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So, for the past 6 months, I've been trying to gain weight, and it's only worked a little bit. I currently weigh around 125, and I've gained 10 pounds in all. (I weighed 115 when I started) The problem is, I haven't been able to gain anything past that. The way I went about it was eating a shit ton right before bed, and not eating anything for breakfast. That way my metabolism slows down, and saves calories like a motherfu**er. So when I eat so much at night, my metabolism is still slowed, and I can't spend those calories, and it gets converted into fat. I've tried eating more at night, but I just end up getting sick. I suppose I should also mention that I'm on a very strict workout schedule, and I'm not going to be stopping. I need to for track/field.
Any suggestions on how I could gain more? I'd really appreciate your help!

Eat calorie-dense foods like sweets that give a lot of fat/calories for a relatively small serving. Protein shakes can sometimes help out with this, too, but don't expect to become ULTRA-BUFF HULK LOLOLOLOL like certain advertisements would like you to believe.

Also, another thing you could do is eat in small amounts throughout the day, like constantly snacking every hour or two instead of eating proper meals. If I'm not mistaken, eating small amounts of food like that keeps your metabolism fairly low, so you still get the calories you'd get from eating big meals but you retain more.

You need to gain weight for track and field? Which events are you doing? Most speed and endurance exercise you get faster if you're lighter, right? (Spoken as a distance runner/bike rider) Maybe if you're trying for shot putt (?) or discus or something, more body mass might help, but I bet muscle and righteous form and technique count for way more.

I'd do everything, including eating, with building endurance and strength in mind and let your weight decide itself. And anything you do that interrupts your sleep is going to make you weak and slow...

Also, I can't remember how old you are, but if you're under 20 or so, don't worry, the weight will come! When you're 35 you'll wish it never did.

What's your coach say?

Well, I'm a really good long distance runner and sprinter, so that's what I do, but I forgot to mention WHY I wanted to gain weight. How silly of me! I'm 15 btw
For the past 4 years or so, people have been screwing with me (shoving, smacking, and such), and since I'm so light, I can't really push them back. I can't learn any martial arts, I'm poo and have really little money, and I can't work out with weights because I have a heart problem. Basically, if I do dead weights my heart asplodes.

I haven't asked my coach, he doesn't want me to gain weight.

@RDM: Eating constantly throughout the day actually keeps your metabolism up. -_- This is one thing that health taught me.

You burn a lot of calories when you sleep, at a higher rate than when loafing around on a couch. There's lots of maintenance processes that occur during sleep. It's hardly a dormant state at all.

If you're worried about being shoved around, you can go the Ender route and go nuts biting and fighting dirty. You'll develop a reputation and then people won't mess with you.
Or you can be civil, shrug it off as idiots being young and dumb, and survive through secondary education and get into university where the culture is more tame.

That may be true, but I have to sleep sometime right? And also, your body starts to convert calories into fat when you sleep.
But Ender was a frikken genius. I'm only half a genius, so that'd mean that I'll only half succeed, right? Plus I don't like fighting dirty. I've honestly never hit a guy in the nuts. Plus, I've tried fighting back, I've even gone so far as to punch a jock in the face. Doesn't work.

Sandurz wrote:Well, I'm a really good long distance runner and sprinter, so that's what I do, but I forgot to mention WHY I wanted to gain weight. How silly of me! I'm 15 btw
For the past 4 years or so, people have been screwing with me (shoving, smacking, and such), and since I'm so light, I can't really push them back. I can't learn any martial arts, I'm poo and have really little money, and I can't work out with weights because I have a heart problem. Basically, if I do dead weights my heart asplodes.

I haven't asked my coach, he doesn't want me to gain weight.

@RDM: Eating constantly throughout the day actually keeps your metabolism up. -_- This is one thing that health taught me.

You'll gain weight in your 20's ... trust me.

But basically everyone who is bigger than you will get super fat and you will probably gain about 40 lbs ...

screwing with your weight at your age can really mess up your habits later in life ... if you start eating as much as possible you metabolism will shut down and you will gain weight extremely fast

That's true, but I'd rather NOT get picked on now, than to be picked on.

yes but you will be in your prime during your 20's where as they will already be going downhill thus you get all the women ...

(i weighed roughly 120 when i was a freshman in high school ... and i played football ... so man up )

Look, this is what you're doing -
You're purposefully trashing your body's established equilibrium, only to gain some extra mass - and you're naming body fat as your goal.
Frankly, gaining additional mass won't change the behavior of those who push you around, nor how you feel about being the subject of the abuse. All it will do is slightly increase the amount of force they'll have to use.

From what I understand from my more martially inclined friends, half of fighting and taking on blows is stance and energy redirection. I think you should focus more on learning how to take on their shoves and physical abuse and minimize or negate any damage it does and prevent it from throwing you off balance.
Alternatively, avoid them altogether or at least not make yourself a target; it'll help minimize damage inflicted by these jerks.

If you absolutely insist on gaining weight, at least have it be useful muscle instead of fat. It'll give you additional strength, a better looking physique, and probably more attention from the female half of the population.

I find it hard to believe that there is any heart condition that would prevent you from lifting weights, and yet allows you to run track - which is a rather strenuous cardiac exercise. Do you know the name of your condition? I'm rather curious.

And eat your goddamn breakfast. It's good for the brain, and at least you can excel academically.

Fournine wrote:I find it hard to believe that there is any heart condition that would prevent you from lifting weights, and yet allows you to run track - which is a rather strenuous cardiac exercise. Do you know the name of your condition? I'm rather curious.

I think hes a sprinter ... which isn't that strenuous ...

I used to lift alot my junior senior year ... it really really made me gain weight ... got up to about 170 ... and could bench 210 so that probably the way to go if you're athletic ...

muscle is more dense too ... so you won't look like you gained alot of weight ...

Mmm, about the martial arts thing- I'm not really sure if I can understand what you're going through, being a fairly big guy at 6'1" and 200lbs, but I've found through my Krav Maga experiences that applying a lot of force isn't always necessary. WHERE you apply it is a lot more important. You have to be able to control an attacker, and this often means causing acute pain to them while simultaneously preventing them from causing pain to you. Getting behind someone does wonders, as does attacking 'hinge' joints, like the inner elbow, inner knee, inner thighs, and the neck- they're all places you can strike that will cause an attacker to lose mobility. My old instructor called these "puppeteer techniques" because if you can do them right you'll be the one in control, the one pulling the strings.

Anywho, I'm not exactly sure how big you are but if you're taking on a really big attacker you might not be able to do much damage using those little grabs I've suggested, in which case you should be on the defensive in a fight. Stay your distance, use your size to an advantage by ducking and running, try to use your opponent's weight against them (like if they rush forward, step to the side, stick out your leg so they trip over it, and then simultaneously grab their back and push them forward to get that flipping effect that will knock almost anyone flat) and if you must go on the offensive be sure to do quick, painful attacks, like neck blows and crotch blows.

BUT THE EASY WAY? Hang out with some big people. Even if they're not really good friends with you, just standing close to them tends to discourage people from bullying you.

Another thing I'd like to add is be grateful you have trouble gaining weight. Don't trash your body by gaining too much fat, I can personally say (having lost twenty pounds recently) that however fit you are you'll feel slower and sluggish if you get fat, you tire easier, and stretched-out skin is very unattractive. Basically, know your limits, don't go overboard with this. In fact, if you start getting noticeably bigger, your bullies might realize "Olol he thinks he can mess with us" and start beating on you harder to make you feel even more powerless.

Hey, I'm doing the same thing! Well basically, I'm 16 and I think I'm 120 right now. I've been trying to eat more, specifically doing the eating at night thing more, though it wasn't really on purpose. Reading this and hearing some other peoples advice makes me think that just eating more often would help. Although now it seems like that wouldn't be the best idea anyway and I should be fine with how I am. However I'm not really doing it for the same reasons, I don't have too many troubles with assholes at school. For me it's mostly an appearance/possible health problem thing. I tend to wear larger clothes and layers so it's not so obvious how skinny I am. I look pretty ridiculous in anything else. Also I'm still not really sure about this part, but I tend to get stomach aches very very often, which may be due to this or other reason's (some kind of medical issue comes from my dads side of the family, not sure if I have it as well.) I'm pretty sure that it's not due to my eating more, recently. I've dealt with that for a very long time. Would it still be bad to put on weight with my reasons? I'm not going to try for too much, just whatever I need to get to an average look or whenever the other problems stop.

Yeah, RDM and 4-9!

Sandurz, what they said is bang on. High School Sucks, or at least the bully part of it does. You'll have the last laugh when they're having a fun time in jail and you're in college, though. You just know they'll live their whole lives being dicks, and in the real world someone really big will kick their asses for them.

The Ender thing is a time honored method, btw. Totally worked for me at about 130 lbs. No fights after 10th grade when I snapped on one persistent jerk.

...but that was in the day and in a place when there weren't likely to be any guns or knives involved.

Nowadays you want to make a pretty careful assessment about just how psycho your opponents are: if they're just meathead jocks, I'd say go crazy, surprise the shit out of one of 'em and use your knees, bite, gouge eyes, head-butt-- Scream in his ear that the next person who fucks with you is going to get murdered, the crowd that gathers will spread that word. Just don't stop to check how you're doing and give 'em a chance to think, like the punching the jock in the face move.

Never start fighting without first deciding to maul them. As the littler guy, you need the advantage of surprise.

Now, if you suspect the person may be a criminal sociopath type, or worse yet a gang member who can't lose face in his gang, this strategy could totally backfire. They'll come back for payback, and it will suck for you.

Another downside to going crazy on someone is that girls will think you're a nut. And you might really hurt someone and get in trouble...

Anyways, gaining a few pounds will probably not change things, and you definitely don't want to do yourself any health damage for no results.

All this sounds really hectic... I'm going to go with the "pick your battles, hang out with/near big people" advice.

First off, the thing I have is a bicuspid aortic valve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicuspid_aortic_valve
This is compounded by my pectus excavatum. (which I may need a very VERY painful surgery on later in life) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pectus_excavatum
I honestly have no idea why I can't do weights, but my cardiologist told me not to, and I'm def going to listen to him on that.
I really can't gain much more muscle without doing weights, I hardly have any body fat at all at this point. Last time I checked, I had 5% body comp fat. That's the BARE MINIMUM for being healthy.
I really hate it, because I'm not toned at all, but I know the muscle is there. It just doesn't LOOK it. Then in the locker room, people make fun of me (and of my screwed up chest) and push me around. I really can't avoid them, and I've tried to fight back, but it didn't end well. Runner=/=fighter. At least not against more than one person. And no, I can't work with their pride like Ender did with Bonzo.
I've tried learning martial arts off of youtube and practicing on my bro, who is older than me, but that didn't go anywhere. School and my social life takes up too much time for that. I do hang out with big people, you could even call them beasts, but even THEY get fu**ed with. We're generally the mellow type, and that attracts trouble, at least at our school. Also, these guys who are screwing with me are jocks. I already said earlier, I tried punching them out, and it only worked for about a week, and people started again. Not only that, but I had to go to anger management for a week, and I was suspended for a few days.
I guess it is a stupid reason to gain weight now that I think about it. But still, I don't really have much fat, I'd rather be well within the healthy range than really close to unhealthy.