How I gained 20lbs

I’ve reached the end of my winter weight-gaining project.  And while I have only just got to the point where people at work can tell I lift weights (I started out quite lean and I wear a jacket and tie most of the time), I can see a visible difference in the mirror.

Oh, and I gained 10kg (20lbs).  I started at 72.5kg (160lbs) and I now weigh just over 82.5kg (180lbs).

So what’s your point, pencil-neck?

My point is that while my achievement is not particularly impressive, what I am about to write is pure experience, from 6 months of gaining weight.  I haven’t read it in a book and it isn’t taken from someone else’s experience.  I tried last year and failed bitterly.  This year, I succeeded.

So if you’re struggling to gain weight and you’d like to put on 20lbs, then read on.  You might find this helpful. 

Point #1: you need to eat more than you think

When I started out, I was eating about 2,000kcals per day (excluding pre- and post- workout nutrition).  When I started my weight gain project, I increased my daily intake by 500kcals for a few weeks.  Very little happened.  I bumped them up to 2,750kcals and the scale started moving.  After a while, the scale stopped and I needed to bump them up again.  3,000kcals did the trick this time and progress continued.

I heard Jamie Reeves say in an interview once that he ate 12,000kcals per day when training for the World’s Strongest Man.  I cannot imagine how much he had to stuff down his throat to achieve that.

LESSON LEARNED: if you aren’t gaining weight, keep bumping the calories up

Point #2: you are probably overestimating how many calories you are eating

People often said to me “oh, 2,750kcals is nothing”.  But if you use Fitday, you’ll find that if you want to get most of your calories from meat, eggs, fish, fruit and vegetables, this is a big volume of food.  My stomach ached on a daily basis from stuffing it full six times a day.  And I was using shakes quite a lot, too.  So if you aren’t using Fitday, and you aren’t getting the progress you want, I would settle down for an evening in front of the computer and start entering in your diet.

Steak and salad: notice the chopped up bits of sausage in the salad for extra calories

LESSON LEARNED: you need to keep a record of what you are eating and measure the calories

Point #3: you need to treat it like a diet

I can honestly say that I made better progress this year because I treated the weight gain project like a diet.  I had a plan of food I was going to eat that amounted to a set number of calories each day.  I had a target weight that I wanted to gain and I measured my progress against the target.  My motivation came from seeing progress towards the goal.

LESSON LEARNED: you need to set a target and go for it

Point #4: you will feel sick from eating so much

I wrote to my friend Rob Newman recently that I had not felt hungry since September 2009.  I can honestly say that I have never hated food so much as in the last 6 months.  I felt like the main character in Brewster’s Millions, who is forced to fritter away $30m in order to inherit $300m.  Except with food, OK?

Someone I know who went through a similar process a while back said “if you are not feeling uncomfortably stuffed full all of the time, then you are not eating enough.”  I would have to agree.  If you want to see my diet mid-way through the project, I did an article about what I ate to put on muscle a little while ago.

LESSON LEARNED: don’t expect it to be easy and prepare for it to be hard.

Point #5: drink your calories

Bearing point #4 in mind, it helps to drink your calories as much as possible.  While milk doesn’t work for me, I have been using a monster shake that works brilliantly for packing a huge calorie punch as well as being extremely healthy.

LESSON LEARNED: err, drink your calories.

Point #6: what food you eat DOES matter

Last year, I drank milk and ate chocolate and most of it went directly from my mouth to my overhanging belly.  This year, I’ve concentrated on meat, fish, fruit and vegetables and my waist measurement is a lot lower than it was last year after a similar length weight gaining project.

LESSON LEARNED: don’t go mad on poor quality food.

Point # 7: time your meals

It’s really hard to make yourself eat the amount you need to eat.  I found that the only way I could guarantee getting to the end of the day and making sure that I had eaten everything was to eat by the clock.  If one of my meals slipped it was horrible trying to catch up again as I would find that no sooner had I finished it, then I would have to start the next one.

LESSON LEARNED: eat by the clock.

Point #8: increase your training volume

Don’t expect to gain weight if you’re still doing the same sets and reps of the same weight you do during the summer while you’re trying to hold onto your abs.  I found that 10 sets of 3-5 reps of heavy weights on the big compound lifts, four exercises per workout, four workouts per week were just about what I needed.  If I didn’t get that level of work in, I didn’t grow.  You may need more or less than that.

LESSON LEARNED: work harder.

Well, that’s it for my lessons learned this year.  I wonder if next year’s winter weight gain cycle will bring any more?

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