Simple Weight Gain Tips
"What supplements should I take to put on weight?"... That question makes me want to smash my head off of a wall until I lose consciousness and make the person asking the question uncomfortable.
I am sorry, but if you ask this question, you suck and you suck bad. A proper question would be more along the lines of, "How many calories do you think I need to be eating?". Weight gain is not hard to figure out. If you are not gaining weight, it is simply because you are not eating enough calories. It is not rocket science here, friends. There is not any magic pill or quick fix like the supplement industry would like you to believe. It simply comes down to calories. The next thing I hear after a comment like that is, "But I am eating tons of calories!". Sure you are friend, sure you are. Two chicken breasts and a glass of lowfat milk is not going to cut it. Sorry, you may need to lose your skinny guy abs for this! Listen, I get it... I still have a hell of a time putting on weight and I eat like a damn glutton half of the time.
This is not an article about health because eating to put on size for most of us will not be healthy. (I guess I should leave a disclaimer... eating to put on size is not healthy so don't try and sue me over this.) With that being said, you still need to keep it in reason. If you are sitting on your ass pounding hamburgers like the Hamburglar, you will get fat and pretty damn fat at that.
The first thing you really need to do is start a diet log for a few days and understand how many calories you are actually eating. I recommend something like NATS 2.0. This program is free and very user friendly with a large diet database. Using this software will also help give you an idea about what a portion of food is really supposed to be. From there, start to add calories. Take small jumps in calories until the scale starts to move. (Common Sense Alert: As you gain weight, you will need to continue to add calories to support the weight you are adding and have extra calories available for growth.) Remember, exercise will burn calories, so take that into account. You may need to cut out cardio for a while. (I can hear it now from all of the cardio people... but if you do that, you leave yourself open to all kinds of health risks.To them, I say read my prior disclaimer.) I am not going to give you a set calorie amount because everyone is different. It would be a very generic answer; you need to figure that out yourself.
Another question I hear, which is a reasonable one, is about the amount of protein consumption. I DO NOT believe you need as much protein as most "gurus" say. The goal is to keep a positive nitrogen balance. You do this by consuming calories, period. If you are consuming fat and carbohydrates, your body will not need to break down proteins for energy. So essentially, as long as the calories are high enough, there is no reason why you would not be in a state to promote growth. Taking in too much protein will just lead your body to pass your expensive whey protein powder through the urea cycle and piss away your 60 bucks. Protein in excess will also get stored as fat so it can be broken down for energy use later on. Ironically, endurance athletes need more protein then the average weightlifter because of the structural damage caused by things like long distance running. I am not going to give a number of grams to take per day because I am trying to keep this article simple, and, to be honest, I do not have a great answer to that question anyway. My point is simply don't feel like you need 8 scoops of whey protein a day.
So what kinds of food should I eat? Here are my favorites in no particular order:
Oats - lots of fiber, high in calories, cheap, and decent source of protein
Whole Milk - the king of putting on weight. Mix of both whey and casein protein, vitamin D, and high in calories
Ground Meat - good source of protein and calories and relatively cheap. I like the 90/10 the best.
Coconut Oil - High in fat, but this stuff has some unique health benefits. It contains Lauric Acid, which is an anti-bacterial and anti-viral agent. Coconut oil is also high in medium chain triglycerides.
Coconut Milk - Much of the same reasons as the coconut oil.
Cranberry Juice - Tons of calories and a lot of sugar, so I would limit it to after a workout when your body needs it.
Heavy Cream - This is for people really struggling to gain weight. Not many positives, besides the calories.
Eggnog - My seasonal favorite. Same deal as heavy cream, not good for you at all, but it is damn delicious.
Beer - "Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you drink beer." - Arnold
There is no reason to include this, I just like to drink beer. However, if you are 21, a high calorie beer every so often may help tip the scale.
For those of you who struggle eating a lot of food, I highly advocate drinking calories. It is much easier to rack up calories sipping on things like milk and juice all day.
As far as your training routine goes, I recommend sticking to three days a week with plenty of basic compound movements. Many people might disagree with this recommendation, but if you are new to weightlifting I believe less is more. Pick a few basic lifts (deadlift, squat, bench), get proficient at them and then eat and get plenty of sleep to recover. The more often you're in the gym messing around with a million single joint exercises and trying to look cool and bastardizing more complex movements calories will be burned and you may be hurt if you pick the latter of the two. You can worry about increasing training sessions when you put the weight you crave on.
"What supplements should I take to put on weight?"... That question makes me want to smash my head off of a wall until I lose consciousness and make the person asking the question uncomfortable.
I am sorry, but if you ask this question, you suck and you suck bad. A proper question would be more along the lines of, "How many calories do you think I need to be eating?". Weight gain is not hard to figure out. If you are not gaining weight, it is simply because you are not eating enough calories. It is not rocket science here, friends. There is not any magic pill or quick fix like the supplement industry would like you to believe. It simply comes down to calories. The next thing I hear after a comment like that is, "But I am eating tons of calories!". Sure you are friend, sure you are. Two chicken breasts and a glass of lowfat milk is not going to cut it. Sorry, you may need to lose your skinny guy abs for this! Listen, I get it... I still have a hell of a time putting on weight and I eat like a damn glutton half of the time.
This is not an article about health because eating to put on size for most of us will not be healthy. (I guess I should leave a disclaimer... eating to put on size is not healthy so don't try and sue me over this.) With that being said, you still need to keep it in reason. If you are sitting on your ass pounding hamburgers like the Hamburglar, you will get fat and pretty damn fat at that.
The first thing you really need to do is start a diet log for a few days and understand how many calories you are actually eating. I recommend something like NATS 2.0. This program is free and very user friendly with a large diet database. Using this software will also help give you an idea about what a portion of food is really supposed to be. From there, start to add calories. Take small jumps in calories until the scale starts to move. (Common Sense Alert: As you gain weight, you will need to continue to add calories to support the weight you are adding and have extra calories available for growth.) Remember, exercise will burn calories, so take that into account. You may need to cut out cardio for a while. (I can hear it now from all of the cardio people... but if you do that, you leave yourself open to all kinds of health risks.To them, I say read my prior disclaimer.) I am not going to give you a set calorie amount because everyone is different. It would be a very generic answer; you need to figure that out yourself.
Another question I hear, which is a reasonable one, is about the amount of protein consumption. I DO NOT believe you need as much protein as most "gurus" say. The goal is to keep a positive nitrogen balance. You do this by consuming calories, period. If you are consuming fat and carbohydrates, your body will not need to break down proteins for energy. So essentially, as long as the calories are high enough, there is no reason why you would not be in a state to promote growth. Taking in too much protein will just lead your body to pass your expensive whey protein powder through the urea cycle and piss away your 60 bucks. Protein in excess will also get stored as fat so it can be broken down for energy use later on. Ironically, endurance athletes need more protein then the average weightlifter because of the structural damage caused by things like long distance running. I am not going to give a number of grams to take per day because I am trying to keep this article simple, and, to be honest, I do not have a great answer to that question anyway. My point is simply don't feel like you need 8 scoops of whey protein a day.
So what kinds of food should I eat? Here are my favorites in no particular order:
Oats - lots of fiber, high in calories, cheap, and decent source of protein
Whole Milk - the king of putting on weight. Mix of both whey and casein protein, vitamin D, and high in calories
Ground Meat - good source of protein and calories and relatively cheap. I like the 90/10 the best.
Coconut Oil - High in fat, but this stuff has some unique health benefits. It contains Lauric Acid, which is an anti-bacterial and anti-viral agent. Coconut oil is also high in medium chain triglycerides.
Coconut Milk - Much of the same reasons as the coconut oil.
Cranberry Juice - Tons of calories and a lot of sugar, so I would limit it to after a workout when your body needs it.
Heavy Cream - This is for people really struggling to gain weight. Not many positives, besides the calories.
Eggnog - My seasonal favorite. Same deal as heavy cream, not good for you at all, but it is damn delicious.
Beer - "Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you drink beer." - Arnold
There is no reason to include this, I just like to drink beer. However, if you are 21, a high calorie beer every so often may help tip the scale.
For those of you who struggle eating a lot of food, I highly advocate drinking calories. It is much easier to rack up calories sipping on things like milk and juice all day.
As far as your training routine goes, I recommend sticking to three days a week with plenty of basic compound movements. Many people might disagree with this recommendation, but if you are new to weightlifting I believe less is more. Pick a few basic lifts (deadlift, squat, bench), get proficient at them and then eat and get plenty of sleep to recover. The more often you're in the gym messing around with a million single joint exercises and trying to look cool and bastardizing more complex movements calories will be burned and you may be hurt if you pick the latter of the two. You can worry about increasing training sessions when you put the weight you crave on.
Wrote by:
Unknown - Monday, 3 June 2013
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