Skinny Kid. Want to Gain Weight. Please Help.

Cross country isn't the best sport in terms of gaining wait my friend, but it is possible.
It's a common misconception that protein shakes make you gain weight. There are hundreds of products out there. I have not heard of protein increasing potential kidney problems but I'm not a dietitian either. Drinking plenty of water (a gallon a day) helps to protect your kidneys as well.
First you need to find out how many calories you are eating now. Then increase the amount. A common increase is 500 calories. Do it for a week. If you gain 1-2 pounds, your good. Any more and you're just building fat storage. Like the person said above, eat calorie dense foods. If you're not allergic to nuts, peanut butter is one of the best. It may sound strange, but lift weights as well. Build that leg endurance for the long distance runs.

Micah

Eat at LEAST 3000-4000 calories (especially for a male) with a macro breakdown on 30% protein, 30% carbs, and 40% fat. Get your fat from animal sources and good fats, like coconut oil, eggs, and avocados.

You should talk to a dietician, but as long as you don't eat massive amounts of protein you should be good with a normal amount. You need to calculate your average daily caloric burn, make sure you are eating more than that. Also do strength training and eat, eat, eat. I would not follow the advice of the 40% fats, unless you want to gain fat. I'd stick to no more than 30% fats and the rest-probably 30% protein, 40% carbs. Do console a professional about your protein intake though. Again it may be fine to get more as long as it isn't extreme.

stormintormenta wrote: »

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

You have a medical issue then? If you are on a restricted protein diet due to kidney disease or damage I would highly recommend that you discuss with a RD since your macros will need to be tightly controlled. The only way to really gain muscle weight is to have adequite protein intake to put you in a positive nitrogen balance but if you are restricted this might be an issue.

An RD can give you a medically appropriate diet and is the only person licensed, let alone qualified, to really do this.

Good luck to you.

What I have is a horseshoe kidney. I don't have a disease but am more likely to get one than other people who don't have horseshoe kidney. Basically, my two kidneys are fused together, so if one gets damaged, the other one gets damaged as well. So I have one huge super kidney I guess!

Yeah, I agree. Talk to a doctor first if a high protein diet might cause kidney issues.

In the meantime, you don't need protein powder to get bigger. In fact, I would start out just hitting your macros with normal food.

I used to be a distance runner like you all through high school and college. Did lots of competitive meets, several marathons. It really isn't going to be possible to put on muscle with that type of exercise, at least not the type of muscle fiber that has high-volume & high-strength properties. Adding weight lifting to the miles you already put in is just going to be more over-training and will not help. You muscles need recovery time to grow.

*Some advice from a former distance runner to a current one: Switch to a different sport now, while your joints are still in a recoverable state. I'm 25 with the joints of a 40 year old. Premature cartilage damage in the right knee. Chronic tendonitis in the left. Distance running is not good on the body. Couple of studies linking long term distance runners and couch potatoes as having roughly the same lifespan. It is not worth it dude. Start lifting, take up swimming or something, switch to shorter races like 800's or sprints if you really want to keep running. Just anything besides the mega-distance runs you train for in cross.