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Putting on weight

Danke

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I was wondering if anyone had some advice for putting on weight before my medical. I'm 22, male, about 5'9", 125 lbs right now, and I've never been heavier. I'm hoping that my training for the fitness exam will fill me out a bit, but exercise has never worked for me before  :-\

Any tips?
 
TheHead said:
What is your diet like at the moment?

It's been worse than normal lately, though I've started improving it. I'm trying to stick to 3 squares a day now (since snacking keeps the metabolism going all day, burning off extra calories) but it doesn't always happen. Usually toast or a bagel with eggs in the morning, instant meal for lunch, and a solid meal for dinner.
 
TheHead said:
  By instant meal you mean frozen right?  ;)

Yep :( To my everlasting shame, the cooking course I took back in high school didn't stick with me. On the plus side, I invented the "Beggel"--an unholy combination of bagel and egg-in-the-basket.
 
Danke said:
Yep :( To my everlasting shame, the cooking course I took back in high school didn't stick with me. On the plus side, I invented the "Beggel"--an unholy combination of bagel and egg-in-the-basket.
     

 
          You don't need to be an amazing cook to eat healthy.  I'm terrible at cooking nice, elaborate dinners but I've managed to put twenty-two pounds on over the course of six months. By no means am I a personal trainer or a weight-lifting guru.  This is also something I threw together on my own.  I had the same problem as you did.  When I got back from Afghanistan my diet turned into shit and I couldn't gain a pound even if I had a pizza eating marathon and drank bottles of pop.  It's all about the diet. 


For breakfast two packets of oat meal and six egg whites.  I buy the one dollar egg white cartons from Walmart and I get 3-4 meals out of them.
For a snack I have another 10 egg whites that I cooked the night before with a little bit of pepper or two packets of oatmeal.
For lunch I have 2 pieces of chicken breast and two cups of rice that I cooked the night before.
For a snack I have a protein bar or a protein shake.
For supper I have two pieces of chicken breast, two cups of rice and a serving of spinach.

Switch the chicken up with pieces of cod and the packets of oatmeal with cans of tuna or beans mixed in with salsa.  None of these meals take more than 30 miniutes to make and it's very cost effective.  You can get 20 egg whites for a dollar and boxes of chicken breast are cheap at Walmart, Sobeys or M&M Meats.   

  Get rid of the frozen meals, eat 5-6 small meals a day and take a look into throwing a supplement into your diet.  You don't need to drink 4L of Mammoth 2000 a day but they do help.   

 
TheHead said:
     

 
          You don't need to be an amazing cook to eat healthy.  I'm terrible at cooking nice, elaborate dinners but I've managed to put twenty-two pounds on over the course of six months. By no means am I a personal trainer or a weight-lifting guru.  This is also something I threw together on my own.  I had the same problem as you did.  When I got back from Afghanistan my diet turned into crap and I couldn't gain a pound even if I had a pizza eating marathon and drank bottles of pop.  It's all about the diet. 


For breakfast two packets of oat meal and six egg whites.  I buy the one dollar egg white cartons from Walmart and I get 3-4 meals out of them.
For a snack I have another 10 egg whites that I cooked the night before with a little bit of pepper or two packets of oatmeal.
For lunch I have 2 pieces of chicken breast and two cups of rice that I cooked the night before.
For a snack I have a protein bar or a protein shake.
For supper I have two pieces of chicken breast, two cups of rice and a serving of spinach.

Switch the chicken up with pieces of cod and the packets of oatmeal with cans of tuna or beans mixed in with salsa.  None of these meals take more than 30 miniutes to make and it's very cost effective.  You can get 20 egg whites for a dollar and boxes of chicken breast are cheap at Walmart, Sobeys or M&M Meats.   

  Get rid of the frozen meals, eat 5-6 small meals a day and take a look into throwing a supplement into your diet.  You don't need to drink 4L of Mammoth 2000 a day but they do help. 

On top of this lots of good fats (olive, coconut, Omega-3) and lots of milk....whole milk none of that skim or 2% stuff.  Gaining weight is a matter of calories in exceeds calories out.  Make sure that you are doing some good physical fitness (whatever works for you) as well.
 
MJP said:
On top of this lots of good fats (olive, coconut, Omega-3) and lots of milk....whole milk none of that skim or 2% stuff.  Gaining weight is a matter of calories in exceeds calories out.  Make sure that you are doing some good physical fitness (whatever works for you) as well.

Unfortunately, I'm lactose-intolerant. It's a recent thing; I haven't looked into solutions yet. Yogurt is fine, so I've been eating that. I'm using EA Sports Active 2 for Kinect right now for training; it's working better than I was able to by myself.
 
If you have lactose issues, try the soy milk. It isn't as healthy as it sounds and... get the chocolate flavour! (tastes better and has a few more calories)....  Plus, it's some extra protein which I imagine is kind of what you're looking for at the moment.
 
armychick2009 said:
If you have lactose issues, try the soy milk. It isn't as healthy as it sounds and... get the chocolate flavour! (tastes better and has a few more calories)....  Plus, it's some extra protein which I imagine is kind of what you're looking for at the moment.

Soy milk is not as good as the industry like to make it sound! It is heavily processed, denatured and full of sugars.  Soybeans also contain potent enzyme inhibitors. These inhibitors block uptake of trypsin and other enzymes that the body needs for protein digestion. Cooking does not get rid of them. Soybeans also contain hemagglutinin, a clot promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together and prevent them from performing their functions.  1,2

Processing into soy protein isolate removes some of these problems but not all. The high heat denatures much of the proteins, thereby making them unusable to the human body.  The same could be said for regular milk as well, however when I suggested whole milk above it is for the fats contained within not the protein(which can be largely unusable by the body). 

Remember that most of the hype surrounding the benefits of soy came from the soy industry themselves in order to sell their product. Soy is a cheap filler with minimal taste, just the kind of thing that big business likes to add to food products.

If you can't have milk that is cool, Some people thrive well on dairy some don't.  Just eat what you can with more fats.  The more natural unprocessed and sugar free it is the better it is for your body.

1http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1965.tb01831.x/abstract
2 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jat.2550090307/abstract



 
I put on 28 pounds in 4 months when I started strength training. For me, I was underweight at 6'4 - 175, and I wanted to fill out my frame.

I got a good workout plan that worked on my big lifts, the squat, deadlift, bench, and overhead press.

As for the diet, if you're serious, you're just going to honestly need to focus on eating way more than you're used to. Don't worry about snacking 'keeping your metabolism up'. You should be eating to blow away your metabolism. I ate a meal every three hours, and was drinking about a gallon of homo milk every two days.  I'm also lactose intolerant, but at a level that I could manage by spreading my milk intake out in small amounts throughout the day, and then just sucking up the occasional gas and discomfort if I overdid it.

The bottom line is that if you struggle with putting on weight, it's going to take a serious mental shift to make any real difference. There are very few quick and easy solutions to a lifestyle change.

 
MJP said:
Beer works awesome!

I drank beer and ate pizza all through college; didn't gain a pound :(

I guess I'll focus on eating whenever I'm not doing anything else, and stick to high-protein, high-fat stuff (while being sure to read the Canadian Food Guide to healthy eating :p )
 
TheHead said:
       
For breakfast two packets of oat meal and six egg whites.  I buy the one dollar egg white cartons from Walmart and I get 3-4 meals out of them.
For a snack I have another 10 egg whites that I cooked the night before with a little bit of pepper or two packets of oatmeal.
For lunch I have 2 pieces of chicken breast and two cups of rice that I cooked the night before.
For a snack I have a protein bar or a protein shake.
For supper I have two pieces of chicken breast, two cups of rice and a serving of spinach.

Switch the chicken up with pieces of cod and the packets of oatmeal with cans of tuna or beans mixed in with salsa.  None of these meals take more than 30 miniutes to make and it's very cost effective.  You can get 20 egg whites for a dollar and boxes of chicken breast are cheap at Walmart, Sobeys or M&M Meats.   

  Get rid of the frozen meals, eat 5-6 small meals a day and take a look into throwing a supplement into your diet.  You don't need to drink 4L of Mammoth 2000 a day but they do help. 

I highly reccommend the diet plan by "TheHead". I'm using something similar coupled with a good work out routine for great results. Here it is broken up into 6 meals below;

meal 1 (breakfast)
6 eggwhites 2 yolks
3/4 cup oatmeal water or 1% milk
one scoop whey protein

meal2
can of tuna
1/2 cup rice (olive oil)

meal 3 (Lunch)
6-8oz chicken
5oz sweet potato
1/2 cup green beans
1 tbsp peanut butter

meal 4
1 can of tuna
1/2 cup rice (olive oil)
wait 1h & work out

meal 5 (after work out)
2 scoops whey, 1 gatorade

meal 6 (supper)
6-8oz sirloin or steak
large dinner salad with olive oil

Obviously, your gonna need to be creative and add some variety, however it is very good way to bulk up.
Also, as for the protien supplement I purchase mine from; http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/whey.html. Although i'm sure any supplement would do.

There is plenty of good experience and knowledge on this forum to help you out.
Work hard and keep with it.
 
Danke said:
I drank beer and ate pizza all through college; didn't gain a pound :(

You're not drinking enough of it then. ;D  If you were, you wouldn't care about your weight.
 
recceguy said:
You're not drinking enough of it then. ;D  If you were, you wouldn't care about your weight.

Or the weight of the blonde sitting across the bar eating a supersized plate of nachos
 
Nostix said:
I put on 28 pounds in 4 months when I started strength training. For me, I was underweight at 6'4 - 175, and I wanted to fill out my frame.

I got a good workout plan that worked on my big lifts, the squat, deadlift, bench, and overhead press.

As for the diet, if you're serious, you're just going to honestly need to focus on eating way more than you're used to. Don't worry about snacking 'keeping your metabolism up'. You should be eating to blow away your metabolism. I ate a meal every three hours, and was drinking about a gallon of homo milk every two days.  I'm also lactose intolerant, but at a level that I could manage by spreading my milk intake out in small amounts throughout the day, and then just sucking up the occasional gas and discomfort if I overdid it.

The bottom line is that if you struggle with putting on weight, it's going to take a serious mental shift to make any real difference. There are very few quick and easy solutions to a lifestyle change.

Amen!
 
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