Survivor finalist Carson Garrett put on 30 pounds of muscle in preparation for his stint on the 44th season of the CBS competition in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands.
The Survivor contestant, 20, took to Instagram Tuesday with a clip in which he explained how he achieved the body transformation, including keeping protein shakes at his bedside.
‘Out of all the prep I did for Survivor,’ the Atlanta native said, ‘gaining 30 pounds was certainly the greatest challenge.’
Garrett, a huge fan of the show prior to joining as a contestant, said he’d ‘even never been to the gym’ and ‘was scared of it’ ahead of the series.
‘I only wanted to eat kids meals,’ said Garrett, whose weight went from 115 pounds to 145 pounds amid his conditioning for the series.
The latest:Â Survivor finalist Carson Garrett, 20, put on 30 pounds of muscle in preparation for his stint on the 44th season of the CBS competition in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands
In the clip, Garrett said, ‘Everyone always asks me, “How did you gain 30 lbs. to go on the show? That’s crazy! Like, I knew you as this really skinny guy and then all of a sudden you come out here and you’ve bulked up.”‘
Garrett said that he had to break out of a long cycle of being ‘the really skinny guy’ to put on the necessary pounds for the program.
‘I’ve pretty much my whole life always been … the guy that’s on the cusp of being underweight,’ said Garrett, who is studying engineering for NASA.
Garrett said that while most of the competitors on the show ‘starve themselves for a month’ ahead of the televised competition outdoors, he sought to beef up for non-aesthetic purposes.
He said the rationale was, ‘Well, maybe it’s a good idea to add a couple of pounds to my body so that I don’t, like, die when I’m there.
‘I wanted to gain healthy weight that would help sustain me in physically taxing challenges on the TV show Survivor.’
Avoiding ‘eating desserts the whole time,’ Garrett said he went the healthy route to build muscle in a ‘lean bulk.’
Garrett said he used a smart scale to keep track of his muscle and fat levels, checked his caloric intake and calculated the amounts he needed to consume to achieve his body goals.
The Survivor contestant took to Instagram Tuesday with a clip in which he explained how he achieved the body transformationÂ
Garrett said that while most of the competitors on the show ‘starve themselves for a month’ ahead of the televised competition outdoors, he sought to beef up for non-aesthetic purposes
Pictured (L-R): Yamil ‘Yam Yam’ Arocho, Carolyn Wiger, Sarah Wade and Garrett were pictured competing on the seriesÂ
‘You’re restricting your diet so your body is forced to create muscle at higher rates than you would normally,’ Garrett said.
Garrett said he went with an ‘extremely difficult’ nutritional formula of 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbs and 20 percent fats to meet his objective.
‘I would go out of my way to make these gigantic protein shakes in order to meet the goals I had for my protein intake that day,’ he said. ‘And it was pretty difficult. I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would have a protein shake on the side of my bed.’
Garrett said that the intense diet came with its share of uncomfortable moments.
‘Having this much food in your body … doesn’t feel good,’ Garrett said. ‘When I would go to bed, I would feel like I was about to throw up.’
Garrett said when he worked out, he would focus on his chest, shoulders and legs.
‘I had no idea what I was doing in the gym,’ Garrett said, noting that he researches exercises to help increase his strength and ignored cardio.
‘It worked for me. It was extremely strenuous, I remember so many nights where I was over my toilet throwing up,’ Garrett said. ‘This was the process for me. Not for everyone else; most people are not training to go on Survivor where you lose a lot of weight.’
Garrett said he didn’t recommend the plan ‘unless you’re about three months from leaving to go to film a TV show where you starve.’