I have been having some trouble getting down enough calories to be “all in” with growing. I am 48, 5’6 and today weighted 128lbs. My maintenance calories sit around 1500. I tested this for 90 days and maintained the same daily average weight with no loss of strength.
I went a full 90 days just to be certain what maintenance was because i know i was starting a growth plan this week. I am open to discussion but pretty certain about maintenance.
The problem I am having is volume. There might be some shit wrong with my digestive system or something because I know I used to eat more volume but currently I can no get down more than about 300g per meal without feeling sick, literally!
Right now I am at 1874 calories per day with three meals per day, 300g each and even then by meal 3 I do not even feel like working. It really sucks!
I have my macros structured like the “Gironda System” low CHO high fat and moderate protein. It helps because I am maxing out my calories with the fat.
my current daily intake looks like this:
1874 calories
1lb high fat meat (beef/bison/lamb)
6 eggs
20g cheese
35g oil or mayo
fruit bar
this puts me at about 900g total cooked weight (2lbs of food cooked)
I have considered downing a can of high fat coconut milk daily (about 1k more calories) but I would rather not.
Any ideas how I can get more calories in without adding too much more volume (without drinking glasses of oil all day)
I see lots of avenues for nuts, nut butters and avocados with that set up, if your goal is even more fats. It would be helpful as well, as you’d be getting in a good amount of monounsaturated fats with that approach.
I would start with splitting your meal size for sure. If you can’t manage large meals, I think doing more meals with slightly smaller portions (say 200g instead of 300g).
I also suspect your method of dieting might be a bit of a culprit too in that high fat, high protein is very satiating. Have you tried adding carbs into this?
I’ve also heard many people recommend slamming as much milk as you can - usually for enhanced lifters, but this might apply/help for your situation too.
Agree with @T3hPwnisher here
Where are you mono saturated fats? I would add avocado and macadamia nut oil.
I would limit most other nuts including oil and butters as they tend to have a terrible fat make up ratio. They are very high is omega 6, poly unsaturated fats.
good idea. i did not think about adding carbs because they are only 4 calories per gram, so more fat (9 calories per gram) would give me more calories with less volume.
this might help. thank you. i avocado per day might work. they go down easy. the nut butter i could blend it with coconut milk and slam down 1200 calories.
i am taking the gironda approach. low carb 6 days, refeed one day
i do add oil. 35g per day. i use mac oil, avocado oil, olive oil, truffle oil, ect. paleo oils!
basically i fry up my meat in butter, add 6 eggs, seasoning, greens and then add oil or mayo over it and mix it all up. it looks like dog food when its done but it tastes great!
I find it actually goes real well on eggs and meat. I make a morning breakfast burrito using an egg white srap and slather it in sunflower butter. It also has avocado on it.
Actually hard to see the wrap there, but that’s some tri tip steak with half an avocado on top of two whole eggs and some egg whites with the afforementioned egg white wrap underneath. Also a slice of keto toast with sunbutter and some celery stalks with “nuts n more” spread. This is close to the breakfast I have every morning, with some adjustments depending on if I’m gaining or losing weight.
I have gotta say, I understand that you feel sick after a certain amount and all that stuff but I think you are really overcomplicating it with your approach. I have suffered just like you are now. I weighed less than you at 4 inches taller (5ft 10 - 118lbs at my lowest). I could never eat more than a few bites, had severe digestive problems, constant regurgitation, constant diarrhea, chest pains, stomach pains, shortness of breath etc. Any test I had come back clear and I had to figure shit out on my own.
The fact is your stomach isn’t used to consuming an excess of calories and you have a massive fight on your hands. My first 6 months i started drinking half a pint of milk with my meals, it wasn’t easy but liquid calories were easier to keep down than forcefully putting forkfuls in my mouth whilst bringing it back up at the same time. I gained a little bit of weight just adding milk in and over time i found that when I didn’t have milk my body would start asking for the calories elsewhere, my body had finally started to build up an appetite. The liquid calories will also keep you hydrated and help things move along in your digestive system instead of just sitting there. It is ALWAYs important to stay hydrated when it comes to digestion. Not just that but i don’t see any vegetables in your original post - vegetables are full of all the important digestive enzymes and fibre to keep your system moving as it should. It’s no wonder you feel sick, your body is pretty much rejecting the food.
You are seriously crippling your efforts by not including carbs… I hear what you say about calories per gram but it’s not as simple as that. One of my staple weight gain tricks were blending 2 scoops of oat powder with 2 scoops of protein and 2 tablespoons of olive oil - 800 CALORIES. Yeah it didn’t taste nice but I got it down me and if it was the difference between me adding weight or not I was willing to do it. I admit it wasn’t easy and often times I’d feel absolutely dreadful but over time my body didn’t have to rely on tricks like that so much and I was able to eat fuller meals.
If you have any questions I’m happy to answer them as I have a lot of experience on this. My struggles with this destroyed me in so many ways mentally and physically but there IS a way to get through this. I’m ~200lb now and my body frickin’ loves food.
Hey man, I second the nut butters. I have a jar of peanut butter I keep in my work van and dip into it whenever I get a free second. A scoop (or in my case, multiple spoonfuls) every couple hours adds up throughout the day.
right on man, thanks for the reply and glad to hear you pulled through it.
i am going to take a bit of this advice. i am not a milk fan, but i can down a can of coconut milk per day add easily another 1 k calories. i can mix some nut butter in it too for additional taste.
i will add some veggies and brown rice and see what happens. i have been pondering adding rice for a while since my wife cooks it for herself so this is my chance.
Not to steer you away from healthy food, but since you’re having difficulties eating a lot of volume, you may be better served with more nutrient dense foods than veggies and rice. For example: 1/4 cup rice dry is roughly 50g carbs. 1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes (dry mix) is about 20g carbs. 9 tortilla chips is about 28g carbs.
Not trying to steer you towards unhealthy foods at all, just trying to iterate that if volume is the problem, more dense foods would be a good solution as well. Think Sardines and Bacon types - not super filling, but loaded with fats/proteins.
Downing a can of coconut milk for 1,000 calories ain’t gonna help you my guy. That could make even the best of us feel sick. You need to spread these calories throughout the day. Think how hard your digestive system has to work breaking down all that at once? You hear all the time about guys that neck down these 1000 calorie mass gainer shakes and then feel sick for the rest of the day bloated and trying not to bring it back up. Not just that, it’s too much of ONE thing. The shake I told you about wasn’t the best either but at least it had a few different ingredients to fill out the calories so I can get a bit of the benefit from each. Eat smaller easily digestible meals but more frequently throughout the day - you need to change your eating habits.
White rice is easier to digest than brown rice by the way. White rice is refined brown rice with the germ and bran removed putting it higher on the glycemic index (which to all you need to know means it digests much quicker and easier).
You don’t have to eat healthily but the healthier things WILL be easier to digest. It’s easy to make healthy things more calorific, add olive oil to your salads, mix butter into your rice, grate cheese on top of meals. You have to figure out things that work for YOU. You need to be gentle to your stomach.
And most importantly, FATS DIGEST SLOWER THAN CARBS. I know so many people who leave their fats to later in the day because anything too early could leave them feeling bleugghhh for most of the day. If I ate the fats that I do before a workout I’d probably be sick halfway through my squats.
this is a good idea. i am not bent on only healthy foods. i will play around with them at first naturally but in the end if i need to have something in there i will.
i hear you. that was my bad at explaining it. i planned on making a coconut milk shake and drinking it throughout the day, not all at once.
plus, i planned on starting with 1/4 can at a time. i wanted to avoid waking up one day and adding 1200 calories all the sudden. so small steps over a few weeks.
the cans are only 13.5oz so with a little water and nut butter i can get up to 30oz and just have 10oz cups three times per day.
But if the goal is gaining…why? Carbs are great for building muscle. They may not be necessary but make the process much easier. There are many benefits.
Fat heavy food is calorically dense but, tends to satiate too much.
