Problems gaining weight

Hey guys. I'm 21, 6'1 160 pounds. I train about 3 times a week (used to be 4-5 times but due to school and work I don't have much time) I eat about 4 meals a day including various snacks. My biggest problem would be having time for meals. Every day I am usually up from 7 in the morning to about 1 am. But I do my best to eat as best as I can. I don't have a price range. I love to eat and don't worry about price all too much. I'm 160 pounds and don't have much fat. What weight I do have its muscle and bone, even though it's not much. My goal is to be 180 pounds as soon as possible. I know it won't happen in a week but I think I could gain a pound a week if I had a better diet. So please. If I could have a good simple diet plan that doesn't take much time since that's something I have limited quantities of. I'm not picky and my price range could be around 100-200 dollars in food a week. I love to eat everything so I'm open to anything. Please help.

First off,if you know you can gain weight with a better diet,then you obviously know your diet is poor.You are able to spend more
than enough on good quality produce,which is easy to procure,but you like 'snacks'.
Cut the rubbish,stop being lazy with food,and get yourself to bed at a sensible time,because unless your at work,
there's no reason to still be up 1 o clock in the morning.

I mean was I not clear that I go to school and work I work 6 days a week and go to school 5 days a week. I wish it was that simple mate, that I could just come home and not have homework or not have to go to work after classes. My problem is mostly time management for eating. I am up at 7 every day and get home around 11 pm and I have homework to do plus the one hour 4 days a week to go to the gym. And then I need my 8 hours for a recovery. So it's not that I'm lazy man. I literally have bare minimum time to do anything else other than work school homework and work out. If you can come up with a solution I'd be more than glad to take your advice

Based on your stats, your current diet and the fact that your weight has been stagnant I ballpark your tdee be around 2,600-2,900 calories.

Are you familiar with tdee?

I think you should start this endeavor off designed around 3,500 calories.

Take 3,500 divide that number by the amount of meals you wish to eat per day.

After eating 3.5k calories for 10-14 days weight yourself.

If you're gaining weight then good we can go from there, if not then increase your daily calories by 300 and repeat the process.

I'll answer any questions you have best I can and critique your meal plan but I won't form your meals.

Also, if you don't have one already then get a decent kitchen scale.

I suggest a digital one but mechanical works fine.

Below is the scale I use on a daily basis.

Smart Weigh Digital Glass Top Kitchen and Food Scale

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Originally Posted by Puddleofsquirt

I mean was I not clear that I go to school and work I work 6 days a week and go to school 5 days a week. I wish it was that simple mate, that I could just come home and not have homework or not have to go to work after classes. My problem is mostly time management for eating. I am up at 7 every day and get home around 11 pm and I have homework to do plus the one hour 4 days a week to go to the gym. And then I need my 8 hours for a recovery. So it's not that I'm lazy man. I literally have bare minimum time to do anything else other than work school homework and work out. If you can come up with a solution I'd be more than glad to take your advice

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Sorry,but i wasn't implying you were a lazy man.I said lazy with food.
It's not rocket science,gaining or losing weight.In your case,it's simply eating more calories than you expend in energy.At a guess,i would say quite
a bit of your snack food is simple carbs,something you can eat quickly,which gives you an instant hit.You need to plan your meals,cut the shit out,
and when you're hungry,eat good quality proteins,and complex carbs.Take these foods with you to work/studies etc.
Another thing is priorities.Whatever is most important to you,is what you will gain success at,as you will concentrate your efforts on it.
As you are young,your studies and such will take precedence over other things,and bearing in mind,there are only 24 hours in a day,
it may be a bit early to worry about increasing your weight and acquiring a certain type of physique.

I'm certainly not trying to become the next Ronnie Coleman or Arnold. Just to gain about 20 pounds in the next 4-6 months. Not 20 pounds of muscle but a nice fat to muscle ratio. A simple bulk if you will. I have time to workout 4 times a week. I'm just going to do my best to meal prep for the week every week

Drink your calories. GOMAD (Gallon Of Milk A Day) is fool proof. Throw in half a dozen raw eggs in smoothie. It has no taste.

Healthy high calorie fats could help too. Easy to snack on almonds or nuts while sitting in class. Those calories can add up quick.

In graduate school I taught two undergrad classes, was a full time research scientist and worked off campus 30-35 hours a week. I say all that I say this, it's doable but you may have to alter your strategy verses a traditional BodyBuilding meal split. I focused on getting 3 meals in a day. Breakfast and dinner we Easy but lunch and snacks was obviously harder. I sometimes would eat dinner at 9:30-10:30pm. My meals were energy dense so each one had roughly 1000 calories in them. I had a weight gainer and protein shaker stashed in my lab so if I was running an experiment and couldn't leave I would slam one of those down. Snacks I kept in my bag and were usually some sort of energy or protein bar. The key is to plan ahead, and take advantage of good fats to keep your total calories up.