Eat More Often
This is pretty straightforward and doesn’t need much
explanation. If you want to gain weight, you have to eat more frequently. As a
perpetually skinny guy, your body’s metabolic rate is much higher. To
counteract this increased burn rate, you should eat throughout the day to
ensure that your body isn’t resorting to burning off weight. Again, hard
gainers can’t just eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacking throughout the
day and not just when you are hungry is crucial towards gaining weight fast.
Track Your Food Intake Carefully
Chances are food tracking doesn’t occur to you because you’ve
never had to worry about overeating. However, becoming meticulous about your
eating schedule is one of the only ways to ensure you are consuming enough
calories to satisfy your metabolism. Once you determine how many calories you
need each day to gain weight, you want to plan each day’s meals out ahead of
time. This gives you the opportunity to first understand how much food, as a
whole, is needed each day and then see how often and how much you need to eat
at each meal or snack. Without planning, it is all too easy to slack off and
neglect your diet.
Double Your Intake
Similar to Tip #2 and eating more often, doubling your
intake doesn’t require a ton of thought, especially considering that if you
follow the previous tip and plan your meals, you are already going to have a
concrete idea of how much you are going to need to consume each day. That said,
doubling your intake is still important towards hitting your daily calorie
needs. This is going to involve asking for seconds whenever possible and making
meals with larger proportions. It may take your body, in particular your
stomach, to get used to the sudden boost in intake. Don’t expect to instantly
be able to eat twice as much whenever you please. Try and make the shift
gradual when possible.
Drink Less Alcohol
This goes along with scarfing down fast food for every meal.
Pounding back alcoholic drinks regularly can have a negative effect on your
weight gaining goals. Sure, you may be happy that you can opt for a heavier
beer, instead of a light beer, but at the end of the day it is all empty
calories. Your body isn’t designed to store alcohol, so it aims to metabolize
it right away, which puts other processes in the body on hold. This means you
will be getting less from the foods you eat. It is also worth mentioning that
chronic alcohol abuse can lead to malnourishment and cause your body to shed
weight, instead of putting it on.
Exercise
Develop Exercise Habits that are Conducive to Weight Gain
Next to your diet, your exercise routines are the biggest
factor towards your weight gain goals. While jogging and being active are
certainly healthy choices, you want to add resistance and weight training to
your routines. Many of these exercises are conducive to gaining muscles, which
translates into more weight. By developing a comprehensive workout schedule and
adding it to your meal plan from, you are more likely to stick to the routine
each day. Plus, it helps you plan meals around your workout, to avoid training
hungry.
The fact is lifting weights helps build muscle and more
muscle growth means more weight gain. If you aren’t actively using your
now-increased caloric intake, you are going to be gaining fat and not muscle.
When weight training, there are a few things to take into account. First,
warming up is key. If you walk into weight training cold and start trying to
maximize your efforts, you have a high risk of injuring yourself, which will
impede you from being able to train at all. When resistance training for weight
gain, you want to shoot for 8-12 reps with each exercise. This is optimal for
building muscle.
Don’t Neglect Cardio
It is typical for skinny guys looking to gain weight to shy
away from cardio. We are programed to think cardio equals weight loss. Cardio
just burns fat, which is a good thing. However, how you perform cardio is key.
If you do too much for too long, your body will be even more fatigued than
usual and that will affect your next weight lifting routine. Additionally,
certain forms of cardio present a greater risk to your muscle growth. Cycling,
for example, is seen as causing less muscle damage than say running or jogging.
This tip is probably the easiest one on the list because if
you are following the first five tips regarding dieting, then you should really
never be doing anything hungry. With all that added intake, you should never
really be hungry. However, some people like to exercise as the very first thing
they do in the morning, which could lead to them training while hungry. Eating
before your workout will give you more energy to ensure that you don’t start to
fatigue halfway through your regimen. If you don’t have time to eat, a protein
supplement shake may be a sufficient alternative.
Follow a Workout Regimen
The concept of planning is always important, in both dieting
and exercising. Following a workout regimen, especially one designed for
someone in your position, ensures that you are exercising in a way that is
going to maximize your efforts towards achieving your weight gain goals. You’re
probably not a fitness guru, so take the advice of someone who is. A workout
plan can also help ensure that each muscle group is appropriately targeted,
while giving it time to rest and repair after the training. It’s okay to switch
regimens if you are getting bored of the same routine or want to try new
things.
If You’re Going to Run, Sprint
On the topic of cardio and increasing size, there is
interesting evidence to suggest that sprinting is better than jogging. In other
words, shorter but more intense cardio exercises, such as quick sprints, are
more advantageous (in terms of gaining weight) than longer jogs. Sprinting all
out (giving it everything you’ve got) for 10-30 seconds for 4-10 sets, as part
of your exercise routine, can actually promote muscle growth. As a high
intensity exercise, it is important to work at sprinting gradually. Don’t shoot
for 30-second sprints on your first trial and, as always, stretch to reduce
injury.
There is a variety of weight gaining supplements on the
market today in the form of powders, pills and drinks. Knowing which ones to
take, how to take them and when can be important. These do not take the place
of actual food (remember, supplement means ‘in addition to’), but they can help
promote more muscle growth during and after a workout, give you more muscle-building
proteins and provide your diet with lots of essential amino acids and other
helpful resources. Other changes to your daily routine, such as maintaining a
healthy sleep schedule, are also imperative for a hardgainer to put on weight.
Creatine
Creatine is a popularized amino acid that is found in a lot
of workout supplements. It is naturally occurring in our bodies and is found
within the cells of our muscles. During a workout, it gives you and your
muscles more energy, which allows you to complete more reps and maximize each
day’s efforts. It is almost guaranteed that you will be gaining some amount of
weight if you add a creatine supplement into your workout routine because more
reps equals more muscle growth and more muscle growth means more weight gain.
Hard gainers struggle with protein intake and maintaining a
high calorie diet for a variety of reasons. The biggest of these reasons are
time and money. Even preparing meals ahead of time takes a lot of, well, time.
If you have a busy work, school or social schedule, it won’t be easy to squeeze
in extra mealtime. It also isn’t affordable for everyone. A lot of the dried
fruits, nuts and proteins that are rich in healthy, wholesome calories are
expensive at the grocery store. A whey protein supplement can help you reach
your daily protein needs easily, especially on busy days when you’re forced to
skip a meal.
Similar to creatine, BCAA’s are naturally occurring amino
acids found in your body, specifically Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. Their
benefits, in terms of dieting and exercising to gain weight, are numerous. They
help repair damaged muscles after a workout, which not only decreases muscle
soreness the following day, but also reduces fatigue the next time you hit the
gym. They can also promote muscle-protein synthesis. This means a boost to your
muscle growth and thereby weight gaining efforts. BCAA’s are often found in
supplements for these reasons.
Sleep is an often forgotten component to building muscles
and many of us get far too little of it. When you sleep, your body will
metabolize protein at a faster rate. This is a crucial step to repairing,
rejuvenating and rebuilding muscles that were torn down during your workout
from the day. Ideally, you should shoot for 8-10 hours of sleep each night.
While this isn’t always possible, especially if you have a busy household or
heavy workload, you should make extra effort to fall asleep sooner on days that
you worked out.
During and immediately after your workout, your blood
circulation is at its peak. Getting pumped up at the gym literally pumps blood
through your body quicker. When your workout is finished, your body needs two
things to begin its cool down phase and replenish its stores: carbohydrates and
protein. For muscle building, you should aim for at least 30 grams of protein
and around 35 grams of carbs (give or take a few) and you should try and
consume them right after your workout concludes; about 15 minutes is your
golden window. Good post-workout meals include a sandwich or wrap
(carbohydrates from the bread/wrap and protein from the meats), fruit, eggs or
a protein shake, if you are really in a rush.
If you are sick of being the skinny guy in the group and
want to make a push to gain weight fast, then you are going to have to make
some radical changes to your lifestyle. This means changing your diet, exercise
routine, sleep schedule and your feelings on supplements. With your super high
metabolism, gaining weight is going to be like a part time job, but reaching
your weight goals will be all the reward you need for your hard work and
dedication to this lifestyle change.
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