Thread: Any tips for a slow weigh gainer?

Post your diet.

Well I havent created one yet. I have been working out only for a few weeks, went out and got a Olympic Bench and Steel plates. And the only real adjusting I have done is added more fruit to my diet, and joined the forum I bought some ripped fuel, but I think this will only take off weight. May use it to cut later. When I was younger, around 24 I tried mega mass, and it didnt work well for me, but like I say, until my early thirties, I always stayed around 130-135.

Any suggestions?

Well you don't grow out of nowhere. You have to eat to grow.

Post a typical daily meal plan

Humm.. I dont eat as much in the morning. Maybe cereal, sometimes, eggs bacon. Fried potatos. At night usually around 5 -6 p.m. I eat pork steak, mash potatos. That kind of stuff. I eat so many different things all the time, its hard to post an actual "diet". I dont drink soda much, I do drink quite a bit of coffee. I usually work out at night, around 10p.m. This probably isnt what you are looking for but maybe it will give you an idea.

Well looking at what you have posted that would be why you aren't gaining weight.

Ok lets look at it this way. What did you eat yesterday.

Ok, I know it looks obvious, but No matter what I eat, I can eat all the time and my metabolism leans me out, yesterday I didnt eat breakfast, I got up and had to run, yesterday evening I had, baked chicken breast, mashed potatos, corn, and green onion. My only hope seems to be the fact that within the last year I starting gaining.

so all you had was chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and green onion and expect to gain weight.

If gaining weight is that big of an issue for you. Start being more serious with your eating habits. You will be suprised with the result, and can then make adjusments when things aren't working out the way you like.

But if you just eat whatever whenever... and skip meals. You have nothing to reference to change things and make improvements.

Everyday is different, I snack throughout the days, most of the time. I generally do not keep up with what I eat. So its hard to recall, I eat all the time, I am sure its not too healthy, thus the reason I am here! I have only recently started to get into a workout routine. And only now trying to take inventory of what I eat. But like I said, my whole like I havent been able to gain,.. Lets try this a different way. What can a person eat if he want to work out without taking away from his stored body resources?. and maybe in the process gain some excess?

Check the stickies at the top of the D & N page. They are valuable tool, for someone like yourself. You may also want to keep track of your diet and Cals per day.

www.fitday.com is decent. It will probably open your eyes as to why you aren't gaining weight.

Well my body burns off calories fast. My dad had the same build. I will start logging what I eat and see if this helps. One step at a time.

Originally Posted by Lexluther

Well my body burns off calories fast. My dad had the same build. I will start logging what I eat and see if this helps. One step at a time.

Everyone who doesn't eat enough says that. My buddy Chris was 135-140 lbs. 6' for the past 10 years. He's been skinny as a rail his whole life and always bitched about being the skinny kid. He said "No matter what I eat I can't gain weight." I told him for the next month eat what I eat when I eat it. Needless to say in a few months time he went from 140 to 160. Read the stickies, put a plan together, and skip to it!

Originally Posted by Lexluther

Well my body burns off calories fast. My dad had the same build. I will start logging what I eat and see if this helps. One step at a time.

<-----140lb@5'10" when I graduated from high school. Am now 197 and climbing fast. If you ate what I ate there is no way in fucking hell you wouldn't gain some weight. It may not be all good weight, cuz I go overboard with the cals at times, but you would gain weight.

I thought your metabolism guaged how much you weigh. If your metabolim is high, you body burms what it needs, then discards the rest. I was told, the olny way to gain weight,. or lose it for that matter, is change your metabolism.

Originally Posted by Lexluther

I thought your metabolism guaged how much you weigh. If your metabolim is high, you body burms what it needs, then discards the rest. I was told, the olny way to gain weight,. or lose it for that matter, is change your metabolism.

Metabolism: The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.

The commonly reffered to metabolism of a person usually refers to the basal metabolic rate....or the rate at which calories are burned for energy. If you have a high metabolism you must eat more to gain weight. Calories from some sources of food are more likely to be excreted but for the most part, calories are used or stored.

So if your body burns 3000 cals a day then you need to eat more than 3000 cals a day to gain weight....it's that simple.

So if you aren't gaining weight now, eat more than you are currently eating.

Originally Posted by Lexluther

I thought your metabolism guaged how much you weigh. If your metabolim is high, you body burms what it needs, then discards the rest. I was told, the olny way to gain weight,. or lose it for that matter, is change your metabolism.

Food for thought. A change of diet can change your metabolism. More small meals vs a few large meals with the same cal's can effect your MET.

I will work on this. I had tried Mega Mass, and might have gained 4lbs. When I quit taking it, I lost it. But this is new info I didnt know. I didnt know about the small meals vs. large meals. So are there any food to avoid? .. I have a thing for cinnamon rolls, they should have lots of calories right?.. In this day and age, everythings bad for you I was just wondering.

Originally Posted by Lexluther

I will work on this. I had tried Mega Mass, and might have gained 4lbs. When I quit taking it, I lost it. But this is new info I didnt know. I didnt know about the small meals vs. large meals. So are there any food to avoid? .. I have a thing for cinnamon rolls, they should have lots of calories right?.. In this day and age, everythings bad for you I was just wondering.

You can get lots of calories from healthy foods too ya know....and if you are a hardgainer, a bunch of small meals might not cut it....My smallest meal is around 600 cals...and it's considered a snack.

See thats the thing. I am getting into working out, I dont know all the healthy foods I need, and the calories they have. I like fruit, and try to eat it whenever I can.. I drink more water than I ever have. Thanks

Originally Posted by Lexluther

See thats the thing. I am getting into working out, I dont know all the healthy foods I need, and the calories they have. I like fruit, and try to eat it whenever I can.. I drink more water than I ever have. Thanks

Well a good start is just to eat foods with lots of carbs and protein in them. But remember, lots of calories...if you are getting lots of carbs and protein but are still eating only enough calories to maintain....then you will do just that.

Wow this guy doesn't say squat about anything.
"post your diet"
"it changes daily"
"post what you ate one day"
"i eat alot"

: /

TO be abit more useful

Almonds - i like them before sleep as they have some other goodies like Mg2+ in them - nice bit of protein, whack of good fats, fats are calorie dense

Eggs - any time of the day - excellent source of protein, nice load of fat

cottage cheese - before sleep

Rice - somewhere in the day?

banana's! drink more milk! Just eat good food but lots of it !

I thought fat was bad!!! I am confused. My diet has no shape. I eat pretty much what I want when I want to. Thats the problem, I cant remember what I ate 2 days ago. Like I said a few times now, I am new to this, until recently I never took note of anything I ate really, as far as making it noteworthy. I am now paying a little attention to my diet. I am looking up things I eat to see what their calorie content is, I have a bag full of granola bars, looked up there nutritional value up, etc.

On a different note, how long should you go between workouts(for each particular muscle group) in order to let your body rest? Thanks.

That is the problem. The media has scared people to believe fat is the problem...much like carbs nowadays.

Fats are an important part of a healthy diet. Poly unsaturated and Mono unsaturated fats are an important part. Ideally these fats should make up 25-30% of your daily cals.

The biggest concerns with fats is Saturated fats, and hydrogenated oils.

So what about cholesterol..? This is always bad, right? I am having to unlearn some things it looks like. I was always told, eating before bed was bad also... I know it doesnt seem like I know jack about body building nutrition, and I guess I dont , but I am listening to what you all are saying, and trying to build on it.

Dietary cholesteral generally has negligble impact on choleteral levels, unless genetically predisposed.

Personal cholesteral levels are a result of a diet high in saturated fats, and lack of cardiovascular exercise.

You come to my shop, over in Health, Lex.

I've unraveled what I believe to be the physiological issues behind the hardgainer (ectomoprh) somatype - at the molecular level. We can talk common traits of lifestyle and behavioral issues that are part of the problem, and then talk about solutions.

I have a couple hundred very keen hardgainers on another forum who I worked with to develop an conceptural model of this functional phenotype. Most of them are using diet and exercise recommendations that fit their current CNS condition; the program helps to modify the CNS response chemistry to slowly push the expressed phenotype back into a mesomorph somatype.

================================================== =======

Cholesterol biosynthesis biochemistry and gene controls are pretty well elucidated at this time. "Cholesterol balance is maintained by a series of regulatory pathways that control the acquisition of cholesterol from endogenous and exogenous sources and the recycle of endogenous cholesterol, facilitated by its conversion to bile acids and recovery from gut. Over the past decade, investigators have discovered that a family of membrane-bound transcription factors, sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs), mediate the end-product repression of key enzymes of cholesterol biosynthesis. Recently orphan members of another family of transcription factors, the nuclear hormone receptors, have been found to regulate key pathways in bile acid metabolism, thereby controlling cholesterol balance."

Note, for instance, that insulin is known to regulated lipid metabolism, and that various natural steroids and physterols also play a role in activation of AP-1, a nuclear receptor transcriptional regulator that also controls sterol regulatoryt binding elements.

Source: THE ROLE OF ORPHAN NUCLEAR RECEPTORS IN THE REGULATION OF CHOLESTEROL HOMEOSTASIS. Joyce J. Repa and *David J. Mangelsdorf. Ann. Review Cell Develop. Biol. 16: 459-481 (2000).