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How I Gained Weight

All of my life I've had trouble gaining weight and building muscle. Even when I was constantly lifting weights for sports in high school, I hit a wall where it seemed impossible to gain weight or get any stronger.

It was if my body reached its maximum muscle capacity and there was nothing I could do about it.

After high school and college, I got married and the motivation to lift weights and be buff seemed to fade quite a bit. It was then that I stepped on the scale one day and realized I was borderline underweight at 158 pounds. Not a big deal as far as health is concerned, but something I wasn't 100% happy with.

Now, I love physical/mental challenges, as I've detailed in my personal development experiments. I picked up a book by one of my favorite authors, Tim Ferriss, called The 4-Hour Body. This book doesn't just teach you how to gain weight, but lose weight too. As well as run faster and longer, get stronger, live longer, and not to mention have greater sex. :-)

I was wildly curious to learn Tim's techniques on how he gained 34 pounds in 28 days. Once I discovered the secret, I simply had to try this for myself to see if I could do the same.

The Plan Overview

Following the 4-Hour Body plan for gaining weight (believe it or not) doesn't require a lot of weight lifting in order to gain muscle. In fact, during my four week trial that I detail below I lifted weights and exercised for less than 2 hours total!

In a nutshell, the plan consists of consuming massive amounts of calories, with the bulk of that coming from protein. The protein helps you build muscle, while minimizing fat gain.

Then, lifting weights briefly every few days, leaving plenty of time for your muscles to fully recover.

The result of doing this?

The absolute minimum effort required in order to gain plenty of muscle mass.

The Food

The 4-Hour Body principles require you to eat the same few things, over and over again. Surprisingly, this weight diet is pretty restrictive.

That's because again, I'm trying to gain muscle, not fat. Sure, chowing down on cupcakes all day might do the trick, but it isn't going to do anything for me in terms of being healthier or looking better.

For my experiment, almost every breakfast consisted of five eggs. That's 360 calories, and roughly 31g of protein.

Also (and this wasn't in the 4-Hour Body rulebook), I took a weight gaining supplement called Serious Mass. This little chocolate shake of deliciousness added 1250 calories and 50g of protein. Drinking this with milk added 200-300 more calories.

So long story short, before 7:30AM for this experiment I'd consume 2000+ calories and 85+g of protein!

Lunches consisted almost always of a can of beans. I became a red, black, pinto, chili bean eating machine. The beans only consisted of about 400 calories, which isn't quite good enough if you are trying to gain mass.

I experimented with making peanut butter shakes. Peanut butter is reasonably healthy for you, and is pretty high in calories. 1 tbsp amounts to about 100 calories, so I would dump about 4 tbsp in a mixer, combined with a cup of milk for another 100 calories, and that would quickly add almost 500 calories to my lunch.

However, the problem was I didn't particularly like the taste of the shake. I could put up with it for a few days, but after that I realized that I wouldn't be able to drink these shakes anymore, even for this short experiment.

The alternative approach was to drink more milk. In the 4-Hour Body, it suggests going to LOMAD (liter of milk a day) or even GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) if you are having trouble meeting the necessary calories.

In order to gain (according to Tim), you are supposed to consume 20 calories per pound, so for me I needed to consume at least 3,400 calories a day. After counting calories for 1-2 days, I realized I needed the milk fix to push me over the edge.

Want to know what the refridgerator of someone who istrying to gain weight looks like?...

milk

That's about one week of milk I was consuming. Opting for the 2% milk for more calories, each of those thirst-quenching white jugs amounts to about 1900 calories!

Finally, there's dinner. Dinners for me seemed to have more variety than breakfast/lunch. Some days I would ear chicken. Some days pork. Usually once per week I would have a whole grain pasta with lots of beef.

Saturday was my cheat day where I pretty much ate whatever I wanted. I would go easy on the milk, eggs, and beans so I wouldn't go completely insane eating the same things over and over. This was a huge help in keeping me motivated to stick with it through the 28 days.

The Workouts

It's funny, most people (myself included) always think you need to spend hour after hour in the gym in order to bulk up. This experiment has greatly taught me that the real importance lies in the food. For this experiment, the workouts we're really a piece of cake in the process of gaining weight.

Here's a chart of all of my workouts, along with the weight used, and the date to give you an idea of how much time was allowed for my muscles to recover...

Date	Workout/Weight
1/26/2011	6 Yates Row 90 lbs. 4 Overhead Press 80 lbs. 35 Bicycle crunches
1/29/2011	6 Pushups w/ 20 lb. vest 34 Kettlebells 60 lbs.
2/1/2011	8 Yates Row 90 lbs. 4 Overhead Press 80 lbs. 36 Bicycle crunches
2/5/2011	9 Pushups w/ 20 lb. vest 31 Kettlebells 68 lbs.
2/9/2011	8 Yates Row 90 lbs. 6 Overhead Press 76 lbs. 43 Bicycle crunches
2/12/2011	10 Pushups w/ 20 lb. vest 24 Kettlebells 75 lbs.
2/16/2011	9 Yates Row 90 lbs. 7 Overhead Press 76 lbs. 51 Bicycle crunches
2/20/2011	10 Pushups w/ 20 lb. vest 31 Kettlebells 75 lbs.
2/23/2011	10 Yates Row 90 lbs. 7 Overhead Press 76 lbs. 53 Bicycle crunches

A little bit of clarity on the above chart, first off, there's precisely 4 minutes rest between each exercise. I used a timer in order to ensure I could measure recovery time and therefore strength improvement.

Also, for the Yates Row, Pushups w/ weight vest, and Overhead Press, I used a 5/5 seconds cadence, which means I would go up for 5 seconds, then go back down for 5 seconds. This dramatically improves the difficulty and helps the overall effectiveness.

(Note: If you are unsure of what an exercise is, YouTube and other major video sites have a million examples of these exercises.)

The important thing with these workouts, besides the scheduled recovery time, is really maxing out on the final rep. I can't place enough importance on the final rep. when you are lifting weights. It's been said that every other rep in a set is a warmup for that final rep where you feel there's nothing left in the tank. It's that final rep that is going to make you stronger the next time you workout and help you build muscle.

For this experiment, if on my final rep I knew I wasn't going to be able to complete it, I would continue to push for as long as possible until physically I was unable to go up any longer.

Since their we're so few workouts for this experiment, I really tried to maxout the workouts that I had.

Overall, there was a slight build-up in strength. To be honest, considering the fact that I was gaining 15 lbs. I had expected a little bit more, but I digress.

Weight Gain Results

I tracked my weight by consistently getting up each and every morning and weighing myself. My scale only measure in half pounds so it's not super precise, but good enough in this case. I was told that weighing yourself in the morning gives you the most accurate reading.

During this experiment, I was surprised to learn just how much weight fluctuates throughout the day. I occasionally would weigh myself a few times throughout the day, and although I didn't record anything, I recall gaining and losing up to 5 pounds throughout the course of the day.

However again, the numbers below are my results from just my "first thing in the morning" measurement...

Day	Date	Weight
1	1/28/2011	159
2	1/29/2011	160.5
3	1/30/2011	161
4	1/31/2011	162.5
5	2/1/2011	164
6	2/2/2011	165.5
7	2/3/2011	166.5
8	2/4/2011	166.5
9	2/5/2011	165.5
10	2/6/2011	166.5
11	2/7/2011	166.5
12	2/8/2011	169
13	2/9/2011	168
14	2/10/2011	168.5
15	2/11/2011	169.5
16	2/12/2011	172.5
17	2/13/2011	173.5
18	2/14/2011	171.5
19	2/15/2011	172
20	2/16/2011	172
21	2/17/2011	174
22	2/18/2011	172.5
23	2/19/2011	173.5
24	2/20/2011	173.5
25	2/21/2011	172.5
26	2/22/2011	172.5
27	2/22/2011	172.5
28	2/22/2011	173

As you can see, I hit a peak at 175 pounds, which happened on Day 21 of my experiment. That amounts to a 15 pound gain in 3 weeks.

You'll also notice that I did the experiment for 7 more days and didn't gain a pound. in fact, I lost a pound during this stretch.

I'll admit, this can largely be contributed to my lack of effort. I didn't stuff my face quite as much as I did during the first three weeks.

Here are some before/after shots of the experiment...

Before	After

Before	After

To be quite honest, not an overwhelmingly noticeable difference. I mean I gained 15 pounds, not 50!

What I was impressed with was how most of the weight gain was muscle, with very little fat. Stuffing 4000+ calories a day into your mouth really makes you worry if you are going to become a fat blob at the end, but in my case the results turned out great.

I would say the most noticeable difference for me was in my shoulders, and also in my legs which you can't see in the pictures. Clearly, there was some difference.

As a whole, I feel the muscle gain was very evenly distributed throughout my entire body. You may consider that a good or bad thing, for me I considered it a good thing. The last thing I would want is to gain 15 pounds, and have all of it go to my right foot. :-)

The even weight distribution for me made it feel like it was a somewhat healthy experiment. I certainly don't feel it was the healthiest thing I've ever done, but I probably wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I wanted/needed to bulk up.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt, the first couple of days were the toughest. As you would expect, you don't feel particularly good consuming around 2000 calories in the morning when you aren't used to doing so.

My first couple of days I felt tired and sluggish. I was even extremely close to quitting the experiment.

But a surprising thing happened though. After the first 3-4 days, while still consuming the same high calories, I started to actually feel good. I had more energy in the mornings then I did before starting the experiment. Usually my morning consisted of only a bowl of cereal with under 300 calories. Now, eating about 7 times that gave me an energy boost I never had.

One of the long-term takeaways from doing this experiment that I never thought I would learn was that I needed to have a bigger breakfast each morning and consume more calories.

Another food habit takeway I got out of this was an acquired taste for beans. I never was a big bean eater, but they taste great and are pretty healthy for you. I now make this a frequent addition to my lunches.

I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of The 4-Hour Body if you are really serious about doing this. Also, for a brief overview of the author's weight gain results, check out the "From Geek to Freak" article at BodyBuilding.com.

Update: One year later - My weight has continued be in the 170s. This is despite my diet being fairly normal and nothing close to what it was while doing the experiment. Overall, I feel good and healthy in the 170s, which puts me comfortably in my BMI range for my height and weight.

All Lifestyle Experiments

Weight Gain Experiment
Motivational Calendar Experiment
Brain Vitamins Experiment
8 Minute Mile With A Running Weight Vest
Online Writing Experiment
Push Up Workout

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