2945: Mail Bag - Question 1 by Roger Lawson on Productivity and Healthy Mindset Shift

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[00:00:24] So, press play on Good Sleep tonight because a good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Health Daily. Mailbag, Question 1 by Roger Lawson of rogelawfitness.com and I'm Dr. Neal, your host and narrator.

[00:00:48] Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, or OHD, where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. And with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. Mailbag, Question 1 by Roger Lawson of rogelawfitness.com

[00:01:13] Question. We are all bombarded with lose weight quick schemes, but how does a brother gain weight? First of all, thanks for your question. In the fitness world, we tend to lump people into three categories as far as body type is concerned. Ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Knowing you personally, the somatotype that you were referring to would be the ectomorph.

[00:01:37] Here's an excerpt from John Berardi's Scrawny to Brawny that helps explain the ectomorph in a nutshell. Quote, The typical ectomorph is a person who exhibits low levels of strength and size prior to training. They're usually tall and thin with relatively low levels of body fat and small, narrow bones. Although their smaller joint structure often serves as an impediment in strength and power sports,

[00:02:03] they do tend to excel in endurance activities due to what is typically a higher-than-average proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibers. Their fast metabolisms often make it difficult to gain weight of any type when following a more conventional dietary approach. End quote. As for the answer to your question, I hope you have yourself a pair of eating pants, because it's time to eat like you've never eaten before. I've never met a weight gain problem that couldn't be fixed by throwing more food into the mix.

[00:02:32] But the problem with most ectomorphs is that they simply don't eat enough, or don't eat enough consistently. 1. Keep a food log You don't know how much you're eating until you know how much you're eating. When I was trying to put on weight, I had days when I swore I was eating like a horse, but when I checked my log for the day, the truth was I just had a really big breakfast, barely anything in between, and a mediocre dinner. You also don't want to eat big one day,

[00:03:01] and then fall off hard during the rest of the week, essentially taking one step forward and six steps back. Keeping a record of what you eat will help you in this respect. 2. Set a weight goal The only direction you're concerned with is up. So long as the scale is constantly moving in that direction, you're golden. I would buy a scale and weigh yourself once a week, shooting for a 1-2 pound increase a week. Don't weigh yourself every day as it's unnecessary

[00:03:30] and the body tends to experience fluctuation throughout the course of a day, which can drive a normally sane person mad. 3. Don't fear the food. Eat the food This is a trap that many skinny people tend to fall into. In their attempts to gain weight, they scale back their food intake because they don't want to get fat. This is like showing up to a 100-meter race in a fat suit because you're worried about hurting yourself if you fall. The main thing you want to do is eat a lot and eat a lot consistently.

[00:04:00] When your goal is to gain weight, you want to go with foods that are calorically dense, food that contains a lot of calories relative to its size. For example, it would take more than 5 pounds of broccoli to equal the calories in one Cinnabon cinnamon roll, which weighs less than half a pound. Luckily, there are natural whole food options that meet this requirement, so you don't have to sacrifice your health for your physique goals.

[00:04:23] Eggs, milk, cheese, chicken, beef, turkey, pork, fish, yogurt, walnuts, peanut butter, olive oil, almonds, oats, pasta, fruit. The list goes on and on. The main takeaway point here is don't eat like a bird. Veggies are great for health reasons, but they won't put on the size by themselves. Make sure you're including them in your diet, but also make sure to surround them with copious amounts of other foods as well.

[00:04:50] Don't be afraid to treat yourself to the occasional treat either. 4. When in doubt, drink some of your calories. Many former skinny folks swear by drinking a gallon of milk a day on top of their normal meals. And while I wish I had an excuse to drink that much milk, I can see how some might be put off by that idea. If you're in that camp, I urge you to check out Precision Nutrition's Super Shake Guide. It's free and will give you ideas on how to put together your own tasty, calorie-filled shake.

[00:05:20] 5. Eat 4-5 times a day You're only awake a certain number of hours a day, so you want to get in all the food that you can during your waking hours. However, you don't want to hit yourself with a calorie bomb early in the day only to spend the rest of it in a lethargic slump because you fell into a food coma. Spread the food out over the course of the day and make sure you get in a nice big meal after your training session. Your body will thank you for it. 6. Train

[00:05:50] You didn't think that you were going to get away without exercising, did you? While not crucial in the grand scheme of putting on weight, a proper resistance training regimen will ensure that you don't end up looking like a heavier, softer version of your former self. You just listened to the post titled Mailbag Question Number 1 by Roger Lawson of rogelawfitness.com And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:07:15] and start selling today at shopify.com slash OHD. Go to shopify.com slash OHD. Shopify.com slash OHD. Oikos presents 15 seconds of strength. Here we go. Steve's got a trunk full of groceries and no one to help him. Oh, that's tough, Jim. Looks like a five-trip load at least. He grabs the first bag. The second... Bob, it looks like he's trying to do it on one trip.

[00:07:43] He shimmies the door open, steps over the dog. Oh, and he stumbles. Oh, right into the kitchen without missing a beat. Jim, now that's a man who eats his protein-packed Oikos. With 15 grams of complete protein in each cup, Oikos Triple Zero can help build strength for every day. Oikos Stronger Makes Everything Better. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. There are a couple of things I would emphasize based on Roger's post today. First, as Roger said, you want to make sure your body weight is moving in the right direction.

[00:08:12] So be sure you weigh yourself regularly. And again, it doesn't have to be every day. And it may also be a good idea to not just look at body weight, but track overall body composition too. Like, how is your body fat percentage changing? Now, it's going to go up, but we don't want to overshoot our goals either. So, for example, what's your waist circumference now? And what's it looking like over the course of time as you try to put on weight?

[00:08:39] A certified personal trainer can help you track these things. And as Roger said, for those that are ectomorphs, it may be difficult for them to overshoot their body weight goals, meaning it may take a lot of work just to gain weight. But there are those that may think they're ectomorphs, try to put on weight, and then pack on too much body weight, and mostly as body fat. So yes, proper training is important. And take it from me.

[00:09:07] As someone who struggled to put on weight when I was younger, I thought I was an ectomorph, and thought it was impossible for me to gain too much weight. So I used this as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted, like a 1,200 calorie chicken and rice bowl with two slices of pizza on the side. And my waist quickly went from 29 inches to 36 inches. So again, proceed with a bit of a plan before starting this journey, and definitely track your progress.

[00:09:37] All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for more OHD, and where your optimal life awaits.