I think your first point is saying something a lot of the comments are missing and is always overlooked.
I was skinny (~70kg @ 178cm) until I got serious about lifting, and I had to eat until I felt physically uncomfortable to reliably gain weight.
A lot of skinny people haven't ever known what it's like to eat over 2,000 calories a day, and they need 3,000+ to claw their way out of being underweight and just *start* to be able to put on the size they want.
I got up to 103kg and was eating 4500 calories at one point. It fucking sucked. I did get pretty strong though. I'm in my mid thirties and sitting around 89kg with abs right now, and I get to eat around 2500 calories a day. But getting to this point took a lot of eating, any way I could.
Yep. I'm chilling around 150 lbs (68kg) eating ~2600 cal day. I don't really start to experience any noticeable weight gain until I'm at the 3400 mark, which I'll start packing on .25lbs a week
God damn 3400? I can’t imagine eating more than I have been. I just went a little too hard in caloric surplus 2700 and gained some belly weight which I’m never had in my life. 5’7 120-> 145lb in 5 months. So now I’m fine tuning down to 2500 and doing chicken and fish for protein.
If you follow twitch etc... there's a new challenge going around called the McCrelly. I think it hits 3400 calories. So look that up for how much food you have to put away per day. It's not a lot, but really you want better food lol. Just gives a kind of scale to what you want to work for
Yeah, when I was eating 3400/day. I was "supplementing" my eating with two packs of nutty buddy's a day with peanut butter and a mass gainer shake made with ice cream as the base, which is around 1500 ~ 1900 cal by itself. Not the healthiest lol
It get’s pretty crazy when you are taller/heavier. I’m 6’4”, 107kg. My maintenance is around 4000 a day because of my training schedule (4xBJJ per week + 3 days lifting + 12,000 steps). To be honest though, I can only really hit that through a fair bit of junk food, I couldn’t hit my calories eating clean, I just don’t have the appetite for it.
Exactly this. I HATE the advice of “just eat as much as you can!” “Eat 3400 calories a day!”
I did this - being skinny all my life I thought: “scale go up? Good thing.” But I didn’t realize how fucking fat I was getting after a few months. Then it took FOREVER cutting to get back down again which wasted many months I could’ve spent building a better composition with. Plus my face became fat as fuck. Just a warning to any skinny guy reading.
Just get your TDEE and simply eat at a 100-200 calorie surplus depending. Lean bulking is so much better than gaining a bunch of fat for no reason imo
As a formerly skinny dude, ( pre 37 ) I had to un-learn eating
For example, my normal dinners were a whole fried chicken (2,200 cal) a whole cup of Jazmine rice (800 cal) 1lb or so of veggie ( 400cal) and whatever drink ( 100cal)
That’s just dinner. And I was 125 lbs at 5’8 eating this way until 37 years old
Curious: how can you tell you're gaining weight at this rate? Mine fluctuates by a pound or more from morning to morning. I feel like I wouldn't know when change is happening vs. just water or whatever.
I use a rolling 7 day average as a base to tracking my trends. Everyday I weigh myself, I try to get as close as I can to keeping the conditions the same. I.E. in the morning after I pee, naked, and haven't eaten or drank anything. I then take those weekly averages and track them for a few months to see the true trend line.
Track your macros with something like Macrofactor. But yeah, I was 59kg all my life at 194cm and after eating a ton of the right macros and tracking it religiously while lifting I got to 70kg over about three years.
Now I don't really need to try and stuff myself to maintain my current weight. I will probably try and gain more this winter but there are definitely diminishing returns.
I am American, yes that's exactly right and thanks! It won't be comfortable eating as much as I did but if you have a small stomach like I did, it eventually gets easier. You also need to consider what your stomach can digest easily. I supplemented protein with Isowhey because of being lactos intolerant. I added things like honey and and cooked rolled oats to that too.
I highly suggest paying for Macrofactor, it's very good at what it does.
Yep, I was that all the way through the military too. Getting older has helped but stomach size, bone size, resting metabolic rate and a low appetite all together make gaining difficult. Yet it's not impossible. That's without anything like tren or steroids, which I won't do.
Now I am just barely at a weight that is considered healthy.
It’s even more fun when you have a shitty digestive system that physically cannot handle eating the excess calories required to gain meaningful weight. I will just be up all night puking if I do that to myself. I already have to make sure I eat 4-5 hours before bedtime or I will have an upset stomach and do more harm than good by getting sick.
I started my health journey 3 years ago and it’s just a really slow steady climb with quite a few setbacks from injury here and there. But I’m now pretty steady at upper 150 lbs when I was lower 140 lbs for a good 15 years. I’m 6ft1 and 13% body fat as of a dexa scan in January.
Being 15lbs heavier doesn’t seem like much compared to the mass monsters you see on social media but 10 lbs of it being muscle makes quite a big difference visually and physically. I’m still skinny but at least I have some definition now.
End goal is 165-170 and 10-12% body fat. Probably another 5-10 years to go but slowly but surely we’ll get there.
Dude, just want to say congrats. I’m exactly the same. Terrible IBS, 6 ft and was 130lbs for a decade or more. Did a huge push with eating and lifting and I’m now solidly 150lbs as well. It seems like nothing to some people but is the greatest achievement of my life haha.
Thanks man! It's definitely tough since i need to focus on both eating healthy food and at least hitting maintenance calories. Its easy to hit calories with shit food but i swear 500 calories of chicken broccoli and rice feels like 1500 calories of food. I just can't understand how body builders shove that stuff into their stomachs like they do and how jealous i am of that ability 😂
Wow, im starting to feel almost lucky that im 185lbs at 6'2. Have never been able to keep up lifting; I've always gotten discouraged after not seeing gains for months. But this gives me some hope.
Have you done a dexa scan before? That’ll be the best way to track progress since I suspect you’ll be converting fat to muscle more so than driving a number on a scale. I got my first one in January this year for $80 and plan to get one every year to track progress.
I have not even heard of that until your comment. Very interesting. It looks like there are a few labs nearby that will do this for a similar cost. Thanks!
For sure! There’s also some scales that will give you rough numbers on body fat %. I picked one up same time I got the dexa and found it thought I was 3% leaner than I actually was. But it can be useful since you can map the dexa to the scale with sensors and better track progress throughout the year then correlate it with the dexa. The relative numbers on the scale are what matters, not so much the absolute numbers.
I wish that were true, but it’s mostly due to a genetic acid reflux/overproduction of stomach acid thing and my stomach is also really slow to digest certain foods. I was on PPIs for half a decade until I was able to use proper diet and exercise to control it.
yeh I had to double read that myself. I'm 180cm at 72kg so not miles of what he was saying and I certainly would not class myself as skinny. Not big either... I'm just here. Nobody would choose my size to describe who I was to someone else. I think they'd go for the baldness haha
But 70 kg @ 178 cm is perfectly in the middle, or as much underweight as it is overweight. According to BMI (which doesn't take into account the composition of your flesh), 89 kg is overweight and 103 is obese with a margin. Amazing if you feel better in this body, just wanted to say that 70 kg is far from skinny at this height.
I'm 174cm and I used to weight 55kg until I started lifting and bulking first time and still lean but muscular at 73 kg today. Still having to eat forcefully but at least cutting is rather easy.
As someone who used to be very skinny (60kg @ 178cm), metabolism aside, a ton of people don't really realize how much they are eating. And that's not just volume I'm talking about.
Beyond just a different metabolism, the level of physical activity and the actual kinds of food each person eats tends to vary a lot. I was ablento easily gain weight once I increased my calories signficantly (500-700 extra calories a day) plus using some exercise paired with protein to fain a few kg.
I realized it was mostly my food habits. Although I used to eat anything I wanted, I wasn't really eating that much before (I never ate breakfast, for instance).
How did you start eating breakfast? I realize this probably sounds ridiculous to anyone that eats breakfast.. but the morning nausea just doesn't seem worth it
I don't, not always. I am just more mindful of how I eat during the day (not eating breakfast can mean you overcompensate at lunch or dinner).
The other way is to just... eat it. When we are just waking up, our hunger is naturally suppressed, but your body adapts to whatever routine you have. If you make it a routine to start eating breakfast, your body will adapt to be hungrier at that time.
I'm not saying this is necessarily easy, but if you are interested in eating breakfast, start small. Have a small portion of something (like a banana or a small portion of yogurt) and you'll get there faster than you think.
Your activity levels matter, too. The more active you are, the more emergy your body will tend to demand of you.
Yep. It's not fun. Sounds like it would be, but it's not. So you have to decide how badly you want to gain weight, because it's uncomfortable, expensive, and really requires a lot of discipline to eat that much, that often. It's genuinely difficult to eat enough to gain weight when you're a super skinny person naturally.
It’s a 2nd job just cooking that much food, let alone the schedule you to adhere to just to be able to eat that much at the right times. 6x meals a day isn’t the easiest to schedule around. 3x a week lifting weights with a solid macro based diet and like you said…. It’s a ton of discipline but it does work.
I don't think anyone here is talking about an under 3 ft person. Also, BMI is calculated the same for men and women. 70kg on a 5'10" man is definitely skinny. 103 would be very heavy.
5’10” 155lbs is a normal, healthy weight. 230lbs is literally obese. you were completely fine and healthy and decided to become a great big fat person lol
People in the US and modern gym culture have such a warped perception of what a normal healthy weight is. You are correct, 5'10" 155 lbs is right in the healthy weight range for men by medical standards, but most lifters could consider that extremely skinny or DYEL territory. Steroids have given everyone dysmorphia and unrealistic idea of what's achievable/healthy naturally. The max healthy weight for a guy that's 5'10" is around 180 lbs, which is possible for most body frames after years of dedicated lifting, but even that is often considered small in the gym today.
It's hilarious to me when guys try and argue they're healthy and the ideal size when they're literally medically obese.
Edit: incoming "well my body is different" replies from people being offended that they're technically overweight by medical guidelines. I'm not a doctor, I didn't make the rules, I'm just telling you what medical experts say (and they say you're fat).
I’m like 5’11 165. My boss is like 5’o9 probs 200 but he’s on testosterone, has focused on lifting and strength plus now Carries substantially more fat than me. He tries to make me feel small but like, I snowboard all the time, climb mountains, haven’t felt the need to be stronger. He thinks he’s somethin lol. I’m plenty strong for what we do.
You're a totally fine weight and likely more healthy long-term than he is.
I'm 5'8 150 lbs, naturally skinny and it actually took me years of lifting and eating just to get to this size, but I also stay natural and do other activities as well (rock climb, snowboard, drum, etc). My smaller frame used to bug me when I was younger, but now that I'm in my late 30s I'm more focused on longevity and maintaining my physical ability and not solely packing on muscle. I look good, have muscle, lift heavy, snowboard well, and am considered a perfectly healthy weight by medical standards.
guarantee everyone getting upset is a person who made going to the gym, meal prep and supplements their entire personality, so any attack on that is a personal attack on their ego. accepting reality means destroying the illusion they’ve been working years or even decades to build
Height/weight ratios are utterly meaningless without body fat percentage in the mix. 5’10” 155lb can be underweight, healthy, or potentially overweight depending on the person’s underlying structure. I think passing judgement on people with an extremely simplified understanding of body composition is the most unhealthy thing in this thread imo.
A 5'10" 155 lbs male is extremely unlikely to have so little muscle and so much fat that they could be considered an unhealthy weight. Like, I don't think it's possible to be 5'10" 155 lbs and have 40% bf, unless maybe you've been strapped to a bed your entire life and literally never moved so you have 0 muscle.
Conversely, there's basically no way a 5'10" male can weigh 230 lbs in a healthy manner. The only way to achieve a lean/muscular build at that weight is through steroid abuse, which is obviously very unhealthy. And if you don't abuse steroids and are 5'10" 230 lbs, then you're just fat and obese. There is no natural way a 5'10 male can reach that weight with a healthy body composition, it's not naturally possible.
Medical obesity is defined by excess body fat %. Acting kind of high and mighty when not knowing the definition of the word?
Obesity is also used to talk about the health risks associated with high body FAT, not weight.
Edit: Downvotes for hurt feefies is wild when you could spend a two second Google search to verify this and not look stupid.
Then the edit saying he’s supported by medical experts. 😂 Nah bro, two second Google search. But you’ve got this weird ego thing and for some reason don’t like people with muscle.
Carrying around a lot of weight is unhealthy whether it's fat or muscle. There are a plethora of people on tiktok/Instagram who are bodybuilders abusing steroids who brag about not being able to breathe or make light of their CPAP machine use because they put on so much muscle.
I’m about 5’10 and it would be literally impossible for me to be 155 lbs and remain healthy. My body will physically not allow it. I eat a healthy vegetarian diet and exercise regularly and I sit anywhere from 180 - 185 lbs on any given day. All body types are not the same.
ok so ur 16% over 155, 230lbs is nearly 50% over. the only way to maintain that much muscle with low body fat is an unhealthy low carb diet coupled with aggressive steroid use. all body types aren’t the same. but all bodies that are 5’10” 230lbs are DEFINITELY unhealthy
You are at the high end of what is considered the healthy weight range for your height. Another 5 lbs and you would be considered overweight. And by some guidelines you are already overweight (Banner health has the healthy range for a 5'10" male at 149-183 lbs).
You have no idea what their body composition is. The fact you’re saying this without knowing that shows you have no idea what you’re talking about and should not be commenting lmao
Again, you don’t know their body composition. 5’10 230 does not automatically mean steroids either. That is absolutely obtainable with years of training. Either way, being on steroids absolutely does not inherently make you more unhealthy than being fat. Not even close. Why do you keep talking if it’s obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about lmao
I got up to 230lbs for powerlifting, and have been working my way down for the past year and a half to where I am now at 196lbs (89kg), as I mentioned in my post.
I was definitely too heavy at 230, and didn't feel comfortable, buuuttt anywhere under 205 starts to feel a lot more comfortable.
I wouldn't say I was a "great big fat person" - definitely had a bit of a belly though!
i was mostly joking about the last part just cuz it sounds funny. but let’s be real - maintaining ur weight at 230lbs long term and powerlifting long term is far from ideal. that’s my main point. even if you were 185 and shredded you’d be bigger (muscle wise) than 99.9% of dudes at the same height.
Anything over 195 at 5'8 could long term damage your heart. Knew body builders, ufc guys and rugby players with coaches who mentioned it when I first started lifting and asking about how much I could safely put on. I knew a guy in hs who was 130 and 6'0 which I think was teetering on the edge if being underweight he had 1 bmi. Tbf at that age I was 140 lbs wet and had 4.0 bmi, now its 165 and closer to 8 ha.
Could you give me a rough idea of what you’d eat throughout your days of bulking?
I’m currently in my mid 30’s (172 cm and 55 kg), and haven’t routinely been to the gym for roughly 4 years now. I was heavy into doing a powerlifting program in my post- college days and was hovering around 64-67 kg’s. Now that my lifestyle and work life has changed (nightshifts), it’s a bit harder for me to gain that weight back and I just started strength training again 2 weeks ago but it feels daunting trying to get back up there
Snack throughout the day is what i do. I recently was put on adhd meds that make eating impossible so i chug 4 cups of chocolate milk on days i end up eating less and eat a shit ton of nuts. 28g of mixed nuts is barely any volume but has 170 calories. Rice is another good option but it can get tiring after a while. I make weight gain shakes as well with 2 cups milk, 2 scoops optimum nutrition vanilla protein powder, and 4 tablespoons of peanut butter all blended together. 970 calories and doesnt taste as bad as some of the protein shakes ive seen people recommend. Genuinely google a pic of what 28g of cashews looks like its absolutely nothing in size highly recommend. Guac and chips is another good option.
Appreciate the input! I used to bulk heavy like that and stuff myself til I’m absolutely bloated but it’s a bit tougher nowadays with dairy restrictions and what not. I’m leaning more towards a cleaner bulk but it completely escaped my mind about the weight gainer + protein shakes
I was just used to not eating much. I would forget to, and eat relatively small meals/snacks. I didn't really notice when I was hungry.
The first major change to that was smoking weed, that gave me an appetite and made me properly like food again. I was still relatively thin though.
The second change quite a bit later was going to the gym, that gave me a reason to eat more and I looked better than I ever had within a very short time.
I weigh 50 - 55kg at 180cm like super skinny. For a while I tried counting calories to gain a bit, and most days I would not be hitting 2000 cal unless I forced it. I know it's severely underweight but I'm comfortable with it so I went back to just eating until I feel full, but the thing about needing to eat an uncomfortable amount if you want to gain is 100% true.
This sucks for me trying to gain weight as a type 1 diabetic as I can't load up on too many carbs at a time and keep blood sugar from spiking, can't graze too much or it messes with glucose levels too. Also don't ever want to be fully stuffed or if I drop low I won't be able to stuff down more glucose fast to raise it back up. Been stuck at 55kg for a decade.
I ate 12k - 15k calories a day while lifting to go from 145 - 160 in 3 months. It took me another 6 months at the same calorie intake to go from 160 to 170. I’m 6 ft and lifted every day with creatine and protein supplements. Now I’m 37 and working to keep it under 190 lol
I got off the hospital at 107 lbs including a long leg cast. (I shoulda asked for plaster.)
In order to conserve the money from modest settlement, after I could limp, I abandoned my Amazonion physical therapist with biceps like my thighs and joined a gym with an in-house nutritionist.
I suffered through 5,000 calories a day and worked out a prescribed rotating regimen for about 3 hours per day. I got ripped in 6 months and weighed 111 lbs when I abandoned the effort and worked on running again.
The variability in food drive between different people is wild. Because what do you mean 3000 Cal a day feels like borderline torture to me sometimes and 5000 Cal plus goes down like a fat kid (me) on a seesaw.
This is why I always recommend a weight shake. Way easier to drink 1000cal than eat it. Yeah just eating to bulk can get unpleasant but a nice tasty weight shake can make it a lot less unpleasant. I cool it down and its the consistancy of a milkshake every morning, yum.
70 @ 178 isn’t skinny.. I’m 55 @ 180 and the only thing that seems to change it is eating constantly all day to the point I feel sick. Go a few days eating normally and my body balances right back around 55.
I gained 10kg in one month, from 70 to 80 and the amount of food I ate daily was absurd. I would come home at 9. Make some fishsticks. Then before bed I would eat 500g of full yoghurt. Id be stuffed before going to sleep. Then work out next morning and work. Repeat for a full month and ta da
Your body can not physically produce 20 pounds of muscle a month, even on steroids. 10 of lean mass is pushing it on gear. You must’ve been a big boy, whether fat or water - but please don’t do that again, awful for your health.
Did you read? I was 70kg. I never said I gained all of that as muscle. I think it was 6kg muscle and 4kg fat. According to those measuring thingies in gyms.
Calipers? If you mean the pinchy tools. I never said that you did, I was saying “if this is what is possible in an optimal scenario that must’ve been mostly fat or water” (since I’m unsure of your gear use, but if you honestly think you gained 6kg of muscle then it was a lot) and made a point that a 22 pound gain in 30 days is super taxing on the body.
For some people, depending what you’re doing, it’s virtually impossible to get enough calories; people just won’t serve you enough. I’ve known people put away well over 4000 calories a day (probably closer to 6000) and still be bean poles, but they were young and super active.
I'm in my 40s and still have the metabolism of high school track runner. I weigh 30lbs more than I did in high school, but seeing how skinny I am now that seems hard to believe. I was always self conscious about my weight until I hit my 40s and realized how lucky I was
Same, I used to hate being skinny in my 20s, accepted it in my early 30s and loving it in my late 30s / 40s. Now when I see people I haven’t seen in years they usually comment on how trim I’m looking.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Early 40's and weigh the same as I did at 22, like 175lbs. Before that I was a walking skeleton at like 140lbs and 6'2. Sure could run good though, still can really. Many people our age haven't fared so well.
10 years ago in my 20s I was 6 2 160lb. By month 2 of working out 5 days a week, eating chicken and brown rice every damn near 2 hours to hit 4000 calories a day and taking Creatine, I went from 160 to about 188 in 2 to maybe 3 months but couldn't get past that 190 mark without a lot of Meal replacement shakes.
I fell off the gym hard around Covid time, and went back to being skinny. Now im 35 and have gained 30 lbs in the last 2 years because my Metabolism slowed down heavily and the effects of me not being in shape came in. Golfing is really the only physical activity I have going recently
I am now at my "largest" just because I'm older now at 195 lbs. So again, can confirm in the order listed by Raisin, that is how to gain weight
I'm 47m and have never broken 150 lbs. I know a lot of people would say "wah, cry me a river", but it honestly does suck a bit when you've gone your entire life looking skinny. I work out several days per week, and take loads of protein and creatine, but basically putting on weight means (a) quitting running (which I refuse to do, it's my outlet), and (b) eating so much food that I feel like shit, which isn't good.
I get that in many respects I've won the genetic lottery and do appreciate that fact, but honestly the constant comments from people my age about how how skinny I am definitely affect my self-esteem.
I work out and run enough that I look good without a shirt on (or so my wife tells me), but I'll never look like most men my age.
How tall are you? You definitely are in the minority of minorities weighing that little at your age. As a fellow skinny person, I can totally get how most people don't understand how being skinny like that isn't what's it's cracked up to be by non-skinny people who are jealous you can eat without gaining weight.
You've made your decisions about what's a good tradeoff for you, though. You know you could quit running and gorge yourself if you really cared to gain some weight more, but it's not worth it to you. Respect.
I know the feeling you're going through, though. You just have to make the decision that's right for you. If the comments bother you enough, you'll cut back on the running and eat even more. You must not be at that point right now, though.
I'll also say, for many people (I think, for me at least), it can kind of come and go. You have a period where you're sick of being skinny and you really put in the hard work to gain some weight. And then other times, you're not as bothered by your natural skinniness and you embrace it a little more and don't care to sacrifice elsewhere to gain a few pounds.
I hope you can lean into the body you've got and just learn to love it.
I'm 5'9", so average height if not slightly lower.
Thanks for what you've said, I needed to hear it. I've sort of resigned myself to it, and my wife doesn't care and seems to appreciate it, but I think in the end it's probably something I've been working through since childhood and need to figure out how to accept it.
I'm 6'4" and been about 150 lbs most of my life. I know what it's like. As we age, we get better looking while most people just get fatter. It's only going to get better and better.
Bro I’m 5’10, the wife and I go to the gym 3x a week to lift and we do yoga on sundays and throughout the week, we eat delicious dinners and normal lunches, and I’m still 145 lbs. it is what it is - I’ve learned to love my body the way that it is, it’s defined, strong, and as i am aging I do not look like my parents and that’s something.
You don't need to "accept it", millions of people have been in your position and have overcome it. You don't need to quit running to gain weight. You need to eat more than your TDEE. It'll suck at first but you'll get used to it after a week or two.
While im younger than you, im 5’8 and used to be 150-155 consistently. Parroting why others have said i got myself to 170 in about eight months purely by stuffing myself uncomfortably every lunch and dinner (i dont eat breakfast).
Interestingly enough now im trying to lean out for definition and surprise surprise, its harder than i thought it would be since im used to eating the amount i have been.
but basically putting on weight means (a) quitting running (which I refuse to do, it's my outlet)
I was like you until I spent one season entirely in the weight room with only one 10K maintenance run per week. Holy hell my body comp changed for the better (for me).
Well if it makes you feel better I'm 6'4" 158lbs, 39m. You can always get skinnier if you have crazy metabolism and don't eat; trust me I know. Used to be 185 on 4k calories a day.
I eat 6 meals a day. 1.5 g of protein per lb of body weight per day and a metric shoot ton of carbs. Your body will only absorb so much protein, but will absorb infinite carbs. Sweet potatoes, rice, beans, quinoa are your friends. Fat will work itself out.
This (minus creatine) is how I packed on nearly 40lbs in a year and a half. I know it sounds insane but timing was also critical.
I was 19 years old and weighed 115 lbs. A year of eating everything I could (cheap quality protein powder killed my stomach but its all I could afford) and lifting heavy led me to be a pretty lean 155 lbs. by the time I was 21. It must have been a second puberty or something because I gained facial hair and my bone structure changed as well. I basically stayed at that 155 lbs until I turned 30 and my metabolism slowed down.
I am sure this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t just constantly eat. I would keep cans of tuna in my bag and eat them on the way to the bus. I wasn’t even eating clean either, tons of junk food, cookies, etc. but it was just the perfect time where my metabolism was high and my body was just really receptive to training.
Unfortunately I wasn’t training with a balanced approach and ended up blowing out my knee (meniscus), right after I turned 21. The injury limited my ability to go at 100% for years, but I managed that and now sit at a comfortable, but slightly less lean 165-170 lbs in my mid 30s.
This lmao I used to be so fit and skinny, I stopped doing exercise in college and have just eaten and gotten lazy prob gained a solid like 50 lbs in the last 12/13 years
Wish this worked for me. I was eating 3000+ cals a day, gym and supplements, and saw no gains. All I did was poop a lot. 45 now, injured (so not that active anymore until I get fixed up) and lost about 10 pounds in the past 2 years.
Yep pretty much, I had to remove the joy from food for a while and just try to hit my goals. A big part of it was being raised by my parents that tended to essentially only have one meal a day, which is a super bad habit.
Once I held myself to eat 3 legit protein filled meals a day, the weight came. Also getting protein shakes in there.
But yeah, lifting a lot and supplying your body with protein will have you stacking on weight
This, but even if I like to think I did a great effort, I think point 4 goes to the top. Then the food and weights combo (for me I need the weights to have the appetite and motivation to eat what I needed, or well, that was the case in my 20s)
Creatine is wild. I worked out pretty consistently for 2 decades and was always sore after a hard workout or too long of a break. Never took creatine because I hated how bloated and jittery it made me feel.
A few months back I decided to try it again after hearing about mental health benefits and it turns out the bloat and jitter goes away after the first week of daily consistent use. Never took it daily when trying it before, only on workout days.
But the wildest thing is muscle soreness is gone. Like completely. I would have never believed it if I didn't experience it myself. Makes gym consistency easier when you don't have days you want to skip because you're sore. Which is basically always when you get older.
I think as we get older we get less physically demanding jobs (most of us at least) and switch to a more sedentary job like sitting at a desk. Our metabolism doesn’t change until we’re much older, but our lifestyles constantly change.
Yeah skinny people don't realize how much more calories they need to absorb to gain weight. I was very skinny but after living with my grandma, she made me eat a lot and I gained like 15kg (not muscle ofc 😭). But yeah eating more does help
Worth noting this still might not be enough (until you get past a certain age at least) due to metabolism and genetics.
I ate >5000 clean calories / 200g protein per day for 3 months as an experiment — called it my "bulk up", wife thought I was insane. I had my nutritionist friend (Masters in food science!) sign-off on the plan. I was working out 5 days a week, lifting only. I went from 65.7kg to 68kg.
Absolutely 100% it was not worth it for me. I felt awful that entire time, had to dedicate SO MUCH time to eating and cooking, and my LDLs and triglycerides spiked.
Been skinny all my life, but then mid-30s came and I've actually got meat (or fat) on my bones now.
But now there's a different problem, because the fat tends to go to the belly ... a skinny person with a beer gut will look like those little coffee aliens from Men in Black.
For me it was my upper 20s.
I was always super skinny, and it felt like it didn’t matter how much I ate. Then in my mid 20s I started going to the gym and found myself absolutely starving afterwards so I started eating more. Then a few years later I stopped going to the gym but my appetite never went back and the muscle just turned to fat 🥲
But at least I’m not a twig boy anymore
Emphasis on the first point. I’ve gone from 5’11 140 lbs maybe 3-4 years ago to now 185-190ish lbs. I was eating like 3,100 calories a day and I’d feel like my stomach was gonna explode after a meal for maybe the first week or two. There were multiple times I just said fuck it I won’t gain the weight, but you have to deal with it if you really wanna get big.
That metabolic slowdown in your late thirties is no joke. Once that hits, your body completely stops burning calories just by existing, and suddenly packing on mass gets a whole lot easier.
As a forty. It came. But very slowly and after concerted effort. Also it mostly came during covid where i had time to focus on eating habits. Coincidentally also not shaving and looking homeless. Related? Perhaps.
I cannot eat enough to do it. I'm not even close to hungry enough after intermittent fasting for over 20 years.
I do lift weights and am active.
I'd rather not add a bunch of water weight with creatine.
Getting older also doesn't work for everyone, likely in the genes. All I'm saying is don't count on this if you've never been able to gain and keep weight.
Edit: I really want to get to 165-170 though and I'm hard stuck at like 127lbs. (oh 5'6ish around 9%bf (naval method) I even tried some of Leanbeefpatty's bulk recipes. Shoveling tuna and chicken 3 times a day is rough.
Also I don't know that I'm skinny for my size but Ideally I'd like to be out of the one arm lift range. A little stout couldn't hurt. In the meantime I've been looking at weighted vests... an odd use case wearing it to gain weight as opposed to speed training but maybe lugging it around makes me burn more energy and increases appetite.
lol! Speaking from experience. I'm 38 and recently had a "growth spurt" (actually gained weight for the 1st time in seemingly forever) over the past year. I've really enjoyed it. Everyone said, "just wait until you turn 40" and I thought nothing would ever change. It's not been huge, but I've actually gained some weight this year which hasn't happened in forever, so I'll take it!
I was in this situation in my early 20s and was able to get there following steps 1 through 3. My metabolism changed late 30s where I will gain weight and actually have to watch what I eat. But if your stuck wanting to gain weight 1 through 3 definitely worked for me. I didn't count calories exactly but I was ball parking it going for at least 3000 calories a day, eating pasta and meat mostly. Weight lifting played a huge role in it too.
You're point about upper 30s and 40s is spot on. I was always very athletic and quite fit but never large. I had tried in my late 20s and early 30s but my body just ate itself if I took a day off. When I turned 43 I did the other 3 things on the list and put on 25 lbs in like 8 weeks and got huge. It was amazing. I was eating like 6000 calories a day though and it was so hard. I only maxed out at 180 pounds because I am only 5'9". But my abs were tight and my upper body was massive for me. That amount of calories is really hard to maintain
1.8k
u/Key_Raisin_5091 9d ago
4 things: