Multi-sport Athlete:How can I keep gaining lbs?

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floresc16
floresc16 Posts: 2
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I am currently playing two sports simultaneously and I always end up burning off all of the calories. My goal is to gain 15lbs;1 lb a week. What can I do to gain more weight and keep it on while still playing two sports?

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  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Get a heart rate monitor and find out your burns. Find out your maintenance without exercise. Scooby's calculator. On rest days eat maintenance plus 500 calories. On workout days eat your maintenance + exercise cals + 500 cals. Eat adequate protein and fats. Fill the rest up with carbs and make a four hour window around your workouts where you eat a good deal of them.

    Beware, if you don't try and incorporate some progressive heavy lifting in there that 1lb of weight could end up being a higher ratio of fat than muscle.

    Most athletes bulk over the winter while knocking the high intensity cardio on the head, as it interferes with gains. They they shred the fat by early spring all the while climbing into higher heart rate zones in time for race season.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    Eat more food

    This
  • isaiahcool
    isaiahcool Posts: 7
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    Do not count exercise calories "burned". That is, and always will be, inaccurate bs marketed to people buying treadmills. Every person is different - the only way to determine how efficiently your body burns calories is with a V02 test. I wish MFP would get rid of that feature because it's horribly generalized and makes no sense. Those who subtract "burned calories" will 100% mess up everything and wind up over or under eating, sometimes by as much as 300-400 calories.

    Activity factors are the way to go unless you feel like doing all that heart rate burn level crap, which is irrelevant since you want to gain weight anyway. Calculate your BMR, either with the Mifflin St. Jeor, or if you have a good measurement of BF (from calipers not from a scale) then use the Katch-McArdle. Google these and you will find calculators online. This will give you an accurate baseline of which you can multiply by an activity factor (in your case, it would be high) and find your TDEE. Eat above that, and boom, you'll gain weight.

    I've done every test imaginable, V02 max, heart rate burn and burst levels, meaured HRV, etc. and let me tell you that the numbers were less than 100 calories off from the calculations I listed above. It's a waste of time and money, and honestly if you give a crap about your heart rate levels while working out you should worry more about getting your head out of your *kitten* and go do something harder.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    floresc16 wrote: »
    I am currently playing two sports simultaneously and I always end up burning off all of the calories. My goal is to gain 15lbs;1 lb a week. What can I do to gain more weight and keep it on while still playing two sports?

    eat X amount of calories…if you do not gain then increase 200 calories a day ..if no gain then increase agin …keep increasing until you are gaining one pound per week ….
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,708 Member
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    Pizza and fast food. No kidding. I thought I couldn't gain weight till I started eating these along with my regular meals.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
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    isaiahcool wrote: »
    Do not count exercise calories "burned". That is, and always will be, inaccurate bs marketed to people buying treadmills. Every person is different - the only way to determine how efficiently your body burns calories is with a V02 test. I wish MFP would get rid of that feature because it's horribly generalized and makes no sense. Those who subtract "burned calories" will 100% mess up everything and wind up over or under eating, sometimes by as much as 300-400 calories.

    Activity factors are the way to go unless you feel like doing all that heart rate burn level crap, which is irrelevant since you want to gain weight anyway. Calculate your BMR, either with the Mifflin St. Jeor, or if you have a good measurement of BF (from calipers not from a scale) then use the Katch-McArdle. Google these and you will find calculators online. This will give you an accurate baseline of which you can multiply by an activity factor (in your case, it would be high) and find your TDEE. Eat above that, and boom, you'll gain weight.

    I've done every test imaginable, V02 max, heart rate burn and burst levels, meaured HRV, etc. and let me tell you that the numbers were less than 100 calories off from the calculations I listed above. It's a waste of time and money, and honestly if you give a crap about your heart rate levels while working out you should worry more about getting your head out of your *kitten* and go do something harder.

    I tracked everything I ate meticulously, and exercise burns that I got from my heart rate monitor, I plotted everything on a graph, I worked out my maintenance with no exercise, and I cut, and my weight loss went EXACTLY to plan. The Garmin estimates were near perfect to my evidence.

    I use these burn calculations to cut and bulk with extremely accurate results. The swimming, walking, running and cycling is spot on. Weight training is still a mystery to me but I'm treating it a circuit training and it works out about the same as swimming per hour.

    DO take the time to calculate.

    On the other hand, during a bulk, it's best to not muddy the waters with lots of numbers, cut the cardio right down, stop interfering with muscle repair and keep things simple.

    I'd always advise to plot everything on a graph and average the weight and tape measurements out once a week from the seven readings.

    When you get to my age, there's no room for just shooting in the dark.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    drink a gallon of milk a day
  • tezzabone
    tezzabone Posts: 1
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    I too, a multiple sport athlete, plus the gym, plus... I move all day long. So, in addition to my structured meal schedule of hitting 3600-4000 cal a day, I make peanut butter and jellies on ezekial bread(6 of them) and they are my snacks... I use smooth operator p butter and Bonnie's raspberry jam. There about 400 cal a pop. Also, I make sure my protein/fat intake is high. It's hard to eat this much... It's takes getting used to. Before bed, glutamine and protein shake.
    I can't always eat 6 P&J's... Sometimes only 3.... Work your way up-
  • isaiahcool
    isaiahcool Posts: 7
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    Springfield1970 wrote: »
    I tracked everything I ate meticulously, and exercise burns that I got from my heart rate monitor, I plotted everything on a graph, I worked out my maintenance with no exercise, and I cut, and my weight loss went EXACTLY to plan. The Garmin estimates were near perfect to my evidence.

    I use these burn calculations to cut and bulk with extremely accurate results. The swimming, walking, running and cycling is spot on. Weight training is still a mystery to me but I'm treating it a circuit training and it works out about the same as swimming per hour.

    DO take the time to calculate.

    On the other hand, during a bulk, it's best to not muddy the waters with lots of numbers, cut the cardio right down, stop interfering with muscle repair and keep things simple.

    I'd always advise to plot everything on a graph and average the weight and tape measurements out once a week from the seven readings.

    When you get to my age, there's no room for just shooting in the dark.

    I'm sure you did - but that just doesn't sound like ANY fun at all. Who wants a data entry job as a hobby? If you're looking for an IFBB pro card, then maybe it's worth it, but I'd rather just focus on training and hitting my macros instead! Sell your heart rate monitor and garmin and get yourself involved with a local weightlifting club, crossfit box, or strength and conditioning facility equipped with qualified coaches. I can guarantee you that you'll see better results, and give yourself a heightened sense of purpose, too!

  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
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    isaiahcool wrote: »
    Springfield1970 wrote: »
    I tracked everything I ate meticulously, and exercise burns that I got from my heart rate monitor, I plotted everything on a graph, I worked out my maintenance with no exercise, and I cut, and my weight loss went EXACTLY to plan. The Garmin estimates were near perfect to my evidence.

    I use these burn calculations to cut and bulk with extremely accurate results. The swimming, walking, running and cycling is spot on. Weight training is still a mystery to me but I'm treating it a circuit training and it works out about the same as swimming per hour.

    DO take the time to calculate.

    On the other hand, during a bulk, it's best to not muddy the waters with lots of numbers, cut the cardio right down, stop interfering with muscle repair and keep things simple.

    I'd always advise to plot everything on a graph and average the weight and tape measurements out once a week from the seven readings.

    When you get to my age, there's no room for just shooting in the dark.

    I'm sure you did - but that just doesn't sound like ANY fun at all. Who wants a data entry job as a hobby? If you're looking for an IFBB pro card, then maybe it's worth it, but I'd rather just focus on training and hitting my macros instead! Sell your heart rate monitor and garmin and get yourself involved with a local weightlifting club, crossfit box, or strength and conditioning facility equipped with qualified coaches. I can guarantee you that you'll see better results, and give yourself a heightened sense of purpose, too!

    Hey it only takes 5-10 minutes a day now to calculate my numbers and I really enjoy it. It's the engineer in me, I just like to do things properly. I also plot out my triathlon training programme for the year, and train in 6 different heart rate zones, it's called periodization, and it's just a given that you'd do that if you were half serious about your training. If I want to join my training buddies on the British Team next year to represent my country then a bit of planning and research is necessary.

    The great thing about all my hard work and experience is I get to impart useful and tried and tested advice to others. I've been weight lifting for about 20 years now, and have tailored my lifting to the specific sports I perform. Joining another gym or crossfit box (there it is LOL) is unnecessary. Funny suggestion! My results are correlated to my training and planning, and I quite often find myself giving advice TO coaches nowadays.



  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
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    As mentioned just start eating more. Your TDEE is off the normal charts so you will have to find your range by experiementing. An activity tracker and/or HRM will help as well to track your daily variances for more accuracy. If you are having trouble gaining just start addng 100 or 200 calories a day (increasing each week) until the scale starts to move and keep adding till you like the rate you are gaining. It's not complicated so don't over think it.

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