Diet when trying to gain.

I'm trying to gain a little weight and build a little muscle with it. I
try to eat healthy by limiting my refined/concentrated sugar intake (no
more than 10% of total calories for the day, but usually I don't even
reach that), limiting refined flours to a 'once in awhile' or
'restaurant' thing, eating only from lean protein sources whenever
possible, and only buying lowfat dairy products for the house. This is
not to say that I don't ever go out to eat and order something with
full-fat cheese on it, or white bread, but all the food in the house
follows these guidelines and I cook most of the time.

Snacks are things like protein bars, nuts, dried fruits, nonfat plain
or reduced-sugar and nonfat vanilla yogurt (Dannon Light 'n Fit) with
some add-ins like protein powder or fruit, regular oatmeal with protein
powder, homemade protein shake, banana and/or peanut butter, peanut
butter and banana or apple, apple and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches,
grilled turkey and/or cheese (no butter or oil, just on the George
Foreman), beef or turkey jerky, a modest bowl of high-protein and fiber
cereal like Kashi Go-lean or Hi-Lo-- you get the idea. A lot of times
my "snacks" are like small meals, like the grilled cheese, pb sandwich
or oatmeal, so I eat more times during the day.

That said, I was wondering how frequently one can allow himself to eat
unhealthy foods when trying to gain weight in the form of muscle. For
example: a cafe brownie, a modest order of boneless buffalo wings, some
plain cheese pizza, homemade cookies. Just the things that one enjoys
outside of the understood 'splurges' like Christmas and birthday
parties. If my diet is generally healthy, how often can I allow myself
to indulge in foods I enjoy, with appropriate portion control (e.g. one
cup of full-fat ice cream,,not the whole pint). It seems that one
should be just as meticulous as he would be when dieting to lose
weight, and that (sadly) only maintenance would allow such indulgences
on more than a monthly basis. I guess I'm just wondering-- how much is
too much? I spent so long restricting my calories and losing weight (I
dieted unnecessarily and ended up with a BMI of 17.5 or so; was never
overweight to begin with, despite my terrible eating habits of
late-night pizza and subs) that it would be nice to say, "hey! I HAVE
to gain weight! Let me eat!" but that still seems too detrimental to my
goal.

Thanks..

sej29.DeleteThis@cornell.edu wrote:
>
<snip>
> That said, I was wondering how frequently one can allow himself to eat
> unhealthy foods when trying to gain weight in the form of muscle. For
> example: a cafe brownie, a modest order of boneless buffalo wings, some
> plain cheese pizza, homemade cookies. Just the things that one enjoys
> outside of the understood 'splurges' like Christmas and birthday
> parties. If my diet is generally healthy, how often can I allow myself
> to indulge in foods I enjoy, with appropriate portion control (e.g. one
> cup of full-fat ice cream,,not the whole pint). It seems that one
> should be just as meticulous as he would be when dieting to lose
> weight, and that (sadly) only maintenance would allow such indulgences
> on more than a monthly basis. I guess I'm just wondering-- how much is
> too much? I spent so long restricting my calories and losing weight (I
> dieted unnecessarily and ended up with a BMI of 17.5 or so; was never
> overweight to begin with, despite my terrible eating habits of
> late-night pizza and subs) that it would be nice to say, "hey! I HAVE
> to gain weight! Let me eat!" but that still seems too detrimental to my
> goal.
>
> Thanks..

Eat lots of protein, eat healthy foods, if you want to gain weight eat more
calories than you expend, and take a day off every now and again and
eat junk food, it ain't gonna hurt you.