Member
Can't Eat Enough Food
A bit of background to start. I'm 28 years old and last summer I was 6' 150 lbs and started trying to build some strength and gain weight. By Christmas I was up to 175 lbs and happy with my progress. My lifts all went up, but not massively and I wasn't fully doing the program; traveling for work and lacking equipment, playing recreational sports and being new to lifting all prevented me from making top quality gains. Despite this, I was still happy with my results.
In the new year, I got really busy with work, was traveling lots and couldn't get to a squat rack very often. I basically fell of the wagon. Recently, I've been trying to start again, but I can't get enough food in me to gain weight. I'll make a big meal, start eating, then my body just doesn't want to eat any more.
I'm supposed to have 3500 cals for maintenance, 4000 cals to gain. My weight is down to about 167 lbs and I'm a bit down on myself that I've been losing weight when I want to gain. My goal is about 180. What should I do? This so frustrating.
✓ Member
You need to eat more, obviously, and find ways that facilitate that process, i.e. drink a glass of whole milk at each meal in addition to a good source of protein (meat), starch (rice/potato/oats), and a fat. Eat 4-5x a day and don't make excuses, period.
Member
Easy for you to say. For someone that just doesn't like eating food, it will be the hardest thing ever. Force feeding yourself everyday to gain weight will make anyone miserable.
✓ Member
Agree to disagree. You either do it or you don't. People who want results find away to make it happen. I never said anything about force feeding either. The common denominator for people who can't or won't eat the quantity of food they need to grow are not being prepared to eat at the correct times, eating meals that are not rich in the correct nutrients, and not establishing good eating habits. I have not met anyone who eats high quality food 95% of the time, is accountable (to either themselves or another), and doesn't miss meals who can't do what they want to with their body weight can composition.Originally Posted by apak
Starting Strength Coach
This is being talked about in the other thread too. It makes people just as miserable who are eating on a deficit and are hungry even after eating their carefully portioned, 575 calorie dinner of chicken breasts and sweet potatoes.
As wonderful as our human bodies are, it'd be great if we could go back to the drawing board on some things!
Member
Rip covered this a while back and simply stated that you need to approach your eating with the same intensity as your training. I need to keep weight but still maintain the P/C/F and build strength.. switched the shakes from milk to water. Every morning I have a shake of 50g of Protein as eating that in eggs was not doable. Fibre cereal, V-low sugar.
I make my meals up for lunch to have another 50g of protein, carbs depending on the workout day. Mid afternoon, another shake and take carbs with me to have before leave work on heavy days as pre-training carb loading.
If you are thirsty, do not drink coke etc, have a pint of full fat milk. Snack on nuts etc. In simple terms, if you really want the result. You will find a way to do it.
My last meet, to make the weight I had 2 apples & 4 shakes a day, 3 days out. Never would have thought I could have done it 6 months ago but... I really wanted it.
Member
I've made some good progress in the past week, gained 1 pound in 7 days after my weigh in this morning! Something I've noticed, I have to work up to eating the volume of food that I need, I can't go from 'average' intake to a bulking intake in 1 day, I need to gradually work up to it. Have others noticed this too?
✓ Member
I bet they have.
Member
I am always surprised by how the body adapts to change. It seems to resist change, but over (surprisingly short) time any new conditions become a norm.
Member
I normally eat 5000-6000 calories per day, sometimes more. It's not hard to do.
A gallon of organic whole milk. Add powdered oats to this if you need more carbs.
A pound of yoghurt with two big handfuls of frozen blueberries.
A pound of beef or chicken liver.
2 pounds of white or sweet potatoes.
4 eggs.
Rice cakes with peanut butter on.
Big servings of broccoli or spinach.
Put some full-fat cream on the yoghurt if you still need more calories. Have white rice with lots of tomato passata instead of potatoes if you find them hard to eat.
Don't fear fat. I easily hit 300g+ on some days. I've been drinking a gallon of milk a day for years. Saturated fat is in fact the preferred food of the heart, and it lowers Lp(a), a very accurate marker for proneness to heart disease. The doctor said my heart was perfect at my last medical.
Read Matt Reynold's article on eating:
http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...s#.UZp04r98tUM
Treat eating enough food every day as aggressively as you'd treat the last rep on a heavy set of squats or deadlifts.
Posting Permissions
