Can't Gain Weight Despite Large Appetite

I am 19 years old and I am very skinny (5'10 and only 60kg). I have been watching my diet and I am currently eating about 2700 calories per day but not gaining. That is more than 20 times my weight. I want to start a program like the one on your site but since I already eat so much should I just not change my diet but do the weight training? Then will I gain weight? (from Devin)

The first thing I suggest you do is go to a doctor and make sure all is well. Most likely you just have an extremely fast metabolism and/or are burning off a lot of calories but it is always best to get a check-up and make sure there is not a medical reason for your inability to add weight.

With a medical cause ruled out, I would suggest going ahead and starting your weight gain program at your current caloric intake but placing an emphasis on the types of food you consume. I would suggest starting with a weight gain diet that is heavy on the protein, a 40-30-30 diet (40% protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat). Refer to the Weight Gain Diets Page.

Most likely this diet will be more protein and possibly more fat (make sure it is mostly unsaturated fat) then your current diet and this in combination with your weight training program may be enough to get you putting on some pounds. If after a couple of weeks on this diet you are still not gaining weight, then start increasing your calories.

Eating twenty times your bodyweight in calories without experiencing weight gain is definitely on the high side but not necessarily beyond belief. I don't know how active you are (sports, walking, etc.) but this will certainly play a role as all activity will use up calories for energy. You may want to try and limit aerobic-type activities while on your weight gain program.


JP Clifford

Creatine Is Not a Steroid, Trust Me

After being one of the first few eliminated from a Texas Hold 'em tournament (a sad story by itself) and thus being forced into the winter cold to search for beer, it happened again. There were a few of us in the car and the topic of conversation turned to Barry Bonds and the impact of the steroid scandal on baseball's sacred records. And then it was brought up that Bonds wasn't the only one - there was McGwire.

"But McGwire didn't admit to steroids, just prohormones and creatine," I volunteered.

After a short pause to digest this information, the comment that I have come to expect in such conversations came forth:

"Yeah, but creatine, that's the same thing."

I paused and counted to ten, hoping that someone else would step forward and correct this misstatement. If it had at least been said that prohormones were the same thing as steroids and creatine was left out of it, if this wasn't an untruth I had heard uttered 100 times before, I wouldn't have been so ticked (and perhaps if I hadn't just gone out of a poker game to an ace-high flush while holding a king-high flush, I wouldn't have been so ticked).

To say prohormones are the same as steroids is also wrong but at least it has an arguable base. How creatine continually gets considered one and the same is beyond me.

"Creatine is not a steroid, trust me," I said when it became apparent the rest of the car load was content to accept the ridiculous assertion. I then proceeded into a lengthy lecture on the differences between anabolic steroids, prohormones and creatine until I was blue in the face and even annoying myself.

The reply to my rambling seemed to be quiet acceptance (anything to shut me up - it isn't a good idea to get "technical" with a car full of guys who really just want to find beer). Searching for something to punctuate my lecture, something to make a lasting impression, something to drive home my points, I mistakenly added...

"Heck, even I have taken creatine."

It wasn't until later that I realized that my last comment would have far-reaching implications. Forever more, every time I hit a homerun in my beer-belly softball league there will be an invisible asterisk placed beside it. There will be whispers behind my back, "Hey, he took creatine." Forget the fact that taking a creatine supplement is more akin to taking a daily vitamin (no asterisks for Centrum) than an illegal performance enhancing drug.

Bonds and I will have something in common here: the whispers and asterisks. Of course, one thing we will never have in common (other then being able to hit a curveball) is the ability to mistake flaxseed oil for HGH.

In the end, people get something in their heads and when it stays there long enough, no matter how wrong it may be, it becomes pretty hard to dislodge. In more sane moments I realize that the fact that most people may think that creatine is a steroid is not the world's most pressing problems. I don't intend to become a creatine evangelist. I just wish people wouldn't say it was so just after I went out of a poker game with a hand that should have made me rich.

JP Clifford

The Prohormone Ban

On this day, January 20, 2005, prohormones in the US are officially banned as a result of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004. This was an act which was signed into law on October 22, 2004 (to be effective 90 days later) and, with regards to prohormones, trumped the Dietary Supplement Health and Regulation Act (DSHEA) of 1994 which is what allowed their legal manufacturing and distribution. This means that the distribution, sale and even possession of prohormones (andro) is now a punishable crime. They are now controlled substances. So, be careful if you have some.

Even if you live outside the US, you will be affected by this law as most of the better prohormone products were manufactured here. This will change (say hello to Hong Kong prohormones).

If you are interested in the text of the law, you can find it here http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3866:

What this means?

Personally, I was never on the prohormone bandwagon. They seemed a little too much like their close cousins, anabolic steroids. They definitely pushed the technical limits of DSHEA. In their early days, the late 90s, they provided little reward and it has only been lately that they have become at least "interesting" options for those seeking to safely build muscle. But now they are gone.

While the specific ban on prohormones doesn't bother me, it worries me that other supplements that are protected by DSHEA may now face similar legislative attacks. I don't want to have to go to the doctor and complain about OTS in order to get a prescription for glutamine. Paronoia? Maybe.

Keep in mind though, this ban which essentially places prohormones in the category of crack cocaine, comes not after usage showed a series of related deaths or serious associated health problems but rather after a relatively good safety record (see Testosterone Precursors and Safety: A Review of the Relevant Research By Karlis Ullis, MD, and Joshua Shackman, Ph.D.)

When politicians in this country get their fingers in something and are backed by powerful lobbyist groups (the pharmaceutical industry would love to have a monopoly on all nutritional supplements), history provides enough evidence that things can quickly spiral towards the inane.

DSHEA was and is a great thing. It allows individuals to decide what dietary supplements they want to put into their bodies to aid in health and fitness pursuits. I believe the vast majority of people are very capable of making such a decision.

If the protection of DSHEA and your supplement freedoms is of concern to you too, I urge you to visit http://www.usfa.biz/. The United Supplement Freedom Association, Inc. is a "not-for-profit coalition of individuals and companies dedicated to the preservation of safe sports supplements and other nutritional products." There you can get more information, stay up to date on related information and easily contact your representatives in Washington to voice your concerns.

Learn more about prohormones here.


JP Clifford