Yes, it's really enjoyable to see myself do stuff easily that I could barely do in the past.
I'm getting toned from making some adjustments to my workout program and I'm
getting stronger, but I can't seem to gain any weight cuz it keeps fluctuating.
I think it may be my diet, still trying to figure out how to gain weight on a budget.
Don't know how much you've researched, but here are some things that can stop you from gaining muscle.
1. Too high or too low reps and sets. Too high merely tones while too low only increases strength.
2. Insufficient diet. If you're not gaining weight even after using the proper amount of reps, then your diet may be the problem. Increase the amount you eat (500 calories or so is a good amount; if you don't like counting calories, then count using eggs, cups of milk or pieces of chicken, stuff like that) and see if you start to gain weight. If you do, then you can either keep your current diet or slowly decrease so you don't gain too much fat. If you don't, then increase the calorie intake again. Protein intake is normally not a problem unless you're vegetarian. Protein powder is unnecessary. Drink milk or eggs instead. You also don't need that 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Ignore that scam and read the amount of protein required according to the Dietary Reference Intake.
3. Rest. Your body builds muscle while resting. Get an appropriate amount of sleep. Also don't overtrain your muscles. Don't do ab exercises everyday. One body part per week is enough for most people. Legs just might be able to handle twice a week.
I just got these of the top of my head but these are usually the main problems. It can also be your body type. If you're one of the people that I have ridiculous metabolisms, then you need to greatly increase your calorie intake. Other problems are too long sessions (should only be 1 hour max), bad choices of exercises (absolutely no machines and preferably no cables either. No isolation exercises either. Compound exercises are best.), or lack of effort (this hopefully shouldn't be a problem).
If you need a routine, Ill happily give you one. Hope I help.
I was having the same problem, the scale just would not go up even though my lifts were going up. What changed it for me was simply dirty bulking. A lot of $1 mcdoubles, taco bell bean burritos and softshell tacos. And then any sort of nut (peanuts, almonds, pistachios) really start to wrack up the calories. I'm up 12lbs and hope to get to 20 lbs up by mid February then start counting calories and cutting for the summer.
I really had to let my notions of "healthy eating" go to get in the needed calories. My lifts really started going up once I started getting the needed calories too.
Is it really necessary to eat all that unhealthy stuff? Couldnt you just, you know, drink whole milk or other fatty yet healthy stuff. You just suffered from lack of carbohydrates. Really, healthy high in carbohydrate foods are usually cheap, like rice or potatoes. That said, you don't have to abstain from eating junk food. I eat junk food like twice a week. However, eating more junk food in order to gain weight is just a terrible idea.