College Kid Nutrition

bs17019

I'm in college, and I need to start to gain weight. I'm gonna be a personal trainer when I graduate from college next spring. I weigh 160 pounds, and it has always been tough for me to gain weight. I workout 5 times a week with cardio on a workout or nonworkout day, and I am doing hypertrophy now for 6-8 weeks then strength for 2-3 weeks. I am starting to do this cycle consistently. I am starting to watch what I eat more and trying to eat/drink over 3200 calories a day. Being in college, I also do drink 2-3 nights a week. I need some nutrition advice on gaining weight (obviously, cut the drinking back is something I need to do) that is gonna be reasonable for a college kid. Any advice is good advice.

Garebearrr

I would first suggest to decrease the cardio to less times per week and increase weight lifting per week. It's going to be extremely hard to gain weight when doing cardio 5 times per week you'd have to eat a ton of calories which wouldn't be reasonable if you have a life lol... So decrease cardio to 1-2 times per week and lifting 3-6 times per week. Also HITT cardio would be your best for muscle mass increase. Look into it more it's fantastic. As far as nutrition goes 3200 calories is a lot, I don't know your height but go into scoobys workshop calculator calories and type in your info it will give you a great starting point. You may need to be consuming more, or less, but probably more. I was in the mid 150's and to clean bulk consume 2600-2900 depending on the calories burned during that day. 3200 seems reasonable. Make sure to hit your macros. Keep protein high, moderate carbs, and decent amount of fat. For instance do 30-35% protein, 40-50% carbs, 20-30% fat is a good starting point. Prep your meals! Cooking your own meals... Eat frequently 4-5 meals a day. If you aren't gaining weight and frequently training then up your calories 100-200 more. Always take measurements weekly of each body parts so you know if you need to change diet/fitness. Record everything you eat, so then if something isn't working you know what you can change.

terizius

^^ I second pretty much everything said above.

Wheelhouse15

The above advice was good with the exception of eating timing, there isn't really a reason so eat your calories as you like them. You can also take a look at this video https://youtube.com/watch?v=AH4SK72UOUA This is just for ideas and again remember that you don't have to worry about eating so many meals. Also, definitely re-evaluate your drinking because it's not cheap to drink so you can free up money for more food.

Capt_Apollo

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

The above advice was good with the exception of eating timing, there isn't really a reason so eat your calories as you like them. You can also take a look at this video https://youtube.com/watch?v=AH4SK72UOUA This is just for ideas and again remember that you don't have to worry about eating so many meals. Also, definitely re-evaluate your drinking because it's not cheap to drink so you can free up money for more food.

there are studies out there that show that the body can only process a certain amount of calories and grams of protein and carbs at a time. i think i remember that the body can only absorb about 60 grams at most of carbs an hour.

the 4-5 meals a day is so that he just paces his calories out more.

Sabine_Stroehm

bs17019 wrote: »

I'm in college, and I need to start to gain weight. I'm gonna be a personal trainer when I graduate from college next spring. I weigh 160 pounds, and it has always been tough for me to gain weight. I workout 5 times a week with cardio on a workout or nonworkout day, and I am doing hypertrophy now for 6-8 weeks then strength for 2-3 weeks. I am starting to do this cycle consistently. I am starting to watch what I eat more and trying to eat/drink over 3200 calories a day. Being in college, I also do drink 2-3 nights a week. I need some nutrition advice on gaining weight (obviously, cut the drinking back is something I need to do) that is gonna be reasonable for a college kid. Any advice is good advice.

You're college aged. 160. How tall?
What are you overall health and fitness goals?

Wheelhouse15

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

The above advice was good with the exception of eating timing, there isn't really a reason so eat your calories as you like them. You can also take a look at this video https://youtube.com/watch?v=AH4SK72UOUA This is just for ideas and again remember that you don't have to worry about eating so many meals. Also, definitely re-evaluate your drinking because it's not cheap to drink so you can free up money for more food.

there are studies out there that show that the body can only process a certain amount of calories and grams of protein and carbs at a time. i think i remember that the body can only absorb about 60 grams at most of carbs an hour.

the 4-5 meals a day is so that he just paces his calories out more.

You are probably confusing carbs with protein since carbs need to be dealt with immediately. Check out Alan Aragon and Dr. Layne Norton's blogs, videos and articles on meal timings and they debunks these. Meal timing may be of trivial importants for the highest performing athletes and bodybuilders who need to accumulate small advantages but for anyone else it's not important. You can certainly spread out the calories if you like, I'm not saying you can't, I'm just saying that it's not something you need to do since it's not going to help.

Springfield1970

If you're training everyday, it's worth getting the nutrition in ASAP after training to start the recovery process.

LiftCore

If you are in a caloric surplus, you will gain weight... SO;

Make sure you are in a consistent surplus
Make sure your protein is high
Make sure your surplus is not too large

This will ensure you are gaining weight, you are not gaining too fast and that most of the weight will be muscle.

As for drinking, it isn't really going to be bad for your weight gain in terms of calories since alcohol is just easy calories, but it may impact your health and your performance in the gym which may influence how much of the weight you gain is muscle vs. fat. If you're going to drink, keep it light.