I’m just saying, this person obviously doesn’t eat enough food or has a condition. Maintaining the minimum “healthy” weight is not hard to do. This persons appetite has to be small if he isn’t eating enough to be at the right weight.
For this specific person, how to eat more doesn’t seem to be important, figuring out why he doesn’t have the appetite to eat more is…
Most people who eat whenever they are hungry will maintain the correct weight if not become sumo wrestlers…
I’m not disagreeing with her as she is right about the calories but most people already eat sufficient calories in there food unless they are watching their calories…
Even with high calorie foods, you can’t expect anything, i used to work at mcdonalds and ate mcdonalds all throughout the day, I never gained a pound.
Aside from that, I’ve heard rice and potatoes will help you gain weight but again, I never gained a pound when that was my main diet…
OP, you’re the same size my dad was for many years. Weights and eating enough protein will help you put on the 10-20 lbs of muscle you need to stop looking ‘skinny’.
I want to gain fat. I’m not a fan of the sinewy extra-low-body-fat look on most people (even men - I don’t want to see every vein). Since I’m a pear-shaped woman it’s only really a problem in my chest/shoulder area, my goal is to replace bones with boobs.
If you have that particular body type, you’ll likely put more weight where you don’t want it.
To each their own, of course. But having more fat than the body needs to maintain good health makes no sense to strive for from a common sense perspective. It may not be detrimentally unhealthy to have a little bit more fat than needed, but in principal it makes no sense to make this a goal. Being athletic is what makes sense from a health point of view. It’s a shame to see people getting all hung up on their own idea of cosmetics/aesthetics instead of prioritizing optimal health. And even worse to then attempt to pass that on as advice to others. There sure is a lot of bad advice being given in this thread.
Listen to someone like Runner Pat, who has a better than average understanding of athletics and health.
I’ll always have more fat and muscle in my lower body, but my upper body is also gaining both muscle and fat and looks 110% better.
What do you define as ‘more fat than the body needs to maintain good health’? I am aiming for meat on my bones and a normal body fat percentage - I am very lean, have always had ‘athletic’ body fat for a woman and good muscle definition. I’m still underweight, even after putting on 15 lbs in the last two years by eating more and working out. Health is very important to me, but I’m inclined to think that my health can only benefit from having a more normal level of body fat.
There is no evidence that it’s healthy for people to strive for the most minimal body fat percentage. 12% for women and 3% for men is bodybuilding competition level; it looks like hell, and requires an intensive regiment to maintain. It’s also the cut-off where most people will experience serious health problems if they try to reduce body fat further. The beautiful and functional bodies of lean elite athletes are between 5-13% for men and 14-20% for women.
More muscle is always good, but there’s no need for anyone to obsess with getting ultra-lean. If you need to gain pounds to be healthier, stronger, and look better, some of them are going to be fat, and that’s fine. I think you’re forgetting that there are still some people out there who have trouble keeping fat on their bodies.
I’ll always have more fat and muscle in my lower body, but my upper body is also gaining both muscle and fat and looks 110% better.
What do you define as ‘more fat than the body needs to maintain good health’? I am aiming for meat on my bones and a normal body fat percentage - I am very lean, have always had ‘athletic’ body fat for a woman and good muscle definition. I’m still underweight, even after putting on 15 lbs in the last two years by eating more and working out. Health is very important to me, but I’m inclined to think that my health can only benefit from having a more normal level of body fat.
There is no evidence that it’s healthy for people to strive for the most minimal body fat percentage. 12% for women and 3% for men is elite bodybuilding competition level; it looks like hell, and requires an intensive regiment to maintain. It’s also the cut-off where most people will experience serious health problems if they try to reduce body fat further. The beautiful and functional bodies of most lean athletes are between 5-13% for men and 14-20% for women. For women to be fertile and carry a pregnancy, 20-25% is recommended.
More muscle is always good, but there’s no need for anyone to obsess with getting ultra-lean. If you need to gain pounds to be healthier, stronger, and look better, some of them are going to be fat, and that’s fine.
I think you are forgetting that there are still people out there who tend to be leaner than is optimally healthy. Not many of us left.
If someone’s eating a healthy diet - like the foods outlined in the updated USDA food pyramid, and yet still underweight (“underweight” as far as what’s ideal from a health standpoint), they should see a doctor, investigate possible medical condition.
Okay, so what if you do that multiple times, and your doctor’s conclusion is that you are healthy as a horse but have a ‘fast metabolism’ and are going to need to eat a *lot *and strength train in order to put on any weight? And putting on weight, for the sake of strength, fertility, general health, and bone mass, is recommended?
You do need to find a way to use heavier weight. You will have better muscle gains and the heavier weight will benefit your bone mass.
Try garage sales, Craigslist, used sporting goods stores or ask around. Almost all weight sets get used for a week or two and wind up taking up space and the owners would love to get rid of the set.
Make sure your diet is as calorie dense as possible, you need the excess calories for muscle growth plus the fat storage you want.
You may need to cut back the aerobic work. It can really inhibit muscle growth, even more so in a lean, “hard gainer” like you.
I’m a member at BodyweightCulture. If you cannot get a barbell and you have no access to a gym, try a local park that has a jungle gym or school with pull up bars. There’s a ton on exercises that are stressful enough to stimulate muscle growth. You will need to register to access all the routines but it’s free and I’ve never been spammed from there.
Thanks! I can’t cut back on the aerobic stuff unfortunately. I am in a training program to be certified as a yoga teacher (but a lot of that is bodyweight stuff), I work on my feet, I have dogs to walk, and I never walk or bike for fun but I don’t drive a car, so I rely on my own power to get where I need to go. However, I am more active in general than I have ever been, and I am at my highest weight ever as of the last two weeks, so I’m confident I’ll continue to make some progress as long as I get those calories in. I have no plans to be a normal-sized human, I’m less than 10 lbs away from my goal.
Getting a barbell with some plates is on the top of my list, and craigslist is the best place to get them cheap. But I have zero dollars to spend right now.
You need protein and carbs after a heavy workout. There’s about a two hour window where absorption is at it’s most efficient.
Aim for a ratio of 1g protein to 4g of carbs. Milk is excellent, chocolate milk even better.
If you want, eat a light snack an hour before like a bagel and a banana. Blood is diverted to the working muscles when exercising heavily so you don’t want a lot of bulk in your stomach.
My personal strategy is to always train two hours after a hefty meal. This way I start the session with lots of energy but no digestive discomfort. After the workout I’m ready for the post-workout drink, which is basically a liquid meal high in carbs and protein. Whole foods don’t get absorbed near as fast, so the two-hour window may close before the nutrients get much past the stomach, especially if one waits to get home and whip something up after the workout instead of having a liquid meal at hand in the gym.
So, you need to eat both before and after working out. Training on empty is a bad idea for muscle growth (and training enthusiasm!), and failing to re-feed post-workout wastes much of the potential for development from the training session. After all, training by itself only tears muscle down. Food and rest is where the muscle building happens.
One thing that often breaks a budding strength training regime is not enough challenge. It’s common to see people churning the same exercises with the same weight week after week. But the human body adapts to a particular motion with particular resistance surprisingly fast, within a handful of workouts. After that, no more muscle growth happens. Alongside eating enough, this is one of the harder parts of gaining muscle. You need to challenge yourself on a regular basis, you have to be bold and inventive towards the barbell. I try to make it so I enter the weight room slightly intimidated. Do I have it in me to make it through my personal goals for this workout? Failing to do this would have stalled my progress years and massive poundages ago. Once a workout is easy, it’s no longer useful.
A beginner doesn’t have to stress himself with challenging, inventive workouts. He will get mighty sore from doing a few basic bodyweight or low-poundage free weight exercises. The beginner only needs to be consistent to prep his body for real work (joints and tendons take a bit more time than muscles). But this changes after several weeks to a couple of months of basic work. Realizing this is what separates the succesful trainee from the one selling his little-used weight gear at Craigslist.
Actually, typical bodybuilding routines involve reps in the 6-10/12 rep range with a high number of sets spread over several different exercises for each muscle group/body part.
Reps at 90% max are usually only 2-3 reps and are used to gain strength with little size increase.
Further, the 90% max sets were taken to failure. Most beginner-level barbell programs recommend 3 sets of 5 reps, and never recommend going to failure. Furthermore, calculating the 1 rep max of a beginner is a meaningless exercise. Beginners adapt to weight training very quickly, and it’s not uncommon for their work sets to increase by 10-20 lbs between workouts when they’re just beginning, depending on the exercise (especially squats and deadlifts).
