Need to gain weight

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miratps
miratps Posts: 141 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi all,

I need to gain some weight. I've fallen off the deep end with my weight loss and losing more and more and can't seem to stop. NAturally my BMR is dropping. So first basic question, if I increase my weight (not just talking about lifting or anything, just adding a couple kg) will my BMR increase or have I screwed that up forever?

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  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    No, your BMR will not increase by simply gaining weight as fat. If that weight gain is lean body mass (which would increase if you added exercise into that weight gain plan) then your BMR would increase.

    But, even without exercise you may find that your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415 will increase (dieters tend to find that they fidget and move much less than when they ate at or above maintenance and this leads to a decrease in daily calories expended - I would expect you to notice an upswing in this type of movement and a corresponding increase in calorie required to gain/maintain as you re-introduce more food).
  • miratps
    miratps Posts: 141 Member
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    StealthHealth wrote: »
    No, your BMR will not increase by simply gaining weight as fat. If that weight gain is lean body mass (which would increase if you added exercise into that weight gain plan) then your BMR would increase.

    But, even without exercise you may find that your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415 will increase (dieters tend to find that they fidget and move much less than when they ate at or above maintenance and this leads to a decrease in daily calories expended - I would expect you to notice an upswing in this type of movement and a corresponding increase in calorie required to gain/maintain as you re-introduce more food).

    My exercise has been daily cardio, constant jogging but need to tone it down for my health ironically (mental health). So what would be the best way for me to increase my BMR etc. do weights instead?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,394 MFP Moderator
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    First, why do you think your BMR is dropping? Have you gotten metabolic testing?


    Second, adding muscle can increase your BMR, but it won't be dramatically. For each lb of muscle you gain, it's roughly a 4-6 calorie per day increase. Exercise will increase metabolism and energy expended. So will being more active throughout the day, like StealthHealth mentioned.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    To second what @psuLemon says, your BMR will increase very little from practically anything you can do.

    I think, if anything, you need to be focusing on your NEAT and probably more so TDEE (total daily energy expenditure - the amount of calories that your body burns in a day. Which factors in sleep, work, exercise, and normal daily activity).

    But, going back to your original post, if you want to gain weight, just increase the calories you consume to the point that you are gaining weight - I hope it doesn't come across as me being trite but it really is that simple. If you want that weight to be lean body mass then do some progressively harder strength/resistance work and keep the weekly gain to something in the region of 1lb.

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