Are you one of those people who have a hard time gaining weight? I googled the keywords ‘weight gain’ and guess what I found? The first entry was “How can I Gain Weight” and then came a series of links to ‘build muscle and gain weight’ and ‘the reasons for weight gain’. It would seem that the internet is not interested in those that need to gain weight.
Actually, that is not true. Unfortunately, most people have a problem with being over weight. There are tons of sites out there (including this one) which address that subject. This blog’s aim is to cover subjects around ‘Be the Weight you Want’. That means weight loss for some, weight maintenance for others, and weight gain for others.
What I find interesting is that the answers for ‘how to gain weight’ are so similar to the answers of ‘how to lose weight’. I suspect that the reasons, barring medical reasons, are similar also. I posted an article and post on my other blog Weight Workouts are for Teens, Women, and Men entitled Guide To Gaining Weight and The Skinny Gal’s/Guy’s Guide To Gaining Weight. They have some good pointers about gaining weight besides the ones for the weight training which i would like to explore here.
Eat every 2-3 hours. I would say every 3-4 hours. Eat your first meal within 15-30 minutes of waking up – absolutely no later. This first meal of the day should always consist of REAL food to flood your body with quality nutrients.
Sound familiar? it should. This is what you need to do to lose weight and to maintain weight. The difference? You eat more when you are trying to gain weight and less when you are trying to lose weight. In fact, the rule of thumb for gaining is to double what you are eating. And no, it isn’t as simple as this.
Eat Nutritional High Calorie Foods. In other words, eat foods that have more calories per volume and not so many with less calories per volume. Eat a chef’s salad with ham, dressing, cheese if you do eat lettuce salad. Choose corn and potatoes more for your vegetables, or flavor you green beans, butter beans, etc, with bacon grease (but not too much, we don’t need clogged arteries). Focus on caloric-rich foods that are loaded with nutrients.
Here are some of the best choices: Oatmeal, rice, breads, yams beans, potatoes, fruits and veggies. Steak, chicken, lean beef, cottage cheese, whole milk, eggs and salmon. Olive oil, flax oil, avocados, nuts and peanut butter. Ice cream, raisins, dried fruit and trail mix.
Use Big eating utensils: Get a BIG cup, get a BIG bowel, and get a BIG plate so your smaller portions will get lost on the plate. This will encourage you to double your portions. The opposite of losing weight by using smaller eating utensils.
Never Stop Eating sounds a bit harsh. You do need to eat regularly. As you set up your habits of eating more and eating more frequently, it will be easier to eat during those ‘emotional’ or ’stressful’ times. Caution, do not make eating your comfort, your stress re-leaver, or your pleasure. This will set you up for the opposite problem – wanting to lose weight because of emotional eating.
I promise you this will not be the only post for people who want to gain weight.
What are some of the ways you use to gain that hard to gain weight?
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Tags: achieve your goal weight, Calories, Gaining Weight, hardgainers, How Can I Gain Weight, How To Gain Weight, Pointers, Teens Women, Trying To Gain Weight, underweight, weight gain, Weight Maintenance, Weight Workouts
Great post! Some people talk about taking other substances to enhance growth, but the truth is that supplements should be exactly that – a supplement to an already healthy lifestyle. The only thing I might add would be to phase your eating – many bodybuilders eat big then have a ‘cutting down’ phase where everyone hates them because they are so bitchy for about 4-6 weeks. So eat big, but try to cycle it in and out so you don’t end up covering all that prime grade beef with lard… mmm, lard.
Jamie Atlas courtesy of Fitness Insights
Joy,
Interesting that the solution is the same to gain weight or lose weight. Good post.
Louis
Yes, gaining weight can be just as harmful as needing to lose weight. I’ve had clients that if they get the flu or a simple cold it can be devastating because they don’t have the energy stores to last a few days.
You need to know how many calories you burn in a day. Then you need to add to it if you need to gain. Exactly like losing weight as you said. But make sure those calories are not just sweets and fats. You still don’t want your arteries clogged up with fats.
I disagree with one point. Eating frequently. That’s good for general health but not good for weight gain. In fact people use that technique for loosing weight. The theory is that you never get very hungry that way.
One needs to decide if they want to gain fat or muscle. I think that’s about all you can control (unless you want to think a lot and get a huge brain).
To gain fat, you want to increase calorie intake and reduce output. That’s not great for general health but perhaps the concept is right.
To gain muscle, one needs to keep protein intake and calorie intake up and have a training program. Almost anyone who doesn’t work out will like their body more if they work out.
I would recommend that one tries to hang out with bigger people if they want to gain. They will have poor eating habits (long gaps between eating, high fat, high starch diets and lot activity levels). Well mostly.
I think wanting to gain wait is a bit more of a rare problem. That’s why you don’t see it on the internet.
I’m betting that a person who wants to gain will get the most bang from getting into working out if they can enjoy that.
Darcy Whyte
@darcy Thank you for your insights. It is totally true that just changing eating habits will not achieve the results a person wants. Exercise is a vital part of gaining the weight and gaining it in a healthy way. Weight workouts are very good for this (certainly the best), but not the only exercises that can be effective. I would recommend anyone truly interested in gaining weight to have a weight workout program. In fact, I have links to such programs at my blog “Weight Workouts are for Teens, Women, and Men“. Not only does this increase the appetite, but it also builds muscle and avoids the side effects fats and sugars can have on your body.
The problem gaining weight is certainly talked about less, and affects fewer people. I know I have had many visitors contact me wanting to know how to gain weight. I think most go to the bodybuilding sites. I want to present an alternative to a intensive bodybuilding regemen – healthy eating and good exercise preferably with weights.
As far as eating more frequently, this is the one point made by all the sources – if a person wants to increase their eating, they need to not only increase their portions (in a healthy way to be detailed in a later post) but to also eat ’snacks’ – 3 meals a day and 3-4 ’snacks’ a day, thus increasing the caloritic intake.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come by again.
@Val Thank you for bringing up one of the most dangerous risks of being underweight. Also, it is so very important that anyone underweight, or overweight, gets a thorough checkup to discover any physical or other problems causing the condition. If you are diabetic and losing weight, you sure don’t want to load up on the wrong foods. And some people would be helped with counseling.
I know this is a hard subject to pin point answers. And yet, it is a real problem. If you don’t live it, much like weight loss, then one does not realize how serious it is. Not only does it effect one’s health, but also their emotional state.