Ive decided recently that my goal for the next couple months is to gain 10 - 15 pounds of healthy muscle weight. I'm 5'9" and weigh 120lbs, and tired of being scrawny and weak looking, and feeling like I constantly have to prove that I'm stronger than I look. 

I'm slowly trying to increase calories, eat more protein and eat less junk food. (I'm trying to bulk up,not get fat) no more skipping breakfast and functioning on red bull and cigarettes till 2 or 3 in the afternoon. No more sudden realizations at 5 pm that I haven't eaten a single thing all day, and then having cookies for dinner.

My resistance bands And hand weights will be used instead of sitting in the corner and my yoga ball wont just be for drunken idiocy.

Its going to be hard (harder than writing this with my kindle fire touchscreen keyboard). Ive always been skinny with a low appetite and fast metabolism. I literally forget to eat sometimes.  I'm determined though, and a little afraid it will all go to my hips and chest.  (I'm not on t and am not planning on trying to be in the near future)

Typing this out on a kindle fire is easier than typing it out on a samsung galaxy prevail (which is what I've been doing).

kyle_lawrence,

Best of luck for your endeavors. Gaining won't be easy but with your determination you will certainly succeed.

sounds like a good, simple way to get started. i was similar to you: very slim, fast metabolism and not such a great diet. i balanced my diet, added a little bit of weight work (mostly push ups and pull ups) and i'm up to nearly 150 lbs. i am 1.5 yrs on T however. good luck with your efforts.

Start by lifting weights...yes, but how low of a weight are your hand weights and how many reps can you do with them? If you can do a lot of reps, you might not gain much muscle mass.

Quote from: JasonRX on January 17, 2012, 07:45:11 PM
Start by lifting weights...yes, but how low of a weight are your hand weights and how many reps can you do with them? If you can do a lot of reps, you might not gain much muscle mass.

The actual weights I have only go up to 5 pounds, but I also have resistance bands that can get really tough if you double them up, and plenty of random spots in my room to hook them around.  My shoulder is also healed enough to start doing push ups and pike ups on the ball again (carefully).

I'm also starting work again on the set construction and stage crew for my local community theatre group (titanic in April. I get to make it sink!) So that should help too. Several months of pushing/ carrying/ dragging set pieces and building will at least make my drill arm buff.

The hard part is going to be sticking to the diet, which basically means doubling (or sometimes way more than that) the amount I eat every day.

Quote from: kyle_lawrence on January 17, 2012, 09:01:56 PM
The actual weights I have only go up to 5 pounds, but I also have resistance bands that can get really tough if you double them up, and plenty of random spots in my room to hook them around.  My shoulder is also healed enough to start doing push ups and pike ups on the ball again (carefully).

I'm also starting work again on the set construction and stage crew for my local community theatre group (titanic in April. I get to make it sink!) So that should help too. Several months of pushing/ carrying/ dragging set pieces and building will at least make my drill arm buff.

The hard part is going to be sticking to the diet, which basically means doubling (or sometimes way more than that) the amount I eat every day.

From personal experience, you are going to need more than that if you want to build muscle. Resistance bands, at least from what I've heard since I don't use them, are better for toning than building substantial muscle mass. As for arms, I started off with eight pound free weights Pre-T for my biceps and deltoids and now I do reps with 25lbs. I usually use 40lbs for my triceps I weigh about 120lbs even though I'm around 5ft 3 inches. This is because I'm mostly muscle by this point.

  I know how you feel about being scrawny and weak, because about nine months ago, I was the same way. With some medium to intense strength training,some protein, and couple of supplements, you can build a lot of muscle quickly. Being on testosterone will also help you a lot.

hey man im like the same height as you but i weight 13lbs more im trying to gain muscle and loose fat i got a pull up bar with my brother it was only like 8 dollars each and i can see a change in my biceps already and i dont work out consistently at all also i dont eat nearly enough protein (vegetarian) so i think a pull up bar could help you.

Quote from: JasonRX on January 17, 2012, 09:25:32 PM
From personal experience, you are going to need more than that if you want to build muscle. Resistance bands, at least from what I've heard since I don't use them, are better for toning than building substantial muscle mass. As for arms, I started off with eight pound free weights Pre-T for my biceps and deltoids and now I do reps with 25lbs. I usually use 40lbs for my triceps I weigh about 120lbs even though I'm around 5ft 3 inches. This is because I'm mostly muscle by this point.

  I know how you feel about being scrawny and weak, because about nine months ago, I was the same way. With some medium to intense strength training,some protein, and couple of supplements, you can build a lot of muscle quickly. Being on testosterone will also help you a lot.

What he said.  Pre-T, I did P90X with 12lb and 8lb weights 3x a week, and while I was a lot stronger afterwards, I still hadn't gained much visible muscle, and certainly nothing approaching 10-15lbs of muscle.  Even with a really good high-cal, high protein diet, especially without T, you'll have to work up to some pretty heavy weights to gain much size.  Smaller weights build lean muscle, which doesn't weigh all that much.   

Thanks for the advice and encouragement guys.  I guess my OP where I said 10-15 pounds of muscle weight wasn't quite the right wording. I was thinking more along the lines of gaining weight without growing a beer gut.  Enough so that my 29x33 jeans aren't super baggy anymore and my button up shirts don't make me look like a kid in my dads clothes (even though half my shiirts used to be my dads.)  Mostly though ive realized that skinny doesn't equal healthy and having a goal like this will help me stick to a better diet and hopefully ill end up feeling healthier and have more energy.

I meed to kill the "I have a fast metabolism so its fine if I lay on the couch and eat chips and cookies all day" mindset.