I want to gain weight. anyone else?

I am new to this site, but unlike most of you (I presume), I'm not here to lose weight, but to gain weight.  I've been underweight my whole life (25 yr old male, 5'7", 129 lbs) and I'm kind of sick of it.  I'm an ectomorph (genetically skinny, hard to gain weight, etc.) so I understand that I will never be HUGE or anything.  I just want to gain about 30 pounds, mostly muscle, but I'm not worried about a little fat either.

On June 1st I started a new diet which consisted of me eating anything I could (2500-3000 calories a day), but I'm making sure that a good 90% of what I'm eating is "healthy" and/or consists of good fats (peanut butter, nuts, cottage cheese, etc.).  Along with this diet I am also running 2-3 miles 3 times a week and I'm also weight training.  A month has past and so far I have gained 5 pounds, although I haven't really noticed any new muscle/tone.  I guess I have to be patient for that.  But I'm just happy I gained 5 pounds and hope to gain more in the coming months.

What really gets me is that people often don't realize that being an underweight guy is very similar to being an overweight guy (or girl).  It is not the ideal of what our society (fueled by media) considers to be "goodlooking".  People often say to me, "you're so lucky, you never have to worry about gaining weight."  I just wish more people would understand that being underweight (especially for a guy) isn't that great.

So anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else here is trying to gain weight, and if so, do you have any suggestions or tips on how to healthfully gain weight?

I sympathize, but if it makes you feel better, I (and a lot of girls!) find skinny boys very attractive. Maybe you just need a boost of confidence? :)

But of course it's great that you want to gain weight for health reasons. Best of luck!

You dont want to eat anything... you dont want to put on fat...

Instead, you need to go higher protein and work on muscle growth.

Put in correct sleeping and enough workouts to really breakdown the muscles (along with enough protein to rebuild) and you should see some nice results.

Cardio is good, but its not really for the types of things you are after (though its great for things like stamina).

i think skinny guys are hot too!

My bf wants to gain weight, too.  I don't know how much he weighs, and I really don't want to know.  But, he could use a good 30-40 lbs.  So, once you find a way please let me know.  We've been thinking about buying weight gain, but someone else from CC told me that it works, but at soon as you quit taking it, you lose all the  weight you've gained.

Good luck!

Hey dude i completely agree with u and i know how u feel. I am 18 years old. I weigh 52 kg and my height is 177 cm. I have a lot of friends in general but never a girlfriend. I want girls to see me for who i really am instead of my weight. However they dont. I would really like to gain at least 15-16 kg of muscle. What would I need to be doing to achieve this. I.e. what foods, what kind of weights etc. Thanks heaps.

We've been thinking about buying weight gain, but someone else from CC told me that it works, but at soon as you quit taking it, you lose all the  weight you've gained.

Its not just about eating something. If you simply start eating "bulking" foods, you will only get fatter (not good).

Those bulking foods are normally just foods with higher protein percentages (and thats what the body is going to really need to put on muscle).

Ok, think of muscle as calluses... you know, how the skin on your hands or other part of your body start to get thicker as you handle things you arent used to.


Building muscle is VERY much like this, only instead of it being your skin, its the entire muscle that is breaking down and then rebuilding stronger.

So? How do you do this? Well, its really easy...just break down the muscles. There are different types of breaking down though, if you do lots of repetitions at lower weight...you arent as much working on breaking down the muscle as you are working on stamina and strength (so this is more towards wearing down the carb supplies in the muscles, like bikers do...the reason you see them eating pasta and those types of foods before races).

You want to focus on pushing the muscles towards things they arent used to (IE: weight). You can get a lot done with just your own body weight (at least for the first parts of building muscle)...then you can even buy a set of hand-held weights that you can do a wide range of workouts with (a bench is handy for some of the workouts).

Then your going to need lots of protein to allow the muscles to rebuild... and this is where it becomes more dependent on what you are doing. The more muscle groups and the more damage you do, the more protein you need to rebuild.

At the start, you wont need as much (you simply wont have as much muscle mass that is being broken down each time). But as you keep going, it doesnt hurt to boost protein / calories (bodybuilders can eat 5,000+ calories a day when they are bulking...but his wont be the case for someone starting. Again, the person just wont have the same mass of muscle that is needing to be rebuilt).

So....basically....lift heavy things and eat protein :)

Hey I was wondering how many calories are contained in my diet overall:

I eat: Breakfast

2 eggs

2 toasts

orange juice x 1 glass

peanut slab x1

Lunch:

Pasta

Pura Milk- chocolate milk.

Dinner:

Steak

Pudding with ice cream

Later on: Ice Tea

My bf is trying to gain weight and he said that weigh protein is really good to take while you're lifting.  I would look into that.  It's helped him gain weight.

I want to try and put on 14 kg. How long would this take me if i ate 3500 calories a day and lifted weights everyday?

i want to gain weight too. i was about 80 pounds at 5'7 and now im up to about 95. its not easy cuz your metabolism starts getting used to eating a lot and you have to keep eating/drinking even more to gain. i reccomend ensure or boost plus. they have 350 calories per bottle. im supposed to be having like 6 a day. i'd also reccomend doing some weight lifting and eating things that are small but high in calories like peanut butter. good luck with gaining weight! im here with you! :)

and to skinny dude, you should gain about 3 pounds a week at the most.. idk the conversion right now from pounds to ounces

To gain weight you need to do the same thing one would do to lose weight......slowly and steadily push your body into a calorie surplus or deficit. In weight gain situation you need to consume about 300-700 extra calorie a day over your normal physiological and daily activity needs. If you need 2500 calories a day just to live and function as normal given your job and general physical activity that would be you need 3000-3200 calories to gain weight.

Now to make sure its the good weight or muscle weight and not fat then you must be doing some kind of consistant 3-4 days per week resistance training program every week to give the muscle and the body reason to use the extra calories buy putting them to good use via energy expenditure and muscle anabolism (building muscle tissue). Train the body in a upper/lower body split routine fashion or a push/pull fashion to give a rest to the muscles worked. So basicly what you do is add in some extra proteins through out the day from lean meats especialy! This has a the highest biological use in the body for muscle growth. Others are good to such as fish, lean beef, chicken, turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, whey protein powders, tuna etc. Adding in just one of these foods a few times a day will supply your body with the needed high quality proteins it will need.

Dont ommit carbs though either, they will be needed as well to fuel you through the weight training, best options to avoid fat gain are complex carbs like whole grain breads, brown rice, yams, whole wheat bagels, whole grain english muffins, low fat granola, these wont be stored as fat like other high glycemic, proccessed carbs tend to do.

The use of whey proteins mixed with high glycemic carbs right after a hard weight training session can do wonders for kick-starting and maximizing the muscle building process and cutting off the muscle breakdown process (a major issue for many skinny guys). Taking 25-35 grams of whey protein isolate with 50-75 grams of high glycemic carbs like gatorade, white bread, white bagels, jam, white potato, cream of rice, frosted flakes etc, are good combos to promote muscle growth and stop muscle breakdown.

To make the most of weight training one should lift heavier weights in the 6-10 rep range for sets of 3-4 per exercise. Choose only exercises  that work many big muscles at a time, this will give rise to more testosterone release, growth hormone release, muscle activation and strength gains. Dont do little bicep curls and calf presses if you wont whole body weight gain and muscle mass improvements. Sqauts, bench presses, deadlifts, shoulder press etc, big lifts with big weights and and always use good form as well. To many skinny guys use light weights and high reps and stay super ripped without every getting bigger or stronger by choose the wrong weights and the wrong lifts every workout.

Summary:

1. more calories from lean proteins and complex carbs      &nbs p;       & nbsp;      &nbs p;

2. exercise with weights 3-4 days a week with core exercises and heavier weights in the 6-10 rep range of 3-4 sets

3. limit cardio to just 3 days a week for 30-40 minutes to prevent excess calorie burning and muscle fiber transformations

4. always, always do weights before cardio to maximize hormone output!

I am an NSCA-CPT, CSCS as a well as a NESTA-FNS, I also have my degree in Kinesiology from UW-Milwaukee

I am a private professional fitness specialist and strength coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. I compete and coach natural bodybuilders and figure athletes.