• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Gaining Weight Without Junk Food

man

New member
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
330
MBTI Type
IntP
Enneagram
=)
On a 3000 calorie diet I was gaining weight just fine and I had finally reached 177 lbs by the end of June. However, I started some high intensity cardio and my caloric demands have skyrocketed apparently. I'm now down to 167.

Anyway I can increase my calories without junk food (and without nuts)??
 
P

Phantonym

Guest
Go over your portion sizes.

Try fruits that are high in calories (such as bananas). Dried fruit as snacks, they have more calories (do some research, definitely opt for organic). Pure fruit juices, couple of glasses throughout the day will up the calories.

Yoghurt is healthy, but they have different kinds, so you can choose the ones with higher calorie count.

Good fats. Salad dressings and pasta sauces. Go for oil based ones, healthy, but higher in calories.

Lean meat for protein, but with a side of salad with a high calorie dressing, for example.

Whole-grain carbs = brown rice, whole wheat bread and stuff like that. Nutritious, healthy, will make you gain weight when enjoyed with every meal. :D

Oily fish. Avocados. Etc.

Do some research, the tips are out there. Good luck. :)
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
6,180
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
- Honey, butter and bread.
- Nutella with pancakes.
- Digestive biscuits.
- Dates
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
On a 3000 calorie diet I was gaining weight just fine and I had finally reached 177 lbs by the end of June. However, I started some high intensity cardio and my caloric demands have skyrocketed apparently. I'm now down to 167.

Yeah, this is what I worry about when doing high intensity cardio too. It seems like you'll reach a peak (of weight gain) and then just stop gaining weight.
 

Mondo

Welcome to Sunnyside
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,992
MBTI Type
EsTP
Enneagram
6w7
On a 3000 calorie diet I was gaining weight just fine and I had finally reached 177 lbs by the end of June. However, I started some high intensity cardio and my caloric demands have skyrocketed apparently. I'm now down to 167.

Anyway I can increase my calories without junk food (and without nuts)??


I guess do what you've been doing before but just eat larger portions.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Why are you trying to gain weight?

I dunno, I want to be stronger. Seems like a useful thing to be stronger. I still have trouble opening jars and lifting heavy things. :cry:
 

Haphazard

Don't Judge Me!
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
6,704
MBTI Type
ENFJ
Eat things that are less filling and higher in calories. Not necessarily "junk" but you know the foods.
 

kyuuei

Emperor/Dictator
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
13,964
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
8
Why are you trying to gain weight?

;) Not everyone is as lucky as us and can gain weight just by looking at potential foods to eat.

All these suggestions so far are really good. Do you currently take any protein/weight gaining shakes or anything like that?
 

Risen

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
3,185
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
9w8
If you wanna gain weight, cut back on the cardio, obviously, and do more weight lifting. When you do cardio it shouldn't be long and draining, rather short and intense. Both of these types of exercises will stimulate muscle growth and limit the number of calories burned during the activity while keeping you in top shape. Other than that, eat lots of nuts, lots of meat. Learn to cook. Buy pork, since thatll be the cheapest and fattiest (highest in calories). Chicken is good too. Since you're trying to stuff in calories, eat it with some rice. Might try to avoid food too high in fiber that might otherwise fill you up with fewer calories. Gaining fat is a no brainer so long as you take in more calories than you burn, not rocket science. Gaining muscle, otoh, can more complicated.

*EDIT* And if you're too manly to eat nuts, then eat some chocolate. Ladies love chocolate ;) .
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
I dunno, I want to be stronger. Seems like a useful thing to be stronger. I still have trouble opening jars and lifting heavy things. :cry:

Gaining weight and becoming stronger are not always related. This is especially true if you don't have testicles. Also, opening jars is more of a grip/forearm thing. I've seen a guy roll up a frying pan before and he appeared to have significantly less muscle mass than I do.

On a 3000 calorie diet I was gaining weight just fine and I had finally reached 177 lbs by the end of June. However, I started some high intensity cardio and my caloric demands have skyrocketed apparently. I'm now down to 167.

Anyway I can increase my calories without junk food (and without nuts)??

Are you allergic to nuts? If so, that's too bad because PB is an epic weight gainer.

What kind of cardio do you do? Most people seem to think that high intensity interval training gives the most cardiovascular benefit with the least muscle loss.

Like Risen said though, it really just comes down to eating more than you're losing.

You could always start drinking beer a lot.
 

Risen

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
3,185
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
9w8
Gaining weight and becoming stronger are not always related. This is especially true if you don't have testicles. Also, opening jars is more of a grip/forearm thing. I've seen a guy roll up a frying pan before and he appeared to have significantly less muscle mass than I do.

Yes, gaining strength is a whooooole nother topic, really having more to do with neural adaptation than muscle mass, and nothing to do with overall weight aside from the fact that bigger people can produce more strength because they have to move that heavier bodyweight around all the time and being heavier puts more force/momentum behind your movements. IOW, physics can work in the favor of heavier people in terms of strength, for some movements.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Gaining weight and becoming stronger are not always related. This is especially true if you don't have testicles. Also, opening jars is more of a grip/forearm thing. I've seen a guy roll up a frying pan before and he appeared to have significantly less muscle mass than I do.

I had to look that up and :shocking: I've never seen anything like that.

That's a bit more strength than what I need (lulz) but to be honest I want to both gain weight overall and get more strength. I don't want to become all muscular looking (Eww) nor do I want to get a bunch of cellulite. How do I do this?

Are you allergic to nuts? If so, that's too bad because PB is an epic weight gainer.

Noted.
Have you done this before?
What kind of cardio do you do? Most people seem to think that high intensity interval training gives the most cardiovascular benefit with the least muscle loss.

What kind of cardio is good for gaining weight?
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
I had to look that up and :shocking: I've never seen anything like that.

That's a bit more strength than what I need (lulz) but to be honest I want to both gain weight overall and get more strength. I don't want to become all muscular looking (Eww) nor do I want to get a bunch of cellulite. How do I do this?

I don't know anything about cellulite but you won't get all muscular looking (any more than say, a gymnast probably). That's a common fear of females but it's virtually impossible without taking steroids (which is what a lot of the females you're probably thinking of do).

Gaining weight is simple. Ingest a lot of calories and do some form of working out that makes your muscles work.

Noted.
Have you done this before?

Used PB to gain weight? No, but I have friends who have. I'm more of an endomorph and don't need weight gainers at all.

What kind of cardio is good for gaining weight?

Already answered in what you quoted. HIIT. Look that up or guerrilla cardio or any variation, thereof.
 

suttree

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
231
MBTI Type
intP
Weight lifting circuits will train cardiovascular and strength at the same time. Don't worry about becoming too muscular, the vast majority of females simply don't produce testosterone to cause significant growth.

HIIT or any other cardio program is necessarily poor at making strength gains. The way to get stronger is to challenge your strength. If you're not lifting progressively heavier things, you're not getting stronger.

To get stronger, you should focus on doing more weight and less reps (less than six). For most women strength gains will be primarily from gains in the abilty of the brain to activate the muscle you have.

To get the most out of a workout, consume a good amount of carbs and protein within 45 minutes. During this time your muscles are still actively pulling nutrients in to fuel activity. Getting as much nutrition to your muscles as you can makes for a speedy and thorough recovery, which is when you are actually making performance gains.

A trick for gaining good mass is to consume cottage cheese immediately before bed. Cottage cheese is a slow digesting protein and will provide a steady supply of amino acids to your blood at night, which minimizes normal catabolism.

I'm an intp with physical training as one of my passions. What else do you want to know?

Edit: Waitasec, am I talking to giggly or man?
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Thank you

I am female and I am listening.
 

XYZ

New member
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
130
MBTI Type
GOAT
Enneagram
DUNO
Add more calorie dense foods to the diet...

High fat foods tend to be the most calorie dense of all i.e. nuts, seeds and oils

Rice, pasta, quinoa (also a complete source of protein, which is rare in plant foods) and dried fruit are decent caloric dense carbohydrate sources.

Red meat, fatty fish like salmon, whole milk and whole eggs are good caloric dense protein sources.

Weight gain shakes are an easy way to add more calories - you don't need to buy the expensive weight gain powders (most of them have junk nutrients anyway to boost calories) - you can make your own using protein powder, milk, peanut butter, banana, oats etc.

Trail mixes (combination of nuts, seeds and dried fruits) are also an easy way to add more calories to your diet.

There are quite a few bodybuilders that take olive oil shots regularly to boost caloric intake.
 
Top