Nutrition

Quite simply, eat!

You can use an online calculator to calculate how many calories you burn daily and then to add what you get from exercise. Eat about 500 calories more than that, and consume about .8-1 gram of protein for each pound that you weigh. Try to get as much from food as possible.

If you want some more specifics just let me know, but that's a great place to start. If you try that and aren't gaining, then the calculation is off, just eat more. You don't want to gain much more than a pound or two per week or you'll be certain to be gaining some "useless" weight, aka fat.

Exercise and lift to make sure to stimulate muscle growth vs girth growth :P

Jaguar - Welcome.

I am not an expert, but I'll offer this opinion....

First, faster is not always better. Avoid quick/gimmicky products that have over the top claims. Get products that have a proven record! Avoid high calorie, high fructose/sugar supplements.

The only absolute to weight gain, increase caloric intake past the point of caloric use. It's that simple. The key is quality calories. Start with a good whey based protein shake, that can give you a good base to build on. To calculate your rate of intake, divide your body weight by 2.2 to get the proper amounts. i.e: a 200lb player needs a minimum of 90 grams of protein. Try to get it a clean as possible.

Also, unless you are in an extreme training cycle or you are chronically deficient, don't overdue vitamins and supplements. They are dangerous for your kidneys, and will literally go down the toilet (with your money!).

Eat 5-7 meals a day, avoid (not eliminate) fried/fatty food, and eat healthy snacks. Keep your matobolism rate steady, avoid high peaks and low crashes. The 5-7 meal a day plan can help, as long as 3 of the meals aren't RED BULL and a snickers!

Good luck! GED10DaD

Jaguar,
First off how old are you? Most young players will gain weight in their late teens or early 20's. As was stated before, eat 5 to 7 small meals a day and work out with weights and running.
Don't try a "quick fix" by maxing up on a lot of protein products. I would guess that you are a pitcher because you said your location is the Bump, if that's the case, the last thing you want to do is bulk up. Work on flexability and range of motion including long toss.

Good luck and welcome to the board, you will learn a lot here

I don't know the perfect answer but please, whatever you do, do not fall for the quick fix.

Work hard and earn it. You're off to a great start here!

quote:

Originally posted by JaguarBaseball:
I'm looking for another method of putting on some weight. I take protein shakes twice daily and I'm on our fall ball workout routine, but I'm looking for something else to get the weight on faster. So any tips on diet or anything like that would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to HSBBW, Jaguar.

I had to laugh, I just got back from my third trip to the grocery store this week when I saw your post! "Eat!" that is the answer.

If you search through other postings in the past you will get lots of good advice. After a few years of just buying whatever lunch they served at school, my son started asking me (gold ole mom) to make him lunch again this past year, lunch = 2 fat rbeef or turkey and cheese sandwiches, apple, with protein bars for snacks during the day. Also eggs for breakfast more mornings than not, or his favorite, peanut butter and bacon on whole grain English Muffins! And we bought one of those small blenders that gets lots of use ....full fat ice cream blended in with the protein and bananas. He really does eat about 5 times a day, of good food.

I am so jealous he can eat like that! But really he is only doing 1 or 2 shakes a day, working out w/ a baseball specific trainer, and has steadily been putting on weight a pound at a time this fall. No quick fix at all.

Other folks here have said it better, but your frame is only going to 'bulk up' as much as nature intends it, and as a pitcher of course you want that lean muscle mass. Ignore the football guys in HS !!

Good luck, and look around this forum it is chock full of great info.

Does your fall ball work out program mean you are lifting weights? There's really no substitute for the weight room with the right instruction.

My son's trainer advises his teen atheletes to eat every 3 hours, quality protein and carbs.

It may be tough but stay away from soda, diet soda or fruit drinks. They add little nutritionally and will otherwise supress your appetite.

Egg whites are a great source of 100% bio-available protein. Add a cup to your protein drink. If you have access to a stove, make scrambled eggs using two jumbo eggs and an equal amount of egg whites.

To add on to the "quick fix" warnings, I'd like to elaborate further.

Nothing wrong with having the whey protein (provided it is simply whey and isn't loaded with carbs, etc. Check the label and if a serving of 25g protein is over 150-175 calories, it is a "gainer" and you really don't need that) - just don't read all the BS they put on the tub. They are very good at loading the thing with pseudo-science that will basically trick you into thinking you need to over consume the product and buy other products. Always shoot to get your nutrition from food, but in a college-type setting, sometimes supplementing protein will be necessary.

The reason not to get your carbs from supplements is simple - why not eat some delicious food instead?

Don't forget, you have to drink more water if you are eating high protein snacks/shakes. Limit the sports drinks.

I suggest one shake after workouts, and drink chocolate milk for the other. Slow and steady.... Eat a good variety of foods as mentioned above.

Son has taken to reading nutritional labels. The cafe seems to offer good food, so he tries the main entre, then supplements with chicken or hamburgers. (He will eat an entire meal and then eat a hamburger or chicken sandwhich!)

Good luck!