What is the cheapest way to gain weight? I can't.

[clpsharp]

I really want to go to the gym consistently, and I do go every now and then, but my metabolism problem scares me away.  I'm 6'4 173, and I have a serious problem gaining weight.  I peaked at 190 last semester but that was because I had access to an all you can eat dining hall at my college, and I would go there all the time and drink a metric ton of chocolate milk, but now since I live off campus it's a pain in the ass to do that consistently, considering there isn't any parking on campus and I live somewhat far away, plus I don't have a meal plan anymore because it's expensive. 

 

During high school I would eat breakfast, pack a lunch for myself, eat that during classes, get the school lunch with an extra chocolate milk, then usually have a pretty big dinner and I still wouldn't gain weight, and now since I'm older and bigger my metabolism is even higher (I think). 

 

In a nutshell, I have to eat a TON of food to make any gains.  Now I'm living off campus, I'm in a very hard engineering program, I like to go visit my girlfriend on weekends (2 hrs away)  and I'm part of a fraternity, so I don't have much free time.  So if any of you have advice on the easiest to make, cheapest food with the most calories for a college student living in an apartment, or any good ways to make gains for someone with a super high metabolism, please post here, thanks!

 

[Hazard]

Spoon + jar of peanut butter.

 

[bigm141414]

A little googling and I found this link which should help give you an idea of price per calorie of different foods. But basically I would focus on the following (all prices average based on Costco so your mileage may vary): 

 

• White rice - $0.41 per 2k calories
• Pancake Mix - $1.06 per 2k calories 
• Peanut butter - $1.25 per 2k calories 
• Whole Milk - $1.37 per 2k calories 
• Pinto Beans - $1.39 per 2k calories 
• Brownie Mix - $1.39 per 2k calories 
• Eggs - $1.61 per 2k calories
• Potatoes - $1.79 per 2k calories. 
• Butter. 

 

If you have an apartment with an oven and you own a sheet pan and 9x13 casserole dish, you can easily batch cook some stuff loaded with calories.  

• Sheet pan pancakes with peanut butter 
• Batch of peanut butter brownies 
• Egg monster casserole (basically 12-18 whipped eggs poured over veggies and meats in a casserole dish) 
• Rice and potatoes are pretty easily cooked and stored. Goes well with other protein like chicken. 
• Just chug a gallon of milk while studying. 

 

While I do not recommend it, there is always the GOMAD diet that was popular years and years ago with power lifters and hard gainers. It's definitely not the healthiest way to gain weight, but you will pack on pounds, both fat and muscle. More fat than muscle. 

 

Lastly, what type of gains are you looking for? You can still get plenty strong even being tall and skinny. Adding mass helps only after you've hit a wall in your current program, so you shouldn't be too worried about making strength gains while you figure out your eating requirements. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, MarkCuq said:

15000 callories per day and quality cycle testosterone E!

Leaving aside that NF generally doesn't advocate for hormone therapy for gains, 15000 calories a day is NOT inexpensive, nor is voluntary testosterone therapy. This almost seems to be trolling.

[GoldenFox]

have you tried nuts? they may not be the cheapest option but they're nutrient-dense with up to 500 kcal per 100 g and very snackable. Make you drowsy if you eat too much though. But snacking them here and there and/or adding them to meals should increase your calory and nutrient intake in a rather healthy way, I think.

 

Also, try not to drink while you eat. Might be you get full on water not leaving enough space for food.

 

We should switch our basic metabolic rate, really ... I can eat TONS of food but with a mere 1300 to 1500 kcal metabolic rate (depending on level of activity) it is so hard not to overeat ^^

well, it's never easy, I guess.