Gaining

I am sure like with most things there is no one approach that is best for everyone. Several were mentioned here already.

I found gains on myself or my wife typically show up after over eating about two weeks later roughly. I tend to have a bigger appetite and accidentally gain and notice after some time of over eating - and on several occasion’s decided to intentionally gain after noticing this initial accidental gain.

What works best for me when intentionally gaining is stuffing myself at every meal followed by something sweet with plenty of calories. I began to crave sweets after every meal when I never had much of a sweet tooth before. I would continue to stuff and eat more at every meal and eventually after 2-3 weeks I was surprised at how much I could eat without force stuffing anymore at meals, not to mention I not only craved sweet deserts after but my meals became much more fattening because of taste and I started eating a lot more fast food. I would go to a drive thru at lunch and easily eat $20+ for lunch followed by a desert of some sort. I not only amazed myself but I would then between these meals start driving thru and getting an extra large milkshake to suck down sometime 2-3 times on top of all the other eating and deserts. I was also really trying to get my wife to notice the 50+ lbs. I packed on in a short time to my new gut sticking out in front of me - by either teasing me, scolding me or lecturing me - so I was determined to be really stuffed and bloated by the time I got home from work and hauled my huge gut to the table for dinner she was fixing us. She never commented but served me huge portions possibly because I was eating that much but she certainly didn’t shy away from serving her husband 2nds and sometime 3rds having me look like I was 15 months pregnant with my gut. Everything was going good I turned into a gaining machine with this approach and even was a bit scared how much I could eat now with this method and training - easily 3-4 times more at an individual meal as well as all the deserts and liquid calories. I decided I couldn’t maintain this gain because my body was changing so much so quickly. I decided to try and tapper back on my consumption and finally felt what it must be like for an overweight person must feel like trying to diet. I was so used to the much larger portions not to mention the extra desert after every meal that when I tried eating 1/4 less at meals for breakfast and lunch that come dinner time without having the extra fattening milkshakes I got used to I was ravenous for dinner and ended up probably consuming that many more calories at that meal to make up for my slightly lighter first two meals. My stomach was so stretched out I craved food and the deserts were unbearable to live without because I got so used to eating them and almost needing them now. It took me over a month to even slightly control my appetite and I didn’t lose any significant weight for several months maybe a few lbs. after a year and a half I still held onto 20 lbs. of the gain even with working out and eating healthy.

I wonder if anyone else has tried this method with similar success and results?

My home life was a bit fatphobic, so I had to wait until I moved out on my own before I tried to put some weight on. I was a bit too young and not mentally ready for the realities of what becoming fat and gaining weight would entail.

Later on, I got a pretty good opportunity to try again, this time having done more research on how to gain with a healthy regimen still in mind.

For me it's a "letting myself" thing. For instance when I was underweight, I never really had takeout and when I did, I strictly stuck to my limits. Like as an example I never had more then two slices when it was pizza night, ever.

My first 20 lbs happened when I relaxed that a little. One or two nights a week on drive-thrus etc. There is a moment when you say for the first time, 'yeah I think I actually do want the third slice'. And then that becomes the new normal amount. And then eventually four, and later a whole pie..

You have a sort of baseline that it takes to be the weight you are. I've found I put on weight if I make it a regular thing to go even slightly past that baseline, and that stays true.

I would say with me it was takeaways. I always loved ordering them, but I would only allow them as a kind of reward, once a week at most. A few years ago, I started ordering whenever I felt like one, and I think that was the biggest change.

In a matter of months, I went from being underweight to where I am now. I mean, I'm not sure I qualify as 'fat' yet, but I'm definitely not underweight!

I was very underweight for a long time until my mid 20's then I slowly agined to be about normal weight for a long time. I laways had a desire to be fat but did not know where this came from, I was always also xconerned about being helathy. Thus the conflict. Plus I have a family which is really against being over weight. Anyway about 10 years ago I started trying to intentially gaining weight and got to clost to 175 - which for me is the borderline to being overweioght. I dopped it back to 160 but a few years later went on another binge and crossed the line to 180. Again I dropped back to about 160 until this last round whcih started about 18 months ago. This time I kept gaing in spurts and got all the way to 196 - definetly in hte overweight stage. This time i really noticed changes in my body. I now had rolls of fat adn thighs that touched. I did NOT wnat to stop but I did. This time I did not lose the weight. I ahve hovered around 190 now but the intense urge to get to 200 is back. At 210 I become obses and I cannot help bu wonder what I would feel like. Before my motto was I could always lose it. I am not sure that works anymore. Not sure what I will do this time. Anyway i was normal weight for a long time and have only been over weight a few years. I still can wear my shirts but some are getting quite tight. I had to move to 36 inch jeans a long time ago ...

Counted calories to eat minimum 4,000 calories a day.

126lbs at 6'4" tall at the beginning.

Just now - weighed 223.4lbs, wobbling blob of a belly bulging out. Growing round blob.