CALORIE INTAKE

The principle behind weight gain has to do with caloric balance—in other words, consuming more calories than are expended. This seems obvious (and appears easy to those who tend to gain weight easily), but the key is to gain weight that is predominantly lean muscle and not just extra fat, at least not in the wrong places like the belly.

The two parts of the equation for weight gain (like weight loss) are food and exercise. One might think that exercise will only burn more calories and make weight gain more difficult, but exercise will not only help to increase the body’s physical size but may also stimulate the appetite later, making eating those extra calories easier.

Both what you eat and how you exercise work together to help you gain weight: one providing the nutrient building blocks to help build new healthy muscle tissue, and the other providing the “stress” on those muscles through weight training that stimulates their growth.

How many pounds a person needs or wishes to gain should be determined based on what is healthy for the physical needs of his or her body and its many functions. A good starting point is determining what an approximate ideal body weight—called the desirable body weight—should be for good health. You can use a simple tool to calculate your estimated desirable body weight. My favorite food calorie counter is My Fitness Pal, that also allows you to enter your desirable weight and gives you suggestions on how many calories you will need to gain your weight. Only downfall of using my fitness pal is it gives you no more than 2 lbs a week as a guide. But it's an amazing app to help guide you on your weight gain journey.

My Secrets: How To Gain Weight in 1 Month

Here's the plan that helped me go from 112 to 127 in 3 weeks! But there's ONE LITTLE SECRET I have to save that I only share with my customers. Sorry, I can't just give away all the goodies!

Secret #1)  Eat....Eat...Eat!!! Many take the syrup but do not do the necessary simplest action to eat. You have to eat, but not for satisfaction, but for SURVIVAL. This is not a time to indulge in every desired food. It's time to GAIN WEIGHT, not enjoy food. When you go into starting this weight gain journey (just like obese folks have a strict diet for weight loss) you must have a strict plan and schedule your meals or you will be left with a growling stomach and possibly headaches and an irritated mood. If you're a stay-at-home user, then this may not be for you, but for the other 90% of the world, you need to have a meal or snack or both already available to you for easy access.

So many times, I've had to restart my journeys over and over again, because my schedule was crazy and I did not plan accordingly for meals, so I either skipped a meal or ate fast food, which both are not healthy nor wise ideas. And because I either felt sick for starving myself or felt sluggish for eating the wrong foods, my body would not respond to the vitamin syrup and I ended up losing weight instead of gaining. Plus wasting money and time and doing more harm than good to my body. I also suffer with migraines, so you can imagine the agony I was putting my body through.

So here's the plan that worked for me, I made the same foods religiously every other day, so that I didn't have to think about what to eat, or that I need to drive somewhere to eat, or that I had to wait to eat. NOOOOO...when you're body says HUNGRY...then you need to EAT...PERIOD!!! No thinking, no driving, no waiting!

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pan sausages, 2 biscuits | Lunch: Cheeseburger and salad | Dinner: Lasagna or Spaghetti and salad | Snacks 3x/day: Chex Mix, Cup of Pecans, Granola Bars, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, No Icing Cake & Milk, & Pop-Tarts

Tuesday, Thursday: Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 McMuffins or Bagel with Jelly, 3 slices bacon | Lunch: Baked Potato & Broccoli | Dinner: 2 Beef Hotdogs with Lay's Potato Chips

Saturday & Sunday: Since I'm off weekends, I can change it up, but most likely I'll have one of my three favorites...pancakes, Eggo Cinnamon waffles, or Homemade French toast with Hillshire Farm sausages. I could eat these everyday and allday! Then for lunch and dinner, I'll have Catfish (fried or baked) and/or Ribeye steaks with fries. Include rice, pastas, bread, beef, chicken, fish, oils, dressings, beans, and other high carb foods to your food plan.

Now most of these are my favs to eat, but after eating them for few weeks at a time can get sickening, but I push through because I know they're high in calorie and hearty. Some may not be the healthiest but most definitely not the worst.

If you plan your food and meals in advance like this, taking your pre-made meals to work and keeping snacks in the car or purse or backpack, then you will carve those hunger pains and start your journey off right with potentially high gains.

The other part of this secret is drinking high calorie beverages such as whole milk ( organic milk is healthier, sweeter, and lasts longer) or fruit juice, fruit smoothies (Naked natural juices perfect for more calories) or sports drinks like Gatorade. These will give you the extra calories needed with each meal and can make a difference of 1-2 pounds a week if done right. Now, I know some of you are asking why soda is not on the list. Well I have a few reasons, including the caffeine is a trigger for my migraines, the acidity is not good for the digestion which can block the good nutrients, and can cause additional belly fat, in which you do not need since belly fat will be a potential problem because you are eating way more calories than you're use to.

Takeaway: Eat more calories than your burn!

Secret #2) You CAN Sculpt your body the way you want it to look. This means don't gain weight to have an uncomfortable looking body, make your weight go where you want it to go. You see girls on YouTube with these big bellies and look "uncomfortable" built. This is not to talk about anyone, this is to inform you how you can prevent your body from looking that way. But the only difference is you have guidance, they did not. I tell people all the time that IT'S EASIER TO PREVENT THAN TO TREAT! Meaning you can stop the bulge look of your stomach before it begins.

First, use a waist trainer to help sculpt your body, burn the fat and remind you of your goals. That tight band around your stomach makes you want to be better, so you can take it off. Trust me, many of days, I couldn't take it but PUSHED THROUGH! Second, at least one week before you start your weight gain journey, start AB exercises. This will help prevent the fat belly and allow the food to fuel other areas of the body and not just sit on your stomach. My favorite exercises that work every muscle and has my stomach on flat-flat are sit-ups, bicycle crunches, and leg ups.

SIT-UPS 

BICYCLE CRUNCHES

LEG-UPS

THIS VIDEO IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH US, IT'S A WORKOUT THAT WE LOVE WHILE TAKING APETAMIN. MAKE SURE YOU ARE WORKING OUT WHILE TAKING APETAMIN TO SCULPT YOUR BODY. THESE ARE EXCELLENT EXERCISES!!

Takeaway: Gain weight in the appropriate places, you have the control!