Basically all you need to understand to gain weight is; Everything is about calories in vs calories out.

Consume more calories than you burn and you will gain weight. Vice versa.

Hence, if you want to gain weight, just eat more than you burn. I'd imagine it would be hard to just suddenly increase the portion of your meals by a large quantity in a short period of time as you would not have developed the eating habit for it yet. Try eating a little bit more on each meal (for people with time constraints).

For example, if every lunch time you eat chap fan (economy rice), try adding 2 additional pieces of chicken to your already existing portion or 2 additional eggs. The idea is to slowly build your appetite so you can handle larger portions of food. Unless of course you're the type that gets full very fast then I'd suggest you go for more frequent meals.

In summary, it's better not to force yourself to eat a lot but actually slowly build the habit of eating a lot so that it will be second nature to you everytime you eat. Note that earlier I said 'eating habit' and not 'forced stuffing your stomach until you feel like puking'. Slowly increase your calorie intake per day and be consistent.

PS: Don't forget to exercise for that "more presentable look"

This guy has a point



This post has been edited by durianhead: Mar 6 2012, 04:43 PM

Aha! Now that is where the importance of the source of your calories comes in. If you're just contented with gaining weight (not being so particular on whether it's 40% muscle, 60% fat or anything), it's simple. You just eat whatever you like, however you like it. Just don't go whining to everyone you meet about how you can't get 6 pack abs or how your chest looks like it's about to drop off / touch your knees.

Increasing muscle mass at the same time reducing body fat is indeed a different set of game because, depending on your current and target body fat %, you would probably be losing weight instead of gaining weight in order to reduce body fat (a.k.a. cutting, as coined by bodybuilders). I'm not sure what your goals are or what you'd want to look like but the technique of getting there is basically around the ratio of 60-70% what you put in your mouth and 40-30% your exercise program.

Most people lose a bit of muscle mass when they try to drastically reduce body fat and for a person who's not that into bodybuilding, it's normal. Normally, I'd suggest focusing on one at a time (normally people go for building muscle mass first - this is where you gain weight) then shift your phase into the other (losing body fat - where you lose weight). Technically, both (gaining muscle mass & losing bf) will still be occuring at the same time, it's just that one will be more significant than the other.

Assuming you're aiming for the model look or Brad Pitt in Fight Club, I'd recommend this website. The dude basically advocates intermittent fasting as a guideline to gaining muscle mass and losing body fat at the same time.

All in all, it's actually something that requires trial and error to see what suits you best but in a nutshell, you just need to remember what you put in your mouth will basically flow to what your body looks like .



This post has been edited by durianhead: Mar 7 2012, 12:13 PM