hi guys, I am having some thoughts lately about my progress.

I am trying to gain weight by hitting the gym in a daily basis and an appropriate meal plan the last 8 months. I find really hard to gain weight since I am an ectomorph body type and until now I have achived about 11lbs.

My query has to do with abs. I don't see them and I am an ectomorph...isn't that unusual? I know that abs are a result of workout and meal plan and I stick to my meal plan which is carefully constructed. Also I train my abs 3 times a week, one of them is the muscle group of the day and the other two are of other muscle groups and 2 exercises for abs...so what else could it be wrong?

Evagelos,

First off, terms like ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph have to do with bone structure and metabolism efficiency. Ectomorphs have smaller skeletal structures and a highly efficient metabolism. For ectomorphs to gain weight, you need to eat much more calories than a meso or endomorph. 99% of the time ectomorphs complain about not gaining size or weight is because they are not eating enough calories. You may need between 3000-4000 calories a day to see growth.

As for you abs, they are 100% a function of how much subcutaneous fat you have. The average male has around 15% body fat. With the obesity epidemic in the West, this average has moved more towards 22%-25%. One can be "skinny-fat" where you don't have a large waist or large deposits of fat but you have high subcutaneous fat levels which hide muscle definition. What you are experiencing is totally normal. Only thru proper nutrition will you transform your physique and burn off this fat. It takes time and persistence and weight training accelerates the process. Exercising abs only develops them but does not decrease body fat so they show. If you have calculated your macros correctly and are eating only natural, nutritious foods, with time your abs will show :-)

John

John is spot on here.

And your picture shows it too, you are very 'thin' yes. But when you look closely there is a thin layer of fat covering your abdominal area.

Everybody has basically a 'sixpack' underneath but to get it to 'show' is the hard part :)

And as John already mentioned, only propper diet will help you get this off so the abs show through. Cardio and weight training can help you on that way.

And simply training the abs, unfortunately does not make them 'show' up when there is still a fat layer covering them.

Be patient, calculate your macros, and be consistent in your good diet, and you will succeed!

Well, ab workouts do not equal visible abs. The only way to make them visible is to lower your fat %. Ab workouts makes your abs stronger and more defined, however they are not resonsible for making your abs show.

As for gaining weight, what do you mean it is hard ? You can not eat enough calories or are you struggeling with a different aspect ? If you simply want to gain pure WEIGHT and not worry about whether it is muscle or not, simply eat more and more every day. Gaining pure weight is the easiest thing to do, all you have to do is eat more and more and more and more. If 6 meals is not putting you on any more weight, do 8 meals, if that does not work do 10 meals and again if that does not work do 12 meals.

Now, if you want to build MUSCLE and pure MUSCLE you can not expect much weight gain. During your very FIRST year of training you will gian around 20-25 pounds, this number will decrease over time. Here is a video of that:


Here is a complete list in the video showing how much pure muscle you can gain in a year.

Hey man, I think it will just take time to actually develop some solid abdominal muscles. Its like any other muscle, it just takes time to add mass. As far gaining weight and bulking goes, that could be another reason why you arent seeing your abs. If you are a beginner, just focus on putting on the muscle, then eventually cut down. If your diet, training, and recovery are on point, then you should see some results

from the pic, I can see you're almost there! you just need to shed a little more body fat!