Starting out today on a weight gain diet

Hi,

I am 30 and i am around 129 lbs. I was depressed and did not eat at all but now i want to get myself back so wanted to take some extra measures to get back to my orginal weight.

I am trying to get to 150 lbs. How many calories should i target to go for everyday. I also wanted to know if it would be a good idea to step up the carolie intake slowly or just start out at the target value.

Please do advise.

Thanks

Remo

Hello Remo. [: Can I ask what your stats are? Gender and height, how many calories on average you would eat a day previously and how fast you would like to put the weight back on? Generally you should start with around 2500 calories a day, but it's easier to make a judgement with your stats.

Hi,

I am 5' 8" male and honestly i do not have a clue of how many calories would i have previously. Most of the days it would be a cup of milk (2%) and then a late dinner which would be some chicken and rice. i guess i want to see some changes in atleast 2 months. i am not sure if i would be able to get to my target weight in that much time.

I am also trying to look for things to eat which would be higher in calories.

thanks for the prompt reply

remo

Ouch. Okay, your calorie intake was quite low. I understand how ravaging depression can be, though, so don't fret. :] You should probably make smallish bounds up into the higher calorie ranges as your stomach may have shrunk along with the smaller food intake. Aim for about 1500 initially (the lowest recommended intake for an adult male) and then make increases every day, or every other day - whatever sits comfortably with your stomach. 

As you're quite tall and male you'll ultimately want to be eating at around 2500-3000 calories and then taking it from there based on gain. You will initially gain some weight at first - this will likely be water retention, and will ultimately flush out over time. You'll probably experience a little bloating, but this will also pass. Eating regular snacks/meals throughout the day (5-6 on average) helps ease that, as do peppermint based teas or peppermint oil capsules. They were a lifesaver for me, heh. :D

Start out with high-calorie, low density foods. These include nuts and nut butters, avocados, dried fruits, healthy oils like olive oil, wholegrain pastas, sugary fruits like grapes and bananas (to a lesser degree) and many more. Ice cream is also easy on the stomach if you can tolerate dairy. :] Oh! And a good suggestion generally made is to switch up to whole-fat dairy. Right now, your body will probably be happy for the fats.

There's a great list of high calorie foods sticked in the forum if you need more ideas, and there's a list of high calorie recipies lurking about too. One last suggestion I'd make is to invest in some decent weights or start lifting - putting on muscle while gaining helps to rev your metabolism back up to working speed alongside your higher intake. I hope this helps! ^___^

Remo,

How active are you?  Excercise at all?

Your BMR is a smidge under 1530, meaning you'll burn that many calories every day by just taking up space. 

I'm not sure gaining 20 lbs in 2 months is very healthy as far as the speed goes.

A sedentary person with your stats would have to consume 2600 calories a day for 16 weeks to hit 150 lbs.  To accomplish this in 8 weeks, the person would have to consume ~3400 calories every day of the week.

Here are some numbers that might put things in perspective:

Caloric intake: 3500

Week 0
Sedentary - 129 lbs
Lightly Active -129 lbs
Moderately Active - 129 lbs
Very Active - 129 lbs

Week 2
Sedentary - 135.619 lbs
Lightly Active - 134.552 lbs
Moderately Active - 133.487 lbs
Very Active - 132.424 lbs

Week 4
Sedentary - 142.043 lbs
Lightly Active - 139.91 lbs
Moderately Active - 137.80 lbs
Very Active - 135.70 lbs

Week 6
Sedentary - 148.276 lbs
Lightly Active - 145.099lbs
Moderately Active - 141.955 lbs
Very Active - 138.845 lbs

Week 8
Sedentary - 154.325 lbs
Lightly Active - 150.105 lbs
Moderately Active - 145.948 lbs
Very Active - 141.852 lbs

Unfortunately these numbers aren't exact because of biological factors, but they are a good estimate of where you'd be in 8 weeks with a 3500 calorie consumption rate.

Hope it helps for motivation!

Hi,

I usually drive to work which is 20 miles away and the work involves sitting on a desk.

I did not always weight less and wanted to change the decline and hence have turned to a diet but my problem is that i have never been on a diet before in life so i am hearing a lot of new terms like " weight increase due to water retention" , burn rate... and i do not understand them. I do try to google them and that is helping too.

I certainly do not want to be a couch potato and put on wait and there by open the door to some other problems.

I set a target of 20 lbs in 2 months as a number to go for but honestly i would not go for it if it is unhealthy.

So please let me know what should be a good enough target.

I have also been advised to get into lifting weight and would start doing it too.

I know this mail may sound as a totally confused person but that is how i feel. I dunno why on earth did i let it dip down to this but i just want to change it and i want to do it right too.

Please advise.

Thanks for all the help and advice