Original image courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple
The other day after class, Jonathan Elliot and I were chatting about an issue that is mostly unique to men in the gym: How can you gain weight in order to gain muscle? While many folks struggle with keeping their body fat percentage down, others find it very difficult to increase theirs. (Lucky ducks… 😉 )
I referred Jon to a great article I had recently read from Mark’s Daily Apple, entitled “How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle” . This article provides some great suggestions in regards to the types of lifts you should be doing on a weekly basis to build muscle mass, and some guidelines on the frequency of which you should be doing them. In addition to Mark’s thoughts on how to build that elusive mass, he also speaks out on which Primal foods “hard gainers” can eat in order to increase their weight and therefore optimize muscle gain.
As a follow up to my own post the other day about getting enough protein, Jon took a look at the original article from Mark’s Daily Apple and then drafted up a blurb to share with us. In his years pursuing his Kinesiology Degree, Jon has learned a thing on two on this topic. Take a look at what he has to say…
“To add onto the past topic of “Protein: How Much Is Enough?“, I would like to concentrate on how to get enough calories for your activity level. Whether they are trying to gain or lose weight, many people are not eating the right amount of food. This can cause you to plateau at both gaining AND losing weight!
“What?? I’m eating too little to lose weight,” you ask? Right. It sounds a little contradictory, so bear with me for a little bit here while we work it out. When you are eating too little it puts your body into a stressed state. In this state, your metabolism slows to a crawl in order to ensure you have enough energy stores to maintain necessary functions. Any food you eat at this point is basically stored, at which point your energy levels plummet. While you may think you are crushing WODs and working hard to slim down, in actuality you are staying the same and potentially gaining a few pounds!
So, how do we know how much to eat? There are some nifty scientific formulas out there designed to help us out. And to give you all an example, we will plug in my own stats:
First, we need to figure out our “Basal Metabolic rate”. Go ahead and take your body weight in pounds and convert it into kilograms by dividing it by 2.2
eg. 145/2.2= 65.9kg
After this step, we have to turn our weight into calories (kcal). Males, you should multiply your weight by 1kcal. Women need to multiply their weight by 0.9kcal.
eg. 65.9 * 1kcal = 65.9kcal
Then, multiply this number by 24 (because there are 24 hours in a day)
65.9kg * 24 = 1,581kcal
If I were to lay on the couch all day and not move I would need to eat 1,581kcal in order for my body to maintain my weight.
Next we use the “Harris Benedict formula” to account for our activity level.
Sedentary (no/little activity): calorie intake= BMR * 1.2
Light activity ( 1-3 days/week) Calorie intake = BMR * 1.375
Moderate activity (3-5 days/week) caloric intake = 1.55
Very active (6-7 days/week) caloric intake = BMR * 1.725
Firebreather (2 workouts/day) Caloric intake = BMR * 1.9
Personally, I WOD about 4 times per week, so I fall into the moderate activity category.
eg. 1,581kcal * 1.55 = 2450kcal!!!!
I need to eat 2,450kcal/day just to maintain my weight. Now, if my goal was to lose weight I would subtract about 500kcal from that number. I would also account for rest days in there by running through the formula again, but using the sedentary number. T his would put me on track to lose about a pound per week.
Since my goal is to GAIN weight, I am going to do the opposite.
eg. 2,450kcal + 500 = 2,950kcal/day.
Now, you need to diligently record your portions for the day on a site like www.fitday.com so you can see how you stack up.
Good luck, and happy eating!”
Today’s Workout
Buy-in: 3 rds: 4 inchworms, 8 jumping ring dips, 8 double crunch
WOD: ZG1 Competitor
I believe this was one of the WODs from the very first Zone Games in June of 2010… or at least is very similar to it! It’s an interval-based WOD so attack it strongly, knowing you will get recovery time after each bout.
4 rounds, each for individual time of:
•Row 300m
•12 sumo deadlift high pulls (65/95)
•6 barhop burpees
•Clock is set on a 5 minute rotation, the faster you go, the more rest you get!
•Scoring is combined time of your slowest and fastest intervals.
Zone 3: Scale bar weight to 55/75
Zone 2: Scale bar weight as needed
Zone 1: Scale WOD as needed
GAMESPREP: If you’re needing a bit more of a push, scale up to 6 rounds. Only do this if you can maintain your pace through each interval (i.e. you are within 20sec of your best time)
Cash-Out: FTL Stretch
Olympic brand large tubs of greek yogurt are on sale at Thrifty's if you are looking to increase your caloric intake in a non-paleo way 🙂
Greek Yogurt is one of those Paleo grey areas. The fermentation removes the casein which is the source of most peoples dairy woes. Personally we eat yogurt almost every day because it doesn't make us feel sick like milk would. If anyone wants to really geek out on this, check out anything by Matt Lalonde who is a scientific paleo eater (eats based off ancestral diet and modern science) instead of an orthadox one who would say all dairy is bad because it's new! http://vimeo.com/27570335 also I can't wait to spend time at work responding to todays post!
Awesome news! One of the biggest problems I've had with going paleo was the idea that I'd have to give up yogurt.
Really enjoying the video, although I think I'll have to watch/listen to it again when I'm not trying to work at the same time (dude talks fast!).
ya, The video will be posted eventually with the slide show, for now you can go to the ancestral health symposium and look at the slides separately. He's one of my favourite opinions on Paleo. Here's a blog post by him http://robbwolf.com/2009/10/08/crossfit-on-a-low-… it mentions weight gain a little, and it's some low carb paleo info, Lindsay Forget might find it interesting since she brought up ketosis.
Wendy, the "Paleo = no dairy" bit depends on who you're talking to. And it seems overly prescriptive to me. If you tolerate milk proteins / sugars go for it. If not, avoid 'em.
I prefer Dr Kurt Harris' "Archevore" strategy http://www.archevore.com/get-started/
He doesn't get caught up in the "paleolithic humans couldn't have consumed X" discussions – he says "limit the neolithic agents of disease" – it doesn't matter that palolithic man couldn't have eaten – for instance – butter, if there's nothing in butter that is unhealthy (and, lets face it – butter is a gift from the gods).
The other thing to keep in mind is that we are all individuals – we respond differently across a spectrum to a variety of inputs. If something doesn't work for you, change it.
So, dive into a tub of yummy Greek yogurt – and revel in all the saturated fatty goodness!!
(of course, oodles of bacon is also a good thing to consume!)
I am also a fan of Dr Harris' view of the whole thing. However I know that Tisha and I lost sight of what feeling good felt like. So I think avoiding a food for a month (like dairy) then slowly adding it in and see if it makes you feel pourly is a great way to see how tolerant of different foods you are.
Also I love butter.
"and let's face it – butter is a gift from the gods." That made my day right there.
Being greek i love yogurt this is a great idea.
I personally am not following a paleo style diet yet so i have been relying on a homemade whole food weight gain shake. which consists on half a can full fat coconut milk, avocado, handful of lettuce(or spinach), carrots, frozen berries, mangos, what ever fruit is around, and a scoop of protein powder. If i am not drinking that with dinner i usually add in about a 1/4cup of steel cut oats. i can usually get about an extra 700-1000kcal on top of a mean just by adding that.
Great link Criag, very interesting video
Definitely similar to the Zone Games 1 WOD #2 – 6 Degrees of Hyperventilation [Advanced], [Open].
Ah yes, now I remember… thanks Chris!
Did anyone else know that Adidas acquired Reebok years ago?
I feel your light weight pain Jon. And I have lots of n=1 experimentation and experience with this subject. Not everyone may know this but I'm a little dude. 165lbs. I was 140lbs from about age 12 to 23 or so. I managed to pack on some weight after getting mono and dropping to 115lbs. So I have been trying to look big most of my life.
I like the MDA article link that was posted. I think he has all the basics that worked for me. A few months ago I put on 15 lbs in 3 weeks, and since then have kept 5 of those lbs on! My problem with most attempts was to try just one thing. Such as eat more food. I've found that my body is really complicated and just calories wasn't enough.
Soo, here was my weight gain protocol.
– 5000 to 6000 cal a day (usually about 5 big meals) – and no snacking, everything was paleo, and I threw in peanut butter on most days
– zero cardio. I didn't take the stairs, I didn't bike to work. I didn't run for the bus. I even stopped a few times while walking up hills.
– Lifting Heavy. I was just squating, pressing and deadlifting 5×5 to what my 5rep max was, and doing some lighter olympic lifting in between to loosen up a little.
– 9 hours of sleep a night
– and for good measure I did a cycle of creatine.
I think the big thing for me was to stop being active and only push heavy weight because your body will prefer to use your fuel to repair your muscles over building bigger muscle. You just have to not give it a choice.
Having found a way to gain weight, I can now say that I am still a pretty slim dude. But I've lost interest in gaining weight. I will only do it again if I can do nothing else to get stronger. It was the most unpleasant 3 weeks of my life, and all to keep on 5 lbs…
I've pretty mush come to the same conclusion…I can either make my self sick (chugging whipping cream) and gorging all in order to gain 5 lbs or continue to eat clean, lift and see what happens
I'm not so focused on gaining weight just to be big. I have gone through that phase and i feel like I have accepted what my body is going to be like. That being said I would like to see what my body is capable of doing. I cannot change my physiology, but i do have control of a few factors that can either improve my performance towards my goals or allow me to scratch another thing off of the list.
When i first wrote the paragraph for Shannon i had the initial intent to point out that many people may not be eating enough. If you actually take the time to journal everything your eating in a day it can be quite surprising how far under your daily calories you can be. this could be one of the factors that is inhibiting people from reaching their goal. Wether than be to gain or lose.
I personally am not following a paleo style diet yet so i have been relying on a homemade whole food weight gain shake
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