Gaining weight

magdalenabolter

Hey people!

I'm new to this app and my goal is to gain at least 6 kg this year.

I'm 174 cm tall and only about 50 to 51 kg.

I now try to eat more frequently and put proteins in my food as I want to build muscle as well.

Right now I'm training a lot for a 5 km race that's coming up and I'm scared it will slow my progress as I often burn a lot of calories and often not being able to reach my calorie goals.

Do you have any tips for me like what food to eat after training and how I can gain muscle? (can't go to gym so it's harder)

Thank you in advance!

(Sorry if there are mistakes in the text I'm not a native speaker)

sjl0210

To gain muscles you need to lift some weights or body weight etc. But you could gain some muscles by running uphill for example. Focus on your carbs, eat more of them. If you have a smart watch you could try to track how much kcals you lose after running, so you know kind of how much you need to eat. Eat good amount of proteins and even more carbs. Potatoes, rice, pasta etc. If you struggle to eat alot of carbs, I recommend making smoothies. Add me if you want more help

magdalenabolter

@stianjl thank you very much! I will definetly try to do so

mtaratoot

Welcome to MFP!

If eating more often helps you get more calories, and if you need more calories, keep that up.

For protein that has plenty of calories, nuts are your friends. They also have healthy fats. Avocados have those healthy fats and calories too, just not so much protein.

Are you using MFP to track protein? Getting enough is for sure important to build muscle, but there's no reason to take in more than you need. Doing it in smaller doses through the day seems to be valid - not much more than 20 grams at one meal.

Let us know how it goes!

magdalenabolter

@mtaratoot thank you for your advice!
Yes, I'm using MFP to keep track of my calorie and also protein intake. I'm glad I found it because it really motivates me to eat more when I haven't reached my goals yet.

I will definetly keep you updated!

AnnPT77

Have you checked out this thread, over in the Most Helpful Posts heading in the Gaining Weight and Body Building part of the Community?

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

While you haven't self-identified as a "hard gainer", there still may be something useful to you in that thread.

magdalenabolter

@AnnPT77 Thank you I haven't yet! I'll look into it.
And I'm easily gaining weight but losing it even faster. I often have 53 kg on one day and on the next I have 49 again (at around the same time just different days if you know what I mean)

So it's kind of hard to maintain the weight that i gained and building more on that.

AnnPT77

magdalenabolter wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Thank you I haven't yet! I'll look into it.
And I'm easily gaining weight but losing it even faster. I often have 53 kg on one day and on the next I have 49 again (at around the same time just different days if you know what I mean)

So it's kind of hard to maintain the weight that i gained and building more on that.

It's normal to gain or lose a few pounds from one day to the next, whether our overall goal is gain, maintain, or lose.

Usually it's just normal, healthy shifts in water retention, because our bodies can be 60%+ water. Sometimes differences in food in our digestive tract contribute to it. A pint of water weighs about a pound in the glass or in our system right after we drink it, then it takes time to leave. Ditto for food waste.

Fat is more gradual to gain or lose, and muscle even more gradual than fat.

Don't worry about the day to day very much. Eat and exercise the right way for your goals, and pay attention to your weight trend over 4-6 weeks. For women, compare weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles. That will tell a clearer story.

magdalenabolter

@AnnPT77 Thank you so much! That's very interesting to learn about. I didn't know this before (makes sense though so thank you)

AnnPT77

magdalenabolter wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Thank you so much! That's very interesting to learn about. I didn't know this before (makes sense though so thank you)

@magdalenabolter, you might enjoy reading this, if you haven't already seen it:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1

. . . especially read the article linked in the OP of that thread. The article and thread focus mainly on people striving to lose weight, but the exact same circumstances affect people who are trying to gain, or trying to maintain. From a few days to a few weeks, individual weigh-ins jump all over the place. It's the trend over at least 4-6 weeks - maybe more if losing or gaining slowly - that tells the story via a trend line. It should be trending via the same relative point in successive menstrual cycles, if relevant. Bodies are weird.

Actual example: During the week of January 2 this year (Monday to Sunday), my weight was 137 pounds at highest, 132.8 at lowest. That's not a high weight on the Monday and low on Sunday or vice-versa, it's just the extremes of the bumps within the week. During the first full week of February this year (M 6th - Su 12th), the extremes were 130.8 and 132.8, again randomly amidst ups and downs that week. My conclusion is that I've lost a small bit of weight that I gained over the holidays, which is what I'd intended. (I'm long since in menopause, don't have monthly cycles affecting weight.)

This is normal, just how it works: Bumpy day to day, but bumps on an overall downhill if losing; uphill if gaining; bumps on a level-ish plain if maintaining.

There are weight trending apps available (free) that attempt to use statistics to figure out the trend amidst the noise. They aren't magical insights, and can be wrong, too - but may help. Some examples are Libra for Android, Happy Scale for Apple/iOS, Trendweight (with a free Fitbit account, don't need a device), Weightgrapher, and probably others. You do need to get a month or so of data - up to daily if you can tolerate weighing often without stressing out - in order to get them primed to give you sensible hints.

Best wishes!

magdalenabolter

@AnnPT77 Thank you so much for you effort! It actually helps me a lot and it's great to hear from other people about similar experiences. I'll try it and weigh daily from now on to be more aware.
Btw sorry that I'm always answering with kind of short messages. As already mentioned I'm not a native speaker and sometimes struggle to find the right words. I might also make a few mistakes because of this but I didn't have a very good English teacher in what you'd call high school so I only know the basics plus what I teached myself (I can understand nearly everything though)
Sorry this explanation was definitely longer than intended whoops.

mtaratoot

@magdalenabolter

Short messages are fine. It's true that our friend @AnnPT77 gives lots of very helpful details, but that doesn't reduce the value of being succinct. When I was in grad school, a friend would get assignments to take peer-reviewed research papers and basically rewrite them to be shorter - from 12 pages to five or something like that - without losing any important aspects. It can actually take time to write less. I'm a culprit; I sometimes (often) write on and on....

Mark Twain allegedly once closed a short letter with: "I apologize for the length of this letter; had I more time, I would have written a shorter one."

jjmoretti

Hi!!! Some easy, healthy high cal foods are avocados, peanut butter, nuts, cottage cheese, hummus. Drink protein shakes, too. Add condiments to everything: like mayo on sandwhiches, dressing on salad.

AnnPT77

magdalenabolter wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Thank you so much for you effort! It actually helps me a lot and it's great to hear from other people about similar experiences. I'll try it and weigh daily from now on to be more aware.
Btw sorry that I'm always answering with kind of short messages. As already mentioned I'm not a native speaker and sometimes struggle to find the right words. I might also make a few mistakes because of this but I didn't have a very good English teacher in what you'd call high school so I only know the basics plus what I teached myself (I can understand nearly everything though)
Sorry this explanation was definitely longer than intended whoops.

Your English is excellent, better than what I see here from some native speakers, honestly.

Short messages are fine. I'm stupidly wordy. I can touch-type very fast. It would be nicer of me to edit more, to be more brief but clear, but I'm also lazy. I work for free, though.

jjmoretti

Also your english is absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!!! DONT WORRY ABOUT IT, youre amazing!!