Help Me Gain 30#

[Kyle1337]

Outside of potatoes you have no vegetables, so you are missing a lot of micronutrients. I would be adding in calorically dense vegetables - carrots, squash, pumpkin, etc. You could also do salads like cesar and make your own dressing (extremely easy). Empty vegetables you could stay away from - that's your cucumber, celery, broccoli, etc.

Also missing fruit - easiest way would be a smoothie. Something like

Almond Milk OR Full Fat Cow/Goat Milk or Egg Whites
Protein Powder if you use it
Nut Butter
Fruits
Spinach/Kale
Option (Chocolate Syrup, Pancake Syrup, Cocoa Powder, etc for sweetness)

Easy 500+ calories in the smoothie that's easy to drink.

Ground beef can be upgraded to 85/15 or 80/20. Even better would be a ribeye steak if budget permits.

In my experience, sushi rice is a lot easier to eat at a higher volume compared to other types of rice - would recommend trying that.

Swap egg whites for whole eggs. If you are scrambling or frying eggs - do so in olive oil or coconut oil for extra calories.

Look for "Krema" or "Keifir" greek yogurt - you can find them with up to 15% Milk Fat. Way more calories (250-290) per serving.

Replace chicken breast with chicken thigh or drumstick or wings.

Appreciate the insight, Windex. Always welcome your advice and knowledge. I'm going to start adding some of this in each week. Just bought 50 pounds of chicken breast, gotta get thru that, lol.

I actually just tried sushi rice first time ever last week (obv had sushi before, but as a stand alone).

Going to swap out my eggs and add in that protein shake with veggies. Carrots going in a meal as well.

With the change of breast to thigh, will I still want the cashews for fats?

Any changes to the turkey? Or should I do 2 meals of ground beef rather than 1 beef 1 turkey?

[Livinlean]

Appreciate the insight, Windex. Always welcome your advice and knowledge. I'm going to start adding some of this in each week. Just bought 50 pounds of chicken breast, gotta get thru that, lol.

I actually just tried sushi rice first time ever last week (obv had sushi before, but as a stand alone).

Going to swap out my eggs and add in that protein shake with veggies. Carrots going in a meal as well.

With the change of breast to thigh, will I still want the cashews for fats?

Any changes to the turkey? Or should I do 2 meals of ground beef rather than 1 beef 1 turkey?

Don't swap out the eggs for a shake. The eggs are probably your most micro dense food currently and im sure windex would agree that you should not drop eggs for a shake unless your blood work shows an increase in blood cholesterol.

If it were me, I would add some oats to the shake proposed by windex and take it down pre workout in place of your turkey meal or maybe have the shake post workout, push meal 5 to meal 6 and just drop the bagel and PB.

I like what windex is recommending and anyone knowledgable will recommend something very similar. He started off by mentioning micros from veggies and fruits and thats what I would also suggest changing first and foremost. Add in the fruits and veggies to your current plan and see how everything changes. The volume from veggies may force you to drop some food and if so, you would then turn to even more caloric dense foods like fattier cuts of meat as mentioned above. I just wouldn't change too many things at once because you won't know what made the difference.

[Kyle1337]

Don't swap out the eggs for a shake. The eggs are probably your most micro dense food currently and im sure windex would agree that you should not drop eggs for a shake unless your blood work shows an increase in blood cholesterol.

If it were me, I would add some oats to the shake proposed by windex and take it down pre workout in place of your turkey meal or maybe have the shake post workout, push meal 5 to meal 6 and just drop the bagel and PB.

I like what windex is recommending and anyone knowledgable will recommend something very similar. He started off by mentioning micros from veggies and fruits and thats what I would also suggest changing first and foremost. Add in the fruits and veggies to your current plan and see how everything changes. The volume from veggies may force you to drop some food and if so, you would then turn to even more caloric dense foods like fattier cuts of meat as mentioned above. I just wouldn't change too many things at once because you won't know what made the difference.

My wording was a bit off, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was getting rid of my eggs. That's my favorite part haha.

I was going to add the shake in at night. I can't do shakes during the day time, I'll be so much more bloated for my workout.

Things I'm adding this week will be the shake with veggies in it. Some carrots and squash too in some meals (small amount). Getting rid of egg whites and adding in 1 more egg.

[Livinlean]

My wording was a bit off, I didn't mean for it to sound like I was getting rid of my eggs. That's my favorite part haha.

I was going to add the shake in at night. I can't do shakes during the day time, I'll be so much more bloated for my workout.

Things I'm adding this week will be the shake with veggies in it. Some carrots and squash too in some meals (small amount). Getting rid of egg whites and adding in 1 more egg.

Nice! Another trick, you can take a couple handfuls of spinach, I do like 4-5 cups in a pan, add about 1-2tbsp of olive oil and wilt the spinach up. It'll shrink down to like 1/2 cup worth and there you have veggies and added healthy fats from the oil.