Hey guys,
I’m looking for a sport to do because I’m super skinny and I’d like to gain at least a bit of muscle. I’ve done cycling and bouldering in the past, but neither made me any less skinny.
The problem with sports is it’s very hard to do any sort of exercise with ADHD because beyond giving you no stimulation, it gives you negative stimulation, like when doing the plank. What’s more, it usually requires a ton of logistic prep/going somewhere, which itself is boring and becomes a barrier.
One thing I can see motivating me is doing it with other people (I enjoy chilling with people and having banter), but for that I might as well go to a pub/society where there’s no pesky ball I have to kick around. Team sports like football never really appealed to me for some reason anyway.
Has anyone had success making sports fun?
Bouldering is good for building muscle, so I think your problem is you need to eat more. You can work out all day, but you’ll stay skinny if you don’t eat.
What kind of things should I be eating? I think I eat a lot of carbs (bread, rice, lentils, bulgur, porridge, etc), does it have to be a lot of meat?
You don’t have to eat meat, but you need to get enough protein, at least .7 g per lb of body weight but preferably around 1g. More than 1.5g is overkill. It helps to divide your protein goals by the number of meals you have and try to hit a per meal goal. There’s no need to count calories or weigh your food or anything if that scares you, but it is good to look at serving sizes and protein content to get a rough idea.
You can try eating more beans and tofu. Bean pasta is a good hack. Seitan is really simple to make, especially if you’ve got a stand mixer and instant pot. You may want to consider getting some protein powder if you’re struggling to get enough through food. You can add avocado and cocoa or nut butter and banana to protein shakes for some extra calories.
Ahh I see, yeah I might try some protein powder. I’ve been struggling to gain muscle as a vegan. I eat a ton of beans and tofu but even so they only have like 10-20g of protein per 100g (nuts are also in the 10s), which means I’d need to eat like 500g of them to get what I need. But if the protein powder doesnt help it really must be due to insufficient muscle load I guess?
