Not gaining weight

Im 21 years old I've been lightly working out/keeping fit since I was about 14. I'm 5'7" and 155lbs with 20% body fat. Neck 16.5", chest/back 40" at thickest part, biceps 13-14".

The working out I'd always done had just been half an hour chucking weights around and doing general bodyweight exercises to keep me toned and strong. I was pretty much the biggest muscularly in highschool from around 15/16, an advantage of early puberty and obsession with wrestling, but unfortunately I've not really got much bigger since then.

I'd never had a problem with excess weight/fat until I started full time work the past 2 years and spend all day sat at a desk and until recently, eating fatty and sugary snacks all day. My daily diet would consist of something like:

Heaped bowl of sugary cereal and full fat milk + large glass of orange juice

Energy drink (250cal!)

Chocolate bar or two

KFC/fish n chips/Bacon+sausage butty/Chicken+turkey+bottle or can or two of coke

Cake/chocolate/Crisps

Energy drink

Another can

Some sort of meat and bread

Busicuits/chocolate often a can

Because of this I started to get a slight gut that meant there were no abs on being relaxed, so I decided to get back into working out in a big way.

However, I am now finding it hard to put on mass and I don't know where I'm going wrong.

In the past two months I've gone from doing cardio 3 times a week to get my running up for the sake of being able to run, I can now do a sub 30minute 5k, to a full weight building programme. I've gained about 5kg in that time, but about 5% body fat as well.

My daily food these days (note the contrast to before):

7.30am - Protein shake - 40g protein

8.30am - Sugar free High fibre Cereal + semi skimmed milk + orange juice - 15g protein

11am - Banana

1pm - Tin of tuna/Slices of chicken - 30g protein

3-4pm - Granary Bread Roll - 5g protein

7-8pm - Post workout shake = 40g protein

9-10pm - Bowl of chicken/tuna - 35g protein

Total - 165g protein

For the past three weeks, finishing today, I have also started taking creatine and noticed my reps and aggression/drive when working out to be up, but no size or noticeable strength changes as yet, and I'm drinking 2-3 litres daily without trouble.

My workout routine is roughly

Day 1 - Triceps + chest + abs - dumbell flys, dumbell press, inclinded and flat bench, pressups and dips, behind head tricep raises, crunches

Day 2 - Biceps, back and shoulders + abs - bicep curls, shoulder press, shrugs, upright rows, lateral raises/flys, pullups, weighted pull ups

Day 3 - As day 1 if not too sore, in which case running or rest

Day 4 - Rest, unless rested on day 3, in which case day 4

Day 5 - As day 2

Day 6 - As day 1

Day 7 - As day 2

Day 8 - Rest

I am also training for one armed pullups with lightly assisted one arm pullups and negatives and am on stage 2 of doing a plache pressup, a tuck planche aiming to hold for 60 seconds, only about 10 at the moment though.

Working out I'll usually use weights about only 60-80% of what I could lift the max of with the exception of some shoulder work due to limitations of working out at home, I really wasted my gym membership the past year which longer exists. I use dumbells and kettlebell and that is pretty much it. However, I think in all my exercises I have good form and normally do around 12 reps and a few sets of each nice and controlled. At the end of my workout, generally 45 minutes, my muscles will be aching, hard, huge and hot and I won't be able to do anything more for the rest of the evening. The next day they usually don't ache unless I really push it but you can feel they have been worked.

Basically I am just wondering if there is any reason I'm not putting on size? I don't want to be huge, just want to get a bit bigger so I don't look skinny in regular clothes, as without them I look like a mini-body builder due to tone but no size. I suppose as a weight I/'d be looking at 170-180lbs bodyfat 10-15% which sound be reasonable, I will start running again in a big way in the new year.

I am thinking if I can't get a decent solution I'll do a cycle of prohormones just to help things along, but I don't really want to have to rely on that.

Many Thanks

Wow that reminds me of my old weight training programme except i grouped legs and shoulders on a third day. As this is a pretty typical bodybuilding sort of programme, i suggest on day three you replace with shoulders and legs (squats etc) as your chest and triceps wont have fully recovered.

As for weight gain well as you probably know most bodybuilders bulk up (muscle and fat) during autumn/winter and focus on maintaining strength and getting fat loss in spring/summer. I suggest looking at bodybuilding.com, i few things which could be hindering progress are a) you could be what is called a hard gainer ie fast metabolism making it hard to gain weight if so try a weightgainer (your protein shake may already be a weightgainer but i have no idea as you didnt specify, is it whey based, carb content, bioavailability etc?) B) You may have reached a plateau, try mixing up your routine.

Increasing your intake of junk foods and greasy foods is not a good way to gain weight. Junk foods usually contain unhealthy transfer fats or saturated fats. Even though you need to increase your calorie consumption to gain weight, those calories should come from foods that are good for you.

Hello, Ya i agree with kennyjoyy , please avoid eating junk foods, unhealthy food, is not a best way to gain weight. Keep posting.....