I remember when I was a skinny maggot and had a hard time getting a lot of calories down. It was one of the primary reasons I was a skinny maggot. You’ve gotta eat to grow.
Yesterday, while watching two Giants victories I whacked down a huge plate of eggs and potatoes, a few pears, a cup of berries, an entire gluten free pizza, a pile of Jen’s bison meatballs, six cookies, and 3/4 of a cherry pie with coconut milk ice cream.
But that was a far cry from the one day I ate 10,000 calories one Saturday in Long Beach Island, New Jersey back in the early 90’s. Or the time I hit 12,000 when snowed in in Killington, Vermont.
Those were my all time PR’s and I don’t think I’ll be topping them any time soon. We’ve got a great Epic Meals thread going on right now in The Renegade Inner Circle and I think some of the guys will be or already have topped my best performances.
But I’ve developed quite the capacity to pack away food over the years. Without restraint I could easily eat myself into obesity in a year.
A lot of skinny guys claim that they can’t eat enough, they have no appetite and they have serious digestive issues. This can all usually be fixed with a few simple tricks.
If you’re having trouble eating 3,000 calories per day realize that you’d also have trouble deadlifting 500 pounds the first time you attempted it. Like anything else it takes consistency and practice. Slowly add calories over time and you’ll get there.
But you’ve got to keep forcing the extra calories down and steadily increasing. Progressive overload is key here.
Next, be sure to take probiotics on an empty stomach every morning or take a good mixed greens supplement that contains them (although you may need more than what is in any greens supplement for a couple of months).
Not only do probiotics improve your digestive health but they help with your immune system and can prevent you from getting sick. Gut health and immune system strength really go hand in hand.
Before your big meals take a digestive enzyme and eat some raw sauerkraut with it. Kimchi and other cultured vegetables can have the same effect. Mix it up on a regular basis.
The pic below is what I keep in my fridge on a regular basis. You can get all of them at Whole Foods or other similar markets.
You can also try drinking hot water with lemon before meals as a way of naturally increasing stomach acid. This may or may not make a difference for you but it’s worth a shot.
Finally, you’ve just gotta plan your meals smarter.
Here’s a few tips from an incredibly knowledgeable Renegade Inner Circle member (and serious contender for Renegade of the Year), Jack Penner:
“Here are some tricks that I’ve picked up on that can help you on your way to eating like a horse and becoming a brick shit house.
Understand volume, viscosity, and palatability.
Vegetables take up a lot of volume and space in your stomach. Don’t eat a ton with the bigger meals. Especially post workout, you want macros, not vegetables. So, if broccoli is keeping you from getting the potatoes or rice down, ditch it.
Rice is easier to put down than potatoes. 200g of carbs from rice is a lot less volume than 200g of carbs from potatoes. Stick to denser sources for bigger meals. Take some of the juice from whatever meat you are eating and mix it in with the carbs to make it wetter. Dry rice or dry baked potato is a lot harder to put down than sticky rice or some nice, creamy mashed potatoes.
As Steve Miller says…
“Everything’s better when wet.”
I like to eat my steak, then take whatever juice is left over in the bowl or on the plate and pour it over my starches. It’s delicious and can make big servings of food tastier. The same applies for condiments like salsa, or sriracha. Those can be a better option if you’re not eating juicier meats and don’t want to add fat via butter.
Learning to eat big is an art, it takes time, but you will learn. It just gets easier. If you’re having problems with protein portions, just eat slower and try to use less tough meats. Chicken, for me, is less satiating than steak. Tuna or white fish even less satiating, so those could be good options.
Also, I feel like I could eat eggs ad libitum and never get full, so those are another good, easily digesting, less filling protein option.
Finally, sometimes you just have to man up. Anyone who is brutally big and strong will tell you that they ate an exorbitant amount of food to get there.
Look at that plate of steak and bowl of potatoes, and say to yourself “This is standing between the current, skinny, weak me and the future, bigger, stronger, badass me.”
Now go feast. ”
