purposeful weight gain, ie- gain muscle

[Corey Howard]

I have an insane metabolism, I mean classic hard gainer. I've started the whole30, and I know I'm unfortunately dropping pounds already. Are there any tips/ideas/recipies for maintaining weight or even gaining weight? I saw an awesome 2000 calorie shake posted on FB the other day... Can anyone share any other ideas? Please help... I can't get healthy and frail at the same time...

[Tom Denham]

Keep eating veggies for the nutrition, but eat 2 palm-size portions of protein at every meal. Choose fatty meats like sausage, pork, and rib eye steak frequently. Add a fried egg on top of meat in your meals.

Add avocado slices to meals or mash up avocados with lime juice and include the mash on to of meats. Add olives to meals. Eat olives whole or run them through a food processor to make a tapenade and add it to meals. Add nuts to stir-fries, baked sweet potatoes, or chop them up and sprinkle on top of some veggies. Add coconut flakes to baked sweet potatoes.

Prepare meals with coconut milk frequently. I like to stew fish or chicken in coconut milk with spices.

Eat 4 or 5 meals per day if that is what you need to maintain your weight.

[aed00056]

I have the same problem plus after 7 days on the W30 program my appetite had decreased. I'm forcing myself to eat the approved foods. I guess I just have to eat more. I'm 6'4" and really don't want to be under 200 lbs. I started the program at 210. I want the benefits of clean eating but I don't want the weight loss.

[Fergatron]

I started my whole 30 8 days ago and have gained a bit on purpose. What I find is that protein is the winner! Eat lots of it, sweet potatoes after a workout, with a little bit more than usual. Some parsnips with your normal meals.

I've started blending avocado with lime, lemon, cider vinegar, garlic, chilli etc. pour it over your food.

A little bit more fat will help this too. I haven't gained any noticeable fat, and I'm deffentaly leaner!

I know some guys who want to gain weight, pounding down eggs, cans of coconut milk and drinking olive oil but that's a bit extreme for me might be worth a try if you really want it.

[Megan Claydon]

Good advice Tom!

Check out Dallas's article Clean Mass Gain. Great info on gaining muscle with clean whole foods.

My husband is also a classic hard gainer. Since he was 15 he has been on a mission to put on more muscle and weight. He wrote a post about how he eats to put on weight at my blog. Guy's Guide to Eating Paleo

Warning: this will take work and effort.

[Luke91]

Corey - I'm curious if you have dropped muscle mass or fat (perhaps a combo of both)? I lost #s quickly early in the whole 30 and was concerned that I was losing muscle mass. I found that the significant shift in diet led to decreased body fat.

[JimS]

What are you doing for workouts? Others have touched on the nutrition, but if you're working out a lot, doing lots of running, CrossFit, HIIT, etc, you might need to tinker with programming. If you're a hard gainer, you can't kill yourself with cardio and expect to put on mass.

Those who have a hard time gaining muscle usually benefit the most from a strength focused program, eating lots, and minimizing cardio. Lift heavy things 3-4x per week, focusing on compound movements (squat, deadlift, press, weighted dips / chinups / pullups, etc), do one sprint or HIIT session each week if you want to maintain a conditioning base, eat big, and sleep lots.