As simple as that. I am 6’1" and weigh about 135 pounds. How can I gain around 15 pounds?
Andrew
Believe it or not, you may want to try an Atkins style diet. I have a similar condition and found that the only way I could gain weight was by eating LOADS of meat and cheese. Carbs simply didn’t do the trick. Hope it helps.
Eat more calories than you burn. Add in meals and combine high fats with high carbs.
It takes about 12 cals per pound of body weight to maintain, and every excess of 3500 cals is about 1 lb.
135 x 12 = 1620 cals to maintain your weight daily.
Are you young?
You could gain weight by eating 3000 cals a day and bank on gaining about 2 lbs per week. If you are active, you might slow it to 1-1.5 a week.
Age matters. After about 28, metabolisms slow a bit.
Banality: Eat more, of healthy and attractive foods.
If you find yourself very reluctant to do this, do muscle-building exercise in proportion to make use of the calories. This should make it easier and give satisfying results.
What have you tried before? How old are you?
Plain and simple, eat a lot. See how many Snickers bars you can down in ten minutes. Douse your pizza in olive oil before you eat it. Grab an extra Big Mac for the road.
Muscle-building exercises won’t do a damn thing unless you’re eating to gain muscle. But if you eat enough, they’re good.
btw, you’re probably thinking of replying with “But I do eat a lot!” Unless you have a food log showing your daily caloric intake for the last two weeks, I’m not interested in hearing it.
I’ve actually heard that doing the opposite of Atkins (giving up meat altogether) is the best way to put on a few lbs. (You will most likely end up eating more carbs to fill up.) Try putting olive oil on nearly everything you eat as well, use real butter, lots of cheese, etc.
Tell all your friends (and anyone else who will listen) that you are going to lose 15 pounds by Easter. You’ll gain 15 and then some.
Seriously. Nothing packs on the pounds like soda. Drink up!
Eat alot right before going to bed.
If you’re like I was when I was in my twenties, it won’t matter how much you eat, so trying to bulk up by eating a lot probably won’t work. You should ignore people who suggest “weight gain diets” as they won’t work and will only develop bad habits that you may need to break later on. At one point, I think I pushed my diet to over 5000 calories a day, still without gaining any weight. (To whoever said that a 3000 calorie a day diet guarantees gaining a few pounds a week: ptui. I would lose weight at that level if I was over 145 and not exercising regularly.)
The only time I successfuly gained weight prior to starting hormone replacement was the summer that I swam for an hour every day. That summer I gained almost fifteen pounds in muscle mass. It went away over the next two or three years, from lack of maintenance. Make sure you eat enough to match your energy consumption.
The only other way I know of is to take female hormones. I gained 15 pounds in the first year after I started HRT. You probably won’t consider this a suitable option.
What you need is exercise of the pumping iron kind. Augment this with a diet esp. high in protein and carbs.
Don’t just eat more food, esp not fattening ones. You don’t want to put on fat.
You want to put on muscle mass, not fat mass. It’s much healthier.
Get me to cook for you
For those of you who asked how old I am, I turned 21 in october. Thanks for all the suggestions.
fat or muscle?
Creatine and alot of protein along with intense weight training could help you build muscle.
Two words: Breakfast Burritos.
And not those wimpy McDonalds or Del Taco burritos, either. You gotta stop at every catering truck (AKA Roach Coach) you see, and order a “breakfast burrito with eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, salsa and extra cheese” and a bottle of OJ. Then spend the entire day sedentary in front of a computer except for frequent trips to the coffee pot or urinal, and another trip to the roach coach for lunch, which should consist of a bacon, turkey, avocado and cheese sandwich, with fries and a large coke. (Also acceptable is a gyro sandwich, chili cheese fries, and a large iced tea.)
I guarantee it - you will gain your 15 pounds in no time flat.
This is how I went from a six-one, 155-lb string bean college grad to a 230-lb overweight engineering nerd in just one year.
I had a similar problem a few years ago. My (inadvertant) solution was to finish grad school, stop exercising, keep eating frozen foods and junk, and turn 26. That did the trick for me. And I can’t stress the last part enough. In a few years, you won’t have this problem anymore, in all likelihood.
I was 120 pounds most of my life (6’ tall). I started putting on weight in my mid thirties without altering my diet. I’m at 160 pounds now at 40. This is probably related but I was diagnosed with hyper-thyroidism a few years back, that was treated and now I’m hypo-thyroid. That could have been a cause in my weight gain. Have your doctor do a TSH blood test (there’re a couple of other ones) to check your thyroid level.
Do you want to put on fat and cholesterol, or more muscle?
I’m with the others who suggest you eat HEALTHIER high fat items and carbs.
Body builders don’t eat twinkies and Whoppers. They eat steaks, whole wheat breads and pancakes, fruits and veggies, eggs and other whole foods.
Please try to avoid trans-fats!!
Or you can do what my dad did - 1/2 a Jello No Bake cheesecake a day. He gained 15 lbs right away 
But he’s 55, not 21…
Whoa!! That’s awful advice. Sure, he might gain fat weight, but who wants that?? Its just not good for your body either…
To the OP, I suggest trying your luck here…
No offense to dopers, but these guys make putting on weight a profession.
If you are willing to pump iron, I have been told by those whose opinion I value that the old “breathing squat and pullover” routine could put ten pounds on a broomstick.
Peary Rader talked about it a lot in the old Iron Man magazine, before said magazine turned into another Weider clone, and was aimed at all phases of the iron game, and not just at professional bodybuilder wannabes.
Let me know if you are interested, and I can post it.
Regards,
Shodan