If I Wanted to Gain Weight And Body Fat, Here’s What I’d do

Getting older means gaining weight.

Your metabolism slows down. Your hormones change. You can’t eat the way you did when you were 25. Eventually, you just have to accept that carrying more body fat is part of middle age.

At the very least, this is the story we’ve been told for years.

But if I was actually going to try to gain weight and body fat over the next 5 to 10 years, and that was my goal, I wouldn’t sit around waiting for my 50th birthday to do it for me.

I’d have a much better strategy, and the interesting thing is that none of it would be dramatic.

I’D STOP STRENGTH TRAINING

If I wanted to become less capable as I got older, strength training would be one of the first things I’d get rid of.

I wouldn’t give my muscles much reason to stay strong. I wouldn’t progressively challenge myself. I’d avoid picking up heavy things whenever possible and gradually allow the things I used to be able to do to become things I no longer do.

…Because I couldn’t, because I wouldn’t be strong and wouldn’t have muscle.

This goes well beyond metabolism.

Strength training and maintaining muscle is increasingly important as you age, and those lifts that you’re doing provide a mechanical stimulus to your bones.

Now, lifting weights is about as close as we’re going to get to a magical way to turn your metabolism into a furnace, preserve muscle, strength, bone health, and physical capacity. That, to me, is a pretty good investment in the person you want to be 10, 20, or 30 years from now.

I say it all the time: cardio keeps the game going. Strength keeps you in the game.

But again, if I wanted to gain weight and gain body fat because that was my goal, this is the first thing I’d stop doing.

I’D MAKE MY LIFE AS SEDENTARY AS POSSIBLE

Turns out, exercise isn’t the only thing. I’d just stop moving.

I would try to make it my daily goal to get as few steps per day as possible. If I can get through the day with 1,000 or 2,000, I’d do it.

I’d sit for work, sit in the car, sit when I got home, and look for every opportunity to make my life more convenient.

If my kids want to go to the park, sure, I’d take them, but then I’d find a bench and sit down.

If something were within walking or biking distance, I’d drive.

And I’d make sure that exercise and movement basically meant the same thing. In other words, if I worked out for 45 minutes that day, I’d consider myself active the other hours of the day, regardless of what I did.

That’s an important distinction because structured exercise and an active lifestyle aren’t the same thing. You can work out several days per week while gradually becoming more sedentary everywhere else.

I’D MAKE IT REALLY EASY TO EAT MORE CALORIES

If gaining weight and body fat were my goal, I would build out my nutritional environment so that I was eating food that was very, very calorie-dense.

It would be highly palatable, and I’d eat out a lot. I wouldn’t plan meals ahead of time because I’d rather wait till I was very hungry, tired, stressed out, and short on time to decide what I wanted to eat.

I probably drink a lot more calories, too, like drinking juice rather than eating the fruit.

And I definitely wouldn’t go through the process of prioritizing protein, fruits, veggies, and other foods that help create satisfying and satiating meals. I would then create an environment that made eating convenient, portion-heavy, and not stopping to think about what or how much I’m eating easy.

None of those foods has to be forbidden in a healthy diet. That’s not the point.

The point is that if I wanted to consistently eat more energy than my body needed, I’d make the higher-calorie choice the easiest choice as often as possible.

I’D DRINK MORE ALCOHOL

This one’s pretty easy.

Now, I’m not talking about getting drunk every weekend or even drinking more than a couple of drinks every day.

It’s a drink after a stressful day. It’s having a glass of wine after the kids have gone to bed because this is my time. Or maybe having a second drink because everybody else is having one.

Those calories still count, of course, and alcohol also interacts with sleep, appetite, food choices, and recovery. Over time, something that seems relatively insignificant on any single night can become part of the overall negative picture.

I’m not saying don’t drink alcohol, but this is an argument for paying attention to how often you do it.

I’D MAKE SLEEP AN AFTERTHOUGHT

Want to make taking care of yourself harder? Don’t worry about what time you go to bed.

The time after your kids go to bed is finally you time, and that means another episode, maybe some doom scrolling, a movie, a drink, and potentially even caffeine later than you need it.

…way later.

I would make sure that my bedtimes are different throughout the week and then stay up considerably later on weekends because I don’t have to get up for anything early.

Then that means waking up tired and trying to make good decisions anyway.

And I’m not saying that sleep magically determines whether you gain or lose body fat, but inconsistent sleep times and wake times, and sleep quality affect appetite regulation, food decisions, training, recovery, energy, and daily activity. All of it.

And again, if my goal were to make healthy behaviors more difficult, consistently shortchanging my sleep would be a pretty good place to start.

I’D WORK OUT REALLY HARD—ONCE IN A WHILE

Nobody said I’d stop exercising completely. Instead, every couple of weeks I’d get super motivated and absolutely crush myself.

And then, the inevitable: finding it hard to move, hard to work out again, not being prepared for getting up and down the stairs or sitting down on the toilet. Then I’d have to take another week or two off.

Eventually, that means getting frustrated, deciding I needed a completely different program, and then starting the process all over again.

This would be a much more useful tool for gaining weight and gaining body fat than doing a consistent amount of exercise that was challenging and repeatable.

I have probably one of the least exciting truths about health and fitness for you: boring consistency beats occasional heroics.

I’D PUT MYSELF ON THE BACK BURNER

This is where I think getting to that middle age gets interesting.

When you’re younger, you play sports, you walk more. Maybe your job requires more physical movement, and you have fewer people depending on you, if anybody else at all.

Then your career advances, then you have kids, and then pretty soon their schedule becomes your schedule.

And since it’s easy to conclude that your kids are your priority (and they should be), it’s also easy to conclude that you are not the priority anymore.

So, to make sure I gain weight and body fat, I tell myself that I get back on the training wagon and take care of myself when everything slows down, kids get older, when this busy season ends, and things just settle down.

Funny thing is, life has a way of never completely settling down.

BUT DIDN’T MY METABOLISM SLOW DOWN?

Alas, we’re getting to the part that you’re probably waiting for.

My guess is you’ve heard (because I’ve heard) that metabolism slows down as you get older. And because I’ve worked as a personal trainer for the last 18.5 years, I hear these things a lot:

“I could eat pretty much anything when I was 25.”

“My metabolism isn’t what it used to be.”

“Once I hit 40, everything changed.”

There is no getting around the fact that there are legitimate physiological changes that happen as we age, and there are always exceptions to the rule. I will be the first to say that I am not a doctor.

…I know, you’re surprised by that.

These hormonal changes deserve to be taken seriously and not dismissed, but there’s more to the puzzle.

I don’t want you to automatically blame every pound that you gained in your 40s and 50s on a metabolism that supposedly fell off a cliff. That’s probably not the case.

A large study published in Science examined energy expenditure across more than 6,400 people ranging from infancy to 95 years old. After researchers accounted for differences in body size and composition, adjusted total energy expenditure was surprisingly stable from roughly ages 20 through 60.

Think about it. If you’re 47, your life looks very different than it did at 27. Age is not the only variable that’s changed. Ask yourself these questions:

• How much do you move now?
• Are you as strong?
• Do you still play sports?
• How much time do you spend sitting?
• How do you sleep?
• How often do you drink?
• What does eating out look like?
• What happened to your stress?
• What happened to your schedule?
• What happened to your weekends?
• Maybe some physiology has changed.

Before deciding that your metabolism is broken, there are some things that you should look at that complete the picture.

Middle-age weight gain isn’t automatic, and it’s not a failure either

It would be stupid to pretend that aging doesn’t change things. It does.

Your body changes, your responsibilities change, your priorities change. For women, perimenopause and menopause can introduce another layer of physiological changes that deserve individual attention, and medical conditions and medications absolutely matter too.

But slating everything as “I’m getting older” isn’t where the investigation ends. It’s where the questions begin.

That’s what this really boils down to. If I wanted to make sure I gain body fat and weight through middle age, I wouldn’t need to do anything dramatic:

• I’d move a little less
• I’d sleep a little less
• I’d drink a little more
• I’d stop challenging my muscles
• I’d make convenient food choices a little more often
• I’d put myself a little farther down on the priority list
• And I’d repeat those decisions over and over and over again until they became my normal

This is not just the scariest part, but it’s also the best part. What I mean is that if small decisions can gradually move you in the wrong direction, that means small decisions can actually move you in the right direction too.

You’re not trying to be 25 again. We’re just looking for health habits that work for your life now.

Want some help with that? Email me at [email protected].