Gaining Weight

You aren't getting enough protein. Bodybuilders tend eat 1G protein for ever 1Lb of bodyweight a day, or more.

If you're going to veggie rout, try whey based protein shakes and a multivitamin. Lack of iron and protein can cause the muscle loss.

.75 grams - 1 gram per pound of body weight is a good guideline for building weight. for you that'd be around 150 grams of protein per day--which comes out to about 5 ounces, not that much really. and there are plenty of non-meat sources of protein, low fat milk, oatmeal, yogurt.

if it's too hard to get that much protein that way, take the advice of whey protein shakes, Optimum Nutrition is 24g of protein per 120 calorie serving. You can mix with low fat milk (or soy milk) and make a 200 calorie drink with around 30g of protein.

if you do eat meat, lean meat like skinless poultry (non-fried) and fish are fine for you (generally speaking). there's a lot of research out there but eating enough protein to 'hurt' you would involve a lot more then what we're proposing here (if it even does, which i don't want to argue).

keep in mind if you don't have the genes it will take some time to put on the mass. not impossible just be patient.

I have been a vegetarian for over 6 years now. I started to work out about 6 months ago and I gained a very minimal amount of muscle weight in the first 4 months or so. Then in the past two months, i gained around 15 pounds of muscle. The only thing I changed in the last two months was part of my diet. I added a protein shake, simply made of organic milk and protein shake mix which added about 50-60 grams of protein to my diet every day. This I feel was what did it for me.

Being a vegetarian, for me at least, I get around the recommended amount of protein to keep my body at homeostasis without the protein shake (.8 grams of body weight X KG of your body weight is what your body needs). I don't think I would be able to gain much weight or any at all without the boost of protein in my diet (for most meat eating Americans they don't need this extra protein unless of course they are body builders). In saying this, If I were you, and wanted to gain weight, i would get some sort of protein shake in your diet.

As for the "too much protein being bad for you" I really don't know that this claim is true. Obviously too much of anything isn't good for you but from what I know, all the access protein is converted into a carbohydrate and stored as fat which can be used for energy later on . (our body uses the carbohydrates we take into your body first, then when we burn all of that off it goes to the fat for energy). Being a person that doesn't eat meat, I highly doubt you're going to be taking in THAT much protein that it would be a problem even with a shake in your diet. But please I'm by no means a nutritionist so don't hold me to any of this.

Note: After my shake I become quite full. I literally had to force myself to eat just to make sure I had enough calories for the day.

Protein isn't the only thing you need to gain muscle weight. Make sure you get plenty of whole grains and calories in general. Many people forget this.

yep. Get loads of healthy fats too, and don't worry too much about saturated fat (within reason).

Just eat as much as often as you can, and count calories so you know you're getting enough.

www.fitday.com should help you with that.

for the record I'm currently about the same weight as you and I aim for 3000+ calories a day.

I think the amount of protein thats dangerous in a healthy person is huge, nearing pounds a day. If you have a severe history of kidney or liver disease in your family, it might be relatively low amounts of protein that can cause damage.

If I may add, when it comes to protien shakes, there's also an optimal time to take them. After working out is the best time to take a fast absorbing protien, and before going to bed is a good time for a slow release protein shake (for that check to see if it's made of egg whites).

if you want to gain weight, get married....

Your body is also starved for protein when you wake up. You've spent the past 8-9 hours fasting. Another reason breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Simplest solution is to drink protein shakes. It's not bad for you, you won't get "too much", and you shouldn't be concerned about minute details of physiology. You wanna gain muscle? Eat a ton of protein. Seeing that you're not a competitive bodybuilder, don't bog yourself down in details and he-said/she-said. Protein builds muscle so eat it. I weigh 165lbs now at 5'10" and I'm getting bigger and leaner. I eat around 250grams of protein per day. *Added* The best way to resolve these questions in the future is to find the biggest, baddest dude at your gym and ask him what he eats. They're usually pretty cool and won't have a problem helping you out. Just don't be an all-knowing prick and retort with whatever some internet board person told you. That guy knows how to eat which is why he's huge, and also why you're asking his advice.

I used to be REALLY big into bodybuilding and considered entering some contests but then college came along and drugs/women were more fun. But I was training with competitive bodybuilders and reading a lot of material non-stop. People make gaining weight and muscle out to be this uber-science. "You have to have this ratio of this, and that ratio of that, and don't workout if you're sore...and supersets and 7s and blah blah blah" The real secret? Eat a shitload of protein and destroy your body at the gym. The 250lb behemoths don't prance into the gym wondering if they should work chest again b/c it's still sore from last time. They go in there and bash out 30+sets of chest. It could take up to 2 hours. Even if it hurts they'll do it. The articles in Flex and Muslce & Fitness by those professional bodybuilders are NOT what they use to get that size. It's just like those workout machines that say "For only 20 minutes a day you can look like this". It's bullshit filler to sell a product. Those guys are ripped b/c they punish themselves harder than anyone else for a longer period of time. If it was easy like the articles say, everyone would be doing it. In addition, they arent the brightest people on Earth. Aroudn competition time they'll get a nutritionist but for the most part it's nothing but EAT EAT EAT. All you gotta do is train HARD consistently and EAT. /end rant.

1) it may have to due with your genetic make-up/metabolism

2) you're probably not getting enough calories in your diet (vegetarian diets tend to be very low-cal)

3) go see a registered dietician for eating advice

what most people don't understand is that excess protein is filtered out in the kidneys (which is why patients who suffer from renal failure are on protein restricted diets) and your body can only use so much before it gets converted to fat which, in turn, is almost entirely dependent on how much muscle it needs to rebuild from exercise.

another thing is that the protein that is released from muscle breakdown (during exercise) actually gets recycled by the body, so eating alot of protein or even taking protein drinks is practically unnecessary (unless, of course, you have certain diet restrictions).

http://www.dietitian.com/underwei.html discusses being underweight and her web page has a caloric intake calculator.

Like Vanity says, simply go to the gym 2-4 times a week and push yourself to the limit - and eat loads of protein. Excessive protein is not dangerous for you, as long as you have below like 800g a day or something stupid/have severe kidney problems. Whilst most bodybuilding people agree on eating 1g per pound of bodyweight, sometimes I only manage to do about 0.7g per pound in a day. Since a protein shake contains about 30g of protein, with just one or two of them its very easy to reach your quota. Also, foods like tuna are invaluable - a 120g can contains 40g of protein and loads of healthy fats. If you work out and you find you're sore the next day, it means your muscles are screaming out for more protein, without which the gym is absolutely useless! (Btw, I wouldn't eat more than 2g per pound, else your body might store it as fat.) Also, if you're impatient and want quick results, I'd take creatine before/after exercise along with your shakes - by far the most popular is BSN's No Explode (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/bsn/xplode.html) which I've used myself, and it makes you go considerably further in the gym, think its vegetarian compliant but not sure though. I've been consuming 100g+ for nearly every day over the last 3 months, and have done intensive free weights at the gym 2-4 times a week - and I've lost fat and gained an entire stone of lean muscle Yeh, whey protein shakes are ones that release really fast into your bloodstream (i.e. right before/after exercise) whilst casein (milk protein) shakes are released during a 2-8 hour period, which means they're good for having just before bed - allowing your muscles optimum growth in the night. Don't worry too much about that though - the key is getting protein, whatever type it is. Hope this helps

Try to get 1-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. I try to get 1.5, especially when cutting.