Can't Gain Weight

Well Im sure I could if I scarfed down junk…now Im not 6% BF or anything in fact im 9-10% day to day. I currently wake up at 162 (from 165 sincing upping my calories) I only lift 3-4 times/week doing 5/3/1. Now every 2-3 weks Ive added 250 cals. Each time I end up loosing a lb. Now my lifts aren’t weaker and I bet Im even stronger…I know what am I complaining about right?

I mean in the long run itll be way easy to drop to low BF%. However, it sucks looking like I weigh ~180-90 and really I’m just 162 at 5’9". Oh yea as Im a FFB I have a minor phobia of junk food. However, if I’m out (once a week max with school in session) I’ll treat myself for a meal just to add some nice cals that day and get my hormones a flowin, for I know the weight added will shed off in a few days.

This reminds me of Dave Tates situation…just hard to believe that I could have hyperthyroidism after being a FFB in my younger years (only 21 FYI)

Sorry, do you have a question? Otherwise, if you want to gain weight eat more clean food? I guess there’s the possibility that adding 250 calories sped up your metabolism, so add 500 next time.

Coconut oil and eggs.

Eat more, man. Lots more.

x2 to coconut milk and eggs
Throw on olive oil, mixed sseds and nuts.

Drink one of these puppies as a PF or before bed:
50g ground flax
50g nut meal (almond, walnuts, whatever)
2oz olive oil
2oz coconut milk
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1.5 tbl sp cinnimon
1-2 eggs

Add a cup or two of water to get the texture to a nice frothy liquid

Surprisingly delicious and will add LOTS of cals and protein. Weight gain problem solved.

If you eat more calories than your body burns in a day you will gain weight.
Nobody violates the laws of thermodynamics.

EAT MORE FOOD.

i am going through the same thing man. i force-fed myself from 216-222, was only able to stay there for 4-5 days, then a week later i was back down to 217 at the same food intake.

fucking metabolism.

but oh fucking well. we both are stronger at a lighter weight. the world could be worse.

Haha. Nice sentiment B rock [quote]we both are stronger at a lighter weight. the world could be worse. [/quote] So true… Good luck OP. Force feeding’s a bitch, but you’ll get it done, I’m sure.

[quote]BulletproofTiger wrote:
Coconut oil and eggs.[/quote]

Wait… cooking eggs, IN coconut oil?

Going to experiment now, ever since I took it upon myself to actually try to shots of EVOO and my stomach imploded after the third of the day, I have been looking for a new simple bulk idea for extra calories.

[quote]oOHawkOo wrote:
Eat more, man. Lots more.

x2 to coconut milk and eggs
Throw on olive oil, mixed sseds and nuts.

Drink one of these puppies as a PF or before bed:
50g ground flax
50g nut meal (almond, walnuts, whatever)
2oz olive oil
2oz coconut milk
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1.5 tbl sp cinnimon
1-2 eggs

Add a cup or two of water to get the texture to a nice frothy liquid

Surprisingly delicious and will add LOTS of cals and protein. Weight gain problem solved.[/quote]

This is my breakfast shake sans coconut milk and cinnimon, if you downed this right before bed you would be sure to gain weight… if you didn’t I would suspect a tape worm or some sort of metabolic disorder.

Add lots of double cream, eggs and steak to your daily diet and then tell us you cant gain weight.

[quote]silverhydra wrote:

[quote]BulletproofTiger wrote:
Coconut oil and eggs.[/quote]

Wait… cooking eggs, IN coconut oil?

Going to experiment now, ever since I took it upon myself to actually try to shots of EVOO and my stomach imploded after the third of the day, I have been looking for a new simple bulk idea for extra calories.[/quote]

I always cook my eggs in coconut oil.

[quote]BulletproofTiger wrote:
Coconut oil and eggs.[/quote]

X2

if you want to gain weight increase your calories, it seems like you are fat-phobic and that the 250 cals that youa re adding per week, you are probably burning them rite up in the gym without noticing it, and did u say you wereing losing weight something like you going from 165 to 162?

your going to have to FORCE FEED your self, if your currerntly consuming 6-7 meals cut those down to 4-5 bigger meals, that should cause you to gain weight, try that out

I always have the same issue when I reach certain bodyweights. I follow the same method as you, bumping up calories 250-500 a week.

I’m going to say though that you need to bump them up to a certain point, and then go maybe 2-4 weeks at that calories level. Weight gain isn’t linear, and by slowily increasing calories weekly you’re allowing your metabolism to increase to compensate. If you give it say a month, you should start to see changes in the scale even if you don’t in the first week or two. If not after a month, then keep bumping them up.

Give it a try. It works for me.

A bit different than someone in your scenario, but pertinent nonetheless; this is a story Dave Tate had in an article here (37 tips and Tales from Dave Tate):

"Here’s a quick story.

There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn’t gain weight to save my fucking life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He’d go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

“You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I’ll fill you in.”

Now remember, we’re at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

“For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don’t care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That’s your breakfast.”

At this point I’m thinking this guy is nuts. But he’s completely serious.

“For lunch you’re gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don’t want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don’t care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can’t let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter.”

“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it.”

“Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”

This guy is in a zen-like state when he’s talking about this.

“Now you’re on the clock,” he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you’re full. Don’t listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I’m telling you now, you’re going to get three or four pieces in and you’re gonna want to quit. You fucking can’t quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can’t finish it, don’t you ever come back to me and tell me you can’t gain weight. 'Cause I’m gonna tell you that you don’t give a fuck about getting bigger and you don’t care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn’t get much fatter. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, though."

Yea I’m a FFB…so yea fat phobic…I want to gauge my calories that can consume before gaining weight. That way when it starts cutting will be a treat. Hm that’s not to say I don’t eat fats. They dominate my diet.

-Hawk that formla seems like a sure-fire way to shit my pants lol

-B-rock I do appreciate the sentiment

-Blaked I appreciate the advice. I’m gonna try jumping to 3500 and see how that treats me

-Paddy…oh paddy paddy paddy…I’ve lived the first 16 years of my life doing that…HATED IT! But I do appreciate the time you put in to copy and paste that for me…i would never feel good treating my body that way deliberately for more then perhaps 1 meal/week

Ive always found it hard to gain weight, years back I was down as low as 136lb at 5’ 9ish. eventually I got up to about 186 but I was stuck around there for a few years trying all kinds of tricks and ideas eating plenty etc but never gained more that a few pounds that would vanish as fast. then at the very end of november I finally solved the problem, MILK!

I worked up to drinking 6-8 pints of low fat a day and Im now around 203.ill be honest, I bloated like fuck but it temporary so who cares, by the time Ive decided to lean up ill have gained 25+lbs and losing the fat wont be a problem if your metabolisms good. what i learned is sometimes you just have to try harder

Yeah, I’ve had that problem too when I’ve been too gentle with my diet and/or too worried about the women in my life calling me fat. I’m also a FFB, like you, although I’m almost up to my former weight, but instead of a 42" waste, it’s 32". Anyways, I think something more like the PaddyM post, but better food is exactly what you need. Just eat. Lots. On the days you don’t lift, you can eat less, and feel a little better, if being full often makes you feel gross. I know it makes me feel a little nasty sometimes.

The nice thing about being a FFB is that you KNOW how to cut. You know you can loose weight, if your body composition gets out of control, and you start looking nasty.

On the otherhand, if you just want to be big to weight what people think you look, you might want to rethink that. So you have bird-bones. From your avatar you don’t look bad. I’m the opposite; people under-guess my weight by 20-40 pounds. It’s that admintium coated skeleton I’m hauling around. But who give two shits about what you weigh, it’s what you can lift and your body composition that matters.

My .02

as it happens just had an interesting conversation this morning with a biggest guy in my gym-prob the strongest guy in there. anyway his typical breakfast is 3 bowls of oatmeal plus a shake and another small meal right after the workout. he nearly gets sick into the bowl he eats that much but if thats what it takes thats what it takes

[quote]bkmacky9288 wrote:
Yea I’m a FFB…so yea fat phobic…I want to gauge my calories that can consume before gaining weight. That way when it starts cutting will be a treat. Hm that’s not to say I don’t eat fats. They dominate my diet.

-Blaked I appreciate the advice. I’m gonna try jumping to 3500 and see how that treats me
[/quote]

I’m with you on this issue. Don’t think that 3500 cals is a crazy amount though, it seems like that’s nothing special to guys who are successful at putting on muscle. You’ll probably be able to gain some weight on that though. I personally feel like 3500 cals on a 40/30/30 diet is my sticking point. It gets really tough to eat more than that in a day but my weight seems to max out at about 180-185 at 6’ tall. One of the things I’ve been trying recently is getting already prepared food from a deli or something like that for one meal a day. Sometimes its hard to prepare all the necessary food yourself. It’s very difficult to get all the food in when you prepare it all yourself and try to keep it really clean.

I wonder if you have a similar issue I have. When I’m eating 3500 cals or more I don’t feel like training but if I eat less than 2000-2500 cals I feel energized and ready to train.

i was stuck at 165 for a ages when i was about 17.simliar bf. and im 6’1", so you can imagine.
i got out of it by eating the fuck out of everything…seriously, and it doesnt have to be all junk

9 AM Big bowl of oatmeal, Eggs, protein shake with uncooked oats in it, fruits & olive oil
11 snack- spaghetti and meatballs, sometimes another protein shake
12 lunch- tuna sandwiches ( <lighter meal before training)
2pm P/W whey shake with dextrose
3pm p/w meal Chinese buffet, minimum 3 plates (no crap just beef chicken+ rice)
6pm Steak or chicken breast Enchiladas (no cheese) with whatever carbs at home (potatoes,rice,spaghetti)
8pm snack- eggs and oatmeal (i love oats)
10pm before bed some salmon and veggies or a shake

fish oil all over the place and multivit. Its gets expensive, and i worked my part time job, my wages slowly changed from being spent on videogames and clothes, to feeding myself.
i grew pretty well, after you get out of the rut it becomes easier to put on muscle, this isnt a permanent thing.