Hardgaining... or when eating has to become a hobby.

I'm decided to gain weight this year.  I'd like to hit about 160.  I haven't broken 140ish in 5 years.  So it's going to be interesting.

I started working on gaining weight today.  And I realize it's going to be a pain. 

See, that's after dinner.  And that's just to break even.  I've got probably 3 hours before bed before bed and I have to eat another 1500 calories just to break even.  Eating has to become a hobby at this point.  From what I've heard and read, the real answer is eat like a cow. 

In general, I'm following the ideas presented by Starting Strength.  Mark Rippetoe is the only person I've heard that has produced a decent reasoning behind what they were doing.  He's also got an article about the novice effect.  One of his suggestions was to drink a gallon of whole milk a day.  The reasoning makes sense.  You need to increase your caloric intake a lot.  You need to eat about 6,000 calories a day and lift heavy weights three times per week.

That sounds great...  but eating 6,000 calories is a lot.  It took a lot for me to get to 3,000 calories.  Making it to more than that is going to be interesting. 

But then I've always followed complex programs that promised maximum gains without fat.   But then came the answer from Mark Rippetoe.  Basic answer was you can't have it both ways.  If you want to get bigger and stronger, you've got to eat a lot and lift heavy weights.  Spend six months gaining weight and strength.  You can drop those extra few pounds later.  It's worth gaining the strength and muscle mass now. 

So it's now time to make eating a hobby.  Let's see if I can make it past 2 gallons a week this week.