u/-Pipino

Hey everyone. 29M, 182cm, posting my first month check-in.

The backstory

My whole life I thought I was an ectomorph and that gaining weight was basically impossible for me — my parents are both naturally skinny and always said the same thing. Then there were the people who said I just needed to eat more, but "eat more" never made sense to me because I felt like I was already eating the same as everyone else. What I didn't realize was that I wasn't accounting for everything they ate throughout the rest of the day, and I had no idea about calories or protein targets — so "eat more" meant eating a little more, not reaching anything, and confirming the belief that I was just broken.

Then I tried asking an AI (Claude) and it finally clicked that yes, it is possible. Even so, I'm full every single day and it's pretty rough — maybe it's genetics. My brain sees a big plate and goes "that's insane, there's no way I'm finishing that." But I do.

I asked Claude to build me a routine and a diet, had to iterate and debate it along the way, and it probably has things wrong and things right — which is part of why I'm posting here asking for feedback. The other big part is just how happy I am about this first month, even if it's just glycogen and I deflate tomorrow if I stop eating lol.

Stats

• Start: 54.6 kg (April 5)
• Current: 60.2 kg (May 14)
• Time: 36 days
• Height: 182 cm

36 days isn't much but I wanted to share it.

Diet (rough overview)

• Breakfast: milk + bread
• Lunch & dinner: rice or pasta with chicken, tuna or beef burger + 2 eggs, mayo, oil. Sometimes when I get bored I switch to potatoes and eggs
• Post-workout (I train in the afternoon): peanut butter + banana + milk smoothie (just blend it together)
• Pre-bed: yogurt + fruit
• ~3000 kcal/day, ~110–130g protein

I know I need more vegetables and variety — working on it gradually.

Routine — 4 days on, 1 rest — home dumbbells only

Day 1 — Push + Core: Dumbbell chest press, seated shoulder press, triceps extension, plank, weighted crunch

Day 2 — Pull: Pronated pull-ups, supinated pull-ups, single-arm row, bicep curl

Day 3 — Legs: Goblet squat, Bulgarian split squat, Romanian deadlift, walking lunges, single-leg glute bridge

Day 4 — Rear delts + Core: Lateral raises, front raises, towel face pull, superman, dead bug

Day 5 — Rest

P.S. Peanut butter + banana + milk smoothie is genuinely delicious, also works great with oats. You have to try it.

P.P.S. Sorry if anything sounds off or doesn't quite make sense — English isn't my first language and this was translated by Claude. My personal trainer (?)