How long (approx) do I have to eat alot to gain 20lb?

[Seven_Down]

I want to weight around 155 by the end of June, and currently I eat around 3000 calories per day (a huge upgrade from the barely 2000 calories I used to eat). How long will it take to gain 20lb at this rate?

(Also, when is the best time to weigh yourself?)

[viciouspoultry]

Assuming your maitaince is 2500 it would take you 20 weeks to gain 20 pounds. 3500 calories= 1 lb of fat. In terms of muscle, naturally about 1-1.5 years on steriods considerably less. Best time to weigh yourself is towards bed as that is when you are the heaviest

[RelentlessChaos]

I want to weight around 155 by the end of June, and currently I eat around 3000 calories per day (a huge upgrade from the barely 2000 calories I used to eat). How long will it take to gain 20lb at this rate?

(Also, when is the best time to weigh yourself?)

i dont get why everyone thinks 3k is a lot. I mean, unless you eat all healthy stuff. Im not saying i eat cookies, and crap. But i drink half a gallon of milk a day, gallon of water. Eat like 30oz meat a day.

summer diet

oats in morning, and protein shake(only half scoop)

lunch i eat 2-3 chicken breasts with fruit

protein (half scoop) before i workout. creatine, and protein after.

wait an hour and eat dinner.

I eat all throughout the day to, eat fruit, vegetables, considering i work at a greenhouse, and in summer theres produce. i can eat all i want.

Point is, have a good diet. I have gotten one, and i rarely eat candy, and junk food now. Diet is #1 thing you need. Supplements aint gonna work on there own.

Id take protein if i were you to.

[Rugger7]

I want to weight around 155 by the end of June, and currently I eat around 3000 calories per day (a huge upgrade from the barely 2000 calories I used to eat). How long will it take to gain 20lb at this rate?

(Also, when is the best time to weigh yourself?)

depends entirely on your body. Some people will pack it on in no time flat, others might be able to eat anything and everything and never gain it.

[bAby norAA]

depends on how u want to gain this weight...if you dont mind gaining a considerable amount of fat, then i'd say a few months

[Seven_Down]

I am pretty skinny and I tend to gain weight pretty slowly normally, but "normally" is when I barely eat alot. I am just doing dirty gaining, eating anything and everything. I just had 1500cal of Burger King! And the other day 2000cal of KFC.

But hey, it's protein.

[RelentlessChaos]

http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm

calculate some things there.
the main site is this
http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/aug/23weight.htm

for a teen, you need to be eating 3k regularly, and maybe 4k to gain half a pound a week. You could eat around 5k and on protein and creatine, and hard training gain a pound a week. Drink lots of water.

So you could get it in 20 weeks as someone already said.

But some people wont gain a pound if there life depended on it. Like me. Metabolic rate has to do with it to. If you have a fast rate you need to consume more food. So if you dont notice anything after 5 weeks, id consider telling your mom to pull out some cash and buy you the steaks, and chickens.

[Seven_Down]

Argh, its frustrating to hear "20 weeks" when I've seen people gain that much in a week...

[disconnect]

Argh, its frustrating to hear "20 weeks" when I've seen people gain that much in a week...

Its going to take you YEARS to get where you want to be goal wise.......better start getting used to it. Doesnt happen overnight buddy.

Edit: Not years to get the 20lbs, but once you put on 20lbs youre gonna want to keep going.....at your height, 155 is still underweight.

[Seven_Down]

Yeah it doesn't matter how I gain this weight as long as I gain it

[Want2BeStrong]

weight does not equal muscle. The only valid reason to put on large amounts of weight in a short time would be for a sport of some sort (even with this, I don't see why somebody would intentionally put on fat just to weigh more).


This article does an excellent job of describing how your body creates muscle, and why dirty bulking (and excessive bulking in general) is not such a great idea:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1268956

You want to eat enough food for your body to build muscle at its maximum rate, without going over the top and putting on fat from excess calories.

As a general rule, aim for 1-2 lb of pure muscle per month. Depending on genetics, you might be able to get more than this, but if you ever gain more than 4 lb of weight in a month than I am certain at least some of that weight is fat.

Even at 1 lb / month, that is very good. 12 lb of muscle in a year might not seem like a lot, but it actually is. If you could do this for 10 years you would have gained 120 lb of muscle. And THAT IS a lot.

Edit: When to weight yourself - I always weigh myself immediately after waking up and going to the bathroom, before consuming any water or food. This is the most consistant way to measure your weight, since measuring at any other time of day will be skewed by what you've eaten during that particular day.

[Seven_Down]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

[slaydox]

Assuming your maitaince is 2500 it would take you 20 weeks to gain 20 pounds. 3500 calories= 1 lb of fat. In terms of muscle, naturally about 1-1.5 years on steriods considerably less. Best time to weigh yourself is towards bed as that is when you are the heaviest

Wow...bad advice man...


There are 600 calories in a lb on muscle and 3500 in a lb of fat.
Weigh yourself in the morning! Because you are your lightest so you know exactly how far youve come along. Its your natural weight really.
Look to add about .5-1lbs a week. so it could take you....20weeks to get 20lbs but most likely half of it would be fat.

[skinny ee]

yea iam skinny too iam trying to gain too, iam looking for a list of good foods to eat.

[Richie_Awesome]

I want to weight around 155 by the end of June, and currently I eat around 3000 calories per day (a huge upgrade from the barely 2000 calories I used to eat). How long will it take to gain 20lb at this rate?

(Also, when is the best time to weigh yourself?)

If you want to gain it healthfully, don't expect to get there until late December, early January.

I am pretty skinny and I tend to gain weight pretty slowly normally, but "normally" is when I barely eat alot. I am just doing dirty gaining, eating anything and everything. I just had 1500cal of Burger King! And the other day 2000cal of KFC.

But hey, it's protein.

Fast food once in a while isn't terribly bad, but don't rely on it for your food intake. btw...the protein can be pretty bad at fast food restaurants.

Wow...bad advice man...


There are 600 calories in a lb on muscle and 3500 in a lb of fat.
Weigh yourself in the morning! Because you are your lightest so you know exactly how far youve come along. Its your natural weight really.
Look to add about .5-1lbs a week. so it could take you....20weeks to get 20lbs but most likely half of it would be fat.

Just make it noted that:

Gaining a pound of muscle requires 3500 calories (properly known as kilocalories or kcal) above your maintenance value (the number of calories it takes to maintain your bodyweight).

[redhawk76]

Just make it noted that:

Gaining a pound of muscle requires 3500 calories (properly known as kilocalories or kcal) above your maintenance value (the number of calories it takes to maintain your bodyweight).

I'm pretty sure a pound of muscle is actually 2600 and fat is 3500. I'm not positive on the number though

[Richie_Awesome]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/archiv...?t-520000.html

I was reading about it there.

You guys know more about it than I do.

Why do they recommend above 500 above maitenance a day?(I know it works, but what's the science behind it?) Where are the rest of the calories going?

[Richie_Awesome]

Found this.

Fat and muscle weigh the same. Fat is less dense then muscle. Because of this, a pound of fat will be larger then a pound of muscle. Fat is made up of 22% water, 72% lipids (fat), and 6% protein. Muscle is composed of 70% water, 7% lipids (fat), and 22% protein. The high water content of muscle causes you to lose mostly muscle when dieting without exercise. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. There are 600 calories in a pound of muscle. An extra 500 calories a day will add a pound of fat a week to your body.

http://www.biofitness.com/fat.html

[Richie_Awesome]

This is very interesting.

There's a little more than 600 calories in a pound of muscle. If you are stimulating three pounds of muscle growth a week, you will require 600 X 3, or 1800 calories per week above maintenance. That translates to 257 calories per day above maintenance, but you're taking in 300 calories above maintenance. Since 300 minus 257 would equal 47, those 47 excess calories above growth production need would turn to fat; however, since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, a 47-calorie-per-day excess would amount to only a pound of fat gained every 74 days. (If you stimulated one pound of muscle growth per week, instead of three pounds per week, you'd require 85 calories a day above maintenance; therefore, the 215-calorie excess would amount to approximately two pounds of fat gained per month.) If after two months on a positive calorie balance of 300 per day you see fat accumulating, use your best judgment and reduce calorie intake somewhat. (It has been suggested that there is a "metabolic cost" in creating new muscle, so not all the excess calories would necessarily turn to fat.)

http://www.mikementzer.com/hd2chap6.html

[slaydox]

So If i wanted to bulk up would it be smarter to only go 300 above maintance? I would think so...as a clean bulk i guess.

[Seven_Down]

How strange! I weighed myself right before my nightly shower and I'm 5lb heavier then not more then a few days ago when I weighed myself at approx. the same time!

[AgreeWitMe]

hey slaydox, I just PM'ed you.

[Richie_Awesome]

How strange! I weighed myself right before my nightly shower and I'm 5lb heavier then not more then a few days ago when I weighed myself at approx. the same time!

If you're only eating 300-500 above maitenance, it's mostly water weight and glycogen.

[bAby norAA]

if your frustrated with what your hearing time wise, theres only one answer.
but if you plan on going that route, research will take up a good year before your ready.

[Seven_Down]

Well my maitenence is 2200 or so calories, according to FitDay, and even if its off by 500 calories then I'm still getting almost 1000 over.

[Richie_Awesome]

Well my maitenence is 2200 or so calories, according to FitDay, and even if its off by 500 calories then I'm still getting almost 1000 over.

Then aim for 2500-2700 each day.

make sure that's maitenance, and not BMR.

[slaydox]

I started my bulk today but i had kinda like a "cheat" weekend this weekend nothing big really just alot of food to help me get used to it. I already look blurry from the water bloat but can i loose the water bloat while bulking? so i can tell if im gaining in the right places?

[Seven_Down]

Aren't maitenence and BMR the same thing?

[Hallock]

Assuming your maitaince is 2500 it would take you 20 weeks to gain 20 pounds. 3500 calories= 1 lb of fat. In terms of muscle, naturally about 1-1.5 years on steriods considerably less. Best time to weigh yourself is towards bed as that is when you are the heaviest

I'm going to say this is pretty bad advice. At his weight (Which is apparently 135 if he wants to gain 20 pounds to be 155), his BMR is closer to like... 1700, maybe less. Even with weight lifting I doubt his maintenance is over 2200. People can gain at different rates.

For example, I've been bulking since December (138) and I've gained roughly 16 pounds now (154), and I'm content at the pace I'm gaining weight. I'm only now tipping over 3000 calories--somewhat due to cafeteria restrictions since I stopped gaining. My body fat hasn't gone up greatly, but my strength really has.

I think for a beginner to put on 20 pounds, especially someone as small as 135, is not an absurd goal. He may gain a bit of fat, it may not be all muscle, but I think he'd be happy with the results.

Also, I weigh myself in the morning after I use the bathroom.. Weighing at night means you still have a ton of food and water in you. I don't count that towards my weight because somedays I eat so much it makes me weigh three or so pounds more, but that weight is temporary/