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Here's another answer chosen as "Best" at Yahoo Answers. The question was, 

I'm a 16 yr. old male. My body type is kind of hour-glass shaped ( My body is femenish ) I weigh 140. My body has no definition what-so-ever.

I want a nice, muscular body. The pecs, abs EVERYTHING.

My question is, how do I get there? I don't need to burn off any fat, It's just a matter of taking the right course and building those muscles.

I need a guide that will get me there. Advice from the experienced would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

ANSWER – Muscle-Building for Teens

Source(s):

I had gotten this system a while back called the Every Other Day Diet that I had completely forgotten about. That is, until the creator, Jon Benson, reminded me

He created a neat little video showing how to lose a ton of body fat by following a diet basically every other day. On "cheat days" you eat what you want.

The cool thing is, his method not only fires up your metabolism, but it sets your body up for tremendous muscle gains, too (you gotta work out, though, in a specific way and get the timing right)!

Build muscle and lose fat by dieting every other day? Where do I sign up?

For many people, gaining weight is quite easy. Just look at most Americans. It's losing weight that is difficult.

However, even though millions of people are chronically overweight, they're "under-muscled." The objective of this post is to change that.

To build lean muscle mass, you have to take on a serious weight training and diet regimen. Hopefully, you are starting from a point where you are relatively lean or just need to drop a few pounds of body fat. But if you're seriously overweight, you can still follow the prescription I'm about to give; just realize that it's going to take some time and a lot of effort to see lasting results.

All that said, it's pretty easy to build lean muscle mass.

How to Build Lean Muscle Mass

These are some general guidelines to follow. You can check out Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day for an in-depth view of how to put it all together. Note that you need to do some form of cardio in order to supercharge your calorie-burning efforts. Here's what I propose:

• Follow the Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day system.
• Add 30 minutes every single day of cardio. It can be fast walking, running (not jogging, too hard on the joints), cycling, or active hiking. I prefer mountain biking, but you can do anything you want as long as you do it hard for 30 minutes.
• Eat frequent, small meals. The idea here is to maintain blood sugar levels so that you don't get hungry and don't burn muscle for fuel.
• Add 4 Fat-Loss Secret Ingredients to your diet.
• If you cannot prepare 6 meals a day, buy a meal replacement supplement like MetRx. You really cannot afford to miss meals.
• Portion control is king! Don't eat a lot. Use smaller bowls, plates, and utensils.
• Eat slowly. You may feel like you're grazing all day (because you are) but it's necessary.

As you might surmise from the above list, diet is very important. In fact 80 percent of your success can be attributed to nutrition. Don't take it lightly. In order to build lean muscle mass, you have to eat lean, quality food. No fat diets DO NOT WORK but neither does "all you can eat."

Choose to eat wisely and train smart. You'll build a better-looking body that will be healthier, too!

Building muscle in 30 minutes a day

Today's a day to relax. Or at least learn about it.

A critical component of any exercise program is recovery. It's just as important as exercise and nutrition. In fact, if you don't give your body enough time to rest and recover from the strenuous workouts you do, no matter what you do otherwise, your muscle gains will be minimal, if even positive.

Yeah, you could lose size even if you train right and eat right.

It's a sad fact. But it's true. I've seen super athletes fall from grace by partying too hard into the early morning. I've also been plagued myself by a significant lack of sleep for extended periods of time (years, decades even). I always rationalized my poor sleeping habits with a mucho macho phrase:

I can sleep all I want when I die.

Of course, this thinking is all crap. There's nothing good to be said about sleep deprivation. So let's lay it on the line right now: Get at least 8 hours of sound, restful sleep every single night. Here are a few other "Rules of Recovery" -

• Go to sleep at the same time each night.
• Avoid shift work if at all possible.
• If you must consume caffeine, do so only prior to 3PM.
• Rise at the same time each morning.

Try to abstain from these activities -

• Going to sleep full.
• Exercising immediately before going to bed.
• Consuming any caffeine after about 3PM.
• Taking any kind of weight-loss aids, like diet pills, as they contain caffeine and other stimulants.

Read more about sleep here.

Sleep isn't the only component of Recovery.

You also need to calm down and relax. If you want to build maximum muscle, you need to put your mind at ease and stop worrying about stuff. I used to be a worrier; it's a trait I got from my mom, who constantly worries about this, that, and the other thing. Fortunately, I have overcome this unfortunate mental characteristic. It's a long road, but it's certainly worth it.

Sit if you can stand, walk if you can run. That sort of thing. Conserve as much energy as possible throughout the day. You will find that you won't have to eat as much to get results, either.

It's really win-win.

There's more on Rest here.

If you follow the advice given in this series, you will most definitely be training and eating right. If you find that you still aren't gaining the muscle you think you ought to be gaining, look first at your recovery practices.

• Are you getting enough sleep?
• Do you fidget while working or watching TV?
• Do your ears ring (classic sign of overtraining)?
• Is something bugging you and making you sleep less soundly, for less time, or both?

That's it for this series. I hope you liked it – let me know in the Comments! Thanks for visiting.

To recap, this is the entire series, How to Build Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day:

• Monday – Basic Training
  
• Tuesday – Advanced Training
• Wednesday – Basic Nutrition
• Thursday – Advanced Nutrition & Supplementation
• Friday – Importance of Recovery