Gaining weight is hard

When I finished high school, I was about 70kgs. At 175cm tall, that's a reasonably lean weight. Within 2 years of working full time, and going to university part time, I gained 20kgs. That puts me on the wrong side of overweight, but not crazy overweight. Since that time (starting 10 years ago) I got into riding everywhere, and increasing the mileage to a point where I now ride everywhere except for holidays and some trips with the missus on the weekend. I eat a lot more now that I used to, a LOT more. I never think about how much I should eat, or what I should eat. I try not to eat too much junk, but quantities don't bother me. I'm still the same weight, despite cycling a couple of hundred kms a week. But, I have a lot more muscle mass, and I eat a lot more.

I think that it's actually hard to gain weight, just as it is hard to lose weight. Your body tends to want to stay in equilibrium. By sitting down all day in a sedentary job, and eating a lot, we are really trying quite hard to gain weight. If on the other hand you have an active lifestyle, where you exercise a couple of hours every day by riding a bike everywhere (even if you spend 8 hours sitting down at your job), it's remarkably hard to gain weight. Try it for yourself. Despite my best attempts, I can't gain weight while riding this much. On the other hand, it's damn hard to lose weight too without focusing on the diet side of things.

In my opinion, the best way to avoid weight gain, particularly with age as your metabolism allegedly slows, is to get into regular daily exercise early, while you're still young. This will result in you building up muscle mass, which burns more calories. As you age, muscle mass normally decreases. You can arrest this decline by regular daily exercise.

Cycling in my view is the best way to do this. If you cycle for transport, you will ride just about every day of your life. That way you're not exercising, you're commuting. Lets face it, exercise just for the hell of it sucks. I prefer my exercise to be commuting (cycling) and competive sports (squash, etc). The objective is not to exercise, but to compete, or get somewhere. These are things I enjoy.

Find ways to incorporate exercise into your life that isn't just exercise, but another activity that requires exercise. Start early, and gaining weight will become almost impossible. Works for me!