What I Would Do If I Were Hardcore Gaining Weight
The following is most relevant to a skinny guy who is trying to add some mass and muscle to his frame. The older you are, the more different the weight gain guidelines would be (i.e. a little more clean), but most of you are young anyway. Here’s what I would do.
1. I’d designate alternate weeks as chicken fried steak (CFS) and chili week. Luckily there are good recipes for both (see respective links). If you make plenty on Saturday or Sunday, then you’ll have it throughout the week. This is the best plan, because you don’t have to worry about making food throughout the week. Whether you are a student, working, or just lazy, making the majority of your week’s food all at once is going to work best.
2. I would ALWAYS make fried biscuits with the CFS and corn bread with the chili. The first time I had fried biscuits was the first time Gant invited me over for CFS, and it’s a perfect combo. Just get the easy-make biscuits and put the biscuits in some grease and pull them out after they are browned. Dip or cover them with gravy. Aside from having a delicious addition to your meal, the biscuits/bread will ensure you get extra calories and the carbohydrates for mass gaining. I shouldn’t have to repeat this, but if you’re older or already a bigger or fatter guy, then you won’t need as much. Skinny guys should eat until they are uncomfortable. If you regurgitate your meal, you ate a tad too much.
3. I would make corn bread as a staple too. When you have breakfast, I’m already assuming you’re having plenty of eggs and bacon (and cooking the eggs in the bacon grease). After this, take your already made corn bread, put a bit of butter in the pan, and then re-cook each side of your corn bread in the butter. This will make a slightly crisp and buttery exterior to the piece of corn bread that complements the bacon extremely well.
4. I would cook some other kind of meat throughout the week as well. A pot roast can break up the monotony and even add a third addition to your meal rotation. Ground beef, sirloin tips, and chicken cutlets can all be made in large quantities and stored. I name meats like this because if you’re young, busy, and possibly single, you won’t want to take a lot of time building your food. Prepare lots of another type of meat so that you aren’t eating CFS or chili three times a day.
5. I would make mashed potatoes a staple to the diet. Adding mashed potatoes to your meat mill will ensure you get yet another complete meal. Sure, you can have vegetables with this, but when aiming for mass you’re gonna try and get big hearty meals. When I was going through a linear progression and trying to gain weight I didn’t always get complete meals nor did I build easy meals such as these. I recommend you do because the quality of food will make you enjoy the process much more.
6. This is another thing I shouldn’t have to say, but I have a feeling it needs to be said. If you’re eating “clean” for the sake of aesthetics or health, treat yourself once in a while to an awesome meal. Being kinda weird about what you eat is all right, but being really fucking weird is really fucking weird. If you think you think you catch a cold from a hunny bun, you’re taking it a little far. Gant once said something along the lines of, “If you’re getting knocked out by a happy meal, you’re just not that elite.” Not only is drinking beer while watching football okay, but it’s going to be necessary to make sure you aren’t insane.
Those are just a few things I came up with as I was frying some corn bread this morning. For those of you who have already gone through this process (or those of you who still are), feel free to share any interesting/helpful tidbits. My aim here was to focus on ease and cost effectiveness. Some of you would argue that getting dollar fastfood hamburgers is a solid idea, but I never really cared for that approach (that isn’t to say I didn’t opt for fast food, but only in a pinch).
I’ve gone from ~175 to ~215 so far with minimal fat gain, the key is to make food in bulk.
Don’t neglect your veggies, it is easy enough to fry some onions/peppers/mushrooms/etc with your meat.
I add beans to a lot of things for extra calories. While they’re not the most nutrient dense food, they are cheap and go well with almost everything (Mexican food, chili, soups, stews).
Mixing ground beef and Italian sausage is super fresh when making pastas.
Great post. When I was in college (and still now), I sometimes make what I call gruel. It’s very economical, has all the food groups (sort of), and it’s easy to store.
Gruel
4 boneless chicken breasts
4 eggs, beaten
1 can of black beans, drained
1 large jar of salsa (I prefer hot)
1 large white onion
1 cup of brown rice
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
Handful of fresh cilantro
salt and pepper
Cook the rice. When the rice has about ten minutes left, mince the garlic and onion, and add the garlic, half of the onion, and olive oil to a large pan or wok to soften. Add the chicken breasts and cook thoroughly. While the chicken is cooking, drain and rinse the beans. Remove the chicken from the pan and chop into bite-sized pieces. Put the black beans and remainder of the onion in the pan. Add the finished rice on top of this mixture. Pour the beaten eggs on top of the rice and stir so that the eggs cook into the rice. Add the chicken and salsa. Stir it all together, and sprinkle the fresh cilantro on top.
Divide this up into 4 containers and eat throughout the week. The hottness of the salsa will help your milk chugging.
Very nice. Pictures and/or vid will get its own post.
–Justin
Im in college right now, and for food, i get the protein i need which is 275-300g. and then eat fats and carbs until im full.
Im only being semi weird because im counting the protein only.
That being said…food gets really boring in college. Same old food everytime. Chicken, hamburgers, etc..
I wrote this for someone like you. Chili doesn’t really cost that much. Neither does CFS, and they will definitely bust up the monotony. I know what you mean, but I think you should branch out to these easy to cook ideas.
–Justin
Despite the fact that the name sounds vaguely French or at least unmanly at a minimum, frittatas are a pretty good calorie-dense choice. Just whip up 12-18 eggs in a big pan then throw in a few handfuls of sausage, ground beef, bacon, cheese, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and whatever else you want. Put it on the stove for a little bit, then finish it off in the oven. Top it off with salsa or hot sauce and some guacamole and you’ve got a big breakfast for a few days.
sausage gravy is a pretty good compliment to CFS I would think.
buy some of that italian ground sausge (not in casings) or cut the casings open and put the meat in your cast iron skillet.
brown it, then take it out. stir some flour into the grease to make a roux (let it cook for 5 mins or so, stirring every so often, medium heat works good)
then pour in 4 cups chicken stock, and stir it good. Let it boil then reduce to simmer. Add in 1 cup heavy cream, and your sausage. Season to make it taste good (maybe some white wine?).
eat.
For the record, it’s implied that when you make CFS you are making gravy after the steaks are done. Gant does it in the vid. But yes, sausage gravy is awesome.
–Justin
Supplement those hearty meals with calorie dense foods:
Raw almonds are about 2600 calories per pound, and make for a decent snack throughout the day. Go for the raw unsalted ones.
Heavy cream is also a good choice, at 100 calories per ounce. Add liberally to your coffee, whole milk, shakes, etc.
The Pasta bowl:
Box of Pasta
1 lb Ground Beef
Bacon (optional)
Jar of Marinara Sauce
Garlic, Oregano
Olive Oil
Fry the bacon and beef, boil the pasta. Add the sauce, spices and olive oil to the meat, and heat until steaming. For more fat, look into making a vodka sauce, which includes heavy cream.
College might be the easiest time to gain weight, they’re called dining halls.
Aside from the year I played football at an obscure school, I didn’t ever eat at a school’s dining hall.
–Justin
I just ate my chili with thick cut potato chips as scoops.
pretty awesome.
A personal favorite of mine is to eat sour cream and onion potato chips with Manwich sloppy joe as the dip.
why do videos from the 70s big archive keep getting deleted?
makes archives kind of useless
What do you mean archives?
–Justin
Easiest meal ever:
Cook one llb of ground beef in a pan with chopped onion. When it is getting close to being done pour gravy into the pan (i use pre-made gravy to save time) and mix it up while it finishes cooking.
In a seperate pot boil your favorite vegetables. When done, combine them both into a bowl and eat every last bit.
If you get sick of this change the gravy for spaghetti sauce and parmesian cheese, or use taco seasoning and replace the vegetables with beans.
That’s another quick, easy, and cheap idea.
–Justin
If you are still in college and would like to make some money and get some free food, most schools have positions in dining services. I’m no longer a student but I got a job this year doing marketing for dining services at a university. Since starting this job i was able to put on 35 lbs, strictly from the free breakfast and lunch buffets and free chocalate milk. I eat 2 plates for breakfast and 3-4 plates for lunch. I have reached a reasonable weight of 235 lbs at 6’2″ so I no longer need a big dinner. It has been great because my food bills are much lower and the food is pretty good.
@Charles “The Hammer” Martel
Since when is bacon optional?
on the topic of school dining halls, I didn’t find my school’s to be very appealing.
Also, it was rumored that foods were “enhanced” with laxatives, so that any issues would quickly make their way through. Who knows if it was true, but it definitely made sense if you know what I mean.
Yeah, they usually aren’t great, but typically you can eat in mass quantities, hence the comment made earlier. I opted spend the money on my own meals (typically cheaper too).
–Justin
for anyone in mass.. its worth it to take a trip to roxies meats in quincy on the southern artery. i often get ground chicken and beef for $1/lb. fill the shopping cart to capacity. very cheap gains. i usually throw hot sauce and butter in the mix.
Just watched Gant’s cooking skills. Im gonna make lots of this CFS this weekend to last me the whole week. Love spicy food too.
I never fried anything in an open pan, and the first steak I put in, it fell off my fork and hot grease splashed on my arm. I was pissed. Use tongs. Gant used his fingers, but he’s a fucking man.
–Justin
Gravy and ranch. Both make food more awesome. Which makes you eat more awesomeness. You become awesome.
This is perfect. Now to test out my cooking skills.
Mmmmm, chili. It’s what’s for
dinner. Literally, i just made a huge batch. Let me know if you guys are interested in my “lazy” version.
Sure, my as well release it. I’ve made something like your recipe a few times now (including last Saturday). It’s probably a lazier version too.
–Justin
@Frankie P. right on!
Roxies is a temple to 70s Bigness in a 70s Big city (Quincy)…
Eddie in the back screaming “marking down all ribeye steaks”…
Anyone visiting Quincy, MA needs to stop by. You’ll see the flickering neon sign rising up over the Southern Artery.
Fresh produce too. Fill the cart for under 100 bucks.
http://www.roxiesofquincy.com/
Bring the video camera as you never know when you’ll get the bonus experience of watching two fat women fight over the last 99 cent oven stuffer roaster…
In the spirit of the upcoming elections…
My name is Domjo54, and I approve this message:
INDTP Says:
October 25th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
@Charles “The Hammer” Martel
Since when is bacon optional?
@Roxies people
who knew there was so many Boston area homies on here.
Roxies is basically a “every saturday” mandatory stop. They sell whole briskets as well, I got a 14lb’r for around 30 bucks. Not to mention the bottom round roasts are great for 70’s big potroast.
Awesome stuff guys. Btw, I lift with the best olympic club in the Boston/New England area if anyone is interested
I’m going to send in a few recipes soon, along with some other 70sbig stuff.
@smithb9 You’ve intrigued me. Which club are you referring to?
@Jake
its listed on USAW as Excel, but we’re somewhat in the midst of a name change.
I think officially its “Boston WLC”, but unofficially “Thomas Jefferson Weightlifting”, as that was the reply to “what dead guy can we name the club in memory of?”
@smithb9
how long have you been lifting with Excel?
I’ve been with then since around June or so.
Right now there are 3 nationally ranked lifters on the team, with a possible 4th that could qualify for the American Open. (I’m not quite there yet)
@smithb9
yasha, ben, matt
who is the 4th? i would guess chris unless there is another new guy.
i lifted with Excel (when it was in waltham) but norwood is tough for me.
i work out in Littleton (where Franklin lives…) but i have a tough schedule.
what are you numbers? weight class?
What is meant by, “older”? I am 37. Does that make me an “older guy” becasue I want tot eat potatoes and biscuits!
And you can, but you may have to schedule or time them differently for body composition. Other than that you probably won’t “eat as many as you can until you’re uncomfortable” for the sake of health.
–Justin
@Ron
Yeah Chris is the possible 4th, I think he’s pretty close to qualify #’s
I’m moving into 85, around 80-81 right now, lifted at Bay State in the 77’s back in July.
Snatched 82 for a PR on Sunday, need to work on my Jerk though (Cleaned 95 but missed jerk, C&J PR still at 90). Would be slightly comical to go 85/85 or something at a meet though
@justin – any suggestions? I eat major carbs after a workout and then then some for dinner but less. What about non workout days?
General steps are eliminating shitty and processed carbs to eat fruit, veggies, and lower glycemic grain stuff. You’ll have a low milk intake. Don’t eat carbs after a certain point in the evening (unless you just trained). If you drink alcohol a lot, limit it to the weekends (or just reduce it). Save the “unhealthy but awesome” meals for the weekend (like on Saturday for football). Once that is in place, then you can get more serious about it. John Scheaffer is good at helping people go from here.
–Justin
I am in college now as well and food court is awesome for calories and milk intake, but it has no flavor at all.
This is awesome and I am gonna use this to help me get to malehood.
Thanks!
http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/?p=1057
So I tried the other day making my own homemade double down. The sauce definitely isn’t the same as the Colonel’s but I don’t think anyone would argue with a Chipotle Honey Mayonaise…
Anyway, Aside from the pain of the batter and frying I’m pretty impressed with it as a sandwhich, and since you can control the portion sizes yourself…. Not to mention way cheaper too. Two of these sandwiches with a ton of milk and almonds to boot. It is definitely a meal to drool over!
How well do these foods keep & how is the quality affected throughout the week? Where is the best place to store them & in what containers?
This is clearly trolling.
–Justin
Keep everything covered and not exposed to the air in the fridge, this keeps things from drying out and getting nasty.
Keep things in a bowl with saran wrap or a bowl with a lid like tupperware or glad. It’ll easily last the full week, maybe two before it starts to get funky.
From a food safety perspective to reheat food it needs to reach at least 165 F and stay there for 15 seconds for it to be safe to eat. 212 is boiling and around 110-115 is hot water from the tap for comparison purposes. If everything goes within a week and you’ve done well to keep it cool and covered you don’t really have to worry about bacterial growth.