14 lbs in 9 weeks

winneyj

Hello everyone. My name is Jon. I'm 26 years old and 6 foot. For the past 5 years I've been tryin to gain weight. I was constantly hovering around 155 to 160. Over these last 9 weeks I've gained 14 lbs. It feels amazing, and it really pays off when others notice.
That being said I would like to share what has helped for me. Because after all this is a community for help right!?
So, when I first started working out I knew nothing about how much I really needed to eat in order to gain weight. I would spend the time and effort in the gym, gaining no weight and only injuring myself. Over the last five years I've had a torn rotator cuff, torn hip flexor, arthritis in my feet, and a hernia. I literally thought i was just not meant to be the kind of fit I wanted. But being a sucker for motivational speeches and books, I got back on the wagon AGAIN this year. One key element I believe to be a part of my success was reading the book The Success Principles by Jack Canfield ( but that's another story). The other major element has been this app. My Fitness Pal. Once I learned that I needed to eat around 4000 calories a day to be in a surplus, I found this app and it has really helped me out. I can't imagine having to look up each indivdual food source and add the calories and macros up myself. The scanning tool really makes life a lot easier. But that's not all it takes if you want to gain. You need to be consistent. Your body doesn't take a day off of burning calories so you can't take days off supplying calories. The goal is to be in a constant surplus. It takes a lot of work and planning. What I do is prep on Sundays the meals I will eat away from home throughout the week. I have two high calorie shakes, one in the morning and on at night right before bed. These are home made shakes, not weight gain shakes from supplement stores. Most of those are loaded with maltodextrin, which is a cheap form of carbs and spikes your insulin. I also have a preworkout shake. Then I eat a big breakfast and dinner with three snacks in between. Your welcome to look at my logs if you want the details. The third thing that has helped is the BUFF dudes (Better Understanding of Food and Fittness). These are two guys who have a huge library of videos and a website for both gaining and cutting, complete with workout plans, meal plans, and a lot of other helpful tools. Their videos are really entertaining and have a fun retro feel to them. I highly suggest you check them out and get on their 12 week plan.
Lastly I just want to say. If your like me and have had multiple roadblocks along the way, don't give up. Continue to tell yourself you can. Speak nicely to yourself. And believe in yourself. I know it's hard, but you deserve to look the way you want. It will not only help you but it will enable you to help others. And that is a great thing.

Best wishes in your fitness success!

scottf4413

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing your story. It's actually pretty motivational for me, personally. Awesome! Keep on track and us updated.

winneyj

Absolutely @scottf4413 ! I plan on posting some progress pics soon. As well as another article about some strategies to hit your calorie goals everyday! Glad this was of some help to you! Good luck with your goals! "Every man was once a boy, and every building was once a blueprint"