"Questionable" dietary choices for the sake of weight gain

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey Jordan,

i was thinking about strategies to bump up my calorie intake to gain some weight and then i stumbled on your very interesting video about BMI and weight measurement which added arguments to my inner debate.

I am 29, 5’9’', 180lbs with 35in waist measured according to your indications. My goal would be to get to around 200 lbs to finally be a real man you know… (or get a shot at the 93kg weight class) and i have been stuck at that 180lbs bodyweight for quite some time. I ran the 12week strength template and ended mid june with the following maxes (at my first powerlifting meet) :

155kg Squat
90kg Bench
190kg Deadlift

Got some nice gains on squat and deadlift, still suffering from low B, currently doing the 12week gpp hypertrophy template and played a bit by adding triceps and chest volume to try and get my bench up a bit.

All this being said, would you consider it to be dangerous to add some “questionable” food choices in my diet for some time just for the sake of easy calorie increase ? We’re talking significant amount of processed foods like pies/ice cream/candy or adding more fast food for practicality. I am also thinking about adding a lot more small snacks throughout the day, probably mainly carbs/sugar so as not too loose my hunger for my 3 main meals. The way i see it, i would be shopping for pretty high insulin levels throughout the day. Regarding monitoring, i was thinking about following protein intake to make sure i get enough, weight gain and waist increase.

  1. Is this a really bad idea to do that for let’s say 2 months and see where it gets me ?
  2. At what waist size would to stop this and go for some fat loss ?
  3. Any risk with the chronically high insulin levels for a 2 month period ?
  4. Any nuances you would like to add ?

As always, thank you and the whole team for the great content you are sharing. All this information is very valuable and appreciated.

Lucas

2

Hey Lucas,

Thanks for the post. Comments in line:

  1. I think that “dirty bulking” in someone who is not massively underweight is usually not a good idea.
  2. I think your waist is fine. I would need to assess your body composition for more insight.
  3. Yes, but this does not occur when a healthy person eats foods with lots of sugar (unless they are no longer healthy)
  4. I don’t think rapidly gaining weight is a good idea unless someone is underweight.
3

Hi Jordan,

thanks for the answer ! So no shorcuts i guess :wink:

Regarding my body composition, i took my neck measurements and calculated my bodyfat estimate with the navy calculator which yielded between 18 and 19% (neck measurement at 15.5in, 5’9’’ and 178lbs this morning).

  1. I imagine then your recommendation would be to slowly increase calories, mostly from carbs to get some weight gain but nothing to aggressive (what kind of weight gain rate would you advise here) ?
  2. Is it ok (if we assume i am quite healthy insulin wise) to get some of my carbs daily from fast digesting sources (aka candy) ?
  3. Correct me if i am misquoting, I think i remember reading from you that it would not be optimal to eat without getting a reasonabe protein dose in. Do you stand with that statement ? (meaning i should not take in just carbs as snacks but carbs with proteins)