We’re sure you’re working with a qualified health professional (physician, dietician, etc.) on the foods your son should avoid, which of course is most important for persons with celiac disease. The dotFIT FirstString protein mix and the Active Multivitamin and Mineral formula are what we recommend to all growing youngsters that need to gain weight, maximize growth and development, and help recover from physical acidity. I have placed that program below and you’ll see that calcium and an omga-3 supplement are also listed but only if needed. Meaning, if your son is not getting ~1200mg of calcium from diet (easily accomplished if drinking milk and using our protein powder daily) he would add 1-tab. If not consuming 2-4servings of fatty fish weekly, take an SuperOmega once daily. All supplements are gluten free. I have also put some instructions below on gaining weight and using our program to monitor progress in case you would like to use it as we do for our health club members and families. Be mindful that gaining weight will be a matter of eating regularly a little more food than your son is probably used to and we would also recommend that he performs some sort of resistance training so that most of the extra calories/protein are deposited into lean tissue (e.g. muscle) as opposed to too much in body fat. It doesn’t take much exercise for a 17yr old to gain weight/muscle.
General weight gain directions
Weight/muscle gain
• If necessary, use the dotFIT program to get your starting calories and plug in your weight gain goal (see 3-options for use at very bottom of this email. #2 is self-use as the program is very user friendly). Each week (or 2-weeks if using body fat measurements) enter your statistics as prompted and make the adjustments as described. I have also included the basic weight gain instructions here in case you don’t use the program.
• For aggressive weight/muscle gain, you can plug into the program a 1lb/week gain and follow directions at each weekly weigh-in update as they will be the same as shown below based on weekly results.
In order to simultaneously increase weight/muscle and performance: males may gain up to one-half pound per week and females up to one-quarter pound per week. Beginning exercisers, children and growing teens may gain more. Additionally, if performance is not the focus, meaning size increase is the priority, you can add more calories than shown below to attempt to gain the desired weight slightly quicker. Make sure your daily diet contains at least 1gm of protein for each pound of lean body mass (LBM) divided 4-6 times a day including before and after training as shown in you supplement recommendation.
Total daily calorie intake should be moderately above current expenditure (dotFIT program will automatically create the right menus, and chose the “Athletic Menu” to use as a guideline). If weight gain does not occur as described, you may add roughly 100 to 250 calories to your daily total (based on body size) consisting of equal amounts of carbohydrates and protein and moderate fat. For example, 20 g protein, 20 g carbohydrate, 10 g fat equaling 250 calories. If preferred, use your shakes or snacks to supply extra calories. Following the addition of extra calories, if after one week weight gain does not occur, repeat the above process*. All this is automatically taken care of using your dotFIT program.
*If body fat or overall weight increases undesirably, slightly reduce daily caloric intake or add a preferred form of aerobic exercise until you achieve your desired weight trend.
General Sport Health, Activity Recovery, & Muscle Gain Program
Daily:
• Active Multivitamin & Mineral https://www.dotfit.com/ActiveMV
o Take 1-daily with meal until age 18yrs, then Take 2 daily, one with AM meal and one with PM meal
Daily as needed:
• FirstString https://www.dotfit.com/FirstString-Chocolate or vanilla
o Use as directed to make sure you get ~1gm of protein per pound of LBM (or weight if not overweight) daily from all sources including foods divided 5 times daily
- If exercising use ~25gm (2-scoops) 30-40min before workout & repeat dose immediately post workout (see below)
o Can be used as a supplement to a meal or by itself (or mixed with desired supporting contents) to shore up total daily calorie and protein needs
• Super Calcium https://www.dotfit.com/super-calcium
o Use if you do not meet the daily needs of calcium (~1000-1200 mgs) from food/shake intake (using FirstString regularly with other dairy/calcium sources would probably meet calcium needs without supplementing)
- Females take 1 or 2 daily with meals; if you need to take 2, take one with AM meal and the 2nd with PM meal; Males take 1 only if necessary
• Super Omega 3 https://www.dotfit.com/superomega3
o Take 1 daily with meal if not consuming 2-4 svgs/wk of fatty fish
Workout days
• FirstString
o Take 2- scoops 30-40min before workout & repeat same dose immediately following
*May substitute favorite dotFIT Nutrition High Protein Bar based on venue convenience
Meal Timings
• As possible eat every 4-hours
• Large pre-training/event meal 2-3Hr before training
• Large post meal ~30-60min after last post workout supplement
Early morning training
• Eat a large pre-training type meal the night before
• Consume only the pre-workout snack/shake before & follow workout day supplement schedule above
Tournament play (multiple games)
• <1.5Hr break: bars and hydration/electrolyte recovery drink
• 1.5-2.5Hr: small pre-training-type meal
• >2.5Hr: normal pre-training meal
Fluid Recommendations*
• 16 oz 2Hr before activity (extra 8-16 oz 1hr before on hot days)
• 4-8 oz every 20 minutes during activity
• 20 oz for every pound of weight loss post-activity
*Use electrolyte formula (e.g. Gatorade) and water as directed
3 options:
1. You can visit one of our licensed health clubs using the club finder http://www.dotfit.com/ClubFinder.aspx The expert fitness professionals in our licensed health clubs can give you direct service for all your fitness goals including nutrition needs (non-clinical).
2. Alternately, if a club visit is not a viable option, you can receive all your diet, supplement and muscle gain (and/or fat loss) needs online from the dotFIT program. Go to the dotFIT home page and log in (using the icon in far upper right corner) and you will come to this page: http://www.dotfit.com/new-user-register (You may just click this link for now). From there simply follow instructions creating your program and setting your goal. The dotFIT program will give you the meal plan outline you can alter as desired with the proper calories, carbohydrates, fats and protein to get started, track intake and monitor results. It will also give you your supplement recommendations (I placed one above also) and exactly how to use them. Every week when you enter your weight and/or bodyfat, the program will tell you what to do until you reach your goal including recreating menus as necessary. Once you create the program and get menus, you can go to our recipe section on the dotFIT website to get recipes with meal preparation instructions including meal replacement recipes: https://www.dotfit.com/learn/recipes. There is also a complete exercise program you can use to create the proper program to accomplish your goal – and again, just answer the simple questions including entering your goal and your exercise program will be created. However, if possible, we recommend one of our trainers to help you get started. If for any reason you choose not to use the program, I included basic nutrition weight gain directions below, which is analogous to what the program would do for you including a detailed supplement recommendation. On the dotFIT website you’ll also see a category called “Learn” where you will find many frequently asked questions and answers: https://www.dotfit.com/learn
3. Reply again to this email or call us at 877-436-8348 and we will put you together with one of our phone coaches.