Gaining Body weight

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Firminator

New Member
Our son is home for the summer. He is a college football player that is trying to gain more body weight. He is stuck at 245 lbs and has been for about 3 weeks. I don't know how get more calories into him. Nutrition has always been my weakness so I'm looking for guys that have had to really bulk up.
This is his daily food intake.
Breakfast - protein shake, 2 bowls for frosted mini-wheats or 3-4 packs of instant oatmeal.
10 am - powerbar
Lunch - 2 Ham & cheese sandwiches, bag of Doritos, water
3 pm - protein shake and Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich
Before workout - protein shake
dinner - some type of pasta or 5 egg omelet
before bed - protein shake
He is on a 4 day lifting and 3 day running/agility training program that was set up by his strength and conditioning coach.
Any tips on how to get him past this 245 plateau would really be appreciated. He has 3 more weeks before he reports back to football training camp.
Thanks,
Firm
 
Greetings Firminator.

Your son, with his high level of physical activity would certainly be expending a lot of calories. Thus, for weight gain, if the current amount is not working to cause any weight gain, you might wish to boost the caloric content of his food.

Since he takes 4 protein shakes a day, the easiest and perhaps, least taxing way of boosting calories would be to add things like ice-cream, peanut butter, jam, butter, cream, milk powder etc to his liquid meals.

If he has to report back in 3 weeks, it might be good if he includes creatine in his protein shakes too. Creatine can cause a significant gain in water weight although this is the least of all reasons to take creatine.

Godspeed, and happy gaining :)
 
I'm no expert but he doesn't seem to be eating that much considering I am eating a similar amount at 190 pounds.

An easy way to increase calories is to use maltodextrin or dextrose in his pre and post workout protein shakes (I would recommend having one post workout too, then having a meal after another half an hour/hour, then another meal 2 hours or so later. This should add a meal to his day and also add say 480 calories (based on 60g dextrose/maltodextrin)

I'm not sure when he has breakfast or at one time he trains but there seems to be scope for having more than a bar at 10 and more than a sandwich/proetin shake at 3pm - how about adding some fruit? (If nothing else than because its good for you!)

adding fat or carbohydrates to his shake before bed is another easy way to increase calories. Not sure what sort of protein he's using but you want a mixture of casein with a little whey before bed ideally (or animal protein instead of casein). Personally, when bulking, I have a can of tuna mixed with a can of baked beans - 55g of protein, 55g of carbs. Admittedly this is mainly for convenience and cottage cheese may be a more usual recommendation!

Simply by bracketing his workout with shakes, adding 2 bits of fruit and say 200cals from fat or carbs before bed you will have increased his daily caloric intake by approx 880 calories -given than adding 500cals is supposed to add weight I'd have thought that would be a good start :D
 
In the bulking phase, does it matter where the carbs come from.Should I try to include more low GI carb food, or is it okay if the carbs are high GI carbs?


:) Anoop
 
I would go with low GI apart from pre/post workouts personally but I'm not too sure of the science, just know taht you want nutrients being released steadily over time.

You might want high GI in the morning to replace lost glycogen but only if you can have low gi within an hour or two.
 
Theres plenty of room for more food.the two snacks are small. plenty more food could be added.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]In the bulking phase, does it matter where the carbs come from.Should I try to include more low GI carb food, or is it okay if the carbs are high GI carbs?
Click to expand...
if your having trouble getting enuff food in, high GI is the best, as its high energy density (usually)
 
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