18 year old skinny male. Low calorie to high calorie diet.

Nellyb123456

I'm 18, 5'4 and only weight like 6st 8lbs. So I'm a pretty small underweight guy. This is my second day of my new diet change. I went from a minor 1500 calorie a day diet to a 3500 calorie diet. The new diet consists of peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches, plenty of eggs and a lot of milk and other stuff of course. My metabolism is very fast. When should I start seeing results? Should I boost it up to 4000 calories?

mommy3457

Start heavy lifting too and some cardio. My husband did that, and it worked well for him.

GuybrushThreepw00d

Only time will tell, don't crank the calories too fast too early. You don't want to put on lots of fat.

Please tell me you're lifting weights? What programme are you following?

What's your current percentage bodyfat?

kennie2

lift lift lift!

also make sure you get lots of carbs and fat, not just lots of protein
so lots of pasta with olive oil, cheese, bacon etc
(thats pretty much all my friend ate when he was gaining)

ironanimal

That's a good amount. Stick where you are and be patient - your weight will probably spike up a few pounds with glycogen and water initially, and then you should see a somewhat steady gain. And get doing some form of resistance exercise Good luck.

KarenJanine

As others have said, you should strength train to try and build some muscle otherwise the weight will all go on as fat.

Sounds like you are managing to eat plenty of high calorie foods so you're on the right track.

Weigh once a week and try to aim for 1lb gain per week. If you are gaining too fast then try and reign it in a bit. If you are not gaining then you need to keep increasing the cals until you do.

Good luck!

Chadomaniac

That's a good amount. Stick where you are and be patient - your weight will probably spike up a few pounds with glycogen and water initially, and then you should see a somewhat steady gain. And get doing some form of resistance exercise Good luck.

This , Get your TDEE and add 500calories to that . Id assume 3000-3500 daily would yield some solid results over a few weeks/months.

Lift heavy , eat lots , I personally would avoid cardio if I was in your situation . Why burn away extra calories when you don't need to.

darrensurrey

Agreed on avoiding the cardio. Lift heavy, eat lots of protein. Google "GOMAD".

Nellyb123456

Thanks for the great advice guys. With this diet though, would I still gain weight fast even if I don't lift? I had a hernia when I was younger so I'm not really suppose to lift heavy items incase it comes back.

Joannesmith2818

My boyfriend really struggles to maintain his weight (might be something to do with the epic amount of exercise he does and a student budget). But he eat lots of eggs and yogurts, milkshakes, nuttela on toast. He also has plenty of cereal bars and big bags of dried fruits and nuts. O yeh and bananas too. And he also drink protein shakes as well though how appropriate that is for you i don't no.

The weight gain may be quite slow but it will get there!!

xx

rms922

The trick is to pack on the weight, and then turn the fat you develop into muscle. Strength training for you at the moment would probably not be the best idea because it is significantly harder to build up your muscles from nothing. Do a good amount of cardio, and eat a lot of foods with fats and carbs (not trans fat though. You want to put on some weight not have a heart attack xD). After you've put on fifteen or so pounds that's when you may want to start strength training and trying to maintain your weight. At this point though, I don't think you have any reason to try to diet and watch what you eat. Just be cautious and eat a lot. Also late night eating will surely pack on the pounds for you. Good luck my friend. -Ryan

ironanimal

The trick is to pack on the weight, and then turn the fat you develop into muscle. Strength training for you at the moment would probably not be the best idea because it is significantly harder to build up your muscles from nothing. Do a good amount of cardio, and eat a lot of foods with fats and carbs (not trans fat though. You want to put on some weight not have a heart attack xD). After you've put on fifteen or so pounds that's when you may want to start strength training and trying to maintain your weight. At this point though, I don't think you have any reason to try to diet and watch what you eat. Just be cautious and eat a lot. Also late night eating will surely pack on the pounds for you. Good luck my friend. -Ryan

Utter and absolute nonsense.

Fat cannot be developed into muscle, and people new to exercise are the most able to quickly add muscle.

rms922

The trick is to pack on the weight, and then turn the fat you develop into muscle. Strength training for you at the moment would probably not be the best idea because it is significantly harder to build up your muscles from nothing. Do a good amount of cardio, and eat a lot of foods with fats and carbs (not trans fat though. You want to put on some weight not have a heart attack xD). After you've put on fifteen or so pounds that's when you may want to start strength training and trying to maintain your weight. At this point though, I don't think you have any reason to try to diet and watch what you eat. Just be cautious and eat a lot. Also late night eating will surely pack on the pounds for you. Good luck my friend. -Ryan

Utter and absolute nonsense.

Fat cannot be developed into muscle, and people new to exercise are the most able to quickly add muscle.

I'm speaking from my personal experience. Everyone is different and I imagine everyone losing weight/build muscle differently as will.

mustgetmuscles1

The trick is to pack on the weight, and then turn the fat you develop into muscle. Strength training for you at the moment would probably not be the best idea because it is significantly harder to build up your muscles from nothing. Do a good amount of cardio, and eat a lot of foods with fats and carbs (not trans fat though. You want to put on some weight not have a heart attack xD). After you've put on fifteen or so pounds that's when you may want to start strength training and trying to maintain your weight. At this point though, I don't think you have any reason to try to diet and watch what you eat. Just be cautious and eat a lot. Also late night eating will surely pack on the pounds for you. Good luck my friend. -Ryan

No.

Fat is NOT turned into muscle. An 18 year old male new to lifting has more potential to put on new muscle than just about anybody.

OP stick to those calories and start doing some resistance training. Give it a couple weeks and then see if you need to adjust calories. If I was you I would shoot for a gain of about 1-1.5 lbs per week. Anymore than that and it will be more fat than muscle.

No real reason to do cardio unless you are training for some kind of event or sport. If you do need/want to add some in make sure you adjust calories to compensate.

mantium999

The trick is to pack on the weight, and then turn the fat you develop into muscle. Strength training for you at the moment would probably not be the best idea because it is significantly harder to build up your muscles from nothing. Do a good amount of cardio, and eat a lot of foods with fats and carbs (not trans fat though. You want to put on some weight not have a heart attack xD). After you've put on fifteen or so pounds that's when you may want to start strength training and trying to maintain your weight. At this point though, I don't think you have any reason to try to diet and watch what you eat. Just be cautious and eat a lot. Also late night eating will surely pack on the pounds for you. Good luck my friend. -Ryan

Utter and absolute nonsense.

Fat cannot be developed into muscle, and people new to exercise are the most able to quickly add muscle.

I'm speaking from my personal experience. Everyone is different and I imagine everyone losing weight/build muscle differently as will.

While it is kind of you to offer advice, there is so much wrong with your suggestions, regardless of your personal experience. To suggest eating a high caloric diet while NOT strength training is a quick way to create a fat body. Sure, people build muscle differently, as in different food and exercise choices, but the body is simply incapable of converting one type of pre-existing mass into another. Fat cannot be converted to muscle, and muscle cannot be converted to fat.

RobynLB83

Check back with your dr. about the hernia. Telling an 18yr old to avoid lifting for the rest of his life just sounds stupid. Hernias are not that serious, and they are super treatable if they recur. So just go get the okay to lift if that's something you want to do.

Graelwyn75

You can certainly do some bodyweight exercises until you get the okay for lifting. There are several excellent books including 'you are your own gym' and 'bring it' , the latter of which is by Tony Horton who produced the p90x system.

But if you start slow with weights, I do not see it should be any issue. Just be sure to find a trainer initially to make sure you get your form right.

MisterDerpington

Startingstrength.com Go and prosper.

grantdumas7

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and then start consuming enough calories that you gain about .5LBS per week. Weigh yourself the same day each week. I know .5 doesn't seem like a lot but it will add up over time. If you are not gaining, simply eat more. It's that simple.
Get on a solid lifting program. Stronglifts, Starting Strength, All Pros Beginners or 20 Rep Squat routine (there are many variations). Stick with one program for at least 12 weeks. Don't go from routine to routine just because you hear that X routine will give you Y results.
Edit: since you had a hernia years ago, slowly introduce exercises such as deads and squats into your routine. Work on forum first then weight. Gauge how you feel.

Roughy92

RE your hernia, I had one a few years ago. Minor operation, wasn't supposed to lift heavy for 6 weeks or so. After that back to normal.
What you HAVE got to watch is that you're lifting properly. Whenever I lifted weight with really bad form, I would feel a tingle where my scar was. F**king Harry Potter style haha.
Find a good lifting routine, start light and work your way up. I used this one when I first started and it worked really well: http://www.menshealth.co.uk/community/forums/thread/381917

Eat lots so that you're gaining weight and strength steadily. You've certainly turned your diet right around from 1500 to 3500, good man! I personally struggled to fit the calories in for a start. Make sure you're getting a decent balance of protein, carbs and fat, and don't neglect your veggies.

Fithealthyforlife

One of the posts above is a bit wonky. We all know fat cannot be "converted" into muscle. However, I have taken Biochemistry, and I feel the need to point out something...

Don't forget that fat is a stored energy source, and can be oxidized to provide energy for muscle growth. If you have two people and both are struggling with eating enough calories to build muscle but are getting enough protein in their diet, I've noticed that the one with a little fat does seem to have an easier time building muscle than the one who is 5% bodyfat and ripped. The reason for this is simple: without sufficient calories, you cannot build muscle. A chubby person has a buffer...the fat can be burned and used to fill in for the missing calories. I think that's all that poster was trying to say, but he didn't articulate it the way he wanted to. Sometimes it's hard for really light people to eat enough when they're exercising, because they're not used to eating a lot (since their metabolism has slowed due to decreased bodyweight). This is also why sometimes an overweight woman will build muscle faster than a skinny guy, even though she lacks the testosterone. In fact, I've seen chubby people who work out and eat at maintenance "accidently" build muscle because of this effect. i.e. "accidental bulking". They lose their fat in the process, of course, as it's being consumed to create the energy needed for muscle growth.

Another version of this accidental bulking is when a person who strength trains simply accidently eats too much for an extended period of time but without realizing they are eating too much, and so they get fat...but they also gain muscle without realizing it. I've seen many men and women do this. Then when they start to cut (diet), they have a good amount of muscle under the fat and they look fairly muscular after the fat loss. Most skinny people have never eaten enough to do this, so they have less muscle to begin with.

None of this (having ample bodyfat versus not) matters, however, if you're actually getting a sufficient caloric surplus in your diet. Muscle gain also has nothing to do with speed of metabolism or body type. It's all calories in vs. calories out. You just have to get enough for your body, plain and simple. (And work out properly of course!) The good news is that you soon get used to eating more. Some of us need more calories than others. It's a good idea to track calories using MFP. Otherwise, there's no way to know how much you're eating each day.

Finally: to build muscle, your body has to be on the verge of fat storage (i.e. the "well fed" state). No way around that. Unless, of course, you're just a super lean muscle building genetic freak who doesn't store much fat (which we all hope we are!)