Just wanted to do a quick post to inform you all about Gym & Buffet, a new blog about lifting, eating, gaining, and general hotness. It's written by an adorable gainer/encourager couple, consisting of the currently growing G (whose transformation is pictured below),
and the formerly gaining, currently encouraging G, whose sadly now downsized belly is pictured here:
It's very smartly written, full of workout tips, insights into gaining, and is def. worth adding to your list of gainer/encourager blogs. And I mean, the pictures don't lie; these boys know a thing or three about growing a grade a ex-jock belly. Check it out and enjoy.
Like most annoying, health conscious yuppies, I’ve recently become interested in making an effort to eat locally and eat what is locally in season (in addition to trying to eat organic and as high fructose corn syrup and transfat free as possible). I'm also, obviously, working very hard to get my boyfriend bigger (haha gotta get in shape for swimsuit season). To that end, I asked a few of my gainer pals what their favorite spring/early summer recipes were so I could share them with my readers. I got all kinds of responses, so, I'm gonna post them up one at a time.
Firstly, the BF’s biggest Summer gaining tip is just add avocados to everything. He puts them on sandwiches, he puts them on burgers, he makes guacamole, he never makes a salad without them. And the effect is quite evident in his ever tightening jeans. In honor of my boyfriend’s devotion to avocados, may I present to you a Quinoa and Avocado salad with Dried Fruit, Toasted Almonds, and Lemon Cumin Vinaigrette.
Quinoa is super good for you, and avocados are loaded with healthy fat so, make a double portion and eat up! It's calorically dense, not filled with artificial shit that'll make you feel gross, and tastes amazing.
Try this and look forward to favorite gaining recipes from DangerCocktail, CubanJew, and others :)
I found this study on the relation of body compisition (how lean or fat a guy is) and fitness levels (thanks to sometimesgainer) and I figured I'd let you guys take a look at it.
The conclusions, as stated in the abstract, are that fit men have a lower mortality rate than either unfit lean men, or unfit fat men. They even go so far as to say "being fit may reduce the hazards of obesity." This speaks to the point that I've made in earlier posts that the perils of having a bigger body are much more complex than society generally believes, and that health conscious gainers are not necessarily as prone to the complications of being overweight as someone who is not as careful about exercise and what they put in their mouth.
Obviously it's one study, albiet a credible one, but, I was just heartened to see someone looking at obesity in a more complex way.
One of the most dubious and avoided questions in the gainer community is the issue of how purposely gaining weight affects health. Mainstream society tells us that fat people have a host of problems avoided by the thin, ranging from heart issues, to diabetes, and just about everything in between. There are several points that one should make about how a gainer is different from your average fat guy. The first and most important is that a gainer, most of the time, is not someone who is naturally fat. What the studies generally do not account for, since they monitor people who are already overweight in comparison to people who are currently skinny, rather than comparing the before and after rates of skinny people who put on weight, is that maybe, whatever predisposes a fat person to be fat, is the factor that predisposes them to be more susceptible to the maladies that we associate with being overweight. Another difference between a gainer and your average fat guy is that your average fat guy is most likely fairly sedentary. A gainer doesn’t have to be sedentary. In fact, a gainer should make sure he works out. It’ll help him be able to easily and painlessly carry more weight, help shape a nice round gut, and, most importantly, keep his heart and body healthy. Most studies linking disease to overweight people don’t differentiate between a fat person and a sedentary person. An active fat guy is almost definitely going to have fewer issues than a sedentary twig.
Similarly, unlike someone who is fat by accident, a gainer likely pays great attention to his diet. Many of the crappy preservatives that is in processed food are things you really do not want in your body. Diseases linked with obesity (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) are definitively linked with the consumption of food additives such as high fructose corn syrup. So, what we can take from that is that a gainer, who generally eats a lot more food than the average person, is at risk to consume a lot more of this toxic shit if he doesn’t pay attention to what he puts in his mouth. But since a gainer is trying to get fat, making sure he’s putting all the calories he can in his mouth, it’s not a huge jump for him to pay attention and make sure he’s not putting crap in his mouth that’s gonna make him sick. Here is a list of stuff you just shouldn’t be putting in your body, even if you are a gainer (in no particular order)
Things to avoid:
Sodium nitrite -bad for you, makes you sick, found in cheap hotdogs and some cured meats. Hummel makes nitrite free hot dogs that are really yummy.
Butylatedhydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylatedhydrozyttoluene (BHT) -Preservatives that have been suggested to cause cancer. Read the ingredient list, and just don’t eat ‘em.
Propylgallate - Another toxic preservative. Don’t eat it.
High fructose corn syrup - This stuff is terrible mainly because it screws with how the body metabolizes sugar, and has been linked with the development of type II diabetes, a disease that makes gaining in any way that isn't totally self destructive very difficult and time consuming.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) - is an amino acid used as a flavor enhancer in soups, salad dressings, chips, frozen entrees, and restaurant food. It is commonly associated with Asian foods and flavorings. MSG can cause headaches and nausea in some people, and animal studies link it to damaging nerve cells in the brains of infant mice. Don’t eat it, look for Chinese delivery places that advertise that they don’t use it.
Trans fats/ Partially hydrogenated oils - are totally horrible. They’re oils that are altered to make them more stable so food with them won’t go rancid as quickly, and although they do preserve food well, they do it at the expense of how they are metabolized by the people who eat them. Fats you eat go into not only building your belly, but also into maintaining cell walls, sustaining a healthy heart, keeping your skin looking good, your hair shiny and strong, literally tons of important processes in your body. Don’t eat transfats if you can avoid them, because they don’t exactly fit like normal, naturally occurring fats do when trying to fill into those bodily processes, and thus create all sorts of problems when they are too concentrated in your body.
Sugar substitutes - (excepting naturally occurring ones, like agave) generally cause cancer as a rule, and please, if you’re not worried about calories, just have some raw cane sugar.
Food colorings are a big no no. If its not in nature, it doesn’t belong in your body, and being a gainer doesn’t change that.
Potassium bromate is rare, but still legal in the U.S., and used as an additive to increase volume in white flour, breads, and rolls. It causes cancer. Don’t eat it.
I debated but ultimately chose to include both white sugar and salt on this list. They’re linked to all sorts of issues, sugar most clearly to diabetes and insulin resistance, and salt to all sorts of cardiovascular hypertensive unhappiness. Both have to be watched if you’re eating to gain. If you’re craving sugars, use sugar in the raw instead of bleached white sugar when you can. Try not to put a lot of salt on stuff cause there usually is a good amount already. Don’t kill yourself avoiding these two, but, keep them in mind.
So, after that big long list of what to avoid, we of course have to come to the what to eat list. One of the most beautiful, erotic parts of being a gainer is being able to indulge. All the rich, calorie laden delicacies of life are the domain of the gainer. Here are a bunch of healthy, appetizing little calorie bombs that will get you growing in no time:
What to eat:
Almonds (or any nuts -macadamia have the highest caloric content, but they’re expensive) Avocados -Calorie dense, full of good fats, and they taste great Although it’s not super healthy, it’s good to know that Butterfingers have no transfat, unlike most candy bars. Granola -super calorically dense, heart friendly, yummy healthy treat. The bf likes it with some vanilla yogurt for breakfast. Organic whole milk - Calorie dense, easy to drink, not full of crap like soda, used by bodybuilders when they’re looking to healthfully add mass. Try a gallon a day and you’ll blow up like you won’t believe (not for the faint of heart -whoever you are, bigger men than you have tried to grow like this and failed, but, try it haha) Root Veggies -Lots of non-sugar starchy carbs. Always good for bellybuilding. Sweet Potatoes -They’re just awesome, calorically dense, make great fries. Toss some olive oil on them to fortify the calorie count and snack away. Olive oil -Heart healthy, tasty, generally awesome. Put a little on everything. 9 calories per gram, it’ll add up and add inches to your gut.
Although it’s counter intuitive, most of the stuff for people trying to lose weight and take care of themselves actually holds a lot of useful information for a healthy gainer. Apart form things telling you to limit your calories, most of the information to be healthy can be adapted to a growing boy’s lifestyle. Being healthy and strong is basically the obligation of anyone choosing to gain. Make sure you go to the gym, run, not endlessly, but, for 15 minutes or so, enough to keep your heart pumping and healthy. Lift weights! I t will make you hungry, make the fat settle in a hotter, less cellulite-y way by increasing testosterone, and keep you healthy. If you run for 20 minutes, burn 200 calories, eat an Oreo or two and you’ve made up for the calorie loss, and still retain the benefit to your heart. I’ll get a total gainer friendly workout in another post, but, just get moving and get lifting.
To conclude - remember, that to gain one pound, a person must consume 3,500 calories more than are burned (500 calories per day over the course of a week). As long as your packing an extra 500 calories on top of what you're burning off with your daily caloric needs and exercise, you're gonna gain, no matter how healthy the food you get the 500 calories happens to be. A pound a week is a pretty respectable gain, I mean, think about it; You'd be 52lbs heavier this time next year if you just keep up that extra 500 calories a day. Pretty wild, hunh? And the boyfriend has gained nearly 100lbs in the nearly a year we've been dating, eating tons of organic, healthy food I've cooked and lifting a few times a week, so, I have first hand experience that following this kind of regiment works to get a guy healthy and growing. You just have to be consistent. So eat up, lift hard, and get growing guys ;)
Oh, and if any of you guys think of something I've missed, a good healthy gainer food, or something to avoid, a tip, a trick, just email me at getasnack@gmail.com and I'll tack it onto the post :)
