Calories in vs. Calories out by WuKong

I think someone here recommended the site everydayhealth.com. I've been using it to gain weight. I am solidifying my theory that it is just as difficult to gain weight as it is to lose weight. The reason being - it is difficult to change one's lifestyle. Of course it's easy to gain unhealthy weight by eating crap food; easy because it takes less self control to eat unhealthy. So, to rephrase, it is difficult to change one's lifestyle and difficult to eat healthily.

Back on topic. This is my goal and experiment. I'm using the principle of calories in vs. calories out to gain weight. I started this process on 1/9/10. Here are my comparison stats:

1/9/10
Height: 5'10
Weight: 155 lbs

2/14/10
Height: 5'10
Weight: 160 lbs

So, I have averaged a gain of 1 lb per week. My end goal is 185 lbs.

I have found that it is very difficult to healthily consume ~3,000 calories in a day. Part of the reason is because I have found that it is also very difficult to healthily consume 1,000+ in a single meal.

My typical breakfast is 2 packets of instant oatmeal. - ~320 calories.

That means my next two meals would have to be over 1,300 calories each.

To help lower that need, I have added a morning stack to my routine, which is typically either a granola bar or some trail mix. The granola bar gives me ~200 calories and the trail mix (depending on how much I consume) give me ~280 calories. So, that puts my morning or breakfast calories between 520 - 600 calories. That still leaves me with ~2,400 calories to consume, or ~1,200 for each remaining two meals.

For lunch, I either eat leftovers or typically I eat 2 peanut butter and honey sandwiches on wheat bread. Each sandwich is approx. 350 calories, totaling ~700 calories. So, as you can see, 2 of my daily 3 meals make small dents in the amount I need to consume for the day. Typically leaving me with a daunting task of putting together a very high calorie meal for dinner. Unless I eat left overs (which you'll find out what those typically are when I go into my dinner), I am left with ~1,700 calories to consume in a single meal; nearly 2,000 calories!!!

There's two meals that I have found help with this the most - spaghetti w/ meat sauce and nachos. Spaghetti is approx. 300 calories per .75 cup. (I use wheat noodles) So, I have to consume at least 5X .75 cups. That's a LOT of spaghetti and I have a hard time downing pastas. It often and easily triggers gag reflexes in me. Nachos (meat, beans, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce) are approx. 1,500 calories.

On top of consuming enough, I am helping my health but, hurting my consumption by exercising 5 days a week. I've done P90X, ken po but, typically I lift weights. Lifting weights burns approx. 200 calories in 30 minutes.

So, the stats simplified out:

Breakfast +~600 calories
Lunch +~700 calories
Dinner +~1,500 calories
Subtotal ~2,800 calories
Exercise -~200 calories
Total ~2,600 calories

What has helped me most is dinner and then leftovers of dinner. As you can see, this has been very difficult. I now KNOW that if I wasn't tracking my calories, I would NOT be eating enough calories and thus would NOT be gaining weight to make it to my goal. So, it is VERY important to track one's calories when making a lifestyle change and achieving a weight gain or loss goal.

For those tracking their calories, I get it! It is difficult but, I enjoy it because it makes it very clear to me where I stand and what I need to do. Good luck to those making changes.

I may or may not update more on this post.

Wu Kong Posted this on the My Fat Spouse Forum