Easy guys! Let's not have a flame war. 
It's all good.
It sounds like you did have to work hard, intoTheRain, and obviously you have. It is very impressive and inspirational. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, being serious. Reading your last edit shows just that.
I find it kind of funny how people have those issues, I call it "vice versa issues". On one hand, you've got people who put on weight very easily and quite often they carry a lot of weight on them and have to lose it, which is hard. On the other hand, you've got thin/smaller people who actually find it very difficult to put on weight and they want to. As we know, putting on weight in terms of lean muscle is very difficult. Both tasks are hard.
For me, I'm one of the former guys. I used to be very overweight and I put on weight easily. Hell, I still put on weight easily. If I eat any food and don't exercise, the scales will rise - "Hello there Craig." I have a lot of friends who struggle to put on weight and who want to put on weight and get bigger.
I think it's impossible to say which is the harder task. Both tasks would be very difficult. The reason I think it's impossible is because really, who has experienced both issues? Like I said before, I've only experienced being overweight and having to lose that weight. I've never experienced being underweight and trying to put on weight.
To me, being thin and not being able to put on weight sounds difficult, because it means not only would you have to eat a crap load of food throughout the day, but you've gotta be eating the right kind of food. Lots of good carbohydrates, proteins, healthy fats etc. You couldn't just stuff your face with McDonalds all day everyday. On top of that, you'd have to exercise like... five to six times a week, hell maybe even everyday, focusing on big heavy weights (as heavy as you can) as well as some serious, mass building compound lifts. It sounds like a lot of effort.
I hate genetics. I'm not sure why but genetically, I've got very big legs. My calves, quads and hamstrings are a lot larger than normal blokes. A lot of guys at the gym ask me what I do to train my legs (particularly my calves) but... I can't tell them much because even when I was fat, I still had them. I kinda wish some of the muscle I had in my legs was spread up a bit into my core though. Wishful thinking. I've been accused of steroids because of my legs and shoulders. :/
As for steroids, I'd never do steroids. I've heard a lot of people try and justify the use of steroids and how it isn't "bad" for you at all. I don't care what they say, they can do what they want, it's their bodies, I just don't want to risk any potential future health problems. Furthermore if I ever did do steroids, I'd probably get in shit for it. They don't do testing in judo very often but if they did, I'd be screwed.
I think to be honest though Urban, I think steroids could potentially make people "better" athletes. I mean... steroids are a performance enhancer, right? They're essentially drugs to push the human body beyond its normal limitations, to go higher than the natural peak? To me, an athlete using steroids would be able to go further and peform better. Lance Armstrong is a good example, but at the same time he was a very driven and dedicated athlete... but the drugs certainly would have helped push him to beyond his own limits.
It's all good.It sounds like you did have to work hard, intoTheRain, and obviously you have. It is very impressive and inspirational. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, being serious. Reading your last edit shows just that.
I find it kind of funny how people have those issues, I call it "vice versa issues". On one hand, you've got people who put on weight very easily and quite often they carry a lot of weight on them and have to lose it, which is hard. On the other hand, you've got thin/smaller people who actually find it very difficult to put on weight and they want to. As we know, putting on weight in terms of lean muscle is very difficult. Both tasks are hard.
For me, I'm one of the former guys. I used to be very overweight and I put on weight easily. Hell, I still put on weight easily. If I eat any food and don't exercise, the scales will rise - "Hello there Craig." I have a lot of friends who struggle to put on weight and who want to put on weight and get bigger.
I think it's impossible to say which is the harder task. Both tasks would be very difficult. The reason I think it's impossible is because really, who has experienced both issues? Like I said before, I've only experienced being overweight and having to lose that weight. I've never experienced being underweight and trying to put on weight.
To me, being thin and not being able to put on weight sounds difficult, because it means not only would you have to eat a crap load of food throughout the day, but you've gotta be eating the right kind of food. Lots of good carbohydrates, proteins, healthy fats etc. You couldn't just stuff your face with McDonalds all day everyday. On top of that, you'd have to exercise like... five to six times a week, hell maybe even everyday, focusing on big heavy weights (as heavy as you can) as well as some serious, mass building compound lifts. It sounds like a lot of effort.
I hate genetics. I'm not sure why but genetically, I've got very big legs. My calves, quads and hamstrings are a lot larger than normal blokes. A lot of guys at the gym ask me what I do to train my legs (particularly my calves) but... I can't tell them much because even when I was fat, I still had them. I kinda wish some of the muscle I had in my legs was spread up a bit into my core though. Wishful thinking.
I've been accused of steroids because of my legs and shoulders. :/ As for steroids, I'd never do steroids. I've heard a lot of people try and justify the use of steroids and how it isn't "bad" for you at all. I don't care what they say, they can do what they want, it's their bodies, I just don't want to risk any potential future health problems. Furthermore if I ever did do steroids, I'd probably get in shit for it. They don't do testing in judo very often but if they did, I'd be screwed.
I think to be honest though Urban, I think steroids could potentially make people "better" athletes. I mean... steroids are a performance enhancer, right? They're essentially drugs to push the human body beyond its normal limitations, to go higher than the natural peak? To me, an athlete using steroids would be able to go further and peform better. Lance Armstrong is a good example, but at the same time he was a very driven and dedicated athlete... but the drugs certainly would have helped push him to beyond his own limits.
