Are You Eating Enough to Gain Weight?
Simply put, if you’re going to put on weight you need to be eating a ton of calories. How many you may ask? Well, most likely it needs to be somewhere around 3000-4000 calories a day, depending on if it’s a workout day or a rest day. Now when you really start to think about it, that’s a LOT of calories! Most of us would have a hard time even imagining to eat that much.
So why do you need to eat that much if you’re really trying to gain weight? Well, for those of us that are naturally ectomorphic (sometimes called the “hard-gainers”) our bodies have a tendency to burn calories easily. And in order for you to really gain some weight you need to consume more calories that your body will naturally just burn off.
Does this mean that you should eat a whole bunch of extra empty calories from junk food to fill in the deficit? I wouldn’t recommend it! Remember the old slogan that you are what you eat? Well, if you eat junk food for most of your calories that’s what you’re becoming! So instead, focus on eating more of the good stuff: more good proteins, carbs and fats to get up to that number of calories.
There are plenty of sites out there that will give you some good ideas for recipes that you can use. Will Brinks Body Building Revealed (formerly Muscle Building Nutrition) is a good resource.
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Hi,
You said “needs to be somewhere around 3000-4000 calories a day, depending on if it’s a workout day”, this sounds interesting as I’ve never thought of varying calorie intake depending on if its an excercise day. Just to get it straight, youre recommending 3000 on a rest day, 4000 on a non rest day?
Cheers,
Bill.
Hi Bill,
I got this idea from John Berardi and Mike Mejia’s book Scrawny to Brawny. The concept is that you need to increase you calorie intake to increase mass, but you don’t want to overdo it on those days that you aren’t burning as much either.
Do you guys also feel like u eat way more when eating junk food fast food? Like you get hungry way quicker? I love junk food, but since I get sick of it fast, I am unable to overeat that junk and get fat. How do people actually end up eating that stuff sooo much and not expect to get fat?
This is an interesting tip, because I have tried bodybuilding with modest calorie intake and the same with more calories. The result? I find that with more calories, there’s more muscle growth, and also slightly more fat gain as well, but the slight increase in fat was not a problem as my body fat % was still good. But make sure you eat quality food so you’re both healthy as well as got muscle. Makes sense?