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How can I safely gain weight?
Question
I truly hope that Mr. Getoff reads and answers my question. I would first like to thank you for your work. I’ve been learning about nutrition on my own for 2 years and you have helped build a foundation for me. I bought many of your cd’s and listen to every interview I can online. I am finally learning nutrition from American College of Healthcare Science. Unfortunately, we are learning from a dietitian textbook which promotes eating more carbs (such a board term) and claims that only a dietitian knows nutrition and everyone else is a quack (seriously).
Now for the question: You help those that need weight loss by far more than those that would like to gain weight I am sure. But what about healthy weight gain? I followed your healthy 4 week challenge and I never felt better (I still eat like that for the past 6 months). But with eating like that you just aren’t as hungry, well you don’t pig out all day long, and without starches people like me don’t gain weight. In fact, I lost weight. I am a smaller person. I weight 125-130 pounds 5’4″ and when I workout you can clearly tell I lift, but I won’t gain that much weight. I want to beef up more without having to bust my butt working out every day. What would be a healthy way to gain weight? Should I eat starches before I workout so I can burn off the energy. But again, would that make a difference.What should a “diet” look like for sports active people?
I eat eggs and lamb or something of that nature for breakfast. Nuts for snack. Some type of meat and veggies after that. Then maybe a 3 egg omelets for dinner and a protein shake of grassfed protein powder and colostrum. I eat a pretty boring diet I must say.
Just for laughs I had to work at the hospital a week ago and I went to the cafeteria. They had a sign that said “Because we care. We don’t cook with cholesterol products. We fry everything in shortening.”
Answer
As stated when you purchased the class and in a statement in this forum, I am certainly answering these questions!
Yes it is true that a healthy diet, which I teach and promote, will generally cause weight “normalization.” I have couples who come to me in which the man was very underweight and the woman was very overweight. In 8 months or so they both reach their desired weight. There are generally two problems that I see the most often. The first is that many people have an incorrect belief as to what they “should” weigh. I have had both men and women (but mostly men) tell me that they have lost too much weight on my eating program and they want my “permission” to add back in some starches to try to gain weight. I immediately connect them to my RJL Quantum ll body composition analyzer to see if they are correct:
http://www.rjlsystems.com/products/quantum-ii/#section=description
In all the years I have been doing this, so far, every single man and woman has either been at a healthy composition based on all the current research, or more often they still need to lose more body fat and/or gain more muscle. I am sure there will be exceptions, but so far I have not seen one in my office.
Although we have a great deal of latitude in what we can do with our bodies, our genetics still plays a role. If someone is of small stature, we cannot increase their skeletal structure, only their muscle and fatty tissue. A healthy weight for a 5’4” male begins at 130 and goes up depending on stature. A heavy boned man might be another 5 or even 10 pounds. The best way to gain weight is to build more muscle tissue with more exercise and more quality protein and fat intake, but many will not be able to look like the person they wish to look like if their healthy body disagrees with their mind’s view.
David Getoff, CCN, CTN, FAAIM, Price-Pottenger Vice President