How To Gain Weight

How Do I Gain Weight With A Fast Metabolism?

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in How To Gain Weight

Wanna Learn How To Gain Weight With A Fast Metabolism?

photo credit: Alyssa L. Miller

If you want to gain weight with a fast metabolism, you need to focus on eating more calories than you expend n a daily basis. Make it a habit to eat 5 – 6 meals each day spread out every 2 – 3 hours. Make sure each male consists of high quality proteins, carbohydrates and fats and some fruits and vegetables. It’s also critical that you’re drinking a lot of water each day. Try to drink as much water as you can get down each day.

After you get the bodybuilding nutrition part down, I wold recommend starting some form of free weight training. Combined with the clean and consistent nutritional approach, this will help you to build some muscle and gain weight. If you’re not sure what types of muscle building exercises to work into your training routine, check out the guide to muscle building exercises here.

Don’t freak out about looking like a bodybuilder – it’s just not going to happen. But what will happen after a few weeks of hitting the gym and eating 5 – 6 complete meals each day is that your body will begin to pack on some muscle mass and start to tone up. Give this a shot for a few weeks and measure your results. If you’re still not gaining any weight, then add in an extra meal or two later in the evening.

If you’re having a hard time eating more calories, then add in some heart healthy fats and oils like, olive oil, flax seed oil or sunflower oil. These oils are calorie dense and easy to add into salads and other foods.

The bottom line is that in order to gain weight with a fast metabolism, you are going to need to work very hard to make it happen. Start implementing this plan consistently – this is how to gain weight. Stick with it and you will start gaining weight.

Gain Weight And Muscle

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in How To Gain Weight, Muscle Building Mindset

When it comes to the muscle building process not only are the mechanics of stimulating and fueling muscle growth important, but there are some intangibles that have to be present in order to achieve success. You will simply not gain weight and muscle without paying attention to some of the mental aspects of the process.

Most of the popular muscle building magazines and training manuals simply state that you need to put in a bunch of hard work in order to build muscle.  They don’t exactly lay out the process for you.

Sure building muscle mass is hard work, but unfocused effort alone is not the quick route to packing on slabs of muscle mass. It’s a recipe for muscle building disaster! If you really want to learn how to gain weight and muscle mass fast, you need to learn how to focus your efforts on training smarter and not harder.  You need to tap into a body of knowledge that can help you bypass the mistakes that most beginning bodybuilders make and get down to doing what really matters – building muscle mass!

While there are a few foundational principles that you must apply to your weight lifting workouts and bodybuilding nutrition plan in order to achieve maximum muscle growth, it’s really not rocket science.

Find out how to build muscle step by step and repeat the process over and over again.

“That’s how to gain weight and muscle quickly and easily!”

That said, why do so many people have such a hard time building muscle mass and gaining weight?

My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that most people never learn how to gain weight and muscle in the first place. They read an outdated training manual that tells them to perform 5 sets of 15 reps per exercise and spend hours in the gym each day. Hopefully by now you realize that marathon training sessions are not the way to go if you want to build muscle mass.

Not only are they ineffective, but who has the time for that anyway?

The bottom line is that there are things you can do to speed up your muscle gains safely and naturally, but you must know exactly how to apply them.

What It Really Takes To Gain Weight And Muscle Mass

While I would love to tell you that building muscle mass and gaining weight is an easy and comfortable process, the truth of the matter is that building muscle requires…

• Hard Work
• Dedication
• Determination
• Desire
• Action
• Attention To Detail
• Persistence
• And Even More Hard Work!

These are the muscle building intangibles. The elements that must be present for serious muscle growth. The things that are harder to quantify and put your finger on. Most people’s eyes begin to glaze over at this point – just trust me here this stuff is important!

“Learning how to incorporate the fundamental mechanics of the muscle building process is one thing.  But learning how to work hard, with determination and desire – a strong sense of purpose and enthusiasm is a completely different story!”

Take this lesson to heart and learn how to go about the “daily grind” of doing what you need to do to gain weight and muscle mass.  This is the best way to jump start your muscle gains and start to see some major progress.

How Much Should I Eat To Gain Weight?

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in Bodybuilding Nutrition, How To Gain Weight

photo credit: avlxyz

You Gotta Eat To Gain Weight!

This post is part 2 in the how to gain weight the healthy way series – Eat To Gain Weight.  Last post I talked a bit about the importance of eating high quality muscle building foods and listed some examples of the types of foods your weight gain nutrition plan should center around. Hopefully you grasp the importance of eating clean foods, as this is where most people completely screw up the whole weight gain thing, thereby sabotaging their chances for a more muscular and healthy body.

Today I’m going to tackle one of the questions that I’m asked most often about the weight gain process in general..

“How Many Calories Should I Eat To Gain Weight Without Getting Fat?”

This is a tricky one, as it depends on a few different factors that are unique to each person. I’ll start by saying that there is no single answer here that will work for everybody. There is an unknown element at work that’s commonly referred to as metabolic individuality.

Metabolic individuality describes every body’s unique ability to break down and utilize nutrients at different rates. This is why some people are genetically predisposed to being skinny while others are predisposed to being chubby. The skinnier “hard gainer” types typically have very efficient  hyper active metabolisms that run and run and run, while chubbier people tend to have metabolisms that break food down much slower.

In order to figure out how many calories you need to eat to gain weight, you’re going to have to do a little trial and error experimentation. The bad news is that it can take a few weeks to nail down the right number for your body. The good news is that if you approach it right, you can start to build some muscle while you’re ironing everything out.

So…How Many Calories Should You Eat To Gain Weight?

The first step in the process of figuring out haw many calories you need to eat to gain weight without also packing on a lot of fat, is to take a few basic measurements and plug them into an equation to determine your Basal Metabolic Rate or Resting Metabolic Rate.

The measurements that you need to take are:

1. Your Body Fat Percentage
2. Your Current Weight

Here’s the equation for BMR - BMR = 370+(21.6 x LBM (kg)).

If you need some help getting through the BMR and estimated daily expended energy calculation head on over to this page and learn how to calculate your basal metabolic rate or download this target calorie consumption worksheet that walks you through these calculations step-by-step.

After you’ve figured out what your Basal metabolic rate is, you need to plug that number into another equation that takes into account your activity levels throughout the day, and determine your estimated daily expended energy value.  This value represents the number of calories your body expends on a daily basis in order to maintain your current weight at your current body composition.

Here’s the equation for estimated daily expended energy - BMR x Estimated Activity Level Multiplier

Activity Level Multipliers

After you’ve taken all of the measurements and run them through the equations, you have a place to begin your experimentation to figure out exactly how much you should eat to gain weight. In order to make this as simple as possible, all you need to do to get moving towards your weight gain goals, is to take your estimated daily expended energy value and adjust it according to your weight gain goals…

• If you’re a hard gainer and your goal is to gain as much weight as possible as quickly as possible. And you’re willing to pack on a bit of body fat while gaining weight, then simply add an extra 750 – 1000 calories to your estimated daily expended energy value.  Over the course of a week all of these extra calories will add up significantly.
• If you’re one of these guys who wants to build muscle and gain some weight, but you really don’t want to pack on a lot of body fat at the same time, then cut it back a bit and add an extra 500 calories a day to your estimated daily expended energy value.
• If you really, really, really don’t want to put on any body fat at all, but you still want to gain weight, then add on an extra 250 – 500 calories to your estimated daily expended energy number.

All of these approaches will lead you in the same direction – towards healthy sustained weight and muscle gain, you just need to decide which approach is right for you and consistently implement it. Focus on eating your target calorie value each and every day, and make sure to get those extra calories from high quality foods.

What To Do If You Still Don’t Gain Weight…

Regardless of the approach you take and the foods you eat, you may still have a hard time gaining weight.  You remember that pesky nuisance metabolic individuality…right? This is where you need to up your game a bit and adjust how much you eat to gain weight in an efficient manner.  Most guys don’t take the right approach here.  Either they start slamming down tons of excess calories until they realize that they’re only getting fatter, or they just give up completely.

Listen to me when I say that it doesn’t have to be that way – there is an approach that will allow you to figure out exactly how you need to eat to gain weight without all the nonsense. It’s going to take you a few weeks to figure it all out, but in the grad scheme of things it’s a minor inconvenience on your way to a more muscular and powerful body!

If you find that you’re not gaining weight, simply beign adjusting your target calorie value up by 250 – 500 calories every 2 weeks. After 2 weeks break out the body fat calipers and jump on a scale – see if you’re making progress towards your goals.  If not Re-adjust your target calorie value again. Just continue this process until you begin to gain weight and muscle mass.

While simple, this approach to figuring out how many calories you need to eat to gain weight is rarely used.  It does require some patience, persistence and work on your part, but this is often times what it takes to gain weight and build muscle. Stick it out and you will begin to move closer to your goal of a bigger, more muscular body.

Part 1 in the How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way series talks about what types of foods to eat to gain weight,  If you missed it…check it out!

How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way – Part I

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in Bodybuilding Nutrition, How To Gain Weight

If you want to know how to gain weight the healthy way without having to resort to expensive meal replacements, high priced supplements or the archaic mass gain diets of the past, then this series is for you.  Not only is it possible to gain weight without gorging yourself on peanut butter sandwiches, choking down an absurd amount of whey protein or eating thousands of empty calories each day if you learn how to do it right, it can be actually be an enjoyable experience.

When most people attempt to gain weight and build muscle mass, they start with the obvious element…the fact that their going to have to eat more.  Yes it’s true that in order to gain weight and build muscle, you’re going to have to focus on maintaining a positive energy balance…eating more calories than your body expends on a daily basis.

Here’s the basic equation for gaining weight…

Eat More Food = Weight Gain

If you want to know how to gain weight the healthy way…

A lot of people get hung up on the eat, eat ,eat approach to gaining weight without taking a long hard look at exactly what their cramming down their throat!  This is a huge mistake.  Not only do you risk jacking up your metabolism, clogging your arteries and elevating your blood pressure by eating low quality foods, but if all you focus on is eating anything and everything, then you’re inevitably going to cross the calorie line and begin to pack on an appreciable amount of body fat.

In order to make your weight gain diet come together in a healthy way, you need to be prepared to evaluate the quality of the foods that you’re eating.  It’s just not good enough to slug down a few extra scoops of whey protein and eat a few extra peanut butter sandwiches, cross your fingers and hope that you’re finally going to gain some weight.

Stick with the proven high quality bodybuilding protein sources like…

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• Salmon (fresh or canned)
• Reduced Fat Dairy Products (milk, cottage cheese etc)
• Tuna (fresh or canned)
• Ground Turkey Breast
• Pork Tenderloin
• Lean Pork Chops
• Lean Cuts of Beef (eye round, sirloin tip side steak, top round are great choices here)
• High Quality Whey Protein Supplements (whey protein concentrates or isloates work great)

Focus on eating high quality carbohydrate sources like…

• Oatmeal
• Whole Wheat – Whole Grain Bread
• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Anything with Whole Grains (tortillas, breads etc)
• Potatoes
• Yams
• Fruits
• Vegetables

That pretty much sums up the first part of the How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way Series.  You should now have a solid understanding of the importance of eating high quality calories and know what types of foods qualify as good bodybuilding nutrients.

In the next post of this series, we’ll take a look at how to estimate the number of calories needed to gain weight and build muscle mass.

How To Gain Weight Calories,Calories,Calories!

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in How To Gain Weight

How To Gain Weight Are Calories Really The Answer?

When it comes to learning how to gain weight calories are definitely the key to the whole process.   While it seems to darned simple to believe that anyone can gain weight by simply eating more, it’s definitely the truth.  Trust me here when I say that you will not gain any weight at all until you figure out how many calorie you need to eat to stimulate muscle growth and fuel consistent weight gain.

Assuming that your goals are to pack on some muscle mass and increase yor weight at the same time, without packing on unnecessary body fat in the process,

Sure you can help your cause by diligently hitting the gym each and every day and sticking with a consistent and well thought out weight training routine, applying the bodybuilding nutrition basics, and giving your body enough time to rest and recover from your workouts, but the down and dirty truth about building muscle mass and gaining weight, is that in order to grow, you must make it a habit to eat a considerable surplus of  not only calories, but muscle building nutrients each and every day.

Without a nonstop supply of muscle building protein, energy fueling carbohydrates and calorie dense, anabolic hormone stimulating dietary fat, your body will not be able to help you gain weight and muscle mass. So instead of simply focusing on cramming down copious amounts of calories in the name of muscle gain, slow it down a bit and take a look at the big picture – calories, protein, carbohydrates and dietary fat.  If you get into the habit of looking at your entire nutritional profile on a regular basis, you’ll definitely begin to build muscle mass and gain weight quicker than you ever thought you could!

How To Gain Weight Naturally

Posted by Gain Muscle Mass in Bodybuilding Nutrition, How To Gain Weight

Want to learn how to gain weight naturally without having to resort to unheathy supplements or unsafe techniques?  The answer may be more simple than you realize.  When it comes to gaining weight, the only thing that really matters is how many calories you consume each day relative to how many calories your body expends.

If you focus on logging your meals and paying attention to what you eat and when you eat it, you’ll be setting yourself up for weight gain success.  If on the other hand you leave it up to chance, then you may have a hard time ensuring that you’re eating enough food to gain weight and build muscle mass. When ever I work with clients who don’t have experience logging thier meals, I always refer them to www.fitday.com.  Fit day offers a free meal logging service that provides an easy way to keep tabs on what you eat.

photo credit: swruler9284

Focus on logging what you currently eat each day for 1 week, then make any necessary adjustments and move forward.  If you really want to go for broke, I suggest adding and additional 500 – 1000 calories to your current calorie intake level.  This should be enough to esure that you gain some weight. Providing you have your weight training workout routines in order, this should do the trick.  Be advised, however that you may gain a bit of body fat as well with this strategy.

If you want to gain weight naturally, but you don’t want to gain any body fat at the same time, then up your calorie intake by 250 – 300 extra claories each day.  This should be enough to produce a noteciable change without providing tooo much of an excess!

If your main objective is to gain some extra muscle mass, then check out this new article on post workout muscle building nutrition. Simply piece together an extra post workout recovery meal and youu will gain muscle mass.  Especially if you’ve never implemented this strategy before.