Serious athletes? Trying to gain weight?

I'm hesitant to post here but so far this site has been almost exactly what I'm looking for and I'm hoping to find some other people here in my position.

I'm 6'5'', 19, and a Division-I baseball player for a southern college. I'm in extremely good shape but my weight has held me back for the past few years. I've hovered around 180 lbs. since 2005, and with the lifting and conditioning program in college, there's no chance of putting on fat. I just can't seem to keep myself motivated to eat enough to gain weight. If I could get myself to eat enough every day, I know I would put on muscle weight instantly. I want to hit 220 by the middle of the summer, ideally. I'm relatively comfortable with my body, so my primary motivation is to help my pitching career. (Injury prevention, velocity increase, better scout profile, etc.)

Anyone else here using this site to keep them on track to gain weight? Serious weight like me? Any other college athletes? Any success stories so far? Any secret healthy calorie-motherload meals/shakes? Lemme know. Go Phillies.

500 before?  I hope not immediately before, that seems like it wouldn't sit well.  I usually have a meal, wait about 2 hours, and then hit the gym, followed by about 200 calories immediately after.

Original Post by trillian129:

500 before?  I hope not immediately before, that seems like it wouldn't sit well.  I usually have a meal, wait about 2 hours, and then hit the gym, followed by about 200 calories immediately after.

 I allow at least an hour before I work out. If I'm just doing cardio, I knock it down to 250 before and then load up with 400 after.

Original Post by trillian129:

I guess I should have been more specific.  Male, ice hockey, not currently playing.  I also had 2 specific questions: how big (calorie-wise) is a good breakfast for workout days and for off-days, and how many calories should i be taking in after working out for like 40 minutes at the gym?  Thanks.

Your breakfast, in my opinion, should be about a fifth of your day's total calorie intake. So for me, I'll get in a bagel w/ cream cheese, bowl of cereal w/ whole milk, glass of orange juice, a banana, and bacon/ham/sausage/etc. for about 1,000 calories.

I don't really worry about what I specifically eat before a workout as long as I have enough in me (i'm weird: i like to feel kinda full when i lift/run). And right after I can't eat a lot of food so I don't worry about calories. Instead I throw back a Gatorade and a protein shake (EAS Myoplex is good). The shakes are important to get into your system soon after a lift to help the flush-and-build cycle get going. Then within a couple hours I'm starving and try to get in my biggest meal.

Thanks a lot for all the help...just one more thing.  Is there a good amount of surplus calories to shoot for each day, or should I just try to get in as much as possible?

You should ask around elsewhere for other people's opinions on this too, but I would say around 1,000 calories per day is a very good surplus. It can be difficult to eat that much food depending on how much you think you're burning each day, so just try it for a few days and see how you feel. Anything more than 2,000 calories over is probably going to be counterproductive. Regardless of how much you work out, there's a limit to how quickly your body can convert everything into muscle weight.

Again, that's just what I've gathered so far, other people might suggest something different.

sometimes when you try to take in too many calories, you can get bloated and really uncomfortable, but everyone is different so try a different number of calories for a few days and see what works for your body =)

 

and hillpitcher, since you didn't answer my question i take it your not a red sox fan huh? lol. oh well, as long as you dont like the yankees...

Original Post by jessikkaa_x3:

and hillpitcher, since you didn't answer my question i take it your not a red sox fan huh? lol. oh well, as long as you dont like the yankees...

Haha I hoped you wouldn't make me answer that... While I respect Beckett for being possibly the filthiest pitcher in baseball right now, I'm from outside Philadelphia. And you know how those Philly fans are, we hate everyone else lol.