Boogiepop- you don't need a scale. You'll know you're making progress when your pants won't stay on- even ten pounds will make a noticeable difference in how they fit.
My problem is gaining muscle- can't seem to do it. At all. Any suggestions, foods I should be eating? I've gone through periods trying to eat more protein, but it has yet to make a noticeable difference.
Eat 1g of protein per lb of body weight every day. You'll probably want to supplement with protein shakes. Drink 2-3 a day. That'll probably be around 60g of protein. I buy my protein powder from trueprotein.com -- you'll most likely want a casein type protein, but whey and egg are good, too.
Good foods I can think of ..
- Eggs
- Oatmeal
- Rice
- Chicken
- Nuts
- Fish
- Turkey
- Beef
- Pork
Right now I'm trying to add muscle, too. It's tough. XD My mornings usually start off with a few whole eggs (3-4), couple slices of toast, maybe some natural peanut butter, some fruit. Also some vitamins, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil. If I'm having a "light" breakfast (usually because I don't have time to make eggs), I'll make a protein shake, too.
Btw if you can, I recommend you buy a bottle from
www.blenderbottle.com .. I bought 2 of them and they work great.
You should be aiming for 5-6 meals of around 500 calories.
The exercises I'm currently doing to gain mass are squats, deadlifts, bench press, chin-ups/pull-ups. I notice after I do deadlifts or squats I'm super, super hungry for like 2 days after.
I probably shouldn't be playing basketball since I'm trying to gain weight. But man, it's so much fun. Cardio in general is kind of bad if you're trying to gain weight because you just burn up a ton of calories. So, I usually eat something very high in calories after basketball. Like, two slices of toast smothered with natural peanut butter and Nutella.