Weight GAIN diet & strategies

kgs4150

I am coming out of a prolonged illness; long, long story. I need to claw back 30 pounds and the muscle/strength which I also lost over a four month period. It is for that reason that I signed up for the 30 day MyFitnessPal trail. Do I have the discipline to feed this app so it tells me how to feed myself? ... I am suspicious but giving it a go.

nossmf

First off, @kgs4150, glad you're feeling better.

Secondly, welcome to the community! I hope you find what you've been looking for within these virtual walls. Be aware that while the paid version of MFP offers features the free version doesn't, that doesn't make the free version worthless; I've used exclusively the free version for 16 years and been quite satisfied. But the paid version includes some types of coaching which you may find useful, so I don't belittle it if it's what you prefer.

Now, for the meat and potatoes of what you're after: how to properly recover lost muscle and strength. This is where we need to take a deep breath and realize that if we seek to recover super-fast, we'll be less satisfied with the results: rapid weight gain is almost invariably a high percentage of bodyfat, with or without muscle to go along with. If we want to maximize the ratio of muscle to fat gained, we need to take things slow.

Gaining muscle requires two things: raw materials for the body to use in building the muscle (calories) and a reason for the new construction to be muscle and not fat (strength training). Let's take a look at each in turn:

You need to eat more calories than you burn each day. This gives the body the raw materials it needs to grow. But as said above, grow too fast and it'll be mostly fat, so let's set a slow growth curve of 250 calories per day over maintenance (the amount to eat to remain at exactly the same weight). In addition, protein is the main ingredient of muscle cells, so let's give the body plenty to work with: aim to get at least 0.7g/lb of BW in protein each day. (For example, if you weigh 100lbs, you should aim for at least 70g of protein every day.)

The other half of the equation is convincing the body it needs to take these extra calories and make muscle, not just store it as fat. We do this by taking part in a progressive strength training regimen. Progressive means it gets harder over time as we get stronger; strength training means it challenges the muscles. Weightlifting is obvious, but swimming, mountain climbing, even calisthenics (and more) can all apply.

The final, unwritten ingredient is time. You lost muscle/strength over a four-month span; don't expect to recover in the next 4 weeks. Slow and steady wins the race. The good news is your muscles have a memory of sorts, meaning they will gain muscle/strength faster the second time than it took the first time, so if it took you a year to build before, it'll probably take less time to recover back to that level.

Once again, glad you're back on your feet, and welcome!