Gaining Weight the Healthy Way
June 19, 2008 by Jean-Luc Boissonneault
Gaining weight can be just as hard, if not harder than losing weight for some people. Out of those people, most people that do end up putting on the weight gain a high amount of fat at the same time because they just eat bad foods. I remember as a kid eating 5 slices of bread with peanut butter before bed only because I was skinny kid and wanted to put on muscle. By the way, that doesn't work.
Here is the secret to all of this; you must be consistent! What generally happens is that these people claim that they eat a lot. But when we follow them with our nutrition log system here at the center we realise that they sometimes forget to eat for an entire day! They are riding the metabolism roller coaster only to find themselves skinny again.
Here is what to do to put on muscle when you’re that skinny person; first figure out how many calories you need to consume to get the numbers on the scale going up (typically 18x your bodyweight). Then go shopping for your food and make sure it's all clean food because you want to gain muscle not fat. Now prepare your food for the whole week, not 2 days, the entire week. This will make sure that you don’t miss meals from lack of preparation. Lastly, make sure you finish everything that you had set out to eat for the week, it really is that simple.
If your weight is still not going up add 100 calories every second day until the scale changes. Now that you will be increasing your weight, monitor your body fat to make sure it doesn't get to high at the same time. Once your body fat reaches about either 13% for men or 18% for women, then adjust your calories by lowering them again slowly.
If you’re consistent with this system, you will see great results. I know a national level Natural Bodybuilder that has used this system throughout his entire life.
Just remember; if you miss days, you will stay a skinny kid just like I was.
Written by Jean-Luc Boissonneault
