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I have been going to the gym for the last four months, previously I went three times a wekk but right now I am going 1/2 of the days in a week.

But I am not gaining muscle but I can lift more weight than in the past.

It seems that I have to take some supplements. Can you guys mention some of the names of GNC or other protein supplements name? How to eat them?

My target is to gain mass. I am now 24, 5'8" and 59KG weight.

I have to buy it from Amazon (my country doesn't have any GNC store) and ship it to me. How much vat is generally added on supplements?

Thanks in advance.

Sarge
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1 Answers1

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Food Not Supplements

Don't look for supplements to gain weight. Fix your diet.

Protein and mass-gainer shakes are overpriced, overprocessed and overmarketed. They are not the solution. The solution is for you to triple the amount of food that you eat.

Eat More Food

Go to the farmer's market. Buy large quantities of fish, meat, eggs and vegetables. Make sure you get some sweet potatoes. Go to the supermarket. Buy butter, milk, and olive oil. Better quality is better. (Organic, grass-fed, free-range, omega-3 are all great but not necessary.) Cook the food into a meal twice the size of the meals you've been eating previously. Cover it in olive oil and eat it. Now drink two glasses of milk. Now have another couple of eggs.

Lift More

Lifting once a week is not sufficient stimulus to grow. Lift two or three times a week. It's also possible that switching to full-body workouts could be more productive. For instance, squatting three times a week would be a good start.

Eat and Lift More

Eating large quantities of food, then lifting heavy things, is the ideal way to get bigger and stronger. Supplements are sub-optimal.

Dave Liepmann
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    protein supplements are cheaper to buy than food, they give you your essential protein and amino acids, but not the other stuff you get from food.. I think thats the main argument for getting your protein from food than from supplements – Jaitsu Mar 08 '12 at 08:03
  • @Jaitsu Cheaper than food per what? Calorie, gram of protein...? – Dave Liepmann Mar 08 '12 at 14:29
  • per gram of protein, I'm not endorsing the substitution of supplements for real food, but some people (including myself) can't afford all the fish/chicken in a day, plus its a lot harder to ingest – Jaitsu Mar 08 '12 at 19:39
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    I guess the reason I disagree is that I don't think our interrogator is protein-deficient, but rather all-nutrients-and-calories-deficient. – Dave Liepmann Mar 08 '12 at 20:28
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    Yeah, I think the asker needs to meet a basic calorie surplus first, before worrying about macronutrient ratios. –  Mar 08 '12 at 22:35
  • @Jaitsu, I exemplary took the first linked shake from the other answer. Price per serving is above $7 for 23g of protein. Cottage cheese is way cheaper than that. Not sure about US prices, but 200g cottage cheese costs 1.40€ in my supermarket (so around $2) and has about the same protein value (13g/100g). – Baarn Dec 23 '12 at 13:15