I've been stuck for a while at my current weight of about 143-145 and would like to be at 150 by Dec 1--a slow bulk. I would say that I eat pretty cleanly right now, but have always found it hard to gain weight eating good foods. I need an easy change in my diet that is convenient and makes some sense from a nutritional standpoint.

I figure I'd like to start gaining one lb. per week.
As my weight is now rock steady, I'll just keep eating exactly what I'm now eating but add almonds to my diet--I'm going to grind them up in a coffee grinder and add it to my a.m. protein shake with 1/2 banana and milk as I've always had. I've looked thru the forums and came up with a figure of about 170 calories for 1 oz of almonds. Supposedly 1 ounce is about 21-22 almonds. I just measured 3 oz and they filled about 1/2 cup. So that would be an extra 510 calories per day and about 3500 per week. I'm thinking that will add about a pound per week to my weight. I tried this in my shake this morning and it tasted pretty good although even when ground up in my coffee grinder the almonds were a little chuncky. This is easy for me to do and I hope it works. I figure I'm adding good fats, protein, and fairly low GI carbs to my diet and hopefully this will jump start some slow gains in weight. Is this a good plan, considering my goal of adding a little weight?

I am an almond monster. You can try almond butter too.:drool:

I've also grown fond of avocados. I eat one a day, peeled and raw.

Why put them all in one shake? I'd spread them out over the day. I'd also probably vary the nuts personally, with stuff like walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, etc, but almonds are good. The other nuts bring different good things to the nutritional table. Walnuts for instance have good omega 3s.

I was thinking about just adding them in the morning for the sake of convenience--also I've been using almonds with a couple of my meals already during the day. So this will be on top of what I'm already using. I just like the taste of almonds over the other nuts but will have to look around the forums for info on walnuts and omega 3s--maybe I can use them some. Thanks.

I guess I just don't like having a big load of cals all at once that my body won't use then. I'm more for spreading it out to keep the metabolism running, although I do think the biggest meals can be breakfast and PWO.

As for references on various healthy nuts, here's (http://whfoods.com/foodstoc.php) a good place to start.

It's hard to consider the benefits of a single nutritional change in isolation. I think you've got a good calorie surplus in mind to begin with (though you might not want to stack 500 calories on in one day, two or three increments would be better). But be aware that macronutrients are also important to think about. According to my almonds' nutrition facts, 510 calories of almonds means about 45 grams of fat, 18 grams of carbs, and 18 grams of protein. That could be fine but it could be bad---just make sure you're balancing it with proteins and healthy complex carbs.