I was curious. Does anyone know how many more calories you need per day to gain one pound? and once you get to your ideal weight do you have to keep those calories or can you go back to what you were doing? may be a dumb question but curious.
I once read an article on exactly this, how many calories constitute one pound of body mass, and it came with recipes for shakes containing one pound worth of calories. That was long ago, however.
'The following is from an old newsletter I received from Ryan Lee. Hope this helps!!!!!!!: Dear Joey, Here are SportSpecific.com we receive so many emails about nutrition, I thought it would be a good idea to post a recent discussion in our members-only forum about sports nutrition, weight gain and young athletes. I've posted the entire thread, unedited for your reading pleasure. Enjoy! Ryan Lee TNT We have several athletes that need weight gain. The high calorie food diets we have them on are very hard for them to consume that much food. Does anyone know which weight gain supplement would be best for us to recomend to athletes as young as 12 thru. age 22 yrs. BHODAZAFA TNT - i have a similar scenario, w/ a very under weight athlete - and i am going to implement an idea that larry jusdanis uses w/his football players i am giving this athlete a sheet which has blocks for monday through sunday, 6 blocks each day each block must be filled w/ a meal..they eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and inbetween each meal, there is snack 1, 2 and 3 = a total of 6 blocks end of the week they must hand in the sheet w/all the blocks filled i am not big on any weight gain products, as many are high sugar, empty calorie money wasters snacks such as PBnJ sandwiches, trail mix, extra milk through the day can help...be sure they avoid cardio and encourage rest so they can grow.. of course, i am not nutritionist, but i emphasize constantly post workout nutrition - kids that train w/me bring a meal w/them or a protein shake so they can ingest good after they train --educating our athletes and giving them the sheet to fill out can make them more responsible for better eating habits hope i helped a bit! -Zach BRIANN zach makes excellant points!!! post workout nutrition being a priority for my pt clients or athletes. but its a fact if your trying to bring weight up, and whole food isnt a viable option, you have to supp. with manufactured foods. i work pretty closely with a supp store owner to make sure my clients are getting the best stuff avail if thats a road they choose to go...a good "gainer" that has a very low sugar content is cytogainer...its not real food, but if they use it as a supplement to their real food it can be an invalueable tool--but keep in mind, gainers are much more expensive than straight protein supplements. like zach, im no nutritionist, but i feel its important to learn as much of this stuff as we can, as most clients just wont seek nuitrition advice from RD's or nutritionists. keep it simple and safe... by the way, PB&J's, trailmix(cheap from costco), boiled egges, whole milk, almonds, bagels... are all excellant way to have portable whole food snacks with you all day long. KWAME1 I am all for the weight gain within reason, but let's watch how much and how fast with a developing athlete (especially during puberty). Also, I would probably not counsel a developing child to "avoid" cardio, maybe just limit it. Let's all remember that the body of a child is not relatively static like that of an adult, and that one of the keys to dealing with this population is taking a holistic approach. Approaching weight gain in a developing teen as a singular goal may not be such a good idea. Anyone else want to weigh in on this? Chris Scarborough? BRIANN im just guessing, but maybe zach meant avoid, "aerobics." which as a generality is a waste. BHODAZAFA yes, my apologies - a lot of kids still espouse to distance running or "cardio" as part of their program - if a kid wants to gain weight, i like the ideas you posted brian - eggs, milk, trail mix - not that they are being force fed - but, they will begin eating regularly, like an athlete should - and young athletes who are normally quite active - wont need to worry about gaining fat - esepcially if they are on a solid strength training program that being said - kids are kids - i am not one to harp on them w/do this and do that demands - i do educate them though, and i always ask them what they are gonna do when they get home - they always answer, post workout meal - so they are getting in the groove and applying a very important part of the total package.. giving them a list of foods that they should choose from also helps..their main meals are with solid foods, and the snacks include the trail mix, bagel w/cheese, PBnJ - extra milk during the day and, a solid strength training program will surely help improve weight gain - obviously due to the increase of muscle that being said, chris scarborough has a set of audio interviews on his site where nutrition is discussed for young athletes, it's awesome, if you don't have them, they are definitely awesome,,i listen to them repeatdely b/c i train young athletes! --zach-- BRIANN excellant, excellant points...with kids its all about good habit forming. continually reinforcing the things you want them to do, and little by little, they will make better choices, then even better choices, the better still choices... keep it, zach! FIT-NOMENAL FITN I also recommend Products by Beverly's International. They have a product by the name of Muscle Providor (Protein Supplememnt) which I combine with the Athlete's Smoothies Book Ryan provides. It's a way to get my younger Athlete's to supplememnt a couple of meals daily with taste they enjoy. -Troy RKARBOVIAK I feel that there's this image out there about weight gain that sends the wrong message to today's athlete. The typical "he needs another good 10 pounds on him and he'd be great" is nothing more than a stupid suggestion in my mind. Is there some golden rule out there that says if Athlete X gains 10 pounds or more that they will automatically be a better athlete? I haven't seen it, read about it, or seen it in practice by anyone I know in S&C circles. I feel there's much more to athletic potential in evaluating performance numbers and workout results, than there is in looking at a weight scale for success. I could care less if the kid gained 10 or 15 pounds, if he ain't performing well, those 10 pounds are worthless to him. This 'bigger is better' mindset is what causes all these kids to seek supplements to 'get an edge' somehow, plus these kids also look to Muscle & Fiction bodybuilding magazines for what they think are sports performance programs (because MLB player Joe Athlete has his killer bicep workout in it). I think we need to stop worrying about scale weight and bench press numbers and more about the performance, recovery, and rest that today's excessively active athlete needs. (Female ACL injuries are just one cause of today's excess of activity for athletes, IMO) If it sounds like I'm 'going off' here, I apolgize, but I put up with questions each day from HS kids who ask me about protein powders and creatine and other stuff, and these kids play 15 games of basketball tournaments in 4 days, and I'm expected to help them perform well when their coaches force them into all this activity they don't need. Just gets to be frustrating. Rick Karboviak BRIANN i would also ask, why do they need to gain weight? is it just weight that your trying to increase or is that just a general way of saying they need to get much stronger. how is their weight to strength ratio now? JOHN_I Here is my take on the matter...there's scientific jargon or great periodization plans here. I will speak from personal experience and professional experience. Athletes that want to gain weight forget that it takes..drumroll please.....TIME! I love checking out nutrition plans and exercise programs that promise 10 pounds in 5 weeks. So many factors go into gaining weight...just as the goal is losing weight. Nutrition plays a big part and careful planning of the exericse program. And finally...time. Just be patient and the size will come! -JOHN IZZO BHODAZAFA good point rick - in my case, i have a kid who is very below the lowest weight class -- even though he won a state championship last year, it was in the kids states (where they wrestle against same age - weight class), so he was able to wrestle kids his weight, entering high school, no matter how good he is, he needs to add quality muscle - which, comes along w/ a quality nutrition regime - here are some of my examples - last year, 2 kids in the area entered high school weighing 87 - 90 lbs,,the lowest weight class is 103 lbs, so they were approx 15 lbs below the weight class both of these kids were NATIONAL champs, best in the country for their age and weight (in the 80 and 85 lb classes the previous yr) - they did well as freshman, but, due to the difference in size w/the other kids, they did not make it past the first round of the region - what happens is sometimes, when weight is a factor, the stronger, lesser skilled athlete came out on top - so it was a tough freshman yr for them good news, both of those kids have gained quality muscle and are now maturing physically - and will be in the 103 and 112 weight class as solid as can be it's part of our job to educate the parents as well - b/c some parents are over zealous and want their kid gaining a ton of weight in a short time, often an unattainable goal - like 20 lbs over the summer sometimes a kid is underwieght due to their poor nutrition habits, fast food every day, cereal for breakfast or some other high sugar empty calorie food - once nutrition is fixed their muscle starts coming quickly and their performance improves as well i'm excited right now,,i have this kid who is starting to eat properly (was eating fast food every day) and he is strength training w/me 2x week, i'll keep every one posted on his progress - his work outs last 30 minutes, followed by some sled dragging - very basis exercises! once again, regarding weight gain - if an athlete eats clean and trains properly, he'll put on quality muscle rather easily, esepcially once the good eating habits kick in... check out joe defranco's web site, he has an article called west side for skinny bastards..it's a good one! i know everything i said you guys all know - but, just chiming in! --zach FITMAN1 I like this particular post because it fits in nicely with many of the situations I deal with on a daily basis. From my experience, young people who want/need to put on weight fall into three distinct categories: 1) Want to look bigger and more "cut". These are sometimes kids who are good athletes, but want to look good at the beach as well. They are the hardest to convince that added muscle doesn't necessarilly equal added performance. Nothing wrong with looking, as long as performance isn't compromised. 2) Want to gain weight because they think it will help them in their performance. They usually need more information about both playing smarter and not harder and increasing the technical aspects of their chosen sport. By working on mechanics and technique, many times they find that added weight is not so necessary. 3) Want to add weight because the coach or Dad wants them to. These are the toughest to work with because they have an outside influence doing the thinking for them. In all of these situations, some need added weight/strength gains and some do not. You must consider the maturation process individual by individual. Some kids grow slower and progress physically more slowly and therefore add weight/strength less quickly than their genetically gifted counterparts. I have a D1 baseball player (shortstop, freshman to college this year) who has weighed 175 for 2 years. He turned 18 about 6 months ago and has just now begun to add weight. His strength has increased, his performance improved and now his body has decided to catch up. Go figure. Each kid is different and must be addressed as such. Steve I hope you enjoyed this special post. Regards, Ryan Lee
This is kind of vague, and there isn't a "one size fits all" answer. If a 105pound woman ate 5000 calories, she'd gain weight. If an NFL lineman ate 5000 calories, he probably wouldn't notice a difference. Everyone's metabolisms are different.
3,500 calories. Yes, it depends on your size and metabolism that constitute your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) as well as your level of activity, but once you have determined how many calories you required daily to sustain your current weight, every 3,500 calories above or below that will equal one pound. Of course, you have to spread this amount out. If you deprived yourself this many in one day, your metabolism would slow to accomodate the dramatic shift in intake; if you take in 500 calories a day over what you need to sustain your weight, you will gain a pound a week. How much is fat and how much is muscle depends on the nutritional value of the food you consume, the quality and intensity of your workout routine, the amount of rest and sleep you get, and genetics.
