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I am trying to gain weight, and am curious if it would affect my running at all. Reason I ask...I have to keep a good PFT score annually. It includes 3 mile run under 20 minutes, 20 pull-ups and 100 crunches.

I wouldn't worry about it too much...everyone's body is different. Generally speaking an extra lb of body weight can slow you down by 1.5-2 seconds per mile. However, ideally you'd be strengthening your leg muscles as well so it shouldn't be that big of an issue.

Keep your protein intake up & eat lots off green vegetables so is the advice I got from my nurse at school. Might want to include some good carbohydrates for energy. All the running & you might end up burning muscles while you're at it.

On another nite: thanks for serving our country. I appreciate the service & a man in uniform.

marine3535 saidI am trying to gain weight, and am curious if it would affect my running at all. Reason I ask...I have to keep a good PFT score annually. It includes 3 mile run under 20 minutes, 20 pull-ups and 100 crunches.

If you can do the above, who cares about gaining weight?

If you want to gain weight and keep a high PFT score, you have to make gradual gains and let your body adjust to the additional weight. If you pack on the weight too quickly, it will kill your run time for sure. I've seen plenty of thick guys do 300 PFT's, so it's definitely possible.

It depends on genetics and body type. I think you can do it but you will have to work harder at obtaining size

You look fairly light for your height, so you`ll have to keep the calorie/protein intake up in order to gain muscle mass/weight.
But in principle I can`t see any major problems in doing both.
Best wishes!

Personally man, any time I gained weight killed my PFT score in the military. To be a decent runner (which is, you know, like 80% of the real PFT) I have to be thin as a frigging rail. I'm 275 right now, but back in the Army I was a (in my mind) terribly skinny 200.... and I kinda had to be.

Maybe youre different. I've seen some thick guys do great PFT scores... but I think theyre the exception. Keep in mind that the military wants you lean and mean, not powerlifter-y. They care more about you being able to run across a battlefield with a pack on then being able to bench 400 lbs.

Keep in mind that muscle mass, but its very nature, creates CO2. Running gets harder with the more muscle you get, not less. I dont care if its in your legs or wherever... how many stacked Kenyan marathoners do you see?

In addition, I'm guessing youre in the Marines from your PFT description. That pull-up gets ***way*** harder with more mass. I've bench well over 300, and people always say that I should be able to kill pull-ups. Yeah, right. The overall strength of my back/lats just doesnt compensate for the overall body mass.

Like other people have said, take it slow. A few pounds at a time. To repeat, the military doesn't really want you to be heavy, especially the Marines. How many big guys do you see on base? Probably not many, and for a reason.

Yes you can, been there done that. If you're high metabolism guy like me, all you can do is up you calorie intake.