Hi! I’m new to this site…been reading for the past several weeks - lots of great stuff here! but now I’m looking for advice.
The simple version: I need to gain weight.
More details:
About me…I’ve trained endurance for years…triathlons (and still do). In fact I got INTO triathlon thinking…well…if my body doesn’t want to gain weight…let me use it for what it seems to want to do…go really far
My dilemma is this…
From about mid-November til now I’ve taken off…completely off since by November I’ve become very lean (even without trying)…and normally during this downtime I gain weight - though not much.
Ok…let’s start using some numbers…
I’m 5’4"
During Spring/Summer/Fall my weight hovers between 110 and 115! I watch it constantly to make sure it doesn’t drop below 110
(as for my screen-name…it’s a nickname from college
So this time of year I usually get “up to” 118 to 122 (I know this still isn’t much…but it’s what usually happens.
So last night I went to the gym for the first time and “weighed in” after taking 2 or 3 weeks off and eating, and having thanksgiving…and I was…
110.6 sigh
Now…my eating habits have been the same since Junior High…I snack…all damn day!
I honestly canNOT sit and eat big meals…bear in mind my size…
So a typical day for me:
When I first get up I don’t want to eat at ALL, but I force myself to at least usually have a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam/jelly on it and some tea
I get into work at 7am and from that point til noon I have 1 snack per hour…
today I have:
Almonds
Crackers
Carrots
Garlic Sesame sticks
Lunch is usually something frozen that I heat up here at work…pre-made meal style
After lunch (hour later): Apple
Go home…snack: More crackers while I make dinner
Dinner (can be lots of different things but not a HUGE plate since I can’t eat too much in ONE sitting)
During the evening I get munchy again and will snack one or 2 more times.
So I’m not trying to starve myself, and my bodytype is definitely “ecto” and I will likely never be big, BUT that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to put on a little weight…
I’m looking for healthy suggestions…20 Cheese cakes a day would probably do it…but probably NOT super healthy
Bro its simple your not eating look at what you list its NOTHING a few cracker, a few almonds, etc each meal or snack is barely over 100 k/cals so what you get maybe 600 k/cals from those then two small meals lets guess HIGH and say each is 500 k/cals which I doubt as you say they are small. so at the most your getting a measly 1600 k/cals. hell id be dead.
YOU NEED FOOD. plain and simple. Sure it can be healthy but you need it. Its hard damn work to cram the food down at times but your eating like a elementary school kid. Your willing to train hard you need to bring the same attention and mentality to eating. swap out the few carrots etc with something substantial. Make a protein shake with a few scoops of protein dump in some olive oil, or make it with cocounut milk. That will make that one snack 400+ k/cals instead of 50.
In the end you need to make an effort to eat MORE and eat dense foods in your case this will likely mean more simple carbs and fats. Maybe a LOT of liquid calories. Liberally dump olive oil on yor veggies etc. nuts lots of them, whole milk, hell cream.
Put in the effort as of now you are not its that simple
I love these posts because they remind me of myself (though I’m a lot taller). Search John Berardi on this site for nutritional advice.
My biggest tip is this- you have to look at eating like you look at lifting weights. When you first start you can’t lift that much and you steadily add weight until your lifts go up. Same thing with food. I used to sound like you - “I eat all the time and don’t gain weight, yadda yadda”. Once I started really, really eating all the time, eating a lot, I slowly started to gain. After a while my appetite increased a great deal and it is now easy for me to eat three to four thousand calories a day without even trying.
I’m no expert and I’m still trying to gain, but that’s my best tip.
Eat more! O my god I am hungry from reading what you eat all day. you say “I cannot sit down and eat big meals”, well thats why you weigh 110 for christs sake. Toughen up and make yourself get used to eating more, or youll be skinny as hell your whole life.
