Weight Gain Guide for a Thin Person

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If you are a “skinny” person trying to put on weight, you will probably feel like a second-class citizen when you research on the Internet. Much of the information on fitness focuses on fat loss. Let’s talk about the basics of healthy weight gain.

One day my friend Tynan came up to me and asked about fitness. We talked about how fitness success is highly dependent on habits , so it was surprising when Tynan, an expert and prolific habit writer , turned to me for advice.

“No matter how much I eat, I cannot gain weight. Seriously, I went on a cruise one day … that’s all you can eat, so I just ate stupidly. I gained about five pounds by the end, but after a few weeks I was back at my starting weight. “

For people with a predisposition to be overweight (like me), it almost sounds like some kind of voodoo, alien magic. But naturally thin people have experienced this throughout their lives. You will find that the specific fitness skill that matters most to you depends on your starting point and your goals. While habit is one of the most important skills for losing weight, naturally, thin people will rely more on the “know” aspect. Let’s see why.

Why is it so difficult for thin people to gain weight?

In the late 1960s, a team of researchers went to the Vermont State Prison and asked for volunteers. The researchers aimed to overfeed prisoners with a normal body mass index (that is, not classified as overweight) until they had gained 25% in their body weight, and then examined the effects of weight gain.

It’s simple, right? This was as it should be, except for one surprising fact: some inmates could not gain weight, no matter how overfeed they were. One participant increased his calorie intake to 10,000 calories per day and still could not increase his body weight by more than 18%. When the experiment was over, the prisoners returned to their original weight without any problems.

This research served as the inspiration for a recent BBC documentary (available on YouTube ) that confirmed the experiences of the prisoners and Tynan. It seems that naturally thin people are biologically programmed to maintain a certain weight. Here are some of the reasons why weight gain was so difficult:

Exercise, not exercise

What does it mean to gain weight in a “healthy” way? We asked Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, an osteopathic physician who specializes in treating obese patients. Dr. Nadolsky says:

You can gain weight in a healthy way if it is muscle mass. Body fat percentage is a much better indicator than BMI when it comes to predicting health outcomes. It is also important to maintain a low waist circumference as it is a surrogate for visceral fat that increases the risk of heart disease.

Dr. Nadolski, by the way, is also a competitive amateur bodybuilder who can probably be categorized as “obese” on the BMI scale.

So, to gain a “healthy” weight, you need to build muscle. The best way to do this – to train, not to engage in sports.

When it comes to being active, the word exercise is commonly used. Exercise, however, involves activities to intentionally burn calories. But additional calorie burning is the last thing people need to gain weight. The word “exercise” also does not mean the progression needed to build muscle.

Building muscle requires what is known as “ progressive overload ”. This is just a fancy way of saying that you will need to train with high weights, repetitions, or volume on subsequent workouts. This leads to muscle hypertrophy , an increase in skeletal muscle. Hypertrophy also increases your ability to store muscle glycogen, or glucose stored in your muscles. This glucose is stored in water, resulting in healthy weight gain. Luckily, there are some good progressive overload workouts out there. Here are some examples:

Let’s go back to Tynan’s story. I gave him a one-to-one workout focusing on progressive overload, and he immediately found that for the first time, he actually retained the weight. However, training was only part of the equation. Changing his diet was more difficult.

Eat more calories

If you have the training side of the equation and your weight is not increasing, you just need to consume more calories. This is the biggest problem I’ve seen with hard gainers – it is very difficult for some people to eat enough calories to increase muscle mass. From Lyle MacDonald’s Blog on Body Rebuilding :

Aside from poor preparation (which can be either too much or too little), undernutrition is the number one mistake that I see most exercisers make when they cannot gain muscle mass. This is true even for people who swear up, down, and sideways that they eat a ton but can’t gain weight no matter what.

Almost always, when you track these big eaters, they really don’t eat that much. Research usually shows that overweight people tend to underestimate their food intake (for example, they think they are eating much less than they actually are), but in my experience hard gainers do the opposite: they greatly overestimate how much they eat. is actually eaten in one go. on a given day or within a week.

Likewise, although such students may eat a lot of food quickly, they invariably often compensate for this high-calorie intake by reducing calories the next day (or even the same day). That way, while they may remember that one big lunch with big asses, they won’t remember how they ate almost nothing later in the day because they were full.

Remember, your body is constantly trying to maintain homeostasis. Even if you focus on consuming more calories during breakfast, lunch and dinner, you may inadvertently lower your calorie intake at other times without realizing it.

Find out how many calories you need to maintain the same weight every day , and then increase the number of calories by 15%. You can easily do this by adding high-calorie foods to your diet, such as adding a few glasses of whole milk to your diet each day or one to two tablespoons of olive oil in your meals.

Here is a list of high-calorie foods that are easy to include in your diet.

  • Olive oil (130 calories per tablespoon)
  • Peanut Butter (190 calories per two tablespoons)
  • Dark chocolate (250 calories per bar)
  • Avocado (230 calories for one whole avocado)
  • Whole milk (200 calories per two cups)
  • Raisins (250 calories per half cup)

You also need to make sure that you are getting 0.75 grams of protein per pound of your weight . For example, a 120 pound man will need at least 90 grams of protein. I told Tynan to eat the same meals several times during the first few weeks to ensure his calorie surplus (i.e., consume more calories than he burned each day). It was difficult at first, and many times he had to force himself to eat. If this sounds unnecessarily difficult, remember that people who want to lose weight are just as uncomfortable with eating less than they want; you just approach it from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Result? In a year, Tynan gained 20 pounds while maintaining the same waist.

Where to go from here

So with that in mind, let’s recap what you need to do to gain weight:

  • Choose a strength training regimen that focuses on progressive overload. The exact program doesn’t really matter. Just stick to something.
  • Calculate your “maintenance calories”, the number of calories you need to maintain the same weight, and then increase that amount by 15%. You can calculate your maintenance calories by logging your daily food intake (assuming you’ve been at the same weight for a while) or using an online calculator like this (use the body fat percentage option for more accurate results).
  • Remember that you may need to force yourself to eat even if you are not hungry. You can do this with high-calorie foods like olive oil. Adding just two tablespoons of olive oil to your meal will give you 250 more calories.
  • Make sure you consume at least 0.75 grams of protein for every pound of your weight. You can consume more, but it may not do anything if you have an excess of calories. (Note: We previously recommended 1 gram per pound of target body weight. While this is true in a calorie deficit, when additional protein can prevent muscle loss, protein is less important for excess calories).
  • Track your weight and waist measurement weekly. If you find that your waist is growing too quickly, reduce your calorie intake.

Ironically, the best thing about being a “thin” person who cannot gain weight is that they tend to stay slim. This means that by changing your diet and training, you can become lean and muscular. Just don’t brag about these naturally overweight friends of yours, like me, or you’ll become that guy (or girl).

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