If you want a solution to your (under)weight problem, well I can tell you what's working for me. I started a diet and training plan (posted
here on APK) that's all about the weight gain (I'm 6'0" and I started at 128 lbs). So far after 1 month I've gained 5 pounds. And that's ALL muscle, because:
I'm eating a ton of food (>3,200 calories daily now)
99% of that food is clean (whole, organic, hippy type stuff - minus soy cause soy sucks)
5-7 meals a day
Meals are balanced for my body type (heavy on protein, balanced carbs and fat, less carbs on rest days)
I'm following a 3x a week, compound total body barbell lifting program -
Starting Strength (link c/o
Steve Low's excellent APK fitness article)
I'm getting plenty of sleep
I've got one advantage though: I have ZERO cravings for junk food, sweets, candy, etc. because eating a Snickers / fried Twinkie / stick of butter makes me feel queasy / sick / headache / sluggish and it's not worth the fleeting gratification. On the other hand, toss me a pile of Whole Earth Catalog nuts and twigs crap (slathered in organic peanut butter) and I'm golden. Go figure.
As far as appetite and food goes, you're probably going through the same thing I was before I started my program: you THINK you're eating enough, but you're not even close. The only way to find out is to go totally OCD and write down the calories of EVERYTHING you eat for a day. Read labels. Look up unlabeled food on
NutritionData.com. Do it for a week or so. After that, you'll know how many calories you're actually taking in.
Then you calculate how many calories your body needs to survive. Good rule of thumb since you're a beanpole too is just bodyweight X 20. 21 if you're 18 or younger.
Subract calories in and calories out. You're about to find out, like me, that unless your bony ass is solar paneled you ain't got the energy to grow. Hell you probably can't even maintain!
So let's pretend you've figured out you need 2500 maintenance calories per day. How would you eat that much? Plan. Try one day: Chart out 6-8 meals spread out throughout that day that contain 2500 calories, 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, and a good balance of fat and carbs.
If all of that food is healthy and clean, guess what? Your chart is gonna be LOADED. Healthier foods have less calories and take up more space. Sucks don't it?
And here's the real challenge: You gotta stack 500-1000 calories ON TOP of that, every DAY, to gain any weight!
Hey it's not all suck. You've got a few things working in your favor:
You can go at your own pace. One day I force-fed myself 3500 calories when I was NOT prepared. That whole day all I could do was groan and fart. Build up calories gradually and you won't be overwhelmed. 250-500 extra per day works.
Your body adapts. I started out glumly staring at my dinner plate, and now I get hungry constantly. In fact, I just downed another whey shake and am munching on bananas right now. Writing works up my appetite
You can make food convenient. I chop veggies and cook food in big batches so later meals and salads are a snap. I make and eat a full, complete breakfast every morning now, the kind you see on cereal commercials that could feed the cast, crew, and tri-state area (spinach and mushroom 2-3 egg omelet with cheese, cup of cottage cheese topped with frozen blueberries, hippy cereal with milk, cup of hot green tea, and maybe a banana if I'm extra starving).
Avocadoes are your friends. They're packed with healthy fats. Eat 2 a day. Seriously. Eating them raw (at least to me) is like eating a pound of butter, so I recommend a
recipe that incorporates them. Damn, now I'm hungry again.... *makes guacamole*
You can make eating fun *munch munch*. Fun for me is giving myself little challenges, like my 2-bag grocery challenge, where I buy 2 bags of groceries and make myself eat them in 6 days. Or get an extra large glass of water and give yourself the ATC (ass-to-chair) challenge: prep a big meal, put it on the table, sit down, and DO NOT GET UP until you've wiped every plate clean! (A book helps. Without this challenge I would have never finished Crime and Punishment)
Liquid meals go down easy and fast. You can mix just about anything with a whey shake and chug it down. They're also less filling than regular food so you can pound them back like a frat pledge doing shots.
For us skinny guys, hitting the weights is the easy part. But if you got the guts and determination day in and day out to basically shove food down your throat every waking moment, you'll make it. I can't say I've succeeded yet, I've still got a long road ahead of me, but I'm making good progress.
Whoa this post got huge. I want to help out my skinny peeps, think any of this has article potential?
