Basic Weight Gain Theory
As far as theories in weight loss and weight gain science are concerned there are several of them doing rounds in every social circle one is a part of. The old school generally holds the theory of standard calories in as compared to calories out. This theory states that the if number of calories that a person “burns” is lesser than the number of calories one takes, they are sure to gain weight and vice versa. But, if we go by this method of thinking, than one need to intake almost around 3500 calories above the number of calories he is burning to gain a pound of weight. This way, one can never be sure that the “gain” is in terms of muscle and not in terms of fat.
This is where the situation is as clear as mud. Or simply put: it’s complicated. There are many other theories that deal with ratios. These ratios can be the comparison of percentages of diet that comes from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.
If one wants to gain muscles without losing fat, it is highly recommendable to keep a ratio of around 40/50/10. This means that 40 (on the scale of 100) of calorie intake is from proteins, 50 is from carbohydrates and 10 is from fat. Noticeably, there is less fat than the usual weight loss ratios which ask for a minimum of 20 to 25% of fat, but intake of too much of fat will slow down you’re the whole weight gain process for two reasons. The first one being that fat tends to fills one up more quickly. This way, one ends up in taking very few calories. The other reason is that it is more difficult for the human body to store or use as energy. This in reality requires more calories to process.
One needs to have the appropriate mix of protein and carbohydrate intake to support the new muscles that grow subsequently.
One should track everything they eat for 15 to 20 days until they get a hint about the right amount of food they should eat. This way, they can then continue to eat the same way. If one stops gaining or losing weight, they should just go back to track their meals until they are right where they started from.
As far as the right quantity is concerned, always remember that people are underweight due to a combination of high metabolism rate in their body and the fact that they are not eating enough. Most people probably think that they eat a lot. They are suggested to track their current food intake for a couple of days and they will be surprised to find out that they are not eating the adequate amount. One needs to eat about 5 or 6 meals a day with the 40/50/10 ratio, as previously stated so as to gain weight. There are many formulas to figure out the exact number of calories one should eat in order to gain weight, but a much simpler approach is to take the current body weight and multiply that by anything between, 15, 16 or 17 and then base the caloric intake on the number thus obtained.
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March 9th, 2010 at 8:15 am
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