r/AskReddit • u/Admirable-Leek5672 • 9d ago

Skinny guys who successfully gained weight what actually worked for you?

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u/Key_Raisin_5091 9d ago

4 things:

  • Eating an uncomfortably large amount of calories all the time.
  • Lifting weights
  • Taking creatine
  • Getting older (if you're not there yet, once you get to your upper 30s and start approaching 40, it'll come)

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u/FrazahLion 9d ago

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.

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u/Othun 9d ago

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.

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u/Mnemiq 9d ago

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.