Q: I am 62 years of age and weigh about 148lbs. I lost a significant amount of weight when I left the United States abot 30 days ago for Japan. Some weight loss has to do with stress of being here and away from my fiance. I would like to put the weight back on. I am athletic and have lifted weights on and off for years. I do have Type II diabetes but it is under control.. How do I gain weight and not fat.
Thanks

A: Unfortunately as we get older our bodies become more and more reluctant to build muscle, so gaining lean mass will not be easy. On the plus side as a lifelong athlete you are at an advantage. The general approach will be the same for you as for anyone else trying to build muscle -- have a nutritious protein-rich diet with slightly more calories than needed to maintain weight. You can get a suggested starter diet by filling out my Fitness Guide and then following the instructions given there to customize it to your taste. From them on it's just a matter of monitoring your weight and slightly increasing portion sizes when you have not gained any weight in 3 or more weeks. In parallel, of course, you will need to be lifting weights -- dumbbells are perfectly fine, as in this program.

Two important points before you start, however... Make sure that you get your doctor's OK to start on an intensive training program, especially if you haven't lifted heavy in a while. This is something that everybody must do, but it becomes especially important for people with medical condition or older in age. Secondly, after you finalized your diet based on Fitness Guide's suggestion discuss it with your doctor or nutritionist as well to make sure it will not cause problems with your type II diabetes. In general gaining muscle requires eating a lot of carbs while it is important to limit and control carbs when you have diabetes, so there may well be a conflict there. On the plus side, the types of carbs that you want to eat while building muscle (or losing fat) are rich in fiber and nutrients and low in simple sugars which are all positives for diabetes. So I think it's not hopeless to reconcile the two, but you need to discuss it with your doctor. Good luck!