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I started musculation and I did only 3 sessions for now. I want to gain muscles so basically I've started by having 4200 kcal per day and having 3 trainings per week.

I am more or less a skinny fat (thin arms/legs/back and fat hips). Should I follow diet and eat alot from now ? or should I train more in order to make my body ask for more enery and then eat more ? Now I do not feel lack of energy because I did only 3 days gym.

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  • I was watching a youtube coach and he proposed a program. I did not wrote every advice he said on his program, but yes 4200 kcal made of rice, chicken, fruits.. I'm 30 years old, 182cm, 77Kg Mar 8, 2018 at 15:18
  • I agree, I am afraid to gain more fat than muscles with 4200kcal. Do you know some new school diet ? Mar 8, 2018 at 15:50

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I would suggest training five days a week and doing fewer calories.

A simple rule of thumb for building muscle is that under good-ideal conditions a man can build 1-2 lbs (.45-.90kg) of muscle per month, while a woman can do half of that. If you are gaining more weight than that, it will be fat. To monitor this more closely, divide that number by four and check your weight gain each week. Thus, your goal weight gain (if you are a man) should not exceed 0.5 lbs (.22kg) a week.

  • Your total caloric goal should be something that adds 0.0-0.5 lbs of total body weight to you each week. Reduce or increase your caloric total to reach this goal. MyFitnessPal is a great app that can help you track your calorie totals.
  • You'll also want to ensure that you get enough protein in your diet to feed those muscles you're trying to build. Estimates vary, but getting anywhere from 1.5-2.0x your kg body weight in grams of protein is plenty.

As for your training regimen three days of strength training is fine, but if it were me, I would toss some HIIT cardio in twice a week as well. Will cardio kill your gains? No, but your diet might. Why toss in two days of cardio? It's good for fat loss, endurance, and heart health for starters, but it will also help to balance out all that strength training as well as give you something to do between strength days. As a side note, you can do some quick (5-10 minutes) abwork every day if you want to build abs, they recovery quickly. They don't necessarily need to be done exclusively on strength training days.

Finally, if lack of energy at the gym is/has been a problem for you, you will want to determine the cause. Are you getting enough sleep/rest in general? Rest and recovery is vital to building muscles. Are you spending too much time in the gym? Overtraining is a real thing, but as a rule of thumb, try to spend less than an hour in the gym when you're there (it's entirely possible to get a great workout done in under half an hour). Is your diet not giving you the energy you need? It might just be that you're not used to it, but it may be that you're under eating or simply not eating the nutrients that you need. If you seem to be good in all of these areas, but you still don't have enough energy, that is what preworkout supplements are made for. Try using those for better results.

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  • Why does he need to make sure he gets enough protein if 1,5 grams per kilogram is enough? The average non-lifter gets more than this in one meal...
    – Ekaen
    Apr 8, 2018 at 6:15
  • So if we’re talking about a 68 kg man, you honestly believe this guy is just casually getting 102 grams of protein in a single meal? That’s just not happening, sorry. Could it accidentally happen over the course of a day? Sure. Always? Most certainly not. Apr 8, 2018 at 14:27
  • Most skinny guys are thin because they eat without regulation and lack appetite, but hunger builds up and they often eat just one or max two big meals a day.
    – Ekaen
    Apr 8, 2018 at 14:33
  • @JustSnilloc After one month of training (4 times a week) and no cadio, I took 3.5kg. From last week, I really worked on my diet, but I only see results on my arms (biceps, triceps, and legs), I feel really wick while doing side elevations for shoulders.. Apr 13, 2018 at 13:12
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    I still don’t know what you mean by 3.5kg, are you saying you gained 3.5kg in body weight? If that’s the case, you’re still eating too many calories. I just did a TDEE calculation for you, to maintain weight you should be doing about 2500-2700 calories a day. Try to eat about 154 grams of protein each day, and track your food in something like “MyFitnessPal”. As for seeing results? It takes time. A month is the minimum to start comparing progress pictures. You’ll see results if you stick to a good plan, you just have to do your part and let your body do the rest. Apr 19, 2018 at 13:56
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Look at what you normally eat, and see about how many calories that adds up to. If you want to gain muscle by working out, you generally need more calories.

If you are a little bit fat to begin with, your body probably does not use all of the calories you give it. Instead, it is throwing calories out as waste (yes, poop). If your body does not use all of the calories that you give it now, there is no reason to add more calories. Instead, your body will start to actually use more of the calories coming in when you add exercise.

For weight loss, I have read that removing 300 calories a day will result in losing 1 pound of fat per week. If JustSnilloc's information earlier about gaining 1 pound of muscle per month is accurate, then you might try adding about 300 extra calories to your "normal calorie intake" if you need more food.

Eating healthy by putting quality calories (lean meats and vegetables) into your body is obviously going to be better than eating junk calories (pizza and hamburgers).

Keep a log of how many calories you take in every week and what your weight is at the end of each week. If you are gaining weight too fast, consider that fat weight and cut back on your calories.

If you go 3 to 5 weeks without any weight gain, that might not be bad. Look at yourself in the mirror or at how your pants/belt are fitting. Are you losing body fat? If you are getting leaner while you are gaining muscle, your total weight may not be changing at all.

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