How To Eat More
Can’t eat enough to gain weight? How to eat more food for skinny guys is a very challenging task to building muscle and strength. If you’re not eating enough and want to know why it can get difficult, you’ll want to read this article.
You know this. And you’ve probably been told one hundred times that eating enough calories if you’re skinny is most important. Well, it’s true, it is.
But why is it so damn difficult sometimes?
There’s a good chance you’re not eating enough. Heck, you can even be tracking every single calorie, but still finding it to be a struggle to eat enough to gain weight.
some of you may not need 4000 calories a day, and some of you may need a bit more. Either way, it takes commitment and a lot of willpower to nail that number each day.
And in this article, I want to share with you how to eat more calories and why it’s actually so difficult for a skinny guy. So no matter how much food you need to eat, you can accomplish this task effortlessly.
YOU’RE NOT EATING ENOUGH BECAUSE OF ECTOMORPH PHYSIOLOGY
What seems to be stopping you from eating more calories is soon going to become your greatest ally in packing on slabs of muscle and strength.
Dealing With A High Burning And Adaptive Metabolism
The ectomorph body type burns more calories than the average person And that’s probably something you already could have guessed. Given, that they “eat so much” but can’t gain weight.
But is it really that? Are they really not eating enough and just miscalculating their calories? Well, yes and no, ha.
I say this because, it could at first be a calorie counting problem. Make sure you learn how to do this properly and get a calorie tracking app like myfitnesspal (that’s what I use).
Assuming you can dial in your calorie surplus and are willing to test if you’re actually gaining weight or not. Something else is going on in their bodies.
they differ from the average guy (one who can gain weight easily) in terms of calories burned through NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis).
NEAT involves all calories that get burned through pretty much everything except sleep and sports-like exercise.
Think walking, cleaning the house, typing, fidgeting, and even standing/correcting posture for example.
When they eat more calories, their bodies are smart about it and increase their NEAT naturally by causing them to shake, move more, and heat up without even realizing it to burn off those calories.
Think about it, you probably feel warm most of the time, right?
Overall, you do burn more calories naturally. Great. Now you know what keeps you skinny. So what happens when you actually learn how to eat more and dial in your calorie surplus?
How To Eat More With A Skinny Stomach
Having a smaller stomach capacity could have been right on your mind for sure.
And if so, you’re right. Stomachs do come in all shapes and sizes.
Don’t worry, it will adapt as you learn how to eat more calories.
If you work up to eating bigger meals, your stomach will adjust accordingly.
you will adapt to eating more food and bigger meals. So keep pushing past that “full feeling” each day little by little.
Not Eating Enough Because Of High Insulin Sensitivity
When one is fairly lean, they have higher insulin sensitivity. And the skinny guys tend to be very sensitive to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that shuttles nutrients into the cells of our bodies.
Having this is great for muscle growth! you need to do the best you can at getting the nutrients you need into your muscles for growth. Being lean, building more muscle, and even lifting heavy will increase insulin sensitivity.
Basically, you are insulin champ.
When you eat foods, insulin spikes. But when insulin goes up. your appetites decrease. And you get that nice, full feeling. Being very insulin sensitive makes this happen fairly quickly. That’s where the appetite manipulation hacks and choosing the right foods comes in.
People who are heavier and who gain weight easily are most likely less insulin sensitive. And they can eat a lot more food way before they get that full feeling. They just don’t know when to stop, ha.
Once you nail your nutrition, this becomes an awesome asset because we can ensure the majority of our calories are going towards muscle growth.
Stress Dopamine and a High Metabolic State
When you’re under a lot of stress, you completely forget to eat. your appetite is completely shut off. Weightlifting is even a stressor. Sometimes, after an intense lifting session, you need to wait up to an hour before working up a little motivation to eat a huge meal (so I just opt for juice or liquid calories after working out).
you also don’t really get intense cravings or certain foods. Of course, you typically don’t want to eat any food after eating day in and day out, anyway. But this is where dopamine comes into play.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in our body and its role is to drive us towards action.
We are more sensitive to dopamine in a high metabolic state.
Our brains don’t care if the action is good or bad. The stress response that’s also released with dopamine makes us desire whatever we want even more.
When most people are stressed, sad, etc., they typically turn to food.
The point I’m trying to make is that if the skinny guys were to turn to food, they are more sensitive to dopamine’s effect. Allowing them to be satisfied on a few bites of ice cream, rather than getting the urge to finish the entire tub and maybe even another.
HOW TO EAT MORE WITH APPETITE MANIPULATION
Most diets try to get you to eat less food. So, instead of taking a restrictive approach on what we can and cannot eat. We should be thinking about how we can strategically ADD foods into our diets.
And not just any foods. The right foods. In terms of calories and satiety.
Satiety is simply a level of how much a food is going to make you feel full.
Typically, what makes a food more filling is the:
Water content
Protein content
Fiber content
Think foods like veggies, potatoes, or beans. These foods contain a lot fiber and water, that’s what makes them so filling.
We are still striving to fill our diets with wholesome, nutritious foods. But we also need to choose foods that are less satiating so you can eat the same quantity but more calories in a sense.
APPETITE HACKS
1) Make Your Food Taste Good
Adding your favorite sauces, salt, etc. will not only make your food taste better, but it will also add some extra calories. Besides, if your food tastes good. You’ll want to eat it.
For example, you can take potatoes and make french fries out of them. Adding oils, salt and ketchup will make them easier to get down and more calorie dense And so on and so forth.
2) Dried Fruit
If you aren’t eating dried fruit. You’re missing out big time!
I slam down 300 calories of dried fruit whenever I need it in a matter of seconds…Seriously.
3) Homemade Shakes/Liquid Calories
There’s something special about liquids. It’s like our bodies don’t know they contain calories!
My favorites are
:
Naked Juice
Protein Shakes (if you do these right)
Fruit Juice
As you’re aware, solid food is more filling than liquid food. So having more milk and liquid protein is great to reduce the satiety effect of protein rather than getting it all from solid food.
If you have whey protein, I recommend mixing that in a blender with milk, yogurt, peanut butter, fruit, ice cream, etc. to make some homemade weight gain shakes. And as far as the fruit juice goes, a cup is around 25g carbs. And you can easily drink a few glasses a day.
4) Snacking
In between 2 to 3 large meals for the day, I’ll use snacking to hit my overall calories. Whether that be the fruit juice, shakes, protein bars, or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two.
HOW TO EAT MORE WITH THE PROPER FOODS
You need to start choosing protein sources that you like most, so you’ll want to eat a lot.
Red Meat
Beef
Poultry
Fish
Greek Yogurt
Cottage Cheese
Milk
Protein Bars (I like Quest bars and Herba life bars).
Eggs
Butter
Milk
Cheese
Yogurt
Butter
Fatty fish / Fish oil
Peanuts
Almonds
Avocados
Coconut Oil
Macadamia nut oil
Olive Oil
Chia
You’ll want to get the majority of your calories from carbs. They will support our training performance in the gym massively by refilling the glycogen stores in our muscles.
Pasta
Rice
Grains (whole grain bread, cereal, quinoa, etc.)
Bagels
Bakery Products
Biscuits
Calorie Dense fruits (bananas, mangoes, grapes, etc.)
Dried fruits (raisins, prunes, figs, dried cranberries, etc.)
Granola
Oatmeal
Pancakes
Waffles
Juices
Naked Juice
Honey and maple syrup
Ice Cream
Frozen yogurt
The reason you’ll want to get the majority of your calories from carbs is because it’s more difficult for your body to turn those into fat. In fact, the process of turning carbs into body fat (de novo lipogenesis) is inefficient. About 25% of the energy is lost.
And fat is fat. It doesn’t need to go through any extravagant process to be stored.
And of course, make sure you are getting in your vegetables and fruits. This will help ensure you’re getting an adequate amount of fiber and micronutrients in your diet.
A good rule of fiber is to get 10-15g per 1000 calories you eat each day.
MY FINAL WORDS ON HOW TO EAT MORE FOOD IF YOU’RE SKINNY
if you’re currently not eating enough, make sure you start implementing these strategies ASAP!
So it’s time to buckle down and put these concepts on how to eat more to action.
Remember, once you start tracking your calories and testing, you’ll soon find your sweet spot. Which will enable you to repeat each day. Building muscle and strength, will soon become second nature to you. Once we build the muscle, it’s there to last!
Your first action steps should be choosing higher calorie foods you enjoy eating and start using the appetite hacks. Along with tracking all your calories. Let me know how everything goes!
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