anyone else have to gain weight?

[hshepherd]

I want to see if I went through this alone or if its more common then I thought

When I decided I wanted to join the CF I weighed a meger 155Lbs at 6 foot 3. Now I stand at 172 Lbs a couple months later getting ready to take that big flight to St Jean. Is there anyone else out there that had to pack on a bunch of weight when they decided they want to join as opposed to dropping fat.

Also, I understand that in BMQ there are only 3 meals a day and they are fairly regimented. Is it possible for us skinny guys that need to continue packing on muscle to get double helpings or anything like that?

Just curious

 

[Yrys]

For what I read about BMQ here, I doubt that you will have time for more then those...

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

WOW 155 at 6'3" damn man you don't need 2nd helpings...you need a truckload of food every day to get to an appropriate weight...

Okay all kidding aside, they probably used they BMI chart to see if you weight was "correct" for your height, which i think you and I both agree is way to low, but on the other hand the BMI chart is a REALLY bad method to evaluate this, and was never meant for that purpose.

because if you took my BMI it would probably be something like; high 20s low 30s maybe, im 5'8 and 210lbs. with a 34inch waist...so I am not fat by any means, but according to this chart im overweight-obese, and i should lose around 40-80lbs, which is NOT going to happen if anything I will continue to get heavier and bigger, to approximately 250-260lbs offseason...so I will always be termed obese according to the BMI.

For your height according the BMI you should be anywhere from 150-190 is "normal range" but honestly 150 at 6'3 means 1 of 2 things...you're either a lanky skinny long distance athlete, or you live in a third world country where you get food once a day and thats on a good day.

When it comes to weight its individual, partly how you like to look, and partly your build.  By that i mean are you naturally a big guy (not fat) but big...aka broad shouldered, big arms etc, or are you naturally match stick thin.

Personally i started off match stick thin at 130lbs when i was 14...nearly 8yrs later im 210, and thats not making me happy lol.

Basically what i am saying is that if you feel comfortable at 155 being 6'3 then fine go for it, besides my mom joining the army back in the 70's i have never heard of anyone being told to gain weight (she's 5'3 and was 90lbs) and believe me on my BMQ, i had plenty of "twigs" aka tall skinny guys averaging 6' and up but not weighing more then 150-160, so i don't think they wouldnt let you in if you were not heavier.

Side note: personally i dont think you should weigh less then 200lbs anytime you are 6' or more unless you are a marathon runner, or something like that, because you miss out on a lot of potential strength that can be very useful and for you at 6'3 obviously depending on your bone structure and what not i would say a good healthy athletic weight would be 200-220.

As far as meals on BMQ, well only 3 squares, which i never understood why EVERYONE does that, its clinically/scientifically proven to be better for you to ingest smaller more frequent meals. Back to BMQ though yes sadly only 3 squares, and as for seconds yes you can, but only if you have the time, your MS/Mcpl will say "its now 12:10 i want everyone back here formed up in front of the shacks at 12:50, Platoon dis-missed."  That means you have 45mins for lunch break, meaning you have 45mins to get your butt to the mess, wait in line get your food it (go a 2nd and 3rd time if you can), hit the heads, shine your boots or whatever you need to do and then be formed back up 5mins before the time MS/Mcpl said to.

Be careful though we had an a$$ hat on our course, who screwed our lunch up for us once.  When we were all in the middle of eating he whined about something and one of instructors heard him they said you have 5 more mins to eat now get your butts out there for remedial PT (we got 10 mins to eat total tha lunch).

OH maybe something that can help you, we (several of us on our BMQ) wrote our Platoon 2IC in standard memo, to ask if we could purchase protein powders and cups and keep them in our rooms or with the Barrack warden, and we all got the OK, so maybe you could look into that, although im not positive all the instructors are that enlightened.

Best of luck and enjoy every minute

 

[hshepherd]

Thanks alot Biggoals

Like I said, I WAS 155, now I am a much healther 172. and in short, yes I am a crazy endurance type athelete (I bike between 20 and 80KM per day 6 days a week). I have very small wrists and narrow shoulders etc. I am by no means unfit, I can do in the neighbourhood of 40 pushups and 9 chinups currently. Ive just always been skinny

over the last few months I have been taking in about 5000 calories a day to gain the weight that I have (I just hope that I can get enough food in me to keep it up in  BMQ) Thanks for the tip on the protein powder i will surely try to get permission for that

 

[Roy Harding]

Man - I hadn't thought of that for YEARS.

When I first joined (at 17 - in 1977), the recruiter sent me away, saying "eat a few hamburgers, Son - then come back and be weighed again".  I don't recall what my weight was - but you could count my ribs from 200 yards.

I packed the pounds on once I started training - but weight GAIN was a problem until I reached my 30's.  You'll be alright, the human body is a wonderful thing, and it'll change to meet the demands placed upon it.

Weight gain is not a problem for me anymore.


Roy

 

[beach_bum]

Man - I hadn't thought of that for YEARS.

When I first joined (at 17 - in 1977), the recruiter sent me away, saying "eat a few hamburgers, Son - then come back and be weighed again".  I don't recall what my weight was - but you could count my ribs from 200 yards.

I packed the pounds on once I started training - but weight GAIN was a problem until I reached my 30's.  You'll be alright, the human body is a wonderful thing, and it'll change to meet the demands placed upon it.

Weight gain is not a problem for me anymore.


Roy

I had the same problem when I joined.  I was 5'5" and weighed 102 lbs.  LOL

 

[lilone7]

Yep,  I've got the same problem. And I've asked MANY people, and I usually get the same answer: Eat more. I'm 5'0 and a 100 pounds and don't get me wrong, I've got some muscle on me, but I simply have small built. I've actually packed on quite a bit of weight and muscle since joined, mainly by eating alot. I think the best trick is to simply eat more, but not eat anything and everything; eat healthy and balanced meals as much as you can. And snacking! While on BMQ, I always had some kind of granola bar or other snack in my pockets, since 3 meals a day just didn't cut it for me,  or in case they would give us less than 5 minutes to eat a meal, I knew I had a backup. It was a life-saver more than once.  I would also eat before bed; it made the morning runs so much better, instead of having to run on a completely empty stomach.

 

[RangerRay]

When I went through the joining process, I too was told to put on weight.  I can't remember the specifics, but I was a skinny lad.  I drank weight-gain shakes (till I got sick of 'em) and tried to eat more than I already did (I could eat and eat and not gain weight!).  I finally did tip the scales over (barely!) for my application to proceed.  During my whole time in, I was known as "the skinny guy".  Wouldn't you know it, but right about when I was 25, I started to put on weight.  Now I wish I was back to my old skinny self! 

 

[adaminc]

I was a skinny guy(5'10' 130lbs) until I turned 22, I was in college, and I my parents bought a deep fryer, and i started drinkin beer instead of hard liquor, and man, I started packin on the weight, I was always like "i'll never get fat, I have a high metabolism", then boom (180lbs), I noticed I had a spare tire around my waist, and my legs were getting bigger, and some of my pants wouldnt fit anymore, I was like, WTF, so now I am eating healthier and trying to lose the spare tire and leg weights.

I'm still gaining a little weight here and there, but I think its muscle weight, considering I can lift far more weight than I used to be able to, lots of cardio and weights here and there. Now i'm around 185lbs and i'm hoping to get to around 175-180lbs and stay there (unless its muscle weight, which is fine), seems like the perfect weight to me.

 

[Eagle_Eye_View]

Man I remember when I joined. I was 135lbs 6'1. The med tech that did my medical couldn't believe how skinny I was hehe. I got out of basic at 140lbs and then started weight lifting for about 10 months and when up to 175lbs. Now I'm at 192lbs and feel awsome. I actually went to 202lbs but definitly feel better at approx 190lbs.
So my suggestion is just focus on going throught bmq and then once you are on pat or on your course focus more on gaining weight if its what you want.

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

Im not trying to ruffle anyones feathers, but being in the fitness industry in some way or other for a while, i have heard this many times, i can't put weight on no matter what i do, and i eat tons...

I'm sure many of you thought at the time you were eating huge.

You know what though everytime i've helped/trained someone and asked them to write down how much they were eating (i usually ask them to write every meal and portion size for a week) and they eat just enough maybe slightly more then they need to keep weight.

You see we each have an approx base metabolic rate, doing different things, either increases this or decreases this....like eating once a day decreases the rate at which you digest things...but working out will raise your need for calories.

BMR (base metabolic rate) calculator
Male: 66+(6.3 x weight in pounds)+(12.9 x height in inches)-(6.8 x age in years) Female: 65.5+(4.3 x weight in pounds)+(4.7 x height in inches)-(4.7 x age in years).
This equals approx what you burn doing NOTHING, just laying on the couch.  Now everything you do will add calories to that since everything you do involves moving in one way or another, and moving involves muscles, and everytime you move a muscle you burn calories.  Also the more muscle you have on your frame the higher your base metabolic rate will be, this is the big flaw of this calculator, because muscle is active tissue, meaning even at rest it burns calories, this is why weight training has added benefits that pure cardio trainers don't.

ADAMINC: they say to average 250calories per drink...so the calories can add up easily.
Personally i know i need to eat around 5000calories to even see a lil weight coming on, If you have trouble putting weight on concentrate on getting plenty of beef in your diet, also protein and healthy fats are your best friends, fats coming from beef, fish oil, flax oil, stuff like that.
i luv my 16oz Chateau brilliant steak on the BBQ mmmmm

 

[adaminc]

I also wanted to note that once I found out how people actually get fat, it made things easier. You roughly have a set amount of fat cells in your body, and they are small, so you dont really gain or lose any more, the purpose of these cells is to store energy in the form of glucose(sugar), so if you start eating lots of sugary foods, or starchy foods (starch is broken down into sugar), these sugars will build up in the cells, and make the cells bigger, and this is how people get fat, so it seems the only way to lose that fat is to cut back on sugary/starchy foods, and up your exercise.

So as long as you eat alot of healthy food and exercise, and you will gain all the good weight you want.

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

Not only that but the ingestion of carbs, especially refined sugars and the like, cause an insulin spike.  The hormone insulin, regulates carbohydrate metabolism, and "the hormone insulin makes the body convert glucose into glycogen" therefore it tells the body to store the converted sugar into the body....thats why they to check out the Glycemic index.

Thats why all that beer, which is fermented sugars, easily causes weight gain, its empty calories.

 

[TonsTerT]

I also have a very skinny build. I'm 5'10" 125lbs. After reading biggoals2bdone's post, I did some research. I started a 2500 calorie diet yesterday. It's been just under 24 hours so far and I'm already feeling a little different. Today was the first day I woke up feeling like i just left the thanksgiving dinner table.
How much influence does a persons BMI have when going through the recruitment process. I'm currently working towards my goal of 140 lbs, which would put me well into the "normal" BMI range.
In addition, i've read on these forums that the recruitment process can take up to a year. Should I begin the process while on my weight gain program, or should I accomplish my goals before getting the ball rolling ?

 

[Munxcub]

Start the enrollment process, start eating more food, and start lifting heavy. If you're trying to gain weight then I would suggest skimming back on the "cardio"
to basically the bare minimum to keep your running times adequate, because you need that, but it's also counterproductive to weight gain.

Squat deep, squat heavy, eat lots and drink milk. And have fun! Also, don't focus so much about weight. Just worry about getting bigger and stronger. This is a short post, and not too well thought out as I'm still on my first cup of coffee so feel free to PM me if you have questions.

 

[blacktriangle]

I drink 1.5L of chocolate milk a day, it's helping me gain weight. I'm short (5'8) and dont want to push myself much past 160, because as long as I'm in good shape I dont really care about a few pounds here or there.

 

[Cody Scott]

i need to gain weight too
i bought one of them protein shakes, but i just can down it, its disgusting
they do work however

 

[NJL]

i need to gain weight too
i bought one of them protein shakes, but i just can down it, its disgusting
they do work however

Really? try different flavors/ use milk instead of water... the strawberry ones are really good, taste like a milkshake.

 

[Cody Scott]

well i bought the strawberry one, used it with water and with milk
and its honestly the worst thing i have ever tasted

 

[Fyuri]

I agree, I'm not a big fan of it either...
I realized in reading some of these numbers from you guys that I'm not that bad off (5'9, 145lbs). I had always considered that to be a bit low, but I've realized I feel healthy, and that's (almost) all that matters, I can lift quite a bit, but I do a LOT of cardio... Which probably explains a lot.

-Paul