Healthy Weight Gain

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Hey there. Am currently on a BMI of circa 18, and want to get up to a more mid-range BMI of about 22. So, from about 10st to about 12st (combined with adopting a healthy lifestyle of gym/cycling/swimming).

Problems:

1. I've never been able to gain weight consistently, and it runs in my family
2. I never have the patience or ability or interest to cook meals after a long day

Has anyone got any ideas? I know there are some extra-calorie drinks that you can take in addition to your regular meals, has anyone tried these?

Vegeta

well gaining weight is very simple. eat loads of fatty and sugar packed foods. It will all be fat though and you'll look and feel like crap.

The BMI scale is a bit of a joke. As you can see you could put on 2 stone of fat and suddenly you'd be in the healthy range which is not what you want to do.

So I assume you want to put on muscle instead of fat.

The best way to do this is to lift heavy weights regularly and have a diet with a calorie surplus made up of clean sources of protein, fats and carbohydrates.

There are excellent stickies at the top of the fitness forum which will help you work out exactly how much you should be eating. Hopefully they will be copied here too.

oh and you wont believe just how much food you have to eat to gain weight. General day for me is:
Breakfast: 65 grams of porridge with skim milk, protein shake and a slice of wholemeal brownbread with natural peanut butter. multi vitamin and 5grams creatine
Second Breakfast: 2 slices of wholemeal brownbread with a scrape of real butter, large apple and a pint of milk (usually have a protein shake here too but forgot them today)
Lunch: Canteen food so Mash spuds, carrots, brocolli and fillet of fish and a pint of milk or something very similar
Tea: Meal replacer shake (forgot it today)
Dinner: meat and 2 veg or 6 scrambled eggs on toast or tuna and peanut butter sandwiches.
Pre Bed: slow release protein shake and 5grams creatine after weights

So its a lot of food but its working for me. I am just weighing in at 14 stone these days. I have about a stone of flab hanging around but in 8 weeks I am going to try and loose some of it.

low

I'm not a professional (definitely not!) but if I were to give you an advice I'd like to know what height you are (this can be measured easily), what weight you are (measured easily) and your waist size (again easy). If you knew your body fat percentage that would be awesome too (but you probably don't know that and any measurement is bit of a guess anyway). However, I wouldn't expect you to offer this info to a complete stranger. But anyway, seeing as your a dude I'd guess you're a bit on the skinny side and want to "fill out" a bit.

I think you could put weight on if you tried. That's relatively easy, it's a just a matter of making yourself eat. However, I'd prefer to see your typical weeks eating plan (warts and all). Because all the "naturally skinny" people I know, really don't eat a lot and what they eat is usually quite unhealthy. So, this all comes back to basic common sense, eat sensibly (in quantity and content) and keep working on the cycling/walking/swimming what ever it is you do. And slowly but surely you'll start looking bigger.

If you were eating enough (at least 3 proper meals a day, some say 5 smaller meals a day) and eating the right stuff (your marco stuff protein (meat etc.), carbs (wholegrain cereals, vegetables) and fats (Monounsaturated Fats (olive oil etc. (not cooked), and Polyunsaturated Fats (salmon,mackeral) and all the other stuff that's essential for healthy living and STILL weren't getting any bigger I'd do less cardio and more weights.

If you struggle to eat good foods in adequate quantities consider protein and carb supplements but natural is "better".

neuro-praxis

Jak has posted this up in the Fitness forum.

Weight Gain

Basics of calorific surplus

People often perceive that they "eat so much" and yet never gain a pound. The truth is weight gain or weight loss comes down to maths for the vast majority of the world. Sure, things from rare genetic states to tapeworm might restrict some's ability to gain weight - but if you are in these categories you should be seeking professional help and not consulting a web forum for advice. I have never met someone who could not gain weight - only people who did not realise their mistakes.

As with many things in training, a log book or diary filters the random error which individual perception allows. Get one, and keep a plan of what you are eating. The links below are reasonable for calorie and nutritional data - search for others if they fail to meet your needs.

Food Calorie Value Search

Nutrition Data

The objective is to take in more calories than you use up. Now the obvious question is "how much do I use up?". Well we don't even really need to know that exactly.

1. Get your bodyweight

Obviously be sure to weigh yourself at roughly the same time of day in the same clothes. If you are trying to monitor change you can't do that from a moving baseline.

2. Diet Ratio

Ratio of carbs to protein to fats can be debated a great deal. Some diets even base their entire philosophy around them. However, a good balance for the purpose of weight gain would be

25% protein, 60% carbs, 15% fats

That said, if a particular mix is not working for you after a few weeks, or you feel better with a certain nutritional source/mix then adjust as necessary. Without someone dedicated to monitoring your diet you will simply have to employ a bit of trial and error to find what works. Once you have something, try to design a daily/weekly diet around this.

3. Calories

Now as mentioned the goal here is to take in more calories than we use up. Preferably not by developing sedentary habits and living in your kitchen. Clearly a cardio focus to your training will make it more challenging to achieve a calorific surplus - but weight gain can be achieved whilst maintaining a healthy active training regime. I always found a weight training focus to be beneficial in these phases. Once again you simply need to exceed your output.

The simple approach now is to employ some trial and error to your diet plan in 3 week blocks.

I.e. Try eating 25kcals per lb of bw per day with 2grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 200lbs - try to get a daily diet of 5000kcal with 400g of protein - always bearing in mind the protein value of your food mix.

If after 3 weeks you have not gained weight or sufficient weight for your schedule:

Try eating 30kcals per lb of bw per day with the same level of protein.

And so on in increments till you find your level. Above all keep things as simple as needed, complex advice from others is often less useful due to the long term practicalities of sticking with it. The key is finding something appropriate which you can maintain.

The lads in fitness will have loads more advice.

Your protein is your lean meat, eggs and fish. You will also get protein from milk, cheese and yoghurt.

Your carbohydrates (preferably unrefined) should be porridge oats, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, new potatoes, wholewheat bread, pitta and wraps and so on. Vegetables also fall into this category but you can eat an unlimited amount of them as they have minimal effect on blood sugar levels.

Your fats can be found in nuts, seeds and oils.

Now for putting it all together! If you really want to gain, you will have to begin cooking meals. I can't really see a shortcut there! Are you looking for suggestions for simple meals? You will need to be eating 6 times a day and going to the gym if you really want to bulk.

rubadub

low wrote:

Because all the "naturally skinny" people I know, really don't eat a lot

And many will claim they eat like pigs too!

You have to workout your daily calorie intake.

this will help & is cheap at the moment

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20070924.p.DietKitchenScales

And weigh what you eat, I know people who throw away upto 1/3 of what is on their plates, and then think they have eaten loads.

There are excellent stickies at the top of the fitness forum which will help you work out exactly how much you should be eating.

yep shows figures about what you should increase by, around 20% increase in your needed daily intake.

justsomebloke

Lift, eat and sleep. Truthfully you question is probably more suited to fitness as oppose to here.

Now I am knocking on 15 stone (up from 12.3 stone last august) so the amount I eat will be alot more then your self but I train in the evening and in the 24 hours after the gym my diet will look something like this.

7.00 leave gym floor approx. post workout shake of protein and carbs

7.45 full dinner plenty of carbs and protein.

9-9.30 chicken/beef and nuts

10.30 probably more nuts and some fruit

11.00-11.30 protein shake made up with 500ml of milk and approx 10g of flax and fish oil

7.00am protein shake plus bowl of museli

9.30 2 full eggs and 3 egg white

11.30 chicken/beef salad with olive oil and 10g of fish and flax oil

2.00 same as above.

4.30 something else


so that would be how much I eat and I know lads who will eat a lot more then that

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

thanks all, very interesting feedback. I'm not looking to become the hulk or anything like that. Will have a think about the posts above.

low

Roundtower2 wrote:

thanks all, very interesting feedback. I'm not looking to become the hulk or anything like that. Will have a think about the posts above.

i'd just like to stress that even if you start eating and lifting like a machine it will take a LONG time for you to from looking nice and manly lean to ripped. You really don't need to worry about getting too big at all. A good weight lifting programme (crossfit stuff and benchpress, deadlight and squatting) will help you in every aspect.

Vegeta

what low said

it takes a long long time for an a normal person (with job and other distractions) to put on a lot of lean mass. If you were training twice a day, eating like a small country and sleeping like a mountain then you could get pretty decent gains relatively quickly.

So do not get down beat if the going is slow and steady. its the little gains that make weight training and healthy weight gain bearable. Aim for lifting a weight more times than you could before or lifting a weight you could never lift before.