Can't put on weight?

CRAIGO5000

Hi all,

I'm a 5ft 10'', 33 year old bloke and have just fallen to my lowest weight since I can remember - 63KG (just under 10 stone)
I eat a balanced diet, drink every now and then, don't smoke and I'm struggling to maintain weight - especially since I've upped my training regime after the Xmas period.

I always weigh myself first thing in the morning after a leak on the same scales. I used to be just over 11 stone, then I started commuting a few years ago and the weight started to gradually fall off. I plateaued at 10 stone dead for the best part of last year. An example of my issue is that even the Xmas period where I did no exercise for 16 days and basically ate and drank in excess of 3000 calories per day, I gained no weight whatsoever!?

I began to seriously train again after xmas in preparation for the racing season this year as I've never raced before. I have good base fitness and I'm currently doing approx 150 training miles per week. i.e. turbo FTP zone training/chain gang/circuit etc. According to TrainerRoad, I'm now at 3.93w/KG up from 3w/KG since I started on it about a year ago.
In terms of "how do feel?" I feel great - probably the strongest I've ever felt on the bike.

My diet consists of a decent cereal breakfast such as corn flakes/porridge/fruit. Lunch would be a couple of sandwiches or wraps with salad and crisps or jacket potato and veg stew, then I'd likely have a snack around 4pm (biscuits or a chocolate bar) and dinner at around 6pm would be a piece of fish, red meat or chicken/loads of veg and some form of potato. I'll then also have supper which could be anything I have in. I have a really fast metabolism too. I can literally eat some of my 20 stone mates under the table if I want too but I don't do it often unless it's a special occasion.

I spoke recently to another friend who trains lots as he's an American football player. His training is very different to mine as he's interested more solely in explosive power/weight gain/muscle growth and less so about cardio. He suggested it could be that I need to supplement my diet with a pure protein/build shake to help my body gain/maintain weight but I don't know anything about this?

Is there anything I'm missing here? Should I eat more meals in a day - even if I'm not hungry? I'm pretty close to going to a dietician/GP about it. I know the BMI scale is a bit pants, but I'm now literally at the edge of "healthy weight" before I enter the "under weight" zone.

Any advice or things to possibly try would be great.

Thanks

Barbarossa

If you are worried, talk to your GP. Her advice is going to be much more valid than the random set of comments that you will trawl up here.

rozzer32

Record a diary of everything you eat over say 3/4 days. Then you can work out how many calories you're eating and will give you an idea if it's enough or not with your training.

From what you say I think you're not eating enough. What you describe is probably what your average joe would eat, without all the training on top. Oh and from what you describe I'd say ditch the cereal, biscuits, chocolate and supper. And you'd probably want a snack between breakfast and lunch.

Dodger747

I'm 27 and have really struggled to put weight on.

The last 12 months I've used Myfitnesspal in conjunction with 100% Whey protein. I've been really conscientious in recording my calorie intake and have put on 5kg.

It has been a real struggle at times just trying to get enough calories but it can be done. Eat lots Often and have a load of protein.

overlord2

From that list you look like you're not eating enough. To put on weight you need to be calorie overload.

Typical adult require 2500C. If you cycle every day I reckon you need to be aiming for 5000K per day. And that is a lot.

To be fair you are doing an endurance sport so you are never going to be heavy even if you eat 10000C a day the body is just too clever at managing fuel, for a fit person anyway, the average adult lard arse is a bit different.

Make sure you have a big full breakfast and then keep something in the stomach all day. I go for homemade flapjacks, cake etc because then I know what im putting in. Full fat Milk, cheese, tuna, Mackerel etc etc

napoleond

Looks like you don't have much protein with breakfast or lunch...

crispybug2

Pies...........lots of pies! !

Works for me

Big_Ring_Rider

Corn flakes most definitely isn't a decent cereal! Alongside your bowl of porridge, eat some form of protein, especially after training- eggs, peanut butter or cottage cheese on a wholemeal bagel.

Rather than snacking on chocolate or a biscuit (nothing wrong with a treat I know) eat a good handful of mixed nuts.

Dinner sounds good

Supper- full fat greek yoghurt! With nuts/fruit

Keep it simple, snack at regular intervals. FWIW, I'm 6ft 2" and weigh between 65.5-66.5. I feel strong and healthy and ride 15 hrs a week, 10-12 of which is training (the rest commute) a damn site better than before Xmas when I was undereating and running myself into the ground. A change and better understanding of my diet has made all the difference.

DeVlaeminck

Is this purely for vanity? As a bike racer if you can easily maintain a low body fat, feel strong and healthy then that's a good thing. Maybe visit your GP to rule out a health problem and adjusting your diet to replace some of the crap (not that you eat more of it than me or the rest of us) with healthy stuff can't do any harm but other than that why change anything? You say you are still within the healthy weight zone for BMI after all.

Or just eat more should do the trick.

michaelede

1) IF you are genuinely consuming enough calories that you SHOULD be putting on weight at a noticeable rate (i.e. an excess of 500 KCal a day should result in a weight increase of about 500g a week initially) then it really would be a good idea to make sure you don't have an underlying health problem. Bear in mind that if you are using scale weight to monitor progress then it is probably a good idea to track the change in your bodyweight trend rather than the absolute weight as real progress can get lost in the day to day "noise". I use Libra (free) on Android to track change in the opposite direction. I suspect you probably aren't consuming as many calories as you think and / or you are using more than you think.
2) Upping your protein intake? IF you are already covering your requirement I am not sure what purpose that will serve? Protein gram for gram has the same calories as carbs and in reality you burn more calories digesting protein and it has decent appetite blunting effects, so might not be the answer you are looking for. Do you suffer from DOMS after a hard session that takes a few days to resolve? The only upside is that it is moderately cheap and convenient (i.e. consuming a protein shake is fairly quick and easy to o between meals).
3) The simplest way to significantly increase your calorie intake is to significantly up you fat intake (which could have a whole bunch of other good hormonal effects that will help you). Virgin Coconut oil / Extra Virgin Olive Oil / nut butters / fatty cuts of meat eaten at appropriate times (i.e. not before training!) could make a real difference to hormone production (saturated fats are the building blocks of hormones like testosterone etc.) .
4) De stress. High levels of stress hormones (cortisol and epinephrine ) can pretty much ruin any attempt to gain weight. Much easier said than done.
5) Adequate sleep. Ties into 4 above.

YMMV

ollie51

CRAIGO5000 wrote:

I eat a balanced diet

flakes/porridge/fruit... couple of sandwiches or wraps with salad and crisps or jacket potato and veg stew, snack around 4pm (biscuits or a chocolate bar) and dinner at around 6pm would be a piece of fish, red meat or chicken/loads of veg and some form of potato.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Should I eat more meals in a day - even if I'm not hungry? I'm pretty close to going to a dietician/GP about it. I know the BMI scale is a bit pants, but I'm now literally at the edge of "healthy weight" before I enter the "under weight" zone.

I see lots of carbs and not much else, get more fat in your diet, more protein and just generally more.

Definitely stick to the oats (with whole milk) for breakfast, or an omelette (good for lunch too), cereals are almost without exception, nutritionally poor.

You're a good 5kg off being 'underweight', don't worry about it! Not that BMI means much.

neeb

In terms of "how do feel?" I feel great - probably the strongest I've ever felt on the bike.

So what's the problem? Why on earth do you want to put on weight? If you are feeling good, have plenty energy off the bike as well as on and are performing well, you probably don't need to put on weight. Your weight sounds fine for your height.

sloppyschleckonds

neeb wrote:

In terms of "how do feel?" I feel great - probably the strongest I've ever felt on the bike.

So what's the problem? Why on earth do you want to put on weight? If you are feeling good, have plenty energy off the bike as well as on and are performing well, you probably don't need to put on weight. Your weight sounds fine for your height.

Haven't read the whole thread, but the above seems right.

Power to weight ratio seems low though.

diamonddog

neeb wrote:

In terms of "how do feel?" I feel great - probably the strongest I've ever felt on the bike.

So what's the problem? Why on earth do you want to put on weight? If you are feeling good, have plenty energy off the bike as well as on and are performing well, you probably don't need to put on weight. Your weight sounds fine for your height.

^^This, I have hovered on the lower 'healthy weight' limit for the majority of my adult life, as long as you don't keep losing weight then IMHO you don't have a problem.

neeb

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Power to weight ratio seems low though.

I don't use TrainerRoad, but I assume the figure is for FTP? At 3.93 he's bang in the middle of the Cat 3 zone on Coggan's chart, not bad for someone who's only been training properly for a couple of months and was at 3.00 a year ago!

ednino

Pantani was 59kg
If you want to put on more weight add some shakes into your daily intake. I've used myprotein max gainer in the past, 400 calories per shake :shock:

But to be honest, it'll only slow you down. I see being light as a positive providing your healthy 8)

CRAIGO5000

Well it's been a while since I started this thread so I thought I'd update it with some more findings.

Firstly, I've been conscious of what I'm eating. Not too many treats, knocking beer on the head which I LOVE, trying to eat much more protein, fresh veggies and generally hitting a quota of around 120-140grams of protein per day (I've started drinking protein shakes). I do sometimes feel lack-lustre, and not wanting to get on the bike on some days. I eat loads of carbs too, potatoes, pasta etc..

I've also had what feels like a bit of lurgy for the past two weeks but I think that is going around as my two kids have it.

Anyway. Since the start of Jan, I've been putting in around 7.5hours per week of concentrated training mainly using TrainerRoad. (approx 140 miles per week - 40 miles of which are commuting). Since my last post, I've lost a little more weight and now weigh 61KG.

Should I just accept that I am a pretty light guy and stop worrying? When I first started TrainerRoad in 2012, I logged my weight at 68KG and was producing less power.

Over time I've FTP re-tested and slowly grown in strength but the weight has constantly fallen off. I re-tested last night and I'm certainly stronger. I'm just concerned about when/where I might plateau?

I had my first race a few weeks back and did okay in it.

aberdeen_lune

Yes just accept you are a lean cyclist. I don't think you should compare yourself to the average couch potato with a 25-30% body fat ratio. Your body naturally levels out at the right weight for you.

I am pretty lean too just around 18 BMI at 64kgs 6''1. I really feel the benefit on hilly routes. The heavier guys may have more power but you can build up your power over time while staying lean and you will have the best of both worlds.

mazule

When I was trying to put on weight once a dietician gave me this advice:
Whenever you have a choice of quantity, especially if it is part of your internal dialogue, always go for the bigger number, and finish everything. One piece of toast or two = two. Three or four pieces of bacon = four.

You'll soon put on some weight.

meanredspider

Overlord2 wrote:

From that list you look like you're not eating enough. To put on weight you need to be calorie overload.

Typical adult require 2500C. If you cycle every day I reckon you need to be aiming for 5000K per day. And that is a lot.

To be fair you are doing an endurance sport so you are never going to be heavy even if you eat 10000C a day the body is just too clever at managing fuel, for a fit person anyway, the average adult lard ars* is a bit different.

Make sure you have a big full breakfast and then keep something in the stomach all day. I go for homemade flapjacks, cake etc because then I know what im putting in. Full fat Milk, cheese, tuna, Mackerel etc etc

If the OP is doing 150miles a week - even on only 5 days that's just 30 miles a day. At 15mph that's struggling to be 1200kCals. That makes 3700kCals on the 5 cycling days.

Unexpected weight loss should be carefully looked at.

dazzTurning

TO anyone who says "I cant put wieght on" is lying to themselves IMO. They actually DON'T WANT to put weight on. If anyone wants to put weight on, its not rocket science... just eat more..

People that say "I just cant put weight on, no matter what I eat" make me chuckle when you actually see what they eat. Weather they realise it or not, their mind is telling them not to eat more.

I have followed body building type regimes in the past where I have added about 2lb a week, getting up to around 90kg. Im 6' 1" and now about 65Kg. I am very active and eat more than a normal person, many say, "how do you not put on weight.." Its simple, I eat my energy demands... If I wanted to put on more weight, Id just exceed those energy demands (like I used to do when looking to build muscle).

The long and short, Id say for most, its a mental thing, not a physical thing.

neeb

People's metabolisms differ quite a lot. I'm 63kg, but even in the past when I went through phases of eating lots of unhealthy food and not doing much exercise I never got beyond about 68kg. Eating more than I need just gives me diarrhoea, I think it would be quite a challenge for me to become truly fat even if I wanted to.

But I reckon that with my metabolism (which may not be so different from the OP's) I am pretty unhealthy if I am 68kg. It may still be well within the "normal" range on the BMI, but for me it is overweight. I probably need my weight to be around what it is now to have healthy blood lipid profiles.

If the OP feels healthy and energetic at his current weight he probably is healthy, and would probably be less healthy if he did put on weight. But if he is feeling tired a lot and catching lots of bugs then it's possible he needs to eat a bit more.

meanredspider wrote:

If the OP is doing 150miles a week - even on only 5 days that's just 30 miles a day. At 15mph that's struggling to be 1200kCals. That makes 3700kCals on the 5 cycling days.

6000 kCals surely, or am I missing something? Actually as someone of about the same weight I would say that at 15mph it would be less than 1200 for 30 miles, but for me it is almost exactly that for 30 miles at 19-20mph, and if he is racing that's likely what he's doing.

So he could easily be burning the best part of a 1000 kCal more per day than he did when he was sedentary, and it's probable that he's not eating that much extra.

But the point is that as long as he feels healthy and is performing well, he probably is healthy, and would probably be less healthy if he did put on weight.

Unexpected weight loss should be carefully looked at.

I take the point, but I don't think it is unexpected, as above. And it's highly unlikely that any underlying health issues that could cause significant weight loss wouldn't also have significant impacts on athletic performance.

dennisn

Ice cream / gelato and lots of it. Sorry, couldn't resist.