New domain name

I am actually moving the blog over to: http://www.gainweightjournal.com
So click there for updates. In time I will try to get this blog to go redirect there directly.

The Importance Of Staying Hydrated

Drinking water is one of the basic things that you need to do every day. Your body needs water in order to function. That’s why it is very important to stay hydrated and to keep constantly replenishing your fluids. This is especially important if you want to gain weight and muscle and generally if you do any type of exercise. When exercising, your body raises its temperature and so in order to cool down, it starts releasing sweat, which is primarily composed of fluids. So in this way your body is losing fluids fast and needs them to be replenished. You also need to keep a balance between the amount of fluids in your body and electrolytes. If this balance is not maintained or if in general your body loses its fluids, then serious problems will arise. Dehydration is a serious health risk.

It’s got electrolytes!

Do you remember the scene from the movie “Idiocracy” where they talk about electrolytes? Throughout the movie they keep repeating the phrase: “It’s got electrolytes!” WTF are electrolytes? That was the initial reaction that I had (people who know me know that I use the phrase “WTF” a lot 🙂 ). I’ve seen it on sports drinks, but never had any idea of what it actually means.

Were Prehistoric Men Stronger And Faster Than Us?

Every year, records in all types of sports are broken. Men are running faster, jumping higher and enduring more. This generation is taller than their parents generation, which was taller than the previous generation. If we were to look at it, it would seem as if the current generation is the most gifted physically and has the largest brainpower. There is no way that the previous generations could have achieved the same accomplishments as the men of today. Yet this view is most likely very wrong. In ancient times and even more so in the prehistoric times beyond, men were achieving similarly (if not more so) impressive feats.

How Your Microbiome Can Affect Weight Gain

What is a microbiome you ask and why I should I care about it? Also what does this have to do with weight gain? The microbiome are the communities of microorganisms, literally trillions, that live inside the human body. Many people don’t realize that besides things like organs, blood, hormones…etc., the body also contains trillions of little microorganisms that live inside it and have a significant impact on it. These are most often single-celled organisms belonging to the Archaea kingdom. Archaea are prokaryotes and have no cell nucleus or organelles within themselves. There are however some bacteria as well. All these are generally considered harmless and usually do not cause disease (except for some rare circumstances). Many of them can aid the human body in a variety of functions, but recent changes in the human environment have also altered some aspect of the microbiome for the worse. Recent research indicates that some of the microorganisms can play a significant role in how a person gains weight.

How To Really Gain Weight Fast

Just eat this:

 

Just kidding! 🙂 However these types of burgers do have lots of calories in them!

Why the Healthy Fats in Avocados are good for you (part 1)

If you want to gain weight in a healthy way (or even lose weight), then eating healthy fats is a must. One of the sources of these are avocados. You can eat avocados in different ways, either fresh straight up or you can add them to a wide variety of salads if you want. You can even mix them up in a mixer and drink them, maybe adding them to other fruits and making a refreshing drink for yourself. Avocados contain all kinds of good stuff: fiber, vitamins A, B, C, E, K, and minerals such as phosphorus, potassium, zinc, magnesium, iron and manganese. Above all however, the avocado is known as a prime source of healthy fats.

Watch Out For What Supplements You Take

We all want to get big and strong, gain weight and muscle, and there are different routes that people take to get there. Some people take the steroid route and get big and strong fast, however this often has direct health effects later on in their life. Taking steroids was actually legal back in the day and many of the old school bodybuilders like Arnold freely admit that they did take them. However many of us decide to take the natural route. Even with the natural route, you can however take different supplements that are supposed to be safe and without any illegal substances. It turns out that sometimes they are not.

What is fast metabolism?

What is fast metabolism and what does it have to do with a person gaining or losing weight? Basically metabolism means the collective chemical processes that your body uses in order to convert the food that you eat into energy that the body can use to function. By eating, you ingest a certain number of calories and those are then broken down. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a term that is often used when discussing issues concerning weight loss or weight gain and refers to the rate at which your body breaks down food. This rate is measured at the time that the body is not engaging in physical activity (is at rest) and therefore measures the amount of energy that your body is using in order to sustain the basic life functions (things such as breathing and your internal organs such as the lungs, heart and others). A fast metabolism refers to your body breaking down food at a fast rate.

The Difference Between BMR And Maintenance Calories

Many people wrongly assume that the BMR = maintenance calories. That is not so. BMR just means the amount of calories that your body needs just to function, that means to sustain all the vital organs like the heart and the basic activities like breathing. Most people, besides breathing and staying at rest, also do other things during the day, like walking and sometimes even being active. 🙂 All these activities require a greater expenditure of calories than the BMR. So in order to gain weight you need to find what your MAINTENANCE calories are. Maintenance calories are your BMR calories + the amount of calories that you expend throughout the day on going around your daily functions (for example walking around or doing sports). You should then eat more calories than your maintenance calories. For people that are trying to lose weight, they should calculate their BMR and their maintenance calories and should eat less calories than their maintenance calories, but still more than their BMR.