Suggestions on gaining weight?

[TridenT]

What do you suggest I eat, that is relatively healthy? I guess if it isn't healthy it doesn't matter, but it'd be nice if it was. 😉 I've been really low weight my whole life. I am about 120lbs, 5'8"+3/4". The most I ever weighted was around 126-127lbs in my life. I want to start working out too, and I plan on it, but I'd just be burning calories I don't have.

Suggestions? 🙂

Thanks.

 

[crt1530]

Eat more food. Eat until you are on the verge of throwing up. Wait until that feeling goes away. Then eat some more. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Chicken, beef, turkey, pork, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, milk.

 

[presidentender]

Lately, I live off spaghetti and eggs - boil the spaghetti, crack whole eggs in with two minutes left, butter, salt, and and bulk like crazy. Don't quite puke; do get close.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: crt1530
Eat more food. Eat until you are on the verge of throwing up. Wait until that feeling goes away. Then eat some more. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Chicken, beef, turkey, pork, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, milk.

I wouldn't go nuts with it, even if you are just starting out. The food choices crt1530 mentioned are good. Here are some more:

link

Start by obtaining an estimate for your basal metabolic rate (BMR) here:

link

Make sure to click on the link titled "Daily Caloric Needs" to get an estimate for the number of calories you would need to consume in a day to exactly maintain your current weight.

Eat this number of calories each day for a week. Weigh yourself first thing each morning. If you have not gained a lb. by the end of the first week, add 100-200 calories to your daily total and eat that much each day for the second week. Continue to weigh yourself each morning. Repeat this process until you are consistently gaining about a pound a week or so. This is a good rate of weight gain for a beginner. If you gain much faster than that, you risk adding unwated bodyfat.

Try to get about 1-1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight and 0.5g of healthy fats per pound of bodyweight. The rest can be any combination of carbs, fats, and proteins you want. Personally I would fill the rest of the calories up with carbs.

Also, do a search for more info. The "how do I gain weight" question has been posted on here a million times.

 

[TridenT]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: crt1530
Eat more food. Eat until you are on the verge of throwing up. Wait until that feeling goes away. Then eat some more. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Chicken, beef, turkey, pork, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, milk.

I wouldn't go nuts with it, even if you are just starting out. The food choices crt1530 mentioned are good. Here are some more:

link

Start by obtaining an estimate for your basal metabolic rate (BMR) here:

link

Make sure to click on the link titled "Daily Caloric Needs" to get an estimate for the number of calories you would need to consume in a day to exactly maintain your current weight.

Eat this number of calories each day for a week. Weigh yourself first thing each morning. If you have not gained a lb. by the end of the first week, add 100-200 calories to your daily total and eat that much each day for the second week. Continue to weigh yourself each morning. Repeat this process until you are consistently gaining about a pound a week for so. This is a good rate of weight gain for a beginner. If you gain much faster than that, you risk adding unwated bodyfat.

Try to get about 1-1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight and 0.5g of healthy fats per pound of bodyweight. The rest can be any combination of carbs, fats, and proteins you want. Personally I would fill the rest of the calories up with carbs.

Also, do a search for more info. The "how do I gain weight" question has been posted on here a million times.

Thanks. 🙂

It's hard to imagine that I even take in 1579.96x1.2 calories a day... I don't think I really do. :-/ But apparently I do, otherwise I'd be losing more and more weight. (And I am maintaining)

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: crt1530
Eat more food. Eat until you are on the verge of throwing up. Wait until that feeling goes away. Then eat some more. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Chicken, beef, turkey, pork, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, milk.

I wouldn't go nuts with it, even if you are just starting out. The food choices crt1530 mentioned are good. Here are some more:

link

Start by obtaining an estimate for your basal metabolic rate (BMR) here:

link

Make sure to click on the link titled "Daily Caloric Needs" to get an estimate for the number of calories you would need to consume in a day to exactly maintain your current weight.

Eat this number of calories each day for a week. Weigh yourself first thing each morning. If you have not gained a lb. by the end of the first week, add 100-200 calories to your daily total and eat that much each day for the second week. Continue to weigh yourself each morning. Repeat this process until you are consistently gaining about a pound a week for so. This is a good rate of weight gain for a beginner. If you gain much faster than that, you risk adding unwated bodyfat.

Try to get about 1-1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight and 0.5g of healthy fats per pound of bodyweight. The rest can be any combination of carbs, fats, and proteins you want. Personally I would fill the rest of the calories up with carbs.

Also, do a search for more info. The "how do I gain weight" question has been posted on here a million times.

Thanks. 🙂

It's hard to imagine that I even take in 1579.96x1.2 calories a day... I don't think I really do. :-/ But apparently I do, otherwise I'd be losing more and more weight. (And I am maintaining)

Also, I forgot to add in my post - track exactly what you eat each day on Fitday

 

[irishScott]

Buy some Menu C MREs (civilian version, but almost identical to military) and eat 4 a day with minimal exercise. Those things pack 1300+ calores a piece.

They're expensive, but you will gain weight. 😀

 

[ubercaffeinated]

get a big bag of optimum nutrition and drink a cup of whole milk after every meal with a scoop. do that 3 times a day on top of eating a little more than you usually do. the eating right part is especially important. lift a little so you don't become a skinny fat guy. you'll get big in a year.

 

[KoolDrew]

Gaining weight is pretty simple and does not need to be complicated.

1) Eat more calories than it takes to maintain your weight. In general a caloric level of 16-18 calories per pound is a good starting point for building mass. However, depending on your metabolism and activity levels, this could be off, which is why it should be treated as a starting point. Start with 2000 calories a day (which does fall in that range and see where that gets you. Measure your weight one a week, preferably in the morning and compare every week. If you're gaining about 1 pound a week, continue eating like that. If not, raise calories about 200 and repeat until you are gaining a pound of week.

2) Get adequate protein. This is a requirement if you want to gain quality mass and not just fat mass. Anywhere from 1.1-1.4 grams per pound of bodyweight is good. At 120lbs this would be between 130 and 170 grams of protein a day.

3) Lift. Make sure you are using a solid routine and working hard in the gym. If you're just starting concentrate on using proper form before adding more weight to the bar. However, to gain muscle mass you will have to eventually add weight to the bar. So your routine should be geared towards the goal of getting stronger. Something such as the Starting Strength routine would work fine along with a bunch of other simple routines aimed at beginners.

To recap.. get enough calories, get enough protein, and lift. Outside of that little will make much of a difference and it's a much better idea to keep things simple as a begineer. You won't need anything that complicated to see some progress anyway. Ohh, and definitely track what you eat. Without doing so it's impossible to know for sure how many calories or how much protein you are getting. You can do this using websites such as thedailyplate or fitday or even just using a pen and pad and recording calories and protein and manually adding them up at the end of the day. Whichever way works for you.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555
It's hard to imagine that I even take in 1579.96x1.2 calories a day... I don't think I really do. :-/ But apparently I do, otherwise I'd be losing more and more weight. (And I am maintaining)

1580 (or does the x1.2 make 1895?) calories is nothing. The last time I calculated what I would need to maintain my current weight considering my daily activities it came out to be ~3300 calories. That's just to stay where I am. I'm a good 50lbs heavier than you and I exercise regularly so that increases the baseline number of calories that I need but I still think you need to be eating MUCH more than you are.

That's a good list crt1530 gave you. Eat lots of that kind of stuff. Special K and the others who advocate tracking what you eat know what they're talking about too, but I've never had the patience to track everything I eat even though that's likely the most effective and controllable approach.

In the end it's very very simple. Eat more often. If you never feel hungry then eat even when you aren't hungry. Snack on something healthy anytime you're not doing anything that requires both hands. During major meals, eat until you are not just satiated, but full. It's not difficult at all to put away whatever number of calories you might need to gain weight. In fact, it's so easy that some of us (this would be me) have problems keeping the weight off. Sometimes I wonder how anyone could possibly have trouble putting on weight if they actually wanted to

 

[chess9]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Gaining weight is pretty simple and does not need to be complicated.

1) Eat more calories than it takes to maintain your weight. In general a caloric level of 16-18 calories per pound is a good starting point for building mass. However, depending on your metabolism and activity levels, this could be off, which is why it should be treated as a starting point. Start with 2000 calories a day (which does fall in that range and see where that gets you. Measure your weight one a week, preferably in the morning and compare every week. If you're gaining about 1 pound a week, continue eating like that. If not, raise calories about 200 and repeat until you are gaining a pound of week.

2) Get adequate protein. This is a requirement if you want to gain quality mass and not just fat mass. Anywhere from 1.1-1.4 grams per pound of bodyweight is good. At 120lbs this would be between 130 and 170 grams of protein a day.

3) Lift. Make sure you are using a solid routine and working hard in the gym. If you're just starting concentrate on using proper form before adding more weight to the bar. However, to gain muscle mass you will have to eventually add weight to the bar. So your routine should be geared towards the goal of getting stronger. Something such as the Starting Strength routine would work fine along with a bunch of other simple routines aimed at beginners.

To recap.. get enough calories, get enough protein, and lift. Outside of that little will make much of a difference and it's a much better idea to keep things simple as a begineer. You won't need anything that complicated to see some progress anyway. Ohh, and definitely track what you eat. Without doing so it's impossible to know for sure how many calories or how much protein you are getting. You can do this using websites such as thedailyplate or fitday or even just using a pen and pad and recording calories and protein and manually adding them up at the end of the day. Whichever way works for you.

Here's what I tell my young clients:

Day 1: EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST.

Day 2. EAT, LIFT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST.

Day 3. Repeat Day 1.

Day 4. Repeat Day 2.

Etc. Do this for about 6 months if you are a young guy with a high metabolism. Eat clean protein and plenty of it. SEE ABOVE.

What young males fail to do is eat enough and rest enough. And some tend to train too much while doing the foregoing.

-Robert

 

[dealmaster00]

Originally posted by: chess9

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Gaining weight is pretty simple and does not need to be complicated.

1) Eat more calories than it takes to maintain your weight. In general a caloric level of 16-18 calories per pound is a good starting point for building mass. However, depending on your metabolism and activity levels, this could be off, which is why it should be treated as a starting point. Start with 2000 calories a day (which does fall in that range and see where that gets you. Measure your weight one a week, preferably in the morning and compare every week. If you're gaining about 1 pound a week, continue eating like that. If not, raise calories about 200 and repeat until you are gaining a pound of week.

2) Get adequate protein. This is a requirement if you want to gain quality mass and not just fat mass. Anywhere from 1.1-1.4 grams per pound of bodyweight is good. At 120lbs this would be between 130 and 170 grams of protein a day.

3) Lift. Make sure you are using a solid routine and working hard in the gym. If you're just starting concentrate on using proper form before adding more weight to the bar. However, to gain muscle mass you will have to eventually add weight to the bar. So your routine should be geared towards the goal of getting stronger. Something such as the Starting Strength routine would work fine along with a bunch of other simple routines aimed at beginners.

To recap.. get enough calories, get enough protein, and lift. Outside of that little will make much of a difference and it's a much better idea to keep things simple as a begineer. You won't need anything that complicated to see some progress anyway. Ohh, and definitely track what you eat. Without doing so it's impossible to know for sure how many calories or how much protein you are getting. You can do this using websites such as thedailyplate or fitday or even just using a pen and pad and recording calories and protein and manually adding them up at the end of the day. Whichever way works for you.

Here's what I tell my young clients:

Day 1: EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST.

Day 2. EAT, LIFT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST, REST.

Day 3. Repeat Day 1.

Day 4. Repeat Day 2.

Etc. Do this for about 6 months if you are a young guy with a high metabolism. Eat clean protein and plenty of it. SEE ABOVE.

What young males fail to do is eat enough and rest enough. And some tend to train too much while doing the foregoing.

-Robert

Haha that is pretty much what I've been doing for the past 5 months (since I started lifting). It works too, gained over 25lbs so far. 🙂

 

[Elias824]

Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

That's why god invented Baconators.

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

That's why god invented Baconators.

great, now I'm hungry...

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

Split everything into more meals during the day. It helps make the process of eating so much easier. Just don't ever let yourself get hungry.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

You need to drink your calories rather than eat them, at least until your body gets used to the increased caloric intake. Try something like this:

2 cups milk
2 scoops whey
1 cup oats
2 tbsp natural PB

This has ~900 calories and can be made and drank out of a blender in only a couple minutes. It's not extremely filling, which will help you finish them without becoming too full. You can adjust the quantities of the individual ingredients as needed.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

You need to drink your calories rather than eat them, at least until your body gets used to the increased caloric intake. Try something like this:

2 cups milk
2 scoops whey
1 cup oats
2 tbsp natural PB

This has ~900 calories and can be made and drank out of a blender in only a couple minutes. It's not extremely filling, which will help you finish them without becoming too full. You can adjust the quantities of the individual ingredients as needed.

True. Even if you just drink a couple cups of milk at breakfast, that's close to 400 extra calories down.

 

[BeauJangles]

I'd also toss in the "gallon of milk per day" idea. It's a relatively cheap and easy way take in lots of calories.

 

[spamsk8r]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles
I'd also toss in the "gallon of milk per day" idea. It's a relatively cheap and easy way take in lots of calories.

Yep, especially if you're interested in gaining strength along with size. GOMAD + Squats = win.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Elias824
Ive had alot of problems gaining weight too, I weigh 130 currently at age 20. When I actually started looking at how much I eat its only about 1700 calories on average, I need about 3k to really start putting weight on. Problem is I have a harder time eating then I do working out.....

You need to drink your calories rather than eat them, at least until your body gets used to the increased caloric intake. Try something like this:

2 cups milk
2 scoops whey
1 cup oats
2 tbsp natural PB

This has ~900 calories and can be made and drank out of a blender in only a couple minutes. It's not extremely filling, which will help you finish them without becoming too full. You can adjust the quantities of the individual ingredients as needed.

True. Even if you just drink a couple cups of milk at breakfast, that's close to 400 extra calories down.

Milk and peanut butter are my favorite things to eat on a bulk. It's VERY easy for me to eat nearly 2000 calories in one sitting just from peanut butter. I usually chop up some apples and cover them in peanut butter. Then just wash it down with a full glass of milk and that's another 260 calories (for 2%).

 

[apac]

Originally posted by: spamsk8r

Originally posted by: BeauJangles
I'd also toss in the "gallon of milk per day" idea. It's a relatively cheap and easy way take in lots of calories.

Yep, especially if you're interested in gaining strength along with size. GOMAD + Squats = win.

I hadn't heard of this before, and after doing a bit of background work would like to bring up a couple questions.

- Are these the right kind of calories to be adding to your bulking diet? A lot of the cals appear to be fat.
- The expression "too much of anything is bad for you" comes to mind. I listed the nutrition info for one gallon of whole milk below, and bolded the parts that sound bad.

2400 calories
128g fat (80g saturated fat)
192g carb
128g protein
560mg cholesterol (192%)
2g sodium (80%)
96% Vitamin A
32% Vitamin C
480% Calcium