How do I gain Weight

This has been concerning me all puberty. I just can't seem to gain weight and build a bigger body, I do sports, I run track, I'm a sprinter (not to brag but I very good to). I'm a very big eater, I eat alot but still I can't seem to gain weight, my body just burns out all the food, it doesn't go anywhere. I finally went on the internet one day and googled "How skinny guys can gain weight." Turns out I gotta eat more calories than my body burns. How do I do that!? How do I know how many calories Im supposed to eat, how do I know what to eat? I would really appreciate it if someone could give some suggestions. Thanx!

[edit on 17-6-2005 by Striker122]

You may think you eat a lot, but you really don't. Otherwise you would be gaining weight. Try eating about 6 meals a day, you should be getting food every 3 hours if you really want to put on sizel. Eat lots of good protein sources and carbs, and healthy fats. For protein eat lots of meat, fish, eggs, and milk. For carbs, potatoes, rice, oatmeal. For fats, natural peanut butter, fish oil, certain vegetables such as avocados, etc. Also, if you do a lot of cardio such as running, it will be much harder to gain weight. Sprinting is ok, but if you are running miles, it will be burning lots of calories and preventing you from gaining. Make sure you are on a good lifting program as well, so you are building muscle and not fat.

If you are exercising as much as you say you are, and are a male over the age of 16, then you probably should be eating at least 2000 calories a day. Take a couple of days and actually take the time to see how many calories you are taking in. Once you get this information down, then use the scale and the mirror as your guide (You want to build muscle, not fat). Increase your daily calorie intake by 500 for a whole week so you are at 2500 every day. If you don't gain a pound over the course of the week then add another 250-500 calories every day for the next week.

Make these modifications one week at a time and you'll find out how many calories you need to increase your mass. The scale shouldn't move by much more than 2 pounds in a week. Use a daily average and weigh yourself at the same time every day for best results. Preferably in the morning before you eat or drink anything.

At your age and with lots of heavy exercise, you may have to increase your healthy fat intake. Peanut butter is a good example of this. Protein and carbs have about 4-5 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram.

I remember being 18 and I could eat 2 double whoppers with cheese (1,000 calories each) plus fries a day and not get fat. Those were the days. It will be easier as you get older and you metabolism slows down. Currently(at 33) I stay around 220 - 225 and it can creep up to over 230 easily if I'm not careful.

[edit on 18-6-2005 by dbates]

Thanks for the info guys, I really appreciated it!

[edit on 18-6-2005 by Striker122]

A good book to buy is "Body for Life". Also you should buy Protien powder and make shakes as it is eaiser then making 6 meals a day as after a while you will get tired of doing that or may not always have the time. Don't make the mistake of buying "weight gainer" powder though as it is "junk"/ unhealthy weight that you'd be putting on.
Designer protien powder is good and tastes great in milk. It is also not to expensive. Lift heavy weights/low reps and take in at least 1/2 gram of protien, but not more then 1 gram per pound of you body weight everyday. Also life weights for 4 days on and then take 3 days off to recover and then repeat. I think someone your age is fine with 1/2 gram per pound of body weight. Also eat a lot of carbs at night as if you are not burning carbs they will be stored as fat and not energy (but be careful as you don't want to just get "fat"). Also if you do not want to look like a huge "muscle man" then after you like the way you look with the heavy weights, then switch tpo light weight/alot of reps for a while.