gaining weight

[dirtrider007]

I am in desperate need of gaining weight. I am 5'8" and only weigh 125 pounds. The doctor told me that i should eat more and that made sense. I am eating more but now i am crapping a lot more also. is my body actually using the extra calories I give it or is it just passing through?? ?

[01yz426]

Actually this is a way that your body is adjusting to it's new diet.. You should try and consume 5-6 small meals a day consisting of protein, carbs, good fat,... Actually to gain muscle mass a person should consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.....

[yz426onNOS]

Eat like there is no tomaro.

[WheelsUp]

Yup... get a good macro balance going. Depending on your age, as much as 30% fat, 30% protein, and 40% carbs.

Keep the fats as clean as possible... avoid fast food and other saturated fats.

Good sources of fats are peanut butter and other nuts, but not tropical nuts... especially palm kernel oil, that's loaded in nasty fats.

Substitute olive oil for butter or cooking oil in every recipie possible and for salad dressing.

Ya... 5-6 meals is a good target, and remember that they don't all have to be traditional meals. During school you can't sit down for a sandwich halfway between breakfast and lunch, but you CAN eat a PowerBar or down a protein drink. The drink can be as much as 200 calories, the PowerBar is about 300.

So you're 125. Let's say that you're in reasonably good shape and are around 12% body fat. That means that your lean body mass is about 110 pounds.

Your protein requirement would then be about 110 grams. You could bump that to 165 with a good fitness program, or even 220 if you want to get into hardcore weight training.

Okay, so from the formula above, you want 30% of your total calories to come from protein. Let's use 165 grams for a basis for your diet. That's 4 calories per gram from protein, so you'd be at 660 calories from protein.

You now know that you want to be at 660 calories from fat. Fat is roughly NINE calories per gram, so you only want 660/9 or about 73 grams of fat.

Okay... 660+660=1320. That's 60% of your diet. The remaining 40%, or 880 calories is made up of carbs. Do not count dietary fiber. It is undigenstible. You'll draw nutrients from it, but that's it. Carbs are also 4 calories per gram, so you'll want about 220 grams of carbs in your diet.

Power oatmeal for breakfast. Taper the starchy carbs down and replace with fibrous carbs in the second half of the day. Tuna is your friend... LOADED with good fats and protein. Chicken and turkey are also great sources of protein.

This will give you a total daily intake of about 2200 calories, and should be a good basis for building solid muscle mass. Remember, as you gain, your caloric intake needs to increase to maintain or you'll begin to slow and eventually lose your gains.

The 30-30-40 macro mix above is pretty popular. Some will go to a 20-20-60, and this was very popular in the mid 80s, but it really is a little too high in carbs unless you're a runner (wasn't everyone running 10k's in the 80s?).

Once you get settled in, you'll probably find that something somewhere between the two fits your lifestyle better and works to provide good gains. As you get older, you'll want to start reducing the fat. At 42 now, I should be keeping my fat intake no higher than 20%.

Here's the dirty little secret of the low-carb craze. Read the label on two comparable products, but one "low fat" and one "low carb".

The low carb product is WAY high in fat, and the low fat product is way high in carbs, generally sugars. Something has to replace the "bad stuff" to maintain the taste and texture.

Fat doesn't make you fat, carbs don't make you fat. Calories make you fat.

A caloric surplus of about 3500 will result in a net gain of one pound. Sitting on your a$$ and eating without increasing your activity level will mean that it will be a pound of fat. Hitting the weights will help ensure that most of it is put into muscle.

For some really good info, check out http://forums.johnstonefitness.com and http://www.wannabebigforums.com

John Stone runs a clean site. The guys on Wannabebig range from serious hobbyists to guys that are jacked up on steroids. Ignore them, and there's some great training information.

[dirtrider007]

thanks a lot. I do lift weights and run regularly so my body fat is only 7%, but I never seem to gain any dang weight. I think my problem is I eat way too many bad fats.

[commando]

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes!!!

[deano250r]

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes!!!

Or, even better, Sweet potatoes. ?

[thumper_guy]

Pork Bones And Puha a traditional Maori Recipie. Bro

[jpb450]

Easy way to do it. Just crash, and tear your acl. Eight weeks on cruches does wonders for weight gain. Went for 195 to 230 in 4 months.