Trying to gain weight, need some help!

papu

jungleman wrote: »

I don't know much about working out or fitness but this is an interesting thread! A few of you are saying that OP needs to build up his calorie intake and eat more fats; I always thought that to put on weight in muscle you needed to cut carbs and load up on protein? Would loading up on calories not make you flabby?

Not trying to second guess any of you, I genuinely am just interested in knowing about calories vs proteins!

Muscle builds very very slowly , some people because of metabolism and activity need to horse down allot of calories to maintain weight. And then add some on top to be in a surplus to grow. The idea would be to put on weight slowly , maybe 1 or 2 kg a month , some will be muscle and some will be fat. The slower you gain weight the better the ratio of muscle to fat you'll be adding, the muscle grows at a slow and capped rate, after that I'll just be fat.

As for just going more proteins , proteins are expensive and after a limit wont benefit muscle growth , carbs make people feel bloated , that leaves fats

runawaybishop

jungleman wrote: »

I don't know much about working out or fitness but this is an interesting thread! A few of you are saying that OP needs to build up his calorie intake and eat more fats; I always thought that to put on weight in muscle you needed to cut carbs and load up on protein? Would loading up on calories not make you flabby?

Not trying to second guess any of you, I genuinely am just interested in knowing about calories vs proteins!

He ate 186 grams of protein which is more than enough. If you are trying to put on mass then fats are calorie dense and relatively easy to stuff into you. Not all fats will directly translate into flab, just the excess but to gain weight and muscle you need to have a calorie surplus.

jungleman

papu wrote: »

Muscle builds very very slowly , some people because of metabolism and activity need to horse down allot of calories to maintain weight. And then add some on top to be in a surplus to grow. The idea would be to put on weight slowly , maybe 1 or 2 kg a month , some will be muscle and some will be fat. The slower you gain weight the better the ratio of muscle to fat you'll be adding, the muscle grows at a slow and capped rate, after that I'll just be fat.

As for just going more proteins , proteins are expensive and after a limit wont benefit muscle growth , carbs make people feel bloated , that leaves fats

runawaybishop wrote: »

He ate 186 grams of protein which is more than enough. If you are trying to put on mass then fats are calorie dense and relatively easy to stuff into you. Not all fats will directly translate into flab, just the excess but to gain weight and muscle you need to have a calorie surplus.

Thanks for the info! That actually does make a lot of sense. I'll bear it in mind for next January when I pound the gym for a week as part of my New Years Resolution!:D

Zillah

jungleman wrote: »

I don't know much about working out or fitness but this is an interesting thread! A few of you are saying that OP needs to build up his calorie intake and eat more fats; I always thought that to put on weight in muscle you needed to cut carbs and load up on protein? Would loading up on calories not make you flabby?

Not trying to second guess any of you, I genuinely am just interested in knowing about calories vs proteins!

If you compare growing muscle to building a house:
The proteins are the bricks of which the house is made, calories are the workers who actually build it.

Growing muscles takes both a load of protein and some extra calories.

Also, OP: 4500 in a day is huge overkill, you're going to actually be a fatty soon. RIP OP's physique.

Blacktie.

Zillah wrote:

Also, OP: 4500 in a day is huge overkill, you're going to actually be a fatty soon. RIP OP's physique.

If his portion issues are correct which unless he's weighing I doubt.

Zillah

All that tells us is that there is a margin of error. It could be 5000 then.

Alanstrainor

Blacktie. wrote: »

If his portion issues are correct which unless he's weighing I doubt.

Not carrying around a weighing scales in work. Portions are very much ballpark, as is the options. Some of those listed are from american fast food places...probably excessive in every way to what I had. Its more a guideline.

Trust me, I will not be a fatty any time soon! I've tried similar before and failed to gain reasonable amounts. Just have to put in the effort for longer and persist with this now! The dairy will help, as its something I hadnt copped before!

As for today, another good day I think. Although I wasn't as able to eat in the morning but I made up for it at lunch and through the afternoon.

Blacktie.

Alanstrainor wrote:

As for today, another good day I think. Although I wasn't as able to eat in the morning but I made up for it at lunch and through the afternoon.

Zillah wrote:

All that tells us is that there is a margin of error. It could be 5000 then.

Margin of errors for people who find it hard to gain weight no matter what tend to be on the over estimating. And the opposite for the can't lose any weight crowd.

OP I get you're not carrying around scales or anything but unfortunately when you have trouble gaining or losing weight you need to cook your own food for a while an measure everything to the gram so you know your actually intake and you then know for a fact you're not over or under estimating. Only for a week or two really.

Alanstrainor

Hey guys,

I just thought I would update you all. I found sticking to my plans over the weekend especially difficult, so it's something I'm going to have to work on big time. As for this week, I am back on more or less the same plan as last week and I'm finding it okay. I cut back about on my extreme milk in take as it made me feel a bit iffy one of the days last week.

I find logging everything really makes me realise just how off the mark I was on previous attempts. I missed my target calorie intake yesterday by a couple of hundred, and yet felt I was eating all day. I'm going to keep my logging up for as long as possible and see where I am in another 3/4 weeks.

I've also started some weight and core training, I figure I may as well make use of the extra energy and not let all of the weight gain just be fat!

Mellor

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I find logging everything really makes me realise just how off the mark I was on previous attempts.

Tbh I akwats think that's the case for all guys who struggle to put on weight. They feel like they are eating lots, but it's really very little.

conzy

Calorie density is hugely important for you.

One tiny tub of houmous has over 500 calories. 3 big tablespoons of peanut butter has 500 calories. A tin of coconut milk has ~800.

Dont waste your time eating foods with low calorie density and feel bloated all the time. Do you have a blender? You could eat relatively normally all day and just have a 1000 calorie shake morning and evening. Weekends are defintely tougher as your socialising and have less routine. But if you wanted you could make a bigger surplus weekdays.

e.g "borrow" 3000 calories from the weekend, distribute across the other 5 days where you have time to eat those calories

Alanstrainor

conzy wrote: »

Calorie density is hugely important for you.

One tiny tub of houmous has over 500 calories. 3 big tablespoons of peanut butter has 500 calories. A tin of coconut milk has ~800.

Dont waste your time eating foods with low calorie density and feel bloated all the time. Do you have a blender? You could eat relatively normally all day and just have a 1000 calorie shake morning and evening. Weekends are defintely tougher as your socialising and have less routine. But if you wanted you could make a bigger surplus weekdays.

e.g "borrow" 3000 calories from the weekend, distribute across the other 5 days where you have time to eat those calories

Cheers conzy, nice videos too! You're most recent has given me ideas...

Blacktie.

conzy wrote: »

Weekends are defintely tougher as your socialising and have less routine. But if you wanted you could make a bigger surplus weekdays.

Ah gaining problems. My weekend beers destroy my weekly deficit!

ThunbergsAreGo

This is an interesting thread and I am another who is always told I am not eating enough (it can be hard when eating "clean")

Just on the alcohal, can it be used for bulking? for example I have eating approx 2200 calories today (with decent protein/Carb/Fat macros), would 4 bottles of beer bring it to 3200 and help me towards building muscle mass or are the "empty" in that regards? For instance would i be better just eating bread

brevity

Ya I'm following this one myself, I'm 6 foot at about 10 stone which I'm not very happy about. I'm just not a big eater so I have to try and get in the habit of eating more and then exercising more.

Alf Veedersane

brevity wrote: »

Ya I'm following this one myself, I'm 6 foot at about 10 stone which I'm not very happy about. I'm just not a big eater so I have to try and get in the habit of eating more and then exercising more.

If you want to add size and you're not a big eater, then make sure you get some calorie-dense food into you.

And exercise selection will help. Trying to add a bit of size and burning the extra calories by running etc will only hamper your efforts

Alanstrainor

Just a quick update on this.

So far so good, starting weight was 72.5, and now reading 76.5 and hoping to further increase that.

I have slacked a bit, so need to focus again, but at least I now know what I need to do to keep on track. My target was around 78kg, so it will be interesting to see what it takes to maintain that weight when I reach it.

I've also been doing a lot of core exercises and using what weights I have, and I've noticed a big change there too over the last while.

Thanks a lot guys, and a special thanks to conzy too!