How to gain clean weight (for my skinny son).

[T Bone]

Any nutritionists on here?

My son is 15 years old, 6'5" and weighs 145. He's grown almost a foot in the last 11 months.

His body is trying to catch up, but he can't get any weight put on due to being on the cross country team and running 30+ miles/week.

He eats whatever he wants, and not much junk.

Is it time to look at supplements? or just feed him more food and let the calendar work?

 

[dcopas78]

I'm not a nutritionist or anything but when I was young, not quite a teenager yet, I had trouble gaining weight. I went about 3-4 years and stayed the same weight. Anyways, my doc had mom give me a lot of high calorie, relatively clean fat foods. I remember a lot of peanut butter, cheese, nuts, etc., for snacks in between meals. The only thing I remember him specifically saying to avoid is foods that are more sugary rather than having the fat content. My wife had to do similar. She was 5' 11" and 116 lbs at one point. I definitely don't have problems gaining weight now

 

[hank4elk]

I'd be interesting in hearing too.
I was almost 5' then grew to 6' in 7th/8th grade,grew another 2" by the time I was 17.
6'2" is still my height & 185lbs is the same as I was in 1974.I'm 65now. I've never weighed more than 210 when I was a framer.Gained my most muscle mass from swimming & lifting. I know my knees & other joints suffered from the stretch.
I never was a soda nor a sugar guy. Glad I don't eat half of what I used to ,as I could out eat anyone,just about.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I’m 6’145 in my 30s heaviest I’ve ever been is 157... let me know if you figure it out i never really did

 

[Shangobango]

The only thing that helped me gain weight before the age of 25 was calories and exercise. I gained my first real muscle weight at 18 in basic.

 

[Dsnow9]

I was 6’2” and 140ish when I graduated high school. I worked out all the time, ate everything I wanted and then some, tried supplements... could never break the 150 mark. Then college came around, I stopped snowboarding professionally and started drinking beer. I finally broke the 150 mark. Now I no longer drink or eat many processed foods, climb trees for a living, and hover around 185. Some people just put the weight/bulk on later in life. No reason to take a bunch of supplements.

 

[Bigjay73]

If I were in that predicament, I wouldn't worry about eating super clean. Top athletes eat pizza and burgers out of necessity, its hard to consume 7000 calories a day of kale and quinoa. Only way to gain weight, is to eat more, plain and simple. I'd try to eat as low amount of processed foods as possible, but to eat enough "clean" food to gain weight will take a large volume of food, and be quite expensive. . Supplements are like hunting gadgets, they have good advertising and gullible customers, id stay away from most of them. But honestly, if the kid is healthy, maybe just let nature take its course.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

I had lost a lot of weight due to a long-term illness.
Finally got healthy, but could not gain weight.
I started eating peanut butter sandwiches and taking
vitamin b12 to gain muscle mass.
When the next fall hunting seasons rolled around, I
was 20lbs heavier and ready to rumble.
Always talk to your doctor before starting any workout regimen.
Your son might try to stop running long distance and start eating peanut butter.

 

[JLS]

Yeah, a 15 year old who’s logging 30+ miles a week is going to have a pretty tough time gaining weight. Up his caloric intake, if he can. He might not be able to. Strength training in the off season will help, low reps and heavy weights.

 

[Nameless Range]

Essentially all diets for weight loss or gain are at base about caloric shortage or surplus. If he wants to gain weight, he has to consume more calories than he’s burning. As has been said above, for a growing an active kid that will take effort.

I would get him lifting weights doing compound lifts at heavy and low reps, and have him mindfully eat more than he typically would. That will mean planning his caloric intake to a degree to meet a daily goal.

Tl;Dr:

Deadlifts and peanut butter.

 

[thusby]

Sounds like typical ectomorph. There isn't a cure but switching from cross country to wrestling and eating 7000 calories a day would be a start.

 

[mplane72]

Need to increase calories and strength train. I'm talking like 5 meals a day. Maybe add a weight gainer shake. It's going to be hard putting on any weight when he's running like that. I'm sure his metabolism is in high gear. Still increasing caloric intake and serious weight training should put on some muscle mass.
One trick that can help is eating a real meal or the calorie shake before bed. Not a good practice for most people.

 

[406dn]

One factor to consider is whether your son is really talented at cross country, or not.

Any distance runner is going to be lean. If he is just running to be a member of the team,,and he would prefer to gain weight,,, then ditch the distance running. In that case the weight room and dinner table will do more for him than running.

I was very thin as a teenager. Time cured my case. I'm a big fan of strength training.

 

[Bigjay73]

Tl;Dr:

Deadlifts and peanut butter.

This made me giggle, but damn if it doesn't sum it up pretty well lol

 

[Mallardsx2]

Tell him eat more meat and eggs and build muscle. Thats the only way. Speaking from experience.

 

[psycho]

Unless there is a need for it like there is only one spot open on the wrestling team left then he just needs to grow into it. I was 6 foot in high school and only gained 10 pounds from freshman to senior year but I did, track, football and wrestling. Never slowing down prevents weight gain, but that's a good thing.

 

[ignorethefringes]

Food/calories, plain and simple. Take it from me, not these other skinny guys lol. 6'2" and +/- 260lb lol

But seriously, he has to intake more calories. Weight training will help build muscle but will burn more calories. He's going to need calorie/nutrient dense food: peanut butter, whole milk, rice, potatoes, fatty meat, etc.

A cousin of mine in a similar situation used to start the day with half a cup of heavy cream just straight from a cup.

 

[jryoung]

Does he need to gain weight, or just want to?

 

[Islander]

Not a thing I would worry about at all. He'll gain weight as he ages. Lifting weights and eating plenty of any calories will add more now.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

Eat Big, Lift Big. It really is that simple.