Anyone unable to gain weight no matter what they do?

[TecHNooB]

2500 cals is nothing. Start eating like a man!

 

[Descartes]

I have the same problem, but I would lose weight on 2500 calories a day. I have to eat at least 3500-4000 calories to gain, and even then it's very slow. I'm 6'1" and right now about 200lbs, and I eat big and lift heavy 3x a week. My goal was 205-210lbs at ~13% body fat or so, but I just don't think I can get there without a lot more sacrifice.

If you do start adding the calories, try to eat healthy in doing so. A "dirty" bulk is ok fo ra while, but I've seen guys get in those bad eating habits and put on a lot more than they wanted...

 

[sao123]

I'll be a weight donor to anyone who needs some...
🙂

 

[LS20]

i used to go on weight eating "training" binges...
could scarf down 5000 calories for about 2 weeks straight.
work out for ~30-40 minutes every other day, protein after workout, protein before bed. lots of PB/cottage cheese bread snacks.

did everything textbook... would put me up about 5 pounds but then i'd hit a wall... no more gaining. now i settle for being lethargic and not lose weight, instead of working hard but barely gain any weight

 

[BrownTown]

how much do protien drinks help? Also, what do they cost? I here people talking about protien power and such, what is the cost per day of doing something like that (since I'm a porr student). I am really trying to make a conserted effort in this direction and getting no results after two and a half months doesn't help much with the motivation factor. I was only hoping to gain 10 pounds, I thought that would be an easy goal for a semester at school, but so far I am failing miserably in getting results even though I have not once deviated from my traning regiment 🙁.

 

[trOver]

I have the same problem. I lift 2-3 times a week, and never gain weight. I eat more than all my overweight friends, and yet I dont gain an ounce.

How can I boost my calorie intake? Protein shakes?

 

[vital]

its in your genes. I have family history of diabetes and hyperthyroidism so I have to limit and watch what I eat so I know ill never gain weight even if I eat like a pig. 🙁

 

[YetioDoom]

Eat more. Not very hard.

 

[BUTCH1]

Just stick to the three food groups: Meat, grease, and sugar...Soon you will inflate like a blowfish!!

 

[crt1530]

YOU ARE UNABLE TO GAIN WEIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO EAT ENOUGH TO GAIN WEIGHT. YOU ARE NOT A "HARD GAINER." STOP WHINING AND EAT.

Note: Caps used to convey exasperation (I am slightly inebriated as well).

 

[Chaotic42]

Back when I was trying to join the military, I used to eat ~1500 calories per day and I jogged almost everyday. I had a lot of trouble dropping below 220. I'm 250 now.

If I could give 40 pounds to you, I would.

 

[Luthien]

LOL, you guys are silly. Simply eat more and you will gain the weight. Goto mcdonalds and order 10 double cheeseburgers $1 each everyday for a month and I guarantee you will gain at least 30 lbs that month. LOL silly silly.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: crt1530
YOU ARE UNABLE TO GAIN WEIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO EAT ENOUGH TO GAIN WEIGHT. YOU ARE NOT A "HARD GAINER." STOP WHINING AND EAT.

Note: Caps used to convey exasperation (I am slightly inebriated as well).

I gain and lose weight somewhat easily. If I want to gain I eat more of everything. If I want to lose weight I cut back on the carbs and eat very clean. If I don't care I eat whatever.

I had a hard time gaining until reached 21. Now I have filled out a lot (use to be really thin).

Eat more and log what you eat. If your consistently eating 4-5k a day for 3-4 weeks and haven't gained you need to eat more for your metabolism. Not everyone is built equal.

Koing

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: jiggahertz

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra

Originally posted by: Tiamat
I eat 4000 Calories every day (well-balanced meals) and haven't gained a pound on the average (past 2 years).

I just started going back to the gym for weight lifting after a 2 yr hiatus, so hopefully i can gain some weight.

If 4000 is enough for you without lifting, then you are not going to gain weight when starting lifting.

What part of calorie surplus diets do people not understand?

Shrugs, I gotta try something. I cannot afford to increase my grocery bill any further. If i don't gain any weight from going to the gym, then all I can hope for is that my endurance and maybe strength increases (these are more important to me than weight gain). I'd like to be able to climb 6 flights of steps at a resonable speed and not be winded at the top.

Sounds like you'd be better served doing some cardio.

Yeah, Id like to carry my groceries without problems too lol!

Cardio is definitely helping, but i was shedding pounds way too quickly when I was running 15 minutes every day. I just cant keep up with my metabolism, i guess ill go look for some other foods that have more calories, but are less filling so that I can consume more overall calories...

Oats my friend.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Meet the McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese:
48 g of protein, 740 calories, all in a nice burger box

Note: mrSHEiK124 went on a Double QPC binge and rather than gain weight, experienced severe intestinal failure and general GI discomfort. YMMV. Not valid in Alaska or Hawaii.

 

[ponyo]

Give it some time. You will get old, and your metabolism will eventually slow. Just be thankful and enjoy it for now. You're not going to be 18-30 forever.

 

[RapidSnail]

I wonder, and I'm not an expert, if those of you who are working hard and eating big but aren't gaining aren't using an optimal macronutrient split. If you diet is high in carbs but low in protein I don't think you can gain much muscle and your body will just be burning/storing the carbohydrates as energy, while your muscles won't have enough AA's to stimulate growth. Maybe instead of a 60/20/10 (CPF) split, which I would think is the norm, you try a 40/40/20 or something like that which will budget more protein for muscle building.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[jiggahertz]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
how much do protien drinks help? Also, what do they cost? I here people talking about protien power and such, what is the cost per day of doing something like that (since I'm a porr student). I am really trying to make a conserted effort in this direction and getting no results after two and a half months doesn't help much with the motivation factor. I was only hoping to gain 10 pounds, I thought that would be an easy goal for a semester at school, but so far I am failing miserably in getting results even though I have not once deviated from my traning regiment 🙁.

They add however many grams of protein you consume of them to your daily intake. It's equivalent to eating that through real food. In my experience they cost nearly the same as food.

 

[jiggahertz]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail
I wonder, and I'm not an expert, if those of you who are working hard and eating big but aren't gaining aren't using an optimal macronutrient split. If you diet is high in carbs but low in protein I don't think you can gain much muscle and your body will just be burning/storing the carbohydrates as energy, while your muscles won't have enough AA's to stimulate growth. Maybe instead of a 60/20/10 (CPF) split, which I would think is the norm, you try a 40/40/20 or something like that which will budget more protein for muscle building.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, 60/20/10 seems awfully high on the carbs side. I've had good results bulking with 33/33/33 and 1-2 gms protein per lb of bodyweight.

 

[Soccerman06]

Lets put it this way, pure fat requires 4100 calories of energy for every 1 pound. Fat that is in the body requires 3400 calories, less because of nutrients and whatnot, for 1 pound. You must take in 3400 calories per day over what you already burn just to gain 1 pound of fat. If you just want fat that is the way to go, eat a shitload and dont excersize. Muscle on the other hand varies on person to person, because different people have different muscle types and require different excersizes to get the same result. Generally you need 4k-6k calories to eat and then burn just to gain that muscle density and strength, just for 1 pound. This is why it can take a month for only 1 pound of muscle on serious athletes who try to keep thin and still muscular.

 

[RapidSnail]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Lets put it this way, pure fat requires 4100 calories of energy for every 1 pound. Fat that is in the body requires 3400 calories, less because of nutrients and whatnot, for 1 pound. You must take in 3400 calories per day over what you already burn just to gain 1 pound of fat. If you just want fat that is the way to go, eat a shitload and dont excersize. Muscle on the other hand varies on person to person, because different people have different muscle types and require different excersizes to get the same result. Generally you need 4k-6k calories to eat and then burn just to gain that muscle density and strength, just for 1 pound. This is why it can take a month for only 1 pound of muscle on serious athletes who try to keep thin and still muscular.

Something I don't understand. One muscle pound is equal to roughly 600 kcal. If someone is working out and eats 100 kcal over his intake for one week, how does the body distinguish between storing those calories as fat or using them to build muscle? Hypothetically, he should be gaining one pound of muscle. Why doesn't it work like that? Does it depend on the type of nutrients eaten? And why do some guys have to 2k cals over their intake to gain muscle? Wouldn't that just be added as fat?

😕

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: crt1530
YOU ARE UNABLE TO GAIN WEIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO EAT ENOUGH TO GAIN WEIGHT. YOU ARE NOT A "HARD GAINER." STOP WHINING AND EAT.

Note: Caps used to convey exasperation (I am slightly inebriated as well).

This is the truth. I don't care how fast you think your metabolism is, you CAN outeat it. You need to actually track what you eat each day using fitday

Start eating a set number of calories each day, and weigh yourself each morning. If at the end of the week you have not gained about 1 lb. on average, then add 300 calories to your daily total and eat that much for the next week. Repeat this process until you are consistently gaining 1 lb./week.

I know people who say they eat a lot, but when they plug it into fitday, it only adds up to < 2000 calories. Sorry people, 1950 calories is not "a lot". I know people that have to eat 7k+/day to gain.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Lets put it this way, pure fat requires 4100 calories of energy for every 1 pound. Fat that is in the body requires 3400 calories, less because of nutrients and whatnot, for 1 pound. You must take in 3400 calories per day over what you already burn just to gain 1 pound of fat. If you just want fat that is the way to go, eat a shitload and dont excersize. Muscle on the other hand varies on person to person, because different people have different muscle types and require different excersizes to get the same result. Generally you need 4k-6k calories to eat and then burn just to gain that muscle density and strength, just for 1 pound. This is why it can take a month for only 1 pound of muscle on serious athletes who try to keep thin and still muscular.

Something I don't understand. One muscle pound is equal to roughly 600 kcal. If someone is working out and eats 100 kcal over his intake for one week, how does the body distinguish between storing those calories as fat or using them to build muscle? Hypothetically, he should be gaining one pound of muscle. Why doesn't it work like that? Does it depend on the type of nutrients eaten? And why do some guys have to 2k cals over their intake to gain muscle? Wouldn't that just be added as fat?

😕

Its the way the body mechanics work when forming muscles and fat. If the muscles were stressed and broke/tore/or w/e you want to call it, its going to replaces the energy needed on them and not the fat. It gets up to a point for every person where the muscle growth will be less than the fat growth, but again that varies for every person and that varies on what they do on a specific day. A perfect scenario would be a person working out every muscle group and burning however much calories, he would need to put in not only that amount of calories he just burned, but about 50% more for the rest of the day and to regrow the muscles. If the scenario didnt burn every muscle group equally, then certain areas are going to form more muscle than others and fat will end up storing in less worked areas.

It also completely depends on the type of food you eat. Sugars will go directly into glucose and be stored on the muscles for future use, fat will be directly for calories burned and nutrients will be absorbed and allow for some muscle growth, protien will go for muscle and other internal workings, and carbos will be used for glucose and helping the body do various internal things.

Again, its just the amount of calories you need to burn and then replace to make gains and how you eat that make a difference

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Lets put it this way, pure fat requires 4100 calories of energy for every 1 pound. Fat that is in the body requires 3400 calories, less because of nutrients and whatnot, for 1 pound. You must take in 3400 calories per day over what you already burn just to gain 1 pound of fat. If you just want fat that is the way to go, eat a shitload and dont excersize. Muscle on the other hand varies on person to person, because different people have different muscle types and require different excersizes to get the same result. Generally you need 4k-6k calories to eat and then burn just to gain that muscle density and strength, just for 1 pound. This is why it can take a month for only 1 pound of muscle on serious athletes who try to keep thin and still muscular.

Something I don't understand. One muscle pound is equal to roughly 600 kcal. If someone is working out and eats 100 kcal over his intake for one week, how does the body distinguish between storing those calories as fat or using them to build muscle? Hypothetically, he should be gaining one pound of muscle. Why doesn't it work like that? Does it depend on the type of nutrients eaten? And why do some guys have to 2k cals over their intake to gain muscle? Wouldn't that just be added as fat?

😕

To sum it up - genetics. Bodybuilders use the term "nutrient partitioning" to describe how efficiently a person's body uses extra calories. Someone with superior nutrient partitioning will store more calories as muscle, and less as fat. Someone with poor nutrient partitioning would store nearly all excess calories as fat, no matter how hard they worked out.

One of the reasons why steroids are so effective at building muscle is they increase the amount of calories that can be used toward building muscle, instead of being stored as fat.

The type of food eaten can also have an effect, although this is debatable. Some people say "a calorie is a calorie", while others say the type of food consumed is very important. I personally believe in eating as healthy as possible.

Also I doubt anyone needs to eat 2k over their maintenance to gain. They could have a very high maintenance level, but going over your true maintenance by more than 500 calories or so will only serve to make you fatter, in general.

 

[TXHokie]

What a problem to have. If I as much as look at food, I'd gain some weigh. It's almost like seeing someone complain that all these hot chicks keep chasing me and rip my clothes off, what do I do? Or the stupid bank keep putting money in my account and says it's mine, what do I do. Sorry can't relate but I'll trade ya. 🙂