What's the most you've ever gained?

What's the most you've ever gained in terms of mass with High Intensity Training? I hear stories of people putting on 25lbs of muscle or more in short periods but I'd like to know some results from people who visit this forum. What's the most you've gained for a period of a month, 6 months, a year or whatever?

About a year ago my brother and I got into a contest to see who could gain the most mass and lose the most bodyfat using different HIT routines. He chose the Max Contraction System by John Little and I kept with the Ideal Principled Routine from High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way. In one month time my younger brother gain 8.5 lbs of muscle and lost same amount in bodyfat for a total of 17 lbs of lean mass gain. I on the other hand gain 16 lbs of muscle and lost 4 lbs of bodyfat for a total 20 lbs of lean muscle gain. So in the end I won the bet and was $25 dollars richer. On a side note that was done supplement free.

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Holy sh1t! Most people gain that much over the course of several years. I've been doing HIT for 6 months and I can't say I've gained any mass, only strength. The most mass I've ever gained in the past was 2.5 lbs in two months doing a six day split, 1 to 2 exercises per muscle group with 3 sets each.

I guess my first question to you then for why you have not gained any muscular weight is whether or not you are eating a calorie surplus?

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Yeah, I keep track of my calorie intake in a spreadsheet. I experimented with increasing my daily calorie intake by small to moderate amounts but it resulted in more body fat, nothing else. If you search a bit on the internet you can find a pdf called Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty Nutrition. I pretty much followed his advice and nutritional approach because he had good reasoning for it. The only part where I deviated was in calorie intake, I took in more than he said you actually needed to gain muscle.

I think you might need to listen to the second hour of this radio show it sums up what I would tell you.

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So in simple terms if you are trying to gain mass you have to eat a moderately clean calorie surplus no matter what and yes some fat gain is inevitable sorry , but if you continue to eat a maintanence level or below because you are afraid of mass gain you wont get any mass just strength because you are sending your body mixed signals so you have to decide gain or loss cannot be both. Also I own the Heavy Duty Nutrition book as well and the calculation Mentzer has in there only figures your BMR (the calories you burn sitting on your ass) it does not take into account for activity level and training. Also if you want more information go to boiseexperiment.com.

So if you are looking for my opinion do a 7 day food journal you can find the way to do one in the Heavy Duty Nutrition or there is a better description in High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way. Once you have your avg daily intake multiply by 7 that is your weekly total add 600 calories(total to gain 1 lbs of muslce per week) to that and divide by 7 again you will see that it will only be like 75-100 calories above what you were already eating. So if you want a clean bulk with minimal body fat gain you have eat clean. Then if you eat those calories and you dont gain in the first week, add another 50-100 calories per week until you are gaining .5-1 lbs of muslce per week then maintain that level until you plateau again and you need to add calories.

Hope this helps

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

6 Kilos, or 4.5 inches in overall muscle gains in 14 weeks.
I haven't been to the gym in 2 weeks now(needed to let the cns reset) so i don't know if I've put on more weight.

This is the best I've done.

I'm a true ectomorph. Skeleton is very small. I only have 6 inch wrists. A list of health problems since the age of 11 that are quite lengthy.

All of these things have added up to it being very hard for me to not just put on muscle, but indeed weight.

When i started lifting as a true beginner 7 years ago after a bout of serious illness my muscles had atrophied and my body weight went from 58 kilos down to 52. I've trained on and off around bouts of illness for those 7 years never seeming to get much past 65 or 66 kilos.

The last time I stepped on the scale I was 71 kilos.

So this 6 kilo gain in 14 weeks has really been a pretty decent achievement I guess. I would say at least 2 kilos of that gain would be fat. Probably even more realistically.

Basically when i resumed training again over 3 months ago I just started eating as much as i could. Meat, carbs, quite a lot of fat. My metabolism is fairly decent. It's seemed to do the trick. The extra body fat is a necessary evil. I'll attempt to deal with that when the tape measure reads more like I want it. But I am pretty happy with how it's going so far.