# How to gain weight?



## beatty599

Probably a question not many will have ever wondered about! But I've always eaten very healthily and am very active ( don't really watch tv would rather be doing something ). Does anyone have any tips on gaining weight easily, as the food I'm eating really isn't putting it on, and I'm not for eating a takeaway every night lol. 

I've tried a few "mass-gainers" and I find them quite heavy going taste wise.


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## Kerr

Drinking beer works far too well for me. :lol:


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## GSD

I’ll go and ask the missis.


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## muzzer

Quite simply, calories in. The rough rule of thumb is to work out what you eat daily, to lose weight drop approx 500 calories, to gain weight add approx 500 calories.


Rough rule of thumb as i said but thats the advice to gain lean mass.


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## slim_boy_fat

Not enough background info to be able to comment/advise, but why do you feel the need to gain weight?


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## ajm83

Work out your TDEE using an online calculator.

Log food eaten and any exercise with myFitnessPal

Ensure calories in is at least 200 over TDEE+exercise calories.



GSD said:


> I'll go and ask the missis.


:lol:


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## Alfieharley1

Take boditronics heavyweight and eat as normal = easy weight. This is 1500calories with milk. It also tastes amazing. I cannot do a lot of protein powders but this is so good


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## Peter77

GSD said:


> I'll go and ask the missis.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DrEskimo

beatty599 said:


> Probably a question not many will have ever wondered about! But I've always eaten very healthily and am very active ( don't really watch tv would rather be doing something ). Does anyone have any tips on gaining weight easily, as the food I'm eating really isn't putting it on, and I'm not for eating a takeaway every night lol.
> 
> I've tried a few "mass-gainers" and I find them quite heavy going taste wise.


I've had this same problem for years. I'm about 5ft 10 and for the last 5-10yrs during my twenties I have always weighed about 9st 5. Like you I eat healthily and am pretty active, predominately doing cardio (running and football around 4 days a week).

In the last 3months I have decided to try and bulk by moving to weight training instead. I have cut cardio out (stopped playing footy in the last year due to work), and instead of running 3/4days a week, I now do weights.

Nothing complicated, just a fairly routine full body workout using dumbbells and barbell. Chest, shoulders, back, legs, biceps. A few exercises for each that I switch around, and I work out Wednesday and Friday evening, and Sunday morning (just about to go!) for about 45mins-1hour.

Been 3months now and I can see a generally toning, but some muscle gain in my chest and biceps. Weighed myself yesterday and I finally have broken the 10st mark!

Eating wise, my appetite has just naturally increased with the weight training. Still eat healthily and just increased things like nuts and eggs to ensure I get my protein.

So perhaps focus on building muscle?


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## Gas head

Sounds a slippery slope, always 28 waist at your age 11 1/2 stone approx, did a lot of weights every night over 8 years for 3 to 4 hours alternating muscle groups plus a good amount of walking along varied terrain probably about 20 miles a day ended up 14 1/2 stone, 20 years later after injury totally different story!


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## pt1

Eat more, its as simple as that,up your meals

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## Sicskate

Eat very late... Just before you go to bed!! 

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## virgiltracey

IT really is a case of calories in vs out, just like gaining weight.

Protein powders and bars are the obvious ones to go with, however you don't want to hit anything with too much sugar as that will be adding more fat than i think you want.

Snacking on natural proteins and fats is the way to go, so more eggs, peanut butter, avocado and meats are the way to go.

Also +1 on doing some form of resistance training, I'm a weightlifting gym nut but if you don;t want to hit the gym straight away then bodyweight workouts are great. plenty of press ups, pull ups and squats and you'll see some difference after a few weeks.

If you do fancy the gym then I'd suggest having a look at Stronglifts 5x5, its a great progressive overload program that doesn't have you doing hundreds of different exercises everyday and will help you get much stronger, there's a free app on the app store. I used this when i first got into the gym and I went from squatting an empty bar to squatting 100kg in 12 weeks.


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## beatty599

Thanks for the advice guys, some very helpful tips and tricks mentioned. Some of you have asked for a little more background, so it's only polite to respond.

I want to gain weight as for a while there I was a steady 13 stone, again very lean person heavily obsessed with rugby training and weights, always around 8-13% body fat. An injury to a nerve in my neck, ligaments to both shoulders and a consistent groin and hamstring injured, along with no longer having as much free time let to me having to stop playing rugby permanently and stopping the gym. Didn't really lose much weight having stopped, due to my consistent manual work. Now I've an office job

This was followed by this a series of respiratory infections recently over the course of 6 months led me to lose 2 stone, lost a stone in a week. Now I'm 11 stone consistently, and I'm that far removed from rugby now. I don't particularly like the kind of training others really do, I prefer powerlifting training sub 5 reps, which doesn't really put on weight.

I have friends that are personal trainers that helped me so far, but not overly confident person to go back to the gym if I'm honest, not through lack of knowledge more just confidence. 

Why i want to gain weight? You look healthy when you carry a bit of weight!! Not talking weight of fat but a healthy 15%. But I will be starting back at the gym, even if I have to train at 4 in the morning ( Which I actually prefer, than at night )


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## moncris

Eat more protein and do some weight lifting to build muscles.


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## NorthantsPete

IF you have a mass gainer or prtein shake, add a glug of olive oil, you wont notice it and you wont taste it but you can easy bump 300-500 cals
Cook in olive oil, add to salads, add cheese to salads, feta, etc.
Eat meat with the fat
Dont just eat when peckish, maybe even fast for the morning then eat big all afternoon and evening as it can get your appetitie up.
Have a dark ale - free 300 cals
Just alwasy think "oo high calories" - pork scratchings not carrots as a snack

Eat meat and fat, fruit and veg,keep away from sugars aswell as you'll be out of the mediteranean style diet into an american poor diet.


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## NorthantsPete

oh yeah and start lifitng weights, start with dumbells if you dont have any kit, you can do your whole body 3 times a week then modify as needed after 4-6 weeks


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## vsideboy

You say that you're eating healthy and are very active well I'm presuming that you're not eating enough calories for maintenance let alone gaining weight.

As other have explained you need to put all your info into https://tdeecalculator.net/ to determine what you're actual daily calorie expenditure is. I would then suggest that you write down everything that you eat each day for 7 days and get it all added into www.myfitnesspal.com as this will highlight what calories you're actually taking in.

Don't bother with mass gainers, just increase the bulky carbs in your meals, doesn't have to be unhealthy take-aways, more sweet potato, white potato, pasta, rice etc. You probably get enough fruit and veg anyway so I'd guess the none veg carbs need increasing each meal.


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## cole_scirocco

I've always had this problem. I used to be 7 and a half stone 4 years ago... now all I do is eat loads and I'm now 10 and a half stone at the age of 29... 32" waist as well.

I feel healthier, still look slim, I don't care about weights or anything however I just eat what I want, when I want and lots of it.


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## RaceGlazer

I lost a lot of weight about 18 months ago but had an intensive period of eating a lot of protein - steak etc, high protein cereal/nut bars, handfuls of nuts and powdered shakes - any opportunity to eat basically, bit not junk. And the odd beer. Plus exercise to make sure it went in the right places.

It worked quite quickly. And I'm no spring chicken, but do have a fast metabolism so can lose it quickly.
Good luck


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## Mcpx

You don’t have to go the gym or lift weights to gain muscle, any type of resistance training will do and that includes body weight training/callisthenics. The most important factor in any exercise and weight loss/gain programme is consistency, most people fail simply because they don’t do it for long enough, it takes months rather than weeks of hard work to see even the slightest of changes. If going to a public gym makes you uncomfortable then you are not very likely to maintain it for long, so why not work out in the comfort of your own home. 

Google Nerd Fitness, which is a great resource for basic home based training and nutrition that works, also good at breaking down many fitness myths. I went from there into Freeletics, which is an app based body weight trading system, very tough, but very effective.


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## VW STEVE.

Kerr said:


> Drinking beer works far too well for me. :lol:


..........& pies !!!:lol:


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## mand

Corona virus lockdown is working for me


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## GeeWhizRS

VW STEVE. said:


> ..........& pies !!!:lol:


Did somebody say pies? 😃
My last pie run to my favourite shop in Skipton.


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## GrantB5

Haven't read through the comments, but essentially you need to be in a calorie surplus.

Search james smith and mike thurston, although PT's they are clued up on the diet side. It's gonna be a case of macros and mainly protein goals being hit etc but they have ways of explaining further. They will explain losing / maintaining / gaining. You can skip the gym side of things if you wish just need to adjust your calories etc.


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## turbotnator

Just gotta eat more. I've started seriously trying to bulk up recently. Drinking two protein shakes a day, bagels for breakfast, two lunches with lean protein e.g. chicken and then a big dinner. Snacks between meals as well.

Managed to put on a bit of weight in the past four weeks having not put on any since I was a young adult.


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