Best way to gain weight and not be flabby...

[Zstream]

Question for all you guru's.

I have been trying to gain weight for quite some time now. I eat around 2200-2300 calories a day which I just realized is not enough.

I need to take in around 3300+ in order to gain decent weight. What food do you recommend to accomplish this and how do you move the weight around to certain parts of the body? Working out is no problem for me and find it quite enjoyable.

The only reason why I have not been taking in calories like I should is that it scared me to think it would all go in the tummy. I get reaaaaally sick when working out my stomach area, enough to make me not eat and feel crappy the rest of the day.

 

[brikis98]

1. Weight training. Consistently using your muscles to lift heavy weights is pretty much the single most effective way to tell your body to turn your caloric surplus into muscle instead of fat. The most effective routines are those that work the entire body and focus on compound, low rep, heavy weight movements with free weights (e.g. Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5, Bill Starr 5x5, Crossfit). The barbell squat and deadlift, in particular, are two of the most effective exercises for adding muscle mass all over. Of course, doing weight training has many other benefits besides increased LBM, such as increased strength, increased sports performance, injury resistance, increased bone density, increased metabolism, improved balance and coordination, and so on.

2. Eat lots of protein. You need protein to build/repair muscles, so make sure your body is never running short of it. Try to eat around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight: for example, if you weigh 175 lbs, try to eat 175 grams of protein per day.

3. Use a moderate caloric surplus. If your caloric surplus is too big, more and more of it will get turned into fat. Therefore, don't go overboard with it: a daily surplus of 250 - 500 calories is reasonable range for most people. Any more than that and a larger percentage of it will be fat.

 

[Zstream]

You recommend any certain type of food or supplement for the calorie intake?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Zstream
You recommend any certain type of food or supplement for the calorie intake?

You can make protein shakes really easily that have a ton of calories in them. I used to do 16oz whole milk, 1 tbsp oil (coconut oil tastes best), 2 scoops Optimum Nutrition Whey, 2 eggs, and whatever else you want. You can even through peanut butter in there.

Mostly I try to stay away from supplements 'cause you can get so many great nutrients from regular food. However, it's hard to bulk without protein shakes. You can get up to 1k calories from one if you can't eat as much as you need to.

Brikis pretty much already stated everything, but if you don't lift HEAVY and push yourself every session, you won't gain much muscle. Just keep that in mind.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Zstream
You recommend any certain type of food or supplement for the calorie intake?

As long as you're getting enough calories and protein (use a site like thedailyplate.com or fitday.com to track), from a weight gain perspective, the exact foods you pick won't make a huge difference. If you're having trouble getting enough calories, aim for calorie dense foods: the What Does 200 Calories Look Like? page does a good job of illustrating this. If you're having trouble getting enough protein, check out the list in my Low Calorie, High Protein thread.

 

[eddiebravo]

try drinking a large glass of milk and having a tablespoon of olive oil with every meal. easy way to add a boost of protein and healthy fat without really filling yourself up. if you are working out while bulking, you arent going to get flabby. you obviously arent going to be as ripped as you would be if you were to eat like a waif model and run 10k 6 times a week, but you arent going to turn into rosie o'donnell.