In order to gain weight we need to be consuming more calories than we are burning up. You have probably heard that before, but it is easier said than done. The easiest way to do that is to monitor our daily calorie intake and expenditure. We don’t have to have it down to the exact calorie amount, but it should be a close approximation. Of course you can gain weight without monitoring calories but it has a high potential of not working. Before I go any further, I want to clarify that the goal here is to gain muscle weight, and not fat. That may seem obvious, but it I have to say it because the most important part of gaining muscle weight is working out. If you’re not exercising properly then you’re muscles are not going to get any bigger. There are certain ways to maximize muscle building in our workouts, and I will go over that after the diet portion.
A diet is what you eat. It’s not a way of eating that starves us, makes us frustrated, and irritable (sometimes in multiple ways). Those results come from examples of improper diets. Of course, eating to effectively gain weight isn’t always going to be a fun diet. I grew up as a skinny guy, so I know what it’s like. Sometimes, in order to gain weight a person has to eat an amount of food that nearly sickens them. However if you take your time and let your muscles grow at a slower pace then you will be fine. You may not always like the choice of food, but at least you won’t feel like throwing up after every time you eat.
Calorie Method #1
Since counting calories is a proven way to gain weight, I will use it in this program.
There are a few ways to figure out approximately how many calories we need in order to gain weight. There are two that I particularly like. The first way is very simple. Take your weight in pounds and multiply that by seventeen. Then add 500 calories to that number. Weigh yourself once a week at the same time each day. If you are not gaining a half to a full pound of weight then add another 250 calories to your daily caloric intake. If that doesn’t work then continue adding 250 calories until it does. Continue adding about 150-250 more calories a week. As you gain more muscle weight you will find that you have to eat more and more.
Calorie Method #2
The other way that I really like is to use a food journal. For three days eat as you would normally, but record it in a food journal. Do your best not to let the fact that you have to write it all down affect what you eat. However, make sure that you can figure out the number of calories for all of the foods that you eat. After three days add up all of the calories and divide it by 3. This should give you a good average daily calorie consumption. Now from there, add 500 calories and monitor your progress the same way as you would in the first method. Add more calories in the same manner as the first method.
Nutrient Selection
The next aspect I want to go over are the macro and micronutrient needs. There are three macronutrients. They are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. In order to gain muscle weight you do need a good amount of protein, but not as much as you may think. Everyone is a little bit different, but when it comes to gaining weight, carbohydrates should remain the primary source of fuel. In fact, carbohydrates should always be the primary source of fuel. Then protein, and then fat. There are two different kinds of carbohydrates. Simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are good for when you need energy like before working out. They should usually be eaten about a half hour to an hour before the work out. They also work good for right after a workout to replenish the body’s energy system. Complex carbs give us long lasting energy throughout the day. They help us to focus and concentrate on a task. Fiber is also a carbohydrate that is very necessary for our proper health. Consuming adequate fiber will help our digestive system to be regular which can help our metabolism as well.
Protein is the building block of every tissue in our body, except for our fat. So it would seem that we do need a lot of protein in order to build up our muscles. It makes sense, but most people don’t need 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. Most of us don’t even need 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. It is recommended that a sedentary adult consume 0.4 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, or 0.8 grams per kilogram. If you are trying to gain weight than you should aim for 0.5 - 0.8 grams per pound, or 1.2 - 1.7 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. There are exceptions, and for some people a little more protein will do the trick.
For me it has been different experience than that. At least for the most part, I have found that when I increased my fat consumption I was able to gain the muscle weight that I was looking for. That doesn’t mean that I’m saying that you should chow down on a can of crisco. Everyone is different, and has different imbalances. Some people may be slacking off an carbs, proteins, or fats. If you’re too skinny then you’re slacking on all of them, but one may need a bigger focus than the others. There are different types of fats, and that should be taken into consideration as well. When I gained weight by increasing my fat consumption I was eating a lot of cashews. Any variety of nuts will work, but the great thing about nuts is that they have a lot of unsaturated fats. Not only was I increasing my healthy fat consumption by eating cashews, I was also eating more protein.
An often overlooked aspect of diet and nutrition is that of micronutrients, aka vitamins and minerals. These micronutrients can be found in many different foods. We just have to no where to look. A vitamin and mineral supplement can be a good idea, but it is best to talk to your dietitian about it. In fact they should be consulted about all of your dietary changes. We all eat different kinds of foods on a regular basis and our bodies have different nutritional needs. For the most part, we can get all of the vitamins and minerals that we need if the bulk of our diet is made up of whole foods. And many of today’s foods are fortified with vitamins and minerals so it can be easy to get all of them. Keep in mind that some minerals such as calcium should be taken in low to moderate amounts at a time.
Putting it All Together
Now that I have mentioned all of these different aspects of diet and nutrition, there are a few things that I still need to address in order to help you create an effective weight gain program. To be effective, a weight gain program needs to fit within our financial and time budgets. Most of us don’t care to spend a few hours each day on meal prep, or shell out all of our money on food. I certainly don’t, and I don’t expect you to do that either. To help you in your weight gain journey, I’m going to set up a theoretical situation.
Let’s say that we have a guy named Brian that wants to gain weight. Brian currently weighs in at 145 lbs. and wants to get up to about 175 lbs. That should take anywhere from 6 months to a year, if you do everything the right way. That may seem like a while but it’s really not. When I reached 130 lbs. I wanted to get bigger but nothing changed for about 2 years. Finally I started working out with a buddy and he helped me get to 150 lbs. in about 6 months. So six months may seem like a while, but it’s a lot better than those 2 years that I spent gaining no weight. Part of the problem with me was that I didn’t have a specific goal. Fortunately for Brian, he does have a specific goal. So let’s take the information that we have and start figuring out what Brian needs to do. For this example we will use the first calorie method that I described. First we will take Brian’s weight and multiply it by 17.
145 x 17 = 2465
After you do that, add 500 calories.
2465 + 500 = 2965
Now we know that Brian should start off by eating 2,965 calories each day. If after one week he has not gained at least 0.5 lbs. then he should increase his caloric intake by 250 calories. Then we use his bodyweight to calculate his protein needs. Which is 145 lbs. multiplied by 0.7. We come out with him needing about 101.5 grams of protein per day. Rounding that number up or down is not a big deal. Multiply that by 4 and this means that Brian is getting approximately 406 of his 2,965 calories from protein. This leaves us with 2,559 calories to be consumed from fat and carbohydrate sources. Now carbs, and protein are 4 calories per gram, but fats are 9 calories per gram. Carbohydrate should make around 65% of the total caloric intake. 2,965 multiplied by 0.65 should give us the answer that Brian is looking for. The result is approximately 1,928 calories which means that he should be consuming around 482 grams of carbohydrate and when we do the rest of the math, 70 grams of fat daily.
Now that we have figured all of that out, we need to figure out what kinds of foods Brian can get for an affordable price, and that don’t take too long to prepare. First I’ll go through many great food options that you can get at your local Wal-mart, and then I’ll mention how to get the best and most healthy deal when eating out at many popular fast food restaurants. I chose wal-mart because for two reasons. They are nearly everywhere, and they have low prices.
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