How to put weight on HS athlete

• Breakfast- Breakfast burrito- I split this into 2 meals. The eggs and beef can be made in bulk twice weekly to make mornings easy and quick.
o 2 scrambled eggs mixed with 1/3 cup of low fat cottage cheese (mixed before scrambled in ninja)
o 3oz 88/12 ground beef seasoned and browned
o ¼ cup shredded cheese
o 1 large burrito flour tortillas
I combine the following, add some mayo if you would like and roll into a breakfast burrito. I cut in half and have them eat 1 before school, then another as early as they can. This can also just be eaten at once if they would like. This gives them about 950-1000 calories to start the day when you combine with a big glass of Fairlife chocolate milk. This is about ~60g protein to start the day. Creatine can be taken at this time. Some easy way to sneak calories in here if needed later on is to mush in a little butter into the scrambled eggs, replace the milk with a fairlife core power protein shake….even adding small amounts of EVOO to the protein or replacing the 88/12 with 85/15 or even 80/20. Can also add another egg and more cottage cheese. Ground beef can be substituted for ground sausage, bacon, etc. just want to keep the protein and calories up here.
Easy meal here too is to get the jimmy dean meat lovers simple scrambles cup. Mix as directed but add an extra egg, add extra ½ cup of jimmy dean meat lovers crumble and some shredded cheese. Mix and microwave. Add to burrito with whatever else you like. This will get them plenty of calories, is easy to cook and will still get them 40g protein. Add some milk or protein shake and you have easy meal any kid, even elementary school, can make.

• Lunch-Meat and Rice this can be premixed 2x weekly to make ease of use. Chicken thighs, ground meat, even leaner pork can be substituted here. Mix it up with different seasonings etc.
o 8oz rotisserie chicken- I like to buy 2 from sams and pull off the bone and separate into 8oz zip lock bags. You can keep 3-4 days worth in fridge and put rest in freezer to easily defrost.
o 1 pack of the uncle bens jasmine rice microwavable pack. These can be bought in bulk at sams/Costco. Takes 90s to cook perfect rice.
What I do for my boys(they only have thermos and do not have access to microwave, in the cast iron in the morning I take some butter, throw the meat in from the fridge with some trinity and some seasonings(usually Cajun but will change it up sometimes for variety) and then put rice in microwave. After everything is warm I throw the rice in and mix up. Feel free to brown the meat and deglaze the pan if you would like to a little gravy or however they like it. Rice works great at lunch as its easy to digest in larger amounts. This will get them about 850 cals and 60g+ protein. This is so easy elementary school kids can make.


• 3pm meal- Sloppy Joes- can be made in bulk
o 6oz 88/12 ground beef
o Manwich sloppy joe mix (1/4 cup is correct amount for 6oz)
o Shredded cheese
o Sandwich bread or hamburger buns.
Brown the ground beef In bulk and mix as directed. Split into couple days worth. Pile it on the bread and eat with a fork. This gets you 650-700 calories and 40g+ protein

• Dinner- this can be with the family but should be meat based with easy carbs to digest. If nothing is cooked….do couple chicken thighs 9~12 oz or ~8-10oz ground beef. Grill or brown the chicken/beef and combine pack of jasmine rice or a packet of the microwavable little potato company packets of small flavored potatoes. This will get them somewhere around 1000 calories and roughly 75-90g protein.

All in all this will put you around 3500 calories….270g protein and carbs and around 140g fat. Roughly in the 31/32/37 percentage breakdown.


This is all really easy to prepare in bulk, easy to switch the meats and seasonings to keep things fresh and most of the above has easy substitutes that every high school student should be able to cook themselves. The above is a starting point. You can easily add butter or oils to up the calories as needed or add choc milk to meals.

For many kids this amount of food is a shock to the system, so reduce the serving size if needed and start at roughly 60-70% of the above and add liquid calories like milk and juice etc to get the calories up to around 3500. You can also add fruit and veggies if you would like to any of the above but unlike an adult they should be eaten last.

The kids should weigh every Friday after taking a piss in the morning and before eating etc. if after 2 weeks they have not gained weight…. add calories. Continue this until they get to goal weight. We should be seeking to gain 3-4 pounds per month, 5-6 would be the absolute max we would want to gain. If gaining too fast, cut back on some of the added fats in the above.



If this is too much for you Aaron Ausmus of PPSA has laid out a very well thought out plan in Liftin Heavy Eatin Thick where he has you start month 1 with 3 meals a day. Month 2 moves to 4 meals a day and month 3 you move to 5 meals a day. He has grocery list and multiple meal plans listed for different days so you can get some variety. Highly recommend buying the pdf if for nothing more than a simple change of pace. LINK

Don’t get him to put on weight

Teach him to not eat all the time like everybody does. You’re teaching the kid bad eating habits and probably training his endocrine system to be fat somehow for something that he’s gonna quit doing in a couple years

However he’ll struggle with being fat the rest of his life. Everybody’s gonna say I’m wrong and they played football in high school but the average build here is like 5’8 250 and none of y’all went pro so what was the point of dooming yourself to a life of obesity for 2 years of football

ETA: y’all are already giving him the eating schedule of a diabetic hr lady minus the diet cokes. It’s so over

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Anyway, interested on your take lsu777 on good protein if you don't eat meat (once again... treat it as a thought experiment, because I know the answer is to just eat meat.. hah).

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first i would put him on creatine immediately if he isnt eating meat

as far as good protein source for a vegetarian(asusming no seafood either)....well its going to have to mainly come from shakes, milk, cheese and eggs.

i would add the creatine immediately and then just help him make sure he eats unprocessed nut butters, gets his protein numbers in overall and then eats lots of white rice and beans of some kind.

unfortunately if he starts eating some kind of meat substitute he is going to be eating lots of processed crap.

i would stay away from bars and things like that.

so for breakfast, assuming he eats eggs,

lots of eggs, fruit and some potatoes

lunch- big ole pbj or 2 plus 12-16oz fairlife whole milk

after school- big protein shake with milk, pb and the powder and some fruit

dinner- beans and rice as you described

before bed- another big protein shake with pb.




**** just saw you said he is on creatine. if he tolerates it well, with him being a vegetarian, i would up the dose to 10g daily since he isnt getting from other sources



btw why does he eat like that? perceived health, doesnt like meat or is it a moral thing for him?

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**** just saw you said he is on creatine. if he tolerates it well, with him being a vegetarian, i would up the dose to 10g daily since he isnt getting from other sources



btw why does he eat like that? perceived health, doesnt like meat or is it a moral thing for him?

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Yeah, I wondered about upping the creatine, since he doesn't get any red meat.

He basically just doesn't like meat. His mom is the same way. It's the texture, I believe. He'll occasionally get back on eating chicken sandwiches, then he'll get a piece of gristle or something and get grossed out again.

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A Male HS athlete should be at a minimum playing weight of 2.5x their height in inches. Ideal would be 2.75-3x. Exceptions would be lineman in football which can get up to 3.5-3.75x. This is for all sports, but especially the field sports of football and baseball

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Cross country kids: 2x is probably ideal

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Cross country kids: 2x is probably ideal

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I was 5'10" 160 lbs as a HS runner and considered myself fat
16:30 5k and 4:30 1600m time but 2x would've been ideal back then.

My son turned 14 in July, has recently hit a growth spurt and is 5'-7" now. At the beginning of the year he was a little over 5 foot. Right now he only weighs 105-110#.

He runs cross country, plays soccer year round and also runs track (long distance). He has started doing a little lifting over the summer with the above school sports.

He doesn't want to gain too much weight due to xc, but I told him he needs to add muscle to compete in soccer if he wants a chance to play after high school.

He drinks a couple of muscle milk protein shakes everyday. He doesn't eat much for lunch during the week since the school lunch is horrible compared to what I had 25 years ago.
He eats granola bars, fruits, gummies and any kind of junk food that he can put his hands on right after school, 2:15-2:30. He has cross country practice from 2:30-4:30 and soccer practice from 6:30-8:30 so it is hard to get a big meal in between practices without him throwing it all up

I make sure for supper he gets a good full balanced meal, but I know him eating at 9pm is not a good thing with him going to bed for 10.

I don't want him to bulk up like a linebacker but more like a nickel corner.

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88/12 ground beef

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haha...its at sams. its cheap.

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Costco too, 88/12

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maybe ideal from a performance standpoint, not ideal from a health or injury prevention standpoint.

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Kelvin Kiptum set the marathon world record (2:00:35, ~4:36 mile average) at 5' 11", 143 lbs. He probably shed up to 10 lbs in that race, including water weight. To be elite, that's what it takes. More kids will naturally be above that 2x weight. You can be at a low weight and be health AND not prone to injury.