is very hard to stuff oneself with clean food. Which is why I fear I may not be able to put on any weight if I continue doing this. I have to find some way to increase the number of calories. Although I am...

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had a 3 day training at work which involved me traveling to a remote location and having to depend completely on the meals and snacks provided at that location. While it is not necessarily a bad thing (because there were a good assortment of healthy snacks and meal options), the training was considerably intense and it distracted me from eating at the right time and right amount. I mostly ate fruits and nuts as snacks in between bigger meals. The meals I ate consisted of rice or tortilla, turkey or chicken or fish, and leafy vegetables. And while I tried to eat as much as possible, I think I did not eat the required amount and as a result I still lost a full 2.2 lbs in just 3 days! I was extremely worried that some of the weight loss would be due to muscle loss. I was also aware that I was not drinking as much water as I should and so I knew some of the weight loss would be just water. I did not know what to expect until yesterday when I first st...

In one of my previous post I wrote that I stopped taking any kind of supplements because I am not really seeing much difference other than some rather expensive pee. There is no good way to put it, but most supplements are just waste of money and the rest are just a convenience rather than being beneficial. I replaced all my protein shakes and bars with lean cuts of meat and fruits and that is working out very well. I don't see any difference and in fact my digestive system is happier digesting natural food. I don't eat as much vegetables because they fill me up very quickly and being an ectomorph I need more calories than what vegetables can offer. Here are a couple more excerpts from the book "Burn the fat, feed the muscle" that reinforce my arguments ... The truth is that as long as you eat a sufficient quantity of whole food proteins at frequent intervals throughout the day, it's not necessary to consume any protein supplements whatsoever to get outstan...

Genetics play an important role in how you look and how much muscle you gain. All things remaining same a person with better genetics can gain more muscle than one without the gifted genetics. But what kind of genetics does a guy possess if he can gain 55 lbs of muscle in 12 months? I have no idea! But this guy over at bodybuilding.com claims to have done just that. Unbelievable. He kind of dwarfs my measly goal of gaining 20 lb of muscle in a year. And even that is a stretch goal for me. I kept it intentionally high in the hopes that I will at least be able to do the minimum of 12 lbs of muscle in a year. He says that he did not use any steroids, and I believe him. I think it is possible to gain so much muscle with proper training, rest and nutrition and most importantly good genetics. I wish he had a blog where he wrote his daily routine and nutrition. One thing is clear genetics play a huge role. I don't wish I had that kind of genetics. It is more fun and challenging with ...