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Comment by saucisse | Hacker News Reader

Eat More. Eat more calories than your body burns. How much depends on your metabolism and activity levels. But if you’re not gaining weight, you’re not eating enough. Eat caloric dense foods like pasta and nuts. Eat more frequent meals. Drink milk and make shakes.

Lift Heavy. Stop wasting time with curls and flies. Do free weight, compounds like Squats and Deadlifts instead. These exercises work more muscles with heavier weight. They trigger more strength and muscle gains, and will make you go from skinny to muscular.

Be Consistent. The total calories you eat on a weekly and monthly basis must be higher than the calories your body burns. If you eat a lot today but then little the rest of the week, you won’t gain weight. You have to consistently eat more than you burn to increase your weight.

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Adding on to say that the advice provided in the parent is 100% spot on and OP shouldn't disregard it. More calories in + weightlifting = massive weight increases, especially for beginners. This has been proven time after time, for millions, including myself: 5'11, went from 133 pounds to 165 in 4 months eating ~3000 calories a day and lifting 4x a week.

5 years later, I'm still in the best shape of my life and deciding to gain weight & exercise regularly continues to be one of the best, most profitable decisions I've made next to learning how to program.

> eating ~3000 calories a day

Skinny people problems, I know, but this might be the hardest thing to do. Just as overweight people might underestimate their calorie intake, skinny people might overestimate theirs. So it's helpful to objectively track your calories.

I think I eat a lot, but can also "forget" to eat 1 or 2 days out of the week, and that makes gaining weight for me difficult.

I completely understand :). It tends to be easier than you think to acquire calorie-dense foods though, depending where you live (in America it's a cinch). Others have also commented on ways to consume calories elsewhere in this thread, but the key for me was "dirty" bulking. 3000 calories/day would be impossible for me if I were restricted to lean chicken meat, broccoli, and brown rice. However it was really easy (and enjoyable) when my meals consisted of:

1. Chipotle burrito bowls with extra meat: At least 1000 calories in this alone with a significant amount of protein.

2. Protein shakes with whole milk. Or fruit/vegetable smoothies with whole milk and yogurt.

3. Natural peanut butter (the kind you need to stir) for dessert, washing each mouthful down with whole milk. Alternatively I'd also have some rocky road (for the peanuts it contains) ice cream.

4. If I ever missed a meal and was significantly low on calories for the day, I'd eat a few slices of pizza to compensate.

It wasn't the _healthiest_ diet plan, and I definitely gained a lot of fat, but it's not like I looked awful - after ballooning to over 160 pounds, I still looked skinny due to my height. Once I got to a satisfactory level, I began to eat healthier, meanwhile my strength increased dramatically.

Yeah, I can't do gallon of milk a day (GOMAD), but I was thinking of doing a burrito a day (BAD) just as a way to guarantee my calorie intake. :)

I am a tall, skinny 60-year old, who recently started crossfit, which emphasizes squats, deadlifts, and other barbell exercises. (Previously I did HIIT for several years.)

Crossfit just isn't working for me. At all. I can't squat deep enough, and my shoulders aren't flexible enough to keep the weights as far back as they should be. So I'm stuck doing remedial stuff to get to the point that I can actually lift anything. I've been trying this for four months now, and I'm really stuck on square one. Any thoughts on this?

Growth hormones?

It's a slow process, especially because of your age and height (6'4.5" here and I've always had trouble too). Start working on mobility a lot, check out the book "Becoming a supple leopard" - it's a great source of knowledge.

Yoga?

Pilates helped me a lot when I restarted lifting a few years ago, especially with improving body awareness and using the right muscles for movement. Try to find an instructor who regularly gives students feedback about if they are doing the movements correctly.

While I do not have personal experience with it, something like tai chi might also help.

The squat is a complex movent and takes years to master. Anyone telling you different is selling you a load of bull. I have been weightlifting for years with an emphasis on the big four (big 3 + overhead press) and functional, strong man style movements.

I am at the high end of intermediate/low end of advanced range with regards to how much I lift @ 180lbs. I'm still making imrpovements to my texhjique all of the time.

One issue with _some_ CrossFit outfits is that they throw you into these movements from day 1 with non trivial weight. Your CANS gets no time to develop the coordination needed and you can get discouraged or, worst case, hurt yourself.

Everyone can squat. Being a tall guy you will do it differently than e.g. a 5'5" powerlifter. You just need time and practice.

The trainers at my gym are exceptionally watchful and careful. Due to the two problems I mentioned, I'm using extremely light weights. So while I may be slowly getting more flexible, I'm not getting any kind of a workout.

That's good though; you should be using extremely light weights until you get the movement down. Most people want to rush in, but fitness is a lifelong thing, not something you achieve in three months.

If you look at any decent, beginner's weightlifting program with an emphasis on the big movements (i.e. not bodybuilding programs) they'll all start the same way; perform the movements often, start with little to know additional weight on the bar, and add weight progressively (linear progression.)

Have a mobility routine. Flexibility and strength go hand in hand. Either without the other is often what leads to injuries. Having been someone who lifted without working on flexibility and suffered a lot of injuries I can attest to that. For me yoga and the book "Becoming a supple leopard" by Kelly Starret helped a lot.

GOMAD is probably the most straightforward diet for gaining weight (preferably along with compound free weight lifts, eg, squats. Otherwise all the weight gain is fat instead of muscle).

What it is - take your normal diet, and on top of that, drink a gallon of whole milk every day. A gallon of whole milk is 2400 kcal (200g carbs, 120g fat, 120g protein). Along with your normal food intake, this will make you gain weight.

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