building more muscle mass

it seems like no matter how frequently I lift, I just can't put on muscle mass. With most exercises, I'm able to lift 30 - 40lbs more than when I started lifting, yet my arms, chest, shoulders, etc, all seem to look the same. Instead of getting bigger, they just get more defined.

Plz help :( I want to increase size, not just definition.

edit: and I'm not fat so I've always had muscle tone.

this is a simple and dumb question that I am sure you already do

You are intaking more calories than burning, correct?

How are you lifting? In other words, how many sets & reps. Also, what is your diet like?

make sure you are eating to produce good hypotophic conditions, and make sure you lift for hypertrophy

If you're getting defined then you're not eating enough for muscle building.

Definition comes on cutting.

wtf does hypotophic mean? google doesnt seem to know

hypertrophic

I'm eating as much food as I can. That means I'm eating until I feel sick after every meal. I'm eating lots of protein too, as well as a bunch of fast food.

For example, yesterday I ate two servings of beef stroganof (sp?), a phily cheesesteak hot pocket, two servings of brocolli, a chicken taco, a beef taco and a cup of refried beans from los betos.

I haven't been doing cardio at all,aside from lifting, if that counts, and I'm sure that I've been eating more than 1300 calories a day (if the food listed above doesn't sound like more than 1300, let me know).

As far as my workout routine goes, I do 3 sets, each time increasing the weight by 5 lbs and decreasing my reps by 2 starting from 12.

1300 calories? Whered that number come from?

How tall are you and how much do you weigh again?

You should be putting down twice that amount of calories easily, nearing 3x that amount...

Gaining weight, fat or muscle, is caused by the same thing -- caloric excess. You need at least 3500 calories daily to gain muscle weight. If you are young or a hard-gainer (high metabolism) you may need 4000-5000 to put on the pounds (my younger brother eats nearly 6k and still is doing a clean bulk). The problem you are having is simply because you are not eating big enough.

Also, if you're not already, make sure you're doing all the big lower body lifts.

1300 calories? Whered that number come from?

How tall are you and how much do you weigh again?

You should be putting down twice that amount of calories easily, nearing 3x that amount...

6'1 - 158 lbs

I got that number because I remember reading somewhere that it was the number of calories you burn sitting on your ass all day, and since I don't do cardio I figured I was somewhere around there.

Gaining weight, fat or muscle, is caused by the same thing -- caloric excess. You need at least 3500 calories daily to gain muscle weight. If you are young or a hard-gainer (high metabolism) you may need 4000-5000 to put on the pounds (my younger brother eats nearly 6k and still is doing a clean bulk). The problem you are having is simply because you are not eating big enough.

Also, if you're not already, make sure you're doing all the big lower body lifts.

Yep, my metabolism is really high, I can't put on weight for the life of me (which is great I eat whatever I want). Should I be doing bigger meals, or more frequent meals?

The average person not even exercising should get 2,000 calories a day by FDA standards.

I thought your average metabolism for somene was your weightx10 = the amount of calories burned (on avg)

160lbs = 1600 calories a day without gaining weight.


I could be wrong though, as I do not remember at all where I got that information from.

Should I be doing bigger meals, or more frequent meals?Both.

BMR formula for men is:
66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )


Then multiply that by 1.55 if you are lifting hard 3 days a week (more if you are working out more days a week or are a hard gainer like you -- up to about 1.95 max) to find out an estimate of your basic calorie needs.

That means for me, while training, I need 3,137 calories a day just to MAINTAIN my current weight. You can only build a little less than 1lb of muscle per week, which takes about 3,500 calories excess, that means I need another 500 calories per day ... but I tack on just a bit more for good measure and try and get around 3,750 - 4,000 calories a day while training.

Try keeping a food log for a week and use Fitday.Com to figure out just how many calories you're actually eating. Then try planning on around 4k a day and see how that helps you. If you still are losing fat and not gaining muscle mass, kick it up even higher. Keep eating. It's simple to pack on the lbs of muscle, but just keep lifting big and eating big.

How tall are you rayn?

I'm 6'0".

you should add that fityday.com to your new stickied thread, or, really, any of those daily food intake calorie calculator journal blog - things. good way for some peopel to keep track of what theyre doing.

me personally i write it down on a small sized spiral notepad because I have a strange fascination with nice pens, and like to write.

WA you should be eating double that to see gains.

It sounds like you're the epitome of a hard gainer.

Heh, I know it might be tough, but you just have to eat more.

Oh, quick tip: If you're feeling really sick after eating and stuff, drink a lot more water. It really helps speed up digestion.
AND eat a lot of peanut butter. Peanut butter is incredibly calorie dense. You only need like 2 tblsp's for 200 calories (depending on the kind of peanuter butter) but it can help you get to your caloric goals for the day.

I need help too....

I'm 6'2", 183lbs, ~10% body fat. I'm trying to build muscle.

The split I'm doing is chest, back, arms Monday and Friday, shoulders, legs, Wednesday and Sunday, and abs whenever I find time, usually 3 days a week. I'm not doing much of any cardio besides running 5-10 minutes prior to each workout.
I'm eating ~3500 calories/day for the past month spread across 6 meals. Prior to that I was probably hitting around 2500-3000 calories/day. I've been doing this routine since the start of May and haven't seen any real gains in size, just lost an inch around my waist, gained 1/2 inch around my shoulders.

My workouts take a minimum of 2 hours, usually 2 1/2. I do 3-5 sets each depending on the lift, 8-12 reps each depending on the lift. For example, i did this monday and today
Chest:
5 sets 8 reps flat bb bench,
4 sets 8 reps flat db bench,
3 sets 10-12 reps flat flys,
4 sets 8 reps incline db bench,
3 sets 8 reps decline db bench.
then 4 back exerises (rows, pull downs, shrugs, weighted back extensions), 3 bicep, and finally 3 tricep excercises.

QUESTIONS:
-have I just not been eating enough long enough to have noticeable gains?
-Is my routine too much/counterproductive? I'm thinking about splitting things up to keep my workouts ~1 hour. Problem is, I can't get it through my head that hitting each muscle group once a week is enough. I don't want to slow down my progress. Anybody have experience with that kind of split, anyone knowledgable on how long it should take to see some kind of results vs other routines?