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Starting gym?

Hello everyone,

I want to start going to the gym with the aim of trying to put on some muscle and become leaner.

My issue is that I could only possibly go on Saturday and Sundays as I travel a long distance to work and I have exams to study for. Would this be enough?

Also atm I’m not eating 2000 calories or the enough protein per day. Do I just need to make sure that I eat the right amount of protein each day along with working out?

Any help / pointers would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Reply 1

leopart223

If your goal is muscle gain, you'll need a calorific excess. I'm going to take a leap and assume you're female, because the average woman is said to require 2000 calories/day (but this depends on factors such as height). At not even 2000 calories, you're likely to be on the skinnier side. For now, your goal should be maintaining a healthy weight (which very well may be your current weight), specifics can come much later. Eating more without exercise will likely leave you overweight since your body when exercising will need a lot more to support it than it does now, so there's little reason to jump the gun if your exercise schedule isn't fixed.

For now, I'd focus on getting a proper workout routine before even trying to sort out your diet. In my experience, 2x a week is not nearly enough exercise to support muscle gain; I'd recommend 5-6 days/week if you want to see any real improvement. That being said, you should start with a lower amount of exercises per week and then work your way up over time; any exercise is better than none at all.

I faced a similar issue a while back, where I wasn't able to visit the gym often due to distance and other commitments, which surprisingly didn't hinder my progress. Heck, on a regular week I don't visit the gym at all.

I find that at-home workouts are the most simple solution to this problem. I personally recommend the fitness programme INSANITY Max 30; it has a good combination of cardio and strength training, which will help you get to a good level of physical fitness before you start putting in weights (e.g. at the gym). The key is to start slowly (maybe 3x a week in the beginning, with 1 day of rest inbetween), because the last thing you want is to injure yourself, which can happen with overexertion. One thing I really like is that it splits up exercises in 'months', where month 1 exercises are easier and more cardio-based (you start with these) and M2 exercises are harder and add elements of strength training. It also comes with spreadsheets so you can document your progress. Trust me, this is an extremely taxing programme at any level of fitness.

Honestly, as long as you're doing exercise, you're on the right track. So don't stress too much about specifics for now; you'll learn what your body likes and doesn't like as well as what you need to supplement it with for muscle growth along the way.

Good luck :smile: