Weight Problem

LegacyUser

Hey

mates are useless as they are they half the problem and Im male.

I have this problem that I am terribly underweight. Im 23 and my friends constantly make jokes about my weight an its really affecting me. Now I am unerweight and I cannot fit into clothes that men my own age fit into. I have had to remove all my bebo pics of me with my body in the photo and have given up on women as im constantly being told i have an unattractive body in the form of jokes.

Im aware this isnt a medical forum but Id like to know is there anyone in a simular situation and whats the best way to put on weight?

Thanks
Skinnydude

Nevyn

Why not ask for advice on the fitness forum
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=252

6th

Fitness Forum is the way to go alright. They are a friendly bunch and not a load of gym fanatics, always great advice. The thing is eating right and exercise should have you on a bit of a high and get you feeling good about yourself too.

Best of luck with it.

Black Swan

Healthy diet, exercise (believe it or not), adequate sleep, reduce stress, no recreational drugs, and cut back on tea and java. And yes, the fitness forum has a lot of advice about gaining weight.

justsomebloke

ye read the stickies in the fitness forum and after that post up a thread if you still have any questions. In short you probably aren't eating enough, or are eating the wrong types of food.
Change your eating plan aswell, chances are that you are only eating 3 meals a day where as you would be better eating 5-6 smaller meals a day. and just incase you think you are eating enough I will go through what my rough diet will be today.

7.30 - shake with, pineapple, banana, youghurt orange juice and 1 serving of protein supplement

9.30 - bowl of museli.

10.30 - small handful of nuts

11.30 - chicken sandwich on wholegrain bread.

1.30 - beef salad

3.30 - chicken salad

6.30 - dinner (don't know yet maybe stir fry with wholegrain rice)

8.00 - some more nuts

10.30 - protein shake made up with milk and supplemented with flax oil and cod liver oil

I do however go to the gym at least 3 times a week however I am only just over 13 stone so I would be that big either, if you are looking for a bit of inspiration though drop me a pm and I will drop you the name of another member that you can pm who has gone from a 7 stone to 13 stone so he may be the best person to ask. But also aswell as getting your diet write get into the gym and lift some weights so you are at least putting on muscle and not just fat

LegacyUser

'I was pretty skinny up until I hit my twenties. I weighed about 9.5 stone, which is pretty light for a guy who is over 6 feet tall. I struggled to gain weight for a long time. Here's what I learned.

1. Exercise is critical. If you can join a gym. do. If not, a chin up bar, sit ups and pressups will do just fine for your upper bodt. Focus on strength and not endurance. Running, etc won't help you gain weight. Don't worry about putting on a little fat in the process, it's easy to shed later on. As you gain weight you want to be putting on muscle or else you'll just end up as a skinny guy with a beer belly.

2. The even bigger secret is what you eat. The simple answer is "a lot". If you want to gain weight, you have to eat more than you are eating now. period. This is the most important mistake people make. Specifically, eat more protein (chicken, eggs, steak, hamburgers, etc) and more carbs (spuds, bread, cereals) but don't be too fussy about what you eat. Just eat a lot. I was a big fan of the eddie rockets burger with two patties when I was putting on weight You can use weight gain drinks if you want but they are pretty expensive. Personally, I prefer real food.

If you are exercising regularly, you will be more hungry so eating more won't be too much of a problem.

But you have to start eating more! I can't stress this enough. You can't gain weight unless you are eating more food than you need. Eat, eat, eat.

Also, cutting down on stimulants will slow your metabolism a little and make it easier to gain weight. coffee, tea and cigarettes are not your firiends

The other problem is that it will take a bit of time (at least a few months).'

Cravez

Head on over to the Fitness Forum or Click my Sig if you need more help on this.

Ill just throw in my 2 cents here, what most people have said here is correct, i may be repeating what they said but ill add a bit more info in.

1) Eat - Says it all, eat and eat ALOT. Im guessing from your situation and description you have a very high metabolism. You are going to have to eat the same or even more than a person who lifts weights if you want to put on any bulk. Eat lots of protein(chicken, turkey, fish, lean Red meat, nuts) LOTS of starchy carbs(Rice, Pasta, Bread (all preferably wholegrain or brown) ) and lots of healthy fats such as Nuts,Almonds,Peanut butter or anything that generally has alot of poly or mono unsaturated fats with omega oils ( fish has lots of good oils in it ) eating healthy fats is necessary for the cells in your body and helps in hormonal production (testosterone). I recommend drinking alot of milk, its helped me build myself up over the years.

Break meals up from 2-3 meals a day into 5-6 meals. This allows you to get more calories into your body and protein so your body doesn't catabolise (break down). I would recommend trying eating 4000 calories a day in a 40%:30%:30% split e.g 40(1600 calories from carbs):30(1200 calories from protein):30(1200 calories from fat)

1600 calories of carbs: 4 calories per gram - 1600 / 4 = 400 grams of carbs

1200 calories of protein: 4 calories per gram - 1200 / 4 = 300 grams of protein

1200 calories of fats: 8 calories per gram - 1200 / 8 = 150 grams of fat

2) Exercise - Before you start planning Exercise you will have to sort the diet out first, lifting weights & exercise and not eating alot will only make your metabolism go even faster and you wont make any gains. I say exercise when you have your diet right as you will both put on fat and muscle (fat isn't necessary to put on muscle but its easier if you do,you can shed it later so dont worry building muscle is MUCH harder than shedding fat ) or wait until you have bulked up a bit from eating and then exercise.

3) Sleep - After exercise you need plenty of sleep to rebuild your body, its only when you sleep that you grow and repair. I recommend 8 or more hours sleep a night.

4) Cut down on booze, coffee or recreational drugs - as others mentioned, these should be a no-no or take in small amounts. Booze affects muscle activity and function, coffee affects sleep patterns and some drugs affect your hormones.

5) Supplements - Try purchasing protein supplements or weight gainer supplements if your finding it hard to get protein or extra calories into your diet. Pm mickk from Boards, he owns a supplement store and gives good prices and advice on what to get. Make sure your diet is top notch before you take supplements because thats all they are, supplements to aid your diet.

Ok sorry if that seemed long ( i like talking about this stuff ) but i wanted to make it clear and precise of what you need to do. Putting on weight can be just as hard (if not harder) than losing weight for some individuals. As i said, the Fitness forum is there for you or click my sig if you need more advice and trust me LOTS of these people have good advice, or even PM me if you have any more questions.

Good luck mate

Cravez

Kell

Michael Cravez wrote:

1) Eat - Says it all, eat and eat ALOT.

Didnt work for me. 6 months + 5 meals per day + three supplements per day + weight training = no weight gain. At all.

Must be this stupidly high metabolism of mine. Pfft.

K-

Seraphina

Kell wrote:

Didnt work for me. 6 months + 5 meals per day + three supplements per day + weight training = no weight gain. At all.

Must be this stupidly high metabolism of mine. Pfft.

K-

you obviously weren't eating enough :P
seriously though, the amount of food some of the guys over on the fitness forum have to eat to put on muscle is disgusting. they'd eat my entire recommended days calories at breakfast, lucky bastards!!

TerrorFirmer

Kell wrote:

Didnt work for me. 6 months + 5 meals per day + three supplements per day + weight training = no weight gain. At all.

Must be this stupidly high metabolism of mine. Pfft.

K-

Maybe you weren't lifting heavy enough. What supplements did you take? It seems very extreme that you wouldn't gain any weight between extra food, supplements and training. Even 3 supplements a day, would be at least 600kcal alone if your talking about whey protein or the like.

Catari Jaguar

You can bulk up definitely if you put the work in. I'v seen pics of my dad when he was young and he was very skinny, (same as my brothers), he's built like a tank now. It's frightening.

LegacyUser

'Thanks for all this information everyone - very helpful.

I'd be similar to the OP: 23 years old, 5' 9" yet a piddling 8.75 stone, and have been for many years. In fact I've probably lost weight since I was about 14-15 when I weighed over 9 stone. My metabolism is so high I've never gained an ounce in my life - regardless of what I eat! And everyone is 100% correct about fast walking or running - absolutely useless for weight gain. I walked miles up to recently as part of my work and actually helped me to lose weight :rolleyes: As a fast walker anyway, I can tell you that all it does is help build strongish legs, and even then not overly efficiently.

Certainly I need to at least double my food intake - don't eat very much, even though I love food. Of late I also don't get much exercise - something that never bothered me as it does other people, as I never gain weight from sitting about.

My main aim is to build the upper body (chest and arms) to a relatively normal build, at home, using dumbbells and a bench, coupled with a vastly increased diet. I hope to see some results this way. I do wonder if a slanted or flat bench is more appropriate though - any advice on this would be appreciated thanks.'