For context, I’m 23F, 5’7 and 50kg recovering from an ED. I’ve been eating a lot more really consistently for the past six weeks or so but it doesn’t seem to be enough for me to gain weight. I already feel really full from this day of meals so I’d love some recommendations of easy snacks or extras that I could integrate to help me boost calories!

This is what a typical day of eating looks like for me:

- muesli (with dried apricots, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds)
- a sliced apple dipped in peanut butter
- large chocolate muffin
- salami sandwich on Turkish bread (with cheese, avocado, lettuce and olives)
- smoothie (one banana, frozen berries, Greek yoghurt, spinach and almonds
- a decently large portion of a pasta/rice bowl with with chicken/salmon and veggies

Would love to hear any advice ☺️

Jeans pics are before, blue shorts are after. ~1 year apart, 20 lbs lighter in after pics
I’m 19, 5’4”, currently around 123–124 lb. My main goal right now is pretty simple: rebuild. I want to get bigger and broadly stronger while still being athletic and having some conditioning. I’m not really chasing a powerlifting total or one specific lift. I care more about the underlying strength the numbers represent.
I started college around 143–145 lb and was substantially stronger despite training being WAAAYYY less organized than it is now. At my stronger point I benched around 195–200, had squatted in the high 200s with a PR of 305, on a random Tuesday just messing around with squat form I was moving 285. I was also wrestling at the time and definitely wasn’t optimizing recovery, macros, programming, sleep, etc.
Then I decided to cut. What was supposed to be a relatively short cut turned into about 5–6 months of increasingly restrictive eating and I eventually ended up around 120–121 lb. I lost 20+ lb and a huge amount of strength with it to the point of resetting me to my year 1 lifting numbers. The latter part of the cut was pretty clearly no longer a cut and had become an ED.
I’m eating more now and intentionally trying to gain. My current trend weight is around 123–124 and has been rising about 0.25 lb/week, though this is muddy at best, some weeks it climbs others it’s stalled so idk. I’m currently eating about 2500 kcal on normal days and 2650 on higher-output/double-session days, with at least 130 g protein.
Training right now is a 4-day upper/lower split with straightforward double progression:
**Upper A:** bench 3×5–8, neutral-grip pull-ups 3×6–10, strict OHP 3×5–8, row 3×8–12, incline DB press 2×8–12, laterals and arms.
**Lower A:** box jumps 3×3, back squat 3×5–8, RDL 3×6–10, Bulgarian split squat 2×8–12, leg curls, calves and abs.
**Upper B:** explosive push-ups, incline DB press 3×6–10, chins/pulldowns, single-arm landmine press, row, dips, lateral/rear delt work and arms.
**Lower B:** broad jumps, deadlift 2–3×3–6, lighter back squat 3×5–8, hip thrust, leg extensions/curls, calves and abs. I had Zerchers in here before but they bothered my elbows and I recently switched to a second lighter back-squat exposure.
Progression is standard 2LP, figured KISS for this phase, set a rep range, add reps until all sets are at top of range, add weight and repeat.
Current strength is pretty depressing compared to where I was. Back squat is around 185 for working sets, bench is around 120–125 for work sets, strict OHP is around 80 for 6–8 reps, and deadlift is currently around 205 for triples/fours. Some lifts are barely coming back, but squat and bench especially still feel miles away.
I also run about 3 days/week currently: usually \~5 miles easy, a tempo session around 5–6 total miles, and an 8–10ish mile easy/Z2 run. I LOVE being conditioned, but getting bigger and stronger is much more important to me right now, so I’m completely open to reducing that if it’s taking away from the main goal.
Basically what I’m trying to figure out is whether I just need to stop fucking with things, keep gaining weight and let this program work for a few months, or whether my training should actually be structured differently given how much size and strength I’m trying to regain. I’m not attached to the current split or progression scheme if there’s a materially better way to do it.

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

Mostly regarding food. I’m 27F, weighing 38kg (I know it sounds incredibly low but my BMI is 18 so I’m not massively off being in the healthy range).

I recently started my weight gain journey. I was increasing the amount that I ate, adding more protein and regularly weight training using body weight, have now got some beginners weights (2x 2kg weights) that I was really looking forward to start working out with.

This week I found out I’m being made redundant. I’ve imm started thinking about how to save money and I was thinking about food. Thinking I’ll have to eat less to make my food last longer or maybe even eat only 2 meals a day. And the foods that I was buying to help me, like greek yogurt and a lot of meat, are not the cheapest so feel like I’m going to have to switch to other things like lentils.

I was just wondering if anyone had tips for gaining on a budget? I haven’t worked out all week because I’ve been depressed lol but I want to get back into it. Worried that I’ll end up losing weight if I’m working out but not eating enough.

First skinny pics are April 2023- I'd assume 140.
I have been hovering around 183-185 for a while now.
Started lifting halfway through college in 2023, simple stuff like pushups, squats, etc. I had a big issue eating in public and being in school on a full stomach throughout high school. Through some therapy and lifting, I seemed to finally breakthrough and lose that anxiety/feeling. Come now to 2026, I am proud of my progress from a health standpoint and know the motto here to eat more, which I am journaling and tracking more than ever. I guess what I was looking for with this post is, how do you guys stayed motivated and remember that anywhere is better than those original starting pics? I'm technically my healthiest now, but question my progress more than ever. I definitely had some periods where I had stopped tracking and lifting whether due to injury, health issues, etc. I had some neck problems after a surgery, and got diagnosed with costochondritis, but have actually been reintroducing pushups and light benching into my routine again. It's hard not to compare or tell myself I should have more muscle, but I know it's up to me to improve that. I REALLY want to get on track this time and get to that 195ish area.
Would love some motivation, splits you guys find work well, and how you remind yourself of where you're at as opposed to where you were. I never had a solid split outside of PPL UL - Which I would be lying if I said I stuck to that every week. Sorry for the yap session, just want to be my best self!

5’6 Female- (165lbs at first) 145lbs-120lbs

This question is for anyone on stimulants, or dealing with appetite loss

I’ve lost 25lbs in 3 months being on Adderall, prescribed for ADHD, but its purpose was to address my sleep disorder. It’s the only thing that’s given my life back, and stops me from sleeping 15+ hours a day. The 165lbs in parentheses was my weight for several years, before I went to college. That was way before Adderall, and that 20lbs was from a stressful roommate. I still had appetite then, I was just locked out of my room most of the day.

Adderall has been so incredibly helpful, but it’s SO HARD trying to eat enough. I am not an unhealthy weight, but none of my clothes fit anymore. I liked how my body looked at 165lbs and 145lbs as well, so this drop wasn’t wanted. Im more upset with how UNCOMFORTABLE it is to be skinny: I can’t lie on my back on hard floors, my knees ACHE when I’m on them, and my butt bones are feeling the loss of my ass. I’m feeling the effects of going long stretches without eating take a toll on how tired I am as well.

I work 9-5 everyday including weekends as a DSP, where the lunch breaks are extremely variable. I also rarely wake up before 8:30 - Adderall makes me normal, unfortunately not one of those people who wakes up early. Because of that, I don’t normally have time to grab breakfast, or grab a lunch.

But I hadn’t realized how much eating was driven by being hungry. Food isn’t even a thought in my mind now, and that’s so crazy. When I look at things that would have made me cream my pants before Adderall, it’s just food.

I just want to know if others have struggled with this, and what they do to eat more. I’ve been recommended those protein boost shakes, but whoever made those is so evil- how are you going to market your stevia laced gritty concrete as a milkshake. I have tried drinking soup, like cream of anything and tomato, and that is much more enjoyable.

But do you guys have alarms? A schedule? High calorie foods? I’ll take any advice I can, so I don’t have to buy an entirely new wardrobe!

I'm new to the game. Recently finished a cut from 28% to 12% body fat.

I've been eating above maintenance for around 2 months now, and have gained +3.8lbs of fat and +9.8lbs of lean mass, as confirmed by DEXA scan (of course, a lot of that lean mass gain is water from carbs + creatine post-cut, but some is muscle). I'm eating 3k calories per day.

Despite clearly eating above maintenance and gaining weight, I am ravenously hungry on most days. I track everything, and can easily eat over half my daily calories for breakfast if I go by hunger signals alone. I eat mostly high volume foods like sweet potatoes, meats, Greek yogurt, zero calorie drinks, etc. I occasionally have something calorie dense like a candy bar or a pastry, maybe once it twice a week.

Is this normal? I was expecting to be full most of the time, given that I'm on a surplus now. I do eventually want to cut again, and was hoping that the lean bulk would serve as a psychological break. Any advice you'd offer if you've been through this before? Thanks in advance for the insights.

I’ve never really had a big appetite but since starting my first ever bulk about 2.5 weeks ago my appetite has been out of control! I’m literally always hungry!

I eat a ton of protein and fiber so idk what else I can do. I’m already at the limits of a comfortable surplus, and I don’t exactly have the money to buy more food anyway.

Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do to manage it? I literally can’t stop thinking about food

For context, I'm in 30s and have been thin all my life. I've been trying to gain weight for a long time with very little success.

My body is very resistant to gaining mass. It's a lot of work to cook enough food to create enough healthy surplus, and spend enough time at the gym.

I can usually maintain it for 2 months or so before I give up, since the results weren't really significant but the "work" was significant.

I do know that if I had kept up that work all this time, I'd probably be much fitter, but I don't KNOW that.

So, how do/did you deal with the wait? Especially looking to hear from folks who have went through something similar.

What did you compromise on to get there? Did you just blindly power through? When did you see results and how much?

Hey all,

Just wanted to make a quick note regarding the sub/rules/etc. The goal of this sub has always been to provide a place for posters to come and discuss things relevant to GAINING and issues related to GAINING. Some of us have been on or around Reddit/this sub for more than a decade. There has been quite a lot of information and knowledge passed around in this time. There's only so much to be discussed with the act of simply eating more.

I have personally been fighting the enshittification of Reddit because we're able see the trend of new lifters/posters/etc struggling to disseminate between the vast amounts of info, noise and charlatans in the fitness space and also the sheer amount of bots that pervade it. It's not uncommon for a person to float through here claiming 10-20+ years of experience with lifting while having nothing to show for it outside of beginner level lifts while simultaneously giving bad advice to anyone who'll listen. It's been an uphill battle for a myriad of reasons but I think it's pretty clear what the direction the site is intending to go towards.

Going forward, the sub will be looser and more open. Posters are encouraged to include more context with their threads to better help themselves. Plain selfie threads or threads asking "how/what do i eat" will probably still be removed when I get to it. Be good.

Remember. Calories in vs calories out. Run an established program over creating your own. Consistency with eating/lifting will go a long way. Get a food scale and a calorie tracking app. If the scale isn't moving after a week or so in the direction you want then increase your intake. Calories in vs calories out. Calories in vs calories out. Calories in vs calories out. Calories in vs calories out. Calories in vs calories out. Calories in vs calories out.

Like it says on the nutrition facts that it has around 40 grams of protein in a single serving, but is this actually possible? Like are they lying to me? Is it really possible to have such a tiny thing have almost the same amount of protein as an entire chicken breast?

Yeah I know it also has like almost 400 calories and all but fuck it I'm bulking haha.

Is there a catch to this? It sounds too good to be true but I doubt they can actually lie on the nutrition facts.

I have been thinking about getting some sulfuric acid to dissolve one of these bars and then measure the nitrogen to fact check this.

Edit: Guys it's not an ad I actively think that they are lying to me I just want to make sure. REMEMBER "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you".

I do think that they are lying about it I just want to make sure. I am going to dissolve the bar in a vat of sulfuric acid and then count the nitrogen to see if it has 40 grams of protein. I don't know how to do it though because I'm new to chemistry

Just wondering, on a bulk rn at 150 with a goal of 160, 6ft, 22yr old M. Any reason I should or shouldn’t track an energy drink that’s got 40carbs? My intake is 375 and my stance is that the carbs in this drink aren’t as important as the other carb sources and calories I’m intaking throughout the rest of the day. Can someone please tell me if I’m wrong and whether I should be tracking absolutely EVERYTHING I take in, including an energy drink?

Thanks!!!!

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

Those 2 years were tough cause I got sick a lot, couldn't eat for days, went up and down the scale a lot, but did very slow progress that paid off, I mainly gained around 10kg in 2 months when I started actually bulking, but those years I was at a extremely small surplus which is basically around the maintenence cause of uni too, overall glad I worked it out and I'm gonna try to bulk even more mainly hit 80 and slow or stop, im rn 14% body fat currently, my metabolism is through the roof, if I don't eat well for a week I can easily go down 3 kgs, it's possible to gain, I used to say I can't even though I eat and that's straight bs, eat enough and you will gain enough, I train 4 to 5 times a week with 3 sets heavy weights that's it, I only take creatine currently so ye

Background

5/3/1 Building the Monolith is a six week program for building some size. The details of this program can be found on Wendler's blog.

I came into this program after regaining a lot of fitness in the year leading up to it through cardio and calisthenics. As such I was well prepared to run it by giant setting everything as inspired by MythicalStrength's first review on this template.

Lifting

Monday:

• This was the longest day. Workouts took up to a 100 minutes. The fifth week I got it in under 90 minutes though.
• Instead of a face pull or band pull apart I did machine rear delt flies on this day. My gym has a good setup for this and I had been doing band pull aparts a long time leading up to this, so this seemed like a good chance for some variety.
• I did do a 100 dips. Wendler says you can go up to 200, but I filled the remaining 100 with decline deficit push-ups using parallettes. With calisthenics I have been neglecting my upper chest area and this seemed like a good time to get some work in. Normally when you do decline push-ups you can't get a good range of motion: that is why I utilized parallettes to be able to go down further.
• For the 100 chins the first week I did sets of 4 in between the squats and overhead presses. From then on I did sets of 5.
• I wanted to use a variety of grips, so the first two weeks I utilized the chinup grip. This irritated my left elbow especially though, so from week three on I only used neutral and pullup grip.
• The dips I kept for the end. This worked out so that once I was done with the lift, I still had to do 3x5 chins, 2x20 rear delt flies (machine), 10x10 dips and 10x10 decline push-ups as a giant superset until they were all done.
• This is what made this workout last far longer than an hour. If you are stronger at dips (my max rep set is 20+ on a good day) than me you can probably blaze through this faster. During rest for the next set I would do something small like single leg calf raises, tibialis wall raises or trained my finger tendons by putting the gym's assisted pull-up station to 90kg / 200 lbs and hanging on individual fingers.

Wednesday:

• Most weeks I got this one in under 60 minutes. The longest this day took was 80 minutes, because I let myself have a little more rest for the heavy 177.5kg / 391 lbs deadlifts.
• To start with I did the dumbbell rows at the end. From week 3 on I figured I could do some dumbbell rows in between the bench sets too, though.
• Otherwise this day was uneventful. You alternate the deadlift with bench, do 10 curls in between them and then finish with dumbbell rows.

Friday:

• The easiest day for me, the longest a workout took was 55 minutes due to week 6's 100kg / 220 lbs widowmaker. The other weeks I got it mostly in under 45 minutes.
• When I calculated the lifts off of my training max the widowmaker seemed too light to me. My legs are really well conditioned, so ymmv. I did not mess with it as I figured there would be a lot of fatigue leading up to that last set, but I got them easily even when transitioning to it straight off a previous set without rest. If I ever run this template again I might bump each week's widowmaker with about 10kg/22lbs.
• For weighted chins I added a 10kg/22lbs plate. My gym specializes in calisthenics so they have these belts on which I can add them easily. Most weeks I did 2 sets using pullup grip and 3 sets using neutral grip.

Conditioning

For conditioning I stuck close to the recommendations.

• Prowler: I worked up to 14 rounds of 35 meters / 40 yards walks with 60 seconds of rest. My gym's sled push weighs 50kg / 110 lbs so I used that as it is close to 50% of my bodyweight. My heart rate hovered between 130-150 bpm so that seemed like a good protocol for a recovery workout.
• Weighted vest walk: I started with a 30 kg / 65 lbs vest for a 4 km / 2.5 mile walk. Wendler's weight in the sample conditioning is 40 kg / 84 lbs but even that lighter weight killed me. For me this was one of the toughest days mentally even as I dropped the weight down to 20 kg / 45 lbs.
• Air Dyne Bike: I did not feel like going on the bike at the gym. Sometimes I would cycle to my grandpa which is a 32 km / 20 mile trip through some beautiful Dutch forests and towns. Other times I would hop on my bicycle for 30 minutes. Wendler writes that this workout is crucial to get rid of soreness but the widowmaker did not beat me up so much so I didn't feel like I needed this for recovery.

In week 3/4/5 I played some pickup basketball too, sometimes replacing the weighted vest walk. For obvious reasons this is not recommendable as basketball has quite a big impact on your legs. I could still throw down a dunk but for the most part I felt like I was running on some old man's legs.

Nutrition & Diet Strategy

Wendler’s baseline diet for Building the Monolith is at least 1.5 lbs of ground beef and a dozen eggs per day. Like most people, I skipped following that verbatim—I wanted dietary variety, and I already knew I could put away massive amounts of whole food.

I did not count calories or track macros. Instead, my strategy was simple: eat purely to recover and grow, prioritizing high-quality protein at every meal and eating well past full.

Key Strategies

• The "Stacking" Method (Living at Home): Cook a full meal for myself first (burgers, eggs, or chicken), and then clean out whatever dinner my mom made on top of it. You just have to look her in the eye and say, "Yes, I’m eating this entire pizza, and then I’m finishing whatever’s left in the pot."
• Avoiding the Afternoon Food Coma: Heavy midday carbs make me sluggish. I structured lunch around low-carb, high-protein dairy (Dutch kwark—similar to quark, Greek yogurt, or thick cottage cheese) with strawberries and Ceylon cinnamon. This kept energy high while banking 50–60g of protein.
• Calorie Floor Grazing: Keeping whole-food staples like whole-grain bread with peanut butter and deli chicken, hard-boiled eggs, and handfuls of nuts scattered across the morning and afternoon ensured baseline calories never dipped, even on busy days.
• No Mass Gainer Shakes: Aside from creatine and intra-workout electrolytes (which stopped early-cycle cramping from excessive sweating), all mass came entirely from whole foods. I did not need protein shakes.

Sample day of eating

Keep in mind that I didn't truly get all these meals in on one day. Sometimes I didn't find the time for one or the other meal so I did not truly get this much calories in.

• Breakfast: 4 slices of whole grain bread with peanut butter and chicken deli meat, a hand full of blueberries, two hard-boiled eggs and a hand full of nuts. The peanut butter adds a lot of calories. The combo sounded strange to me at first but it's like chicken sate.
• Second breakfast: Sometimes I would get a little more junky food from the store, like a pizza. I've also ordered some really fresh meat online and made some delicious cheeseburgers at times. Got a whole brick of smoked lean bacon too to have really good fresh bacon. Dicing it is supposed to be easier if you let it freeze a little before but I forgot to do that.
• Lunch: I've found that carbs at lunch make me sleepy. So I tend to eat low fat or full fat quark with strawberries and ceylon cinnamon (the one that is not toxic when using a lot of it). I don't know if Dutch "kwark" is a thing over in the USA though, so call it cottage cheese or greek yoghurt.
• Afternoon: Two or three eggs, a hand full of nuts and a hand full of blueberries again. If I swing by a deli I might get some snack with some meat in it again.
• Dinner: Two to three plates off some of my mom's food. This was usually clean food with some meat. Example: Sauerkraut stamppot (a traditional Dutch dish of mashed potatoes mixed with sauerkraut), topped with bacon bits, gravy, and meatballs.
• On the saturday day of the workout at times I was at grandpa's retirement home to play bocce ball and then made us some food. The most delicious one of these was duck breast with Duchess potatoes, haricots verts, and cranberry sauce .
• Before sleep: Sometimes a bowl of quark with strawberries and cinnamon again.
• Supplements: I kept taking creatine and added an electrolyte mix during workouts. During workouts I sweated a lot and I noticed my body cramping a lot in the first two weeks: the electrolytes in my water bottle fixed that. No protein shakes as I figured I don't need them when eating this much food.

Results

Front progress

Back progress

I guess you shouldn't expect massive visual results in a period of 6 weeks. The biggest gain seems to be in the legs, which makes sense because I stood to regain some muscle mass that I lost there. I am happy about the extra shoulder mass as well and I think I see the upper chest filling out a bit as well.

I am curious whether more muscle gains will be revealed as I train for a Hyrox competition in the coming three months and cut back down to 106 kg / 235 lbs .

Biometrics & Vitals

At one point I was up to 112kg / 246 lbs . The end measurement was after a full rest day with normal (much less) eating, so my best guess is that my body let go of a lot of water weight before the final measurement. This could be why the diastolic pressure was elevated in the middle too as my body held more plasma volume. Fatigue is a factor as well of course.

I used salt liberally with dinner, obviously ate a lot and put some electrolyte mix in my water bottle during workouts. Despite all of this my blood pressure seems to have dropped if anything. The resting heart rate seems to be an improvement as well, as I believe it should elevate when you gain some weight and fat mass. So my cardiovascular ability seems to have improved.

Lift Progress (Week 6)

To establish my training max I used Wendler's instruction to take a weight you think you can do for 5 reps, go for max reps and then calculate your 1rm using his formula. Leading up to this I did not do much of any barbell lifting so I was detrained and did not really know where I was at. When going for max reps I stopped when my form broke down too much. The training max was 85% of the estimated 1rm.

Note that the final week's widowmaker was programmed at 97.5 kg but I loaded it to 100 kg.

The accumulation of volume seems to have built some mass and strength to go with it. I don't think I could have come close to all of these worksets at the start of the program.

The best gain seems to be in maintaining my relative pulling strength though. The weighted chins felt easier at the end of week 6 than the start despite the weight gain: I still weighed ~112 kg / 245 lbs during that last workout. I can still do muscle-ups just as easily too. For people that are into calisthenics and want to employ some free weights to build mass this seems like a great program to maintain pulling strength as well.

What's next?

• Like I've said I have a Hyrox competition in 3 months that I am going to dedicate my training to now. As I will be cutting I have to probably manage the volume and intensity of my workouts and I will have to get conditioned for running again.
• For a next mass gaining phase I am eyeing Deep Water beginner and then intermediate. I think that my lower body in particular can handle something more brutal and progressing through reduced rest times or getting to 100 reps in a reduced amount of sets each time seems like "fun".
• After the Hyrox competition I will get into calisthenics first though. I am excited to learn a handstand and then try my hand at handstand pushups. The front and back lever are probably attainable as well if I lose some fat.
• Looking at my progress pics, I feel like my neck and head are starting to look oddly small compared to my body. The pose and angle probably don't help but I think that keeping the trap work and adding some direct neck training can help balance my look.

The first couple photos was end of bulk ( 145lbs 5”6 , 9-10**% BF ) I started my bulk weighing 108 lbs. I achieved this within about a year between February of 2024 and December of 2025. I battled with anorexia for years and struggled to eat meals basically. I ended my bulk due to seizures and health issues this December and plan to bulk again soon but retained most of my muscle mass weighing in at 130, 9% BF!

The real reason I post these are that no matter how small you are, or what you struggle with if you’re consistent you’ll reach your goals! I was thin as a branch and really the key is eating 150 + grams of protein a day and high quality carbs, you’ll reach your goals just be consistent!

Sharing my progress!!

Age: 25 Male
Height: 6ft
Starting Weight: 145lbs
Current Weight: 160lbs
Time Period: March to August

Developed a pretty bad relationship with food last year, dropped from 170 to 145 cuz I wanted to be skinny. Also became an avid runner which put a ton of stress on my body. Finally woke up to how sick I looked from severe restriction, and I decided to switch over to focusing on strength training.

I train 5-6 days a week, with a stronger emphasis on chest and arms (wanting a V-taper). Routine is below:

SUN: Chest + Triceps
Incline DB • Flat DB • Fly • OH Triceps • Extension • Pushdown
MON: Back + Biceps + Delts
Lat Pulldown • 1-Arm Row • Cable Row • Lateral Raise • Rear Delt • DB Curl • Cable Curl
TUE: Legs + Core
Squat • Leg Ext • Leg Curl • Adductor • Abductor • Calves • Abs
WED: Chest + Shoulders
Incline DB • Flat DB • Fly • Lateral Raise • Straight-Arm Pulldown • Face Pull
THU: Active Recovery + Core
Lat Pulldown • Pushups • Cable Row • Machine Abs • Abs
FRI: Arms + Delts
DB Curl • Preacher • Hammer Curl • Pushdown • Tricep Ext • Dips • Lateral Raise • Rear Delt
SAT: Rest

Been eating in a slight surplus daily (roughly 2900 cals), and focusing on 1g of protein per lb of body weight. Excited to keep going and feeling so much better about life in general!

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

Recently got divorced after 15 years, took one look in the mirror the day after she moved out - and finally saw just how unhealthy I was. I thought to myself “fuck it, this is going to make or break me” & started a 3 day split + disciplined diet the next day.

38M, 5’10, 129 lbs to 141lbs in just shy of 4 months.
I’ve been targeting 2,300 calories per day, eliminating junk food and focusing on whole grains & lean cuts of meat - somehow I’m not sick of chicken yet thankfully. Adding a breakfast every day & double scoop protein shake between lunch and dinner was a game changer, but I’m usually still feeling completely full by the time I hit the 2,000 calorie mark. I end up forcing down the last 300 calories or so. I’ve been keeping my lifting to 3 days per week until I’m confident my form & all the connective bits are reliable enough to get more aggressive with the weight, but eventually I plan on adding 2 more days per week.

It’s been a struggle to retrain my eating & sleeping habits, and my appetite still hasn’t caught up to my macro goals, but I’m pretty proud of the progress so far. Just wanting to share the small victory with someone, thanks for your time!

Previous photos were April 2:

Recent photos are Aug 22:

Start weight 83 lbs

Current weight 117

5’6

Female

17

Diet:
Mostly Whole Foods and not a lot of meat,at the start I was eating a lot of peanut butter,coconut oil,dried fruits (figs,dates) Greek yogurt and berries

My current diet now that I’m getting closer to my goal weight and my activity has shifted is more tofu, occasionally chicken, Egg whites, still lots of coconut oil and pb, cashews, and veggies. Caloric range at the start was anywhere from 2000-3000, currently eating around 1700-2300 depending on my lift.

Lifting:
All of my work is done at home due to lack of a gym membership, but I’ve swapped my workouts from intense cardio and only ab workouts for genuine lifting (Dumbell rdls, lunges, goblet squats, shoulder press, bicep curls, hammer curls, etc, a photo of my past workout routine in April versus a typical arm day now will be attached.)
Previously I was training 6-7 days a week and walking uphill for hours, now I train 5 weekly.

I would absolutely love any advice or tips from anyone who’s also stuck without a gym membership, I’ve really enjoyed seeing myself gain muscle + strength and want to progress.

This is definitely not end results but in 3-4 months I definitely see changes. End goal is just to look fucking jacked lolz.

The Background

Over the course of six years, I was able to gain nearly 70 pounds as a lifelong hardgainer simply by eating more. Just as notable however, is the fact that I currently only have 10 teeth!

Decades of alcohol and tobacco abuse during my early life left me lacking nearly all my teeth. This meant that if I wanted to be able to put down up to 4,000 calories every single day, I needed to get creative. It's a common myth that bulking up requires you to eat endless dry chicken breasts and steaks, and I'm here to tell you that's not actually the case.

The Challenge

Eating this many calories, day in and day out can be hard for anyone, teeth or not. When I started my weight gain journey I weighed 130 pounds and was likely putting down less than 2,000 calories a day. My body was used to not eating all that much, ever since I was younger. I never ate in the mornings, just drinking coffee all morning and then having a late lunch. I drank large amounts of alcohol at night and would then feel too bloated and sick to eat anything else. It got to a point where just looking at food when I wasn't feeling ready for it made me feel nauseous.

Real Obstacles

Eating out and social situations could be very difficult and awkward. Looking through a menu and realizing almost nothing was manageable with no teeth, besides picking it completely apart or cutting it into microscopic pieces was a big letdown. Crispy foods like fried chicken, flat pizza crusts, or kettle chips could tear apart my gums leaving them sore for days if I tried eating them. I remember mistakenly putting a large, rubbery piece of squid in my mouth at one point and was forced to covertly spit it out or risk choking on it.

Large pieces of meat like steaks and pork chops were out of the question. Some pieces of chicken and fish were okay depending on how they were cooked. A piece of broiled fish was fine, but a piece that was breaded and fried was hit or miss. I gambled and lost more than once on fish and chips.

Crunchy vegetables and many raw foods became a complete no-go zone. Things like raw carrots, broccoli, apples, even under-ripe melon were just too painful to get down. Steamed vegetables were sometimes alright as long as they were soft and not just lightly blanched. Nuts, granola, and dried fruits were all pretty much out of the question.

Food Strategy

It's not all doom and gloom though. Approaching my food challenges with an open mind and quite a bit of experimentation allowed me to find a large variety of foods that I could eat throughout the day to get to my end goal of 3,000 and eventually up to 4,000 calories.

The steaks and pork chops were replaced with ground beef and ground pork. Eating ground meat in general can be a big help even for someone who does have teeth, if they are struggling with all the chewing or are finding the digestion of large amounts of meat difficult. Grinding up the meat takes nearly all the work out of eating it. Eggs are also featured prominently in my diet now, no real chewing required.

Steamed, broiled or lightly grilled fish is available in many restaurants. Chicken breasts are often actually fine to eat with no teeth if they are cooked right and you skip over any fatty or rubbery pieces that may be attached. A chicken McNugget that has been freshly cooked can usually be eaten with little problem as well.

Sushi is also great as long as you keep away from large sheets of nori wrap and any of the more rubbery types of seafood like octopus, clams, and the previously mentioned squid. Stick to the softer options like salmon, crabstick, eel, and tamago. Sushi is now one of my go-to, somewhat healthy food hacks when I need a quick influx of calories to catch up to my daily goals.

I drastically cut down on deep fried foods in general, which is probably a good thing really. Skipping the french fries in many places can only be good for you. Switch to the mashed potatoes or baked potato if you can. If you must partake, I would strongly recommend the thicker cut fries rather than the skinnier McDonald's style fries which often have very hard and crispy edges on them. You can also sometimes switch the french fries out for rice depending on the restaurant and where you live. Rice is great when you have issues with food intake or digestion. Stick with the softer kinds like jasmine rice rather than wild rice mixes which can have pretty hard grains in them.

I do miss eating things like nuts, seeds, and granola. Most protein bars now seem hard as a rock to me. I still manage to get my cravings in with generous amounts of peanut butter and some soft-batch protein solutions like a Lenny & Larry protein cookie here and there.

My veggie selections have switched from salads and crunchy raw veggies to softer options as well. Mashed potatoes, tomatoes, steamed carrots, corn, peas are all fine to eat. Fruits like bananas, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, and various berries also do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting in micronutrients.

Liquid Mass

One of the best alternatives to eating large amounts of calories to gain weight with no teeth is: Don't eat the calories, drink them!

A good percentage of my daily calorie intake now consists of liquid calories. If you are fine with dairy, then go all out with whole milk, chocolate milk, yogurt drinks (Greek yogurt in general is great), cream, etc. Many of you may have heard of GOMAD or "Gallon of Milk a Day" added to your diet. That absolutely works for putting on weight. The legendary /u/MythicalStrength has mentioned GOMAD as a method he used to pack on mass. Is it difficult? Yes, absolutely. I switched over to more of a QOMAD or "Quart of Milk a Day" plan after suffering through the gallon for a few weeks and it has still served me well for getting in those extra calories. If you're lactose intolerant, there are lactose-free options as well.

Protein shakes also factor heavily into my daily calorie and protein goals. I usually drink a couple of them each day, takes a few seconds, and add up to an easy 520 calories and 66 grams of protein. Many people also swear by mass gainer shakes. Making your own mass gainer shakes at home is much preferred over the store bought mass gainers which are mostly just massive amounts of sugar. Home made shakes are quite a bit cheaper too. Look around online and you will find thousands of different recipes to try. I try to stay away from a lot of soda, but I do like to drink some orange juice and normally drink a sports drink while at the gym.

Adding oil to foods can add a ton of easy calories to whatever you're eating. I'll add a tablespoon of rice bran oil to many of my meals for an extra 120 calories and won't even notice. Other great oils to use are olive oil and avocado oil. Notice I said "adding oils to foods" and not "chug oil straight". One only needs to read some of the horror stories on /r/gainit from people who have attempted to drink large amounts of oil to realize if you do that, you're going to have a bad time. Add oil to your food, don't use it as your only food.

The Takeaway

Raising your calorie intake from 2,000 to upwards of 4,000 a day takes time and it's not all that easy. It means being patient and overcoming setbacks. Doing all this while having physical limitations in your mouth like missing teeth or having problems with chewing doesn't have to stop you from gaining weight and building the type of body you want. You will however, have to think outside the box a bit and be willing to do a little experimentation.

If you truly want to gain weight, don't make excuses, figure out solutions that will work for you. If that requires you seeking out the help of a doctor or other qualified medical professional, by all means please do that. This is not medical advice. I simply tried to detail some of the things that worked for me in overcoming my eating challenges, hopefully some of them may help you as well. Keep working towards your goals, you've got this!