Help!

lauren____kelly

I've been trying to gain weight for years and nothing helps. Tips and advice would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

willfalconxp

Hey @lauren____kelly

I've just started my first (lean) bulk so compared to some of the other members on this forum my advice does come from as much experience... However from what I've read, and what I am doing my self, is following a high carb, high protein, and low fat diet. So a ratio of carbs/protein and fat for my daily calories would look like: 3 parts carbs, 2 parts protein, and 1 part fat. If you were looking to put on muscle and didn't care about fat then I would follow a similar pattern but just eat like a gladiator - just eat all the time. Again this is not from experience just a bucket load of research.

For high carb/high protein recipes that are actually tasty check out fitmencook.com. Also for a guide to clean bulking I've used the following URLs as a template for my own diet.
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nutrition-101-eat-to-build-lean-muscle.html
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-steps-to-gain-mass-lose-fat.htm

Hope some of this advice helps, and good luck with your weight gaining.
Cheers,
Will

nextstopswoleville

Hey Lauren,

My advice would be use a macro strategy. Go here: https://www.iifym.com and use the IIFYM TDEE calculator. This will help you figure out what your body needs to just exist. Once you have that value, you will then add in your goal weight. It will calculate the total number of calories you will need to consume to achieve that goal. Then set your macros in MFP and keep track of your diet. Although I would suggest following a sensible diet, you can eat whatever you want as long as you're hitting your macros target. Let me know if you have any questions.

Best of luck in reaching your goal!

-Todd

joeybrid

Just use the calculator on here to find how many calories you need to gain the desired weight you can eat whatever you want it really won't make much of a difference. Drink more milk it will help you hit your calorie goal easily.

TavistockToad

lauren____kelly wrote: »

I've been trying to gain weight for years and nothing helps. Tips and advice would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

eat more... essentially if you aren't gaining weight its because you aren't in a surplus.

peanut butter is your friend

psuLemon

willfalconxp wrote: »

Hey @lauren____kelly

I've just started my first (lean) bulk so compared to some of the other members on this forum my advice does come from as much experience... However from what I've read, and what I am doing my self, is following a high carb, high protein, and low fat diet. So a ratio of carbs/protein and fat for my daily calories would look like: 3 parts carbs, 2 parts protein, and 1 part fat. If you were looking to put on muscle and didn't care about fat then I would follow a similar pattern but just eat like a gladiator - just eat all the time. Again this is not from experience just a bucket load of research.

For high carb/high protein recipes that are actually tasty check out fitmencook.com. Also for a guide to clean bulking I've used the following URLs as a template for my own diet.
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nutrition-101-eat-to-build-lean-muscle.html
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-steps-to-gain-mass-lose-fat.htm

Hope some of this advice helps, and good luck with your weight gaining.
Cheers,
Will

Holy crap does BB.com make me sad. It's essentially one big advertisement for supplements and typical bro-science eating styles that have been around for 50 years.


OP, if you are struggling to gain weight, you are not eating enough calories consistently. There could be a variety of reasons, but it's hard to tell without more details. Do you know how many calories you are eating now? How active are you? How much exercise are you doing? What are your stats?


Also, you can take a look at the below and get some basic pointers on what and how you can eat to get in more calories.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1

willfalconxp

psuLemon wrote: »

Holy crap does BB.com make me sad. It's essentially one big advertisement for supplements and typical bro-science eating styles that have been around for 50 years.

I happen to agree with you on this particular point. I'm against supplements (except for fish oil for the arthritis in my foot) and BB.com is ripe with adverts for unnecessary supplements.
But I'm assuming - rightly or wrongly - the OP is trying to gain weight as healthily as possible, so simple calorie counting wouldn't do the job.

Regardless of how you feel about the sites in-your-face advertising they can have some (not all by any means, but some) interesting, useful and non "bro-science" type articles.
Besides most of the foods on the BB.com articles I posted are the same as the ones in your link - just saying.

Personally I like to fact check and get my info from more than one source, not just BB.com or MFP... But hey maybe I'm just a nerd that way.

Cheers,
Will

tiffaninghs

carb it up!!!! when i go high fat low carb the weight drops. but when i go starch heavy then the weight just piles on

psuLemon

willfalconxp wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Holy crap does BB.com make me sad. It's essentially one big advertisement for supplements and typical bro-science eating styles that have been around for 50 years.

I happen to agree with you on this particular point. I'm against supplements (except for fish oil for the arthritis in my foot) and BB.com is ripe with adverts for unnecessary supplements.
But I'm assuming - rightly or wrongly - the OP is trying to gain weight as healthily as possible, so simple calorie counting wouldn't do the job.

Regardless of how you feel about the sites in-your-face advertising they can have some (not all by any means, but some) interesting, useful and non "bro-science" type articles.
Besides most of the foods on the BB.com articles I posted are the same as the ones in your link - just saying.

Personally I like to fact check and get my info from more than one source, not just BB.com or MFP... But hey maybe I'm just a nerd that way.

Cheers,
Will

Healthy is a very relative term and also largely dictated by body weight, exercise and genetics. And don't get me wrong, a person should incorporate a variety of whole foods (especially fruits/veggies, healthy fats like fish (and other MUFA/PUFA), and proteins that are low in SFA). But they also need to be able to hit their calorie goals, too. Because if they can't do the latter, they won't gain. This is why they might have to incorporate junk food.

Rusty740

Hey OP, it really is a simple task to gain weight as long as you have a good handle on how many calories you burn on a daily basis. Since you're using MFP, you'll have a reasonably ok way to track the number of calories you are eating. To roughly get the amount of calories you spend each day you can use an online calculator such as this one. https://tdeecalculator.net/

Since you want to gain weight, and since these (calories in vs. calories out) are a bit uncertain, you'd do well to eat 250 to 500 calories more than you think you need. Calorie dense foods are a great way to do this. Many calorie dense foods are dense because they have fat.

I would say the simplest way to bump up calories is to add 1/2 cup of mixed nuts each day (unsalted if you prefer), snack throughout the day or eat all at once. They are healthy and will easily get you an additional 350 calories and won't fill you up that much.

The trick will be to do this on a consistent basis, continually eating more than you think you need and focusing on calorie dense foods.

I'm going on the assumption that you don't run marathons daily or anything, it that case I'd just say stop it.