Recently, I ran into a scenario that is quite the rare occasion; it involves a girl who actually wants to gain weight. Wow, who would have thought it, a girl who actually wants to gain weight? Weighing around a buck might have something to do with it, right Erin?

Erin is taking the initiative to give an honest effort at putting on a nickel or two. Luckily for Erin, she won't go unassisted and neither will any of you looking to put on weight because I am here to show you the money.

Let's take a look at a few factors that contribute to weight gain. Will a sedentary lifestyle of watching the Toronto Raptors go 0 — 82 this season make you gain weight? It's possible. Will training like Arnold and hitting the heaviest of weights put on some extra pounds for you? It's a likely possibility. Will any of these individual factors help you gain weight on their own? The answer is absolutely not. It is possible to watch Rob Babcock and the Toronto Raptors piss away another season without gaining a single pound, and it is possible to do exactly what Arnold does in the gym and not see any difference once you step on the scale. The only way to have these factors influence your weight gain is to combine it with the ultimate deciding factor of all; eating!

Eating above and beyond what your body normally requires is the only way of adding any sort of weight. Every one of us has a basal metabolic rate. Your BMR is the rate at which your body expends energy (or calories) assuming no physical activity is present throughout the day, which is unlikely if you play sports or body build. We derive our energy by taking in calories from food. Without food, we wouldn't have energy to expend, which is why you'll notice on days where you haven't eaten much at all, you may feel weak, shaky and perhaps even dizzy.

Now in order to achieve a consistently balanced BMR, you need to consume enough calories to maintain your BMR at your current bodyweight. There are different calculations to figure this out, but I'll try to keep things as simple as possible. Take your body weight and multiply it by 10 if you're a female or multiply it by 11 if you're a male; that will give you your BMR. But all of us expend energy through different methods, so we need to consider our extended caloric needs. Now if you're a sedentary person (perhaps you have an office job and don't exercise at all) add 30 per cent to that total you just got. If you're moderately active, add 50 per cent extra to that total and if you're actually an active person, add 70 per cent. We also burn calories through a process called dietary thermo genesis, so for your final addition, add another 10 per cent on top of that total that you got after the last step. You've just figured out your BMR and extended caloric needs.

Let's take my friend Erin as an example for this calculation. She is a moderately active female who weighs 100 lbs. 100 x 10 works out to be 1000. Since she is moderately active, we need to add 50 per cent more to that total which works out to 1500. We can't forget about the dietary thermo genesis, so we add another 10 per cent to that 1500 which leaves us with a grand total of 1650. This final total is a rough estimation of total calories that Erin needs to consume in order to maintain her current weight of 100 lbs. Keep in mind this is a rough estimation since it doesn't take into account other determining factors such as expended calories during exercise, muscle percentage and speed of metabolism.

You're probably saying to yourself, “Well that's great, but what does 1650 calories have to do with Erin gaining weight?” Well, if Erin needs to consume roughly 1650 calories to maintain her current body weight that leaves her with two other choices — she can eat less then 1650 calories a day and start losing weight, or she can eat above 1650 calories a day and start gaining weight. Erin has one of those ludicrous speed metabolisms that most girls would die for, which means her battle to gain weight is going to be tougher then most.

Next time you're eating, take a look at the information panel on the back of the food item and check out the calorie count. Gaining or losing weight all comes down to what you consume versus what you expend. It wouldn't hurt for some of us to jump on the McDeals while others should seriously consider the healthy choice menu.