This page is an edited presentation of Bill Starr’s 1985 article “Gaining Muscular Bodyweight.” It is not newly written material by Bill Starr.
A teenager tapped on Bill Starr’s car window with a problem every football coach recognizes: one season left, a college scout watching, and a body fifteen to twenty pounds too light. What Starr told him became one of the most practical eating-and-training case studies he ever published. Here is how it unfolded, numbers included.
The Athlete and the Goal
Arthur, the son of one of Starr’s friends, weighed just over 180 pounds and wanted to reach 195–200 before summer camp of his senior season. He was not a beginner scrambling for a program — he had been running the plan from The Strongest Shall Survive for two months and had just moved to the advanced version. His lifts were balanced and climbing: squats up 100 pounds for five reps since he began (now 275×5), bench press 225×5, power clean 195×5.
The problem was purely caloric. As Starr put it, the basic rule for gaining bodyweight is taking in more calories than you burn, and Arthur — despite eating what felt like plenty — was not doing it.
Step One: Find Out What You Actually Eat
Before changing anything, Starr prescribed a food journal: record everything for several days — every apple, hamburger, and potato chip, however small. Most lifters have never seen their real intake on paper; the gap between what they think they eat and what they eat is usually the whole story.
Step Two: Eat More Often, Not Just More
The second instruction surprises people: eat more often, not necessarily bigger meals. Digestion handles only so much at once — a huge meal wastes part of its value. Arthur’s assignment looked like this:
| When | Addition |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | Four or five eggs instead of three, plus two glasses of milk, two slices of toast, juice |
| Lunch | As usual — he already ate heavily then |
| Mid-afternoon | Two or three pieces of fruit and another three or four hard-boiled eggs |
| Supper | As usual — plus a can of protein powder mixed in on low-protein casserole nights |
| Mid-evening | Bowl of Shredded Wheat |
| Before bed | A protein milkshake |
Starr noted that bodybuilders of the pre-steroid era ate as many as three dozen eggs a day to gain size — eggs being one of the most economical complete foods available.
Protein Shakes Without the Price Tag
Daily protein shakes, Starr observed, had helped hard-training athletes add up to half a pound of bodyweight a day. Commercial powders were all roughly the same formula, so price mattered more than marketing. His budget hack still holds up: instant dry milk solids. One cup delivers over 30 grams of protein at about a third the cost of protein powder. Keep shakes simple — overly thick concoctions tire the palate fast. His personal mix: whole milk, protein powder, a cup of blueberry yogurt, and a couple of scoops of chocolate ice cream.
Digestion and the B Vitamins
Gaining weight is not just intake — in Starr’s words, “it’s not just how much you eat, it’s how much is finally utilized by your cells.” Two additions handled digestion: papayas after breakfast and supper, and yogurt (its acidophilus aids the process).
Then the B vitamins. A high-potency B-complex replaced Arthur’s ordinary multivitamin: two tablets after breakfast, two after lunch, one after supper. The rationale, in brief: B1, riboflavin (B2), and company drive carbohydrate metabolism; B6, biotin, and folic acid handle protein and fat metabolism — converting the bananas into usable energy and the hamburgers into muscle cells. Because the Bs are water-soluble and act as energizers, none late in the evening.
Rest Is Part of the Program
Gaining demands recovery, and recovery demands sleep — more, not less. Arthur also trimmed his daily three hours of surfing down to two: energy spent in the surf was energy not converted into bodyweight. Nothing dramatic, just budgeting.
Training: Stay the Course, Shift the Priority
Notably, Starr did not rewrite Arthur’s training. He kept the advanced program exactly as written. The only adjustment was emphasis: work hardest on squats and back work, because the legs, hips, and back are where a lifter packs on good weight — chest, shoulder, and arm work could wait. That is the same big-movement logic behind the Big Three 5×5, and it pairs naturally with the ideas in our muscle-building for sport page.
The Results
| Measure | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Bodyweight | +12 pounds in three weeks (tracking toward his 195 target) |
| Squat 5RM | +100 pounds since beginning the program (275×5) |
| Food intake | Roughly doubled versus his pre-journal baseline |
| Energy | All-day energy — an unexpected bonus he credited to the B vitamins |
Follow-up detail worth savoring: the hard-boiled eggs won the MVP award — Arthur could peel one while pushing a lawnmower without breaking rhythm — and the papayas solved a digestive complaint within days of being added.
What Modern Lifters Can Take From It
- Track before you adjust — the journal revealed everything.
- Frequency beats meal size for moving total calories up.
- Eggs and dry milk remain the cheapest quality protein going.
- Keep training the same; make eating the variable.
- Prioritize sleep and cut junk activity while gaining.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast should I try to gain?
Arthur added twelve pounds in three weeks under Starr’s watchful eye — an aggressive short burst for a specific deadline. General modern guidance for sustainable gains sits closer to one or two pounds a week; the principles are identical either way.
What is the cheapest effective protein?
Starr’s answer from 1985 still wins on math: instant dry milk solids — over thirty grams of protein per cup at about a third the cost of protein powder.
Do I need to change my training to grow?
If your program is built on progressive compound lifting, probably not — Arthur changed nothing except food priorities and rest. Growth stalled by under-eating does not require a new program; it requires a fork.
What was Bill Starr’s diet approach?
In essentials: a caloric surplus verified by a food journal, more frequent eating rather than bigger single meals, inexpensive complete proteins like eggs and dry milk, and no change to training while the weight comes on. His 1985 case study walks through the whole plan.
Sources
Primary: Bill Starr, “Gaining Muscular Bodyweight” (1985; archived full text at billstarrarticles.wordpress.com). Companion pages: Bill Starr’s Big Three 5×5 and muscle building for sport.
Last updated: August 2026 · Edited presentation of Bill Starr’s published methodology — not newly written by Bill Starr.
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