How To Gain Weight And Muscle Mass

While learning how to gain weight and build muscle mass at the same time can seem like an uphill battle at times, the truth of the matter is that it is possible for anybody, regardless of age, race or sex to learn how to gain weight and build muscle.

Even if you're one of the unfortunate people out there who can't seem to gain an ounce of weight no matter how much you eat or how hard you train, I've got some news that may seem shocking!

Gaining Weight And Building Muscle Mass Is A Simple Process!

Even though you haven't had much success in the past, it's absolutely possible to gain weight. Not only that, but it's possible to learn how to gain weight without having to take your health into your own hands. As I mentioned before, the weight gain process is simple and straight forward. There are only a few variables to play with when it comes to gaining weight and building muscle.

This means that there are only so many changes that you can make to your weight gain program before you actually begin to gain weight! The factors that affect whether or not you gain weight and muscle mass are...

	Your Estimated Basal Metabolic Rate
	Your Predicted Daily Expended Energy
	The Amount of Muscle Building Food You Eat Each Day
	The Breakdown of Each Muscle Building Nutrient (Protein, Fat, Carbs) That You Eat Each Day And Each Meal
	The Number of Weight Gain Meals You Eat Each Day (And The Spacing Between Them)
	The Amount of micronutrients You Consume (water, vitamins and minerals)
	How You Train To Stimulate Muscle Growth
	How You Rest And Recover Between Workouts

After a while of applying, mastering and moving on to new weight gain variables, you'll find that you hit the tipping point where you actually starting to gain weight and muscle mass. Once this happens, you'll be in complete control of how much weight and muscle mass you gain, and you'll know exactly how to gain weight with ease.

If you are not happy with the results, simple make a small change or tweak to one of the weight gain components and measure the results.

While this can be a long a arduous process, this is how to gain weight and muscle the right way...the only way!

How To Gain Weight And Muscle Basics

Learn More About How To Gain Weight And Build Muscle 

Track What You Currently Eat...

Time to get down to the weight gain principles that will bring you the biggest bang for your buck. If you are serious about learning how to gain weight and muscle mass, it's critical that you have a solid understanding of a few critical (but simple) things...

	How Many Calories You Currently Consume On A Daily Basis
	How Many Calories You Need To Be Consuming Each Day To Even Have A Chance At Gaining Any Weight!
	How To Make Sure To Eat Enough Calories Each Day.

After you have collected the data, either go to the book store and spring for a calorie counter (a book with nutritional values for the foods you eat), or jump online and search for "calorie counter".

There are quite a few very good free nutritional databases online these days. Some of my favorite free online calorie counters are...

• www.nutritiondata.com 
  

• www.thecaloriecounter.com 

Next to each food that you consumed during this 1 week log list...

• Total Calories
  

• Grams of Protein
  

• Grams of Carbohydrate
  

• Grams of Fat
  

• Grams Of Alcohol
  

Total up each category for each meal you consumed. After going through this drill, you now know exactly how many calories, grams of protein, grams of carbohydrate, grams of fat and grams of alcohol you consumed and exactly when you consumed them...

This is very useful information if you're learning how to gain weight and muscle mass!

After you calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate and PDEE, you can compare what, when and how much you eat currently with what, when and how much you will need to eat to gain weight.

Learn How To Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate Here

Calculating Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure

As far as weight gain goes, you will use your calculated BMR to figure out your TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

Your TDEE represents the amount of energy (calories) that you need to consume each day to maintain your current body weight and body composition, based on an estimated activity level.

Learn How To Calculate Your TDEE Here

In order to gain weight, you'll need to increase the amount of total calories you consume each day. A great place to start, is by increasing your total daily calorie consumption by an additional 500 calories. This is enough to make a measurable difference in your weight gain, but not so much that it becomes a chore to choke the extra calories down.

"500 extra calories a day will equal an approximate weight gain of .5 lb to 1 lb a week!"

If you're one of the super ambitious types and think that you can handle going for broke, shoot for 1000 extra calories a day. Over the course of a week, this should equate to 2 lbs of weight gain.

While I don't usually tout the benefits of muscle building supplements with such enthusiasm, if you want to learn how to gain weight quickly, there are a few supplements that I really believe can help in the process...

Muscle building supplements like:

• whey protein powder
  

• egg white protein
   

• casein protein powder
  

• meal replacements
   

• A few select calorie dense weight gain formulas
  

Are all convenient ways to add muscle building nutrients and extra calories to your diet in a less filling way.

While these supplements can't (and shouldn't) totally replace whole food sources of muscle building nutrients, they can be effective for adding supplemental calories (above and beyond your 5 - 6 whole food meals a day) to your weight gain diet.

The Ideal Weight Gain Diet...

The mystery behind eating to gain weight, is that there is no mystery. There are no magical nutrients that can guarantee weight gain if eaten in the precise ratios or formulations. Stick with the basic muscle building nutrition principles here...

• Eat a minimum of 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight per day.
  

• Eat somewhere between 40 - 75 grams of fat each day. Poly and Mono Unsaturated Fats, also known as the heart healthy fats, are the best choices here.
  

• Eat enough high quality carbohydrates to make up the remainder of your target caloric intake.
  

• Drink a minimum of 1 gallon of water each day.
  

• Break your target caloric intake into 6 complete meals a day. A complete meal contains carbohydrates, protein, fat and water.
  

• Space each weight gain meal 2 - 3 hours apart throughout the day.
  

Vitamins And Minerals For Weight Gain...

In order to build muscle mass and gain weight, it is critical that you make sure to consume enough vitamins and minerals to allow for the muscle building process to occur. A simple way to ensure that you are supplying your muscles with ample amounts of digestible vitamins and minerals is to simply make a habit of eating multiple servings of fruits and vegetables throughout the day in conjunction with a high quality multi vitamin / multi mineral supplement.

While it will be hard for you to know exactly which vitamins or minerals you're potentially lacking in, if you're not getting sufficient amounts of just 1 simple micro nutrient, you can hinder the muscle building process and make it virtually impossible for you to gain weight!

How To Gain Weight And Muscle Through Weight Training...

In order to gain muscle mass and weight, you will need to focus your workouts towards heavy free weight exercises. While there are other ways to stimulate muscle growth and weight gain, In my opinion, none are more effective than high weight / low repetition weight training workouts.

Follow these basic weight training tips for maximum muscle gain...

	Train each body part only 1 time each week
	Train each body part to failure each workout
	Train no more than 2 body parts per workout
	Each workout should last no longer than 1 hour
	Each workout should consist of basic compound exercises. If you absolutely have to add in an isolation exercise or two do it only after your heavy compound exercises are complete.
	Each set should be in the 6 - 8 repetition range. heavy enough weights that you could not possibly perform more than 8 reps with decent form.

Rest And Recovery Between Weight Gain Workouts...

In order to gain weight and muscle mass, how you go about resting between intense weight training workouts can be the difference between great results and no results.

Follow these recovery tips to boost your muscle gain results...

1.) Make sure to consume 1 of your weight gain meals within 20 minutes of finishing each weight gain workout. This post workout meal should consist of highly absorbable protein (like whey isolate), ample amounts of dietary fat (heart healthy of course) and a mix of simple and complex carbs.

"Make your post workout weight gain meal the biggest, most calorie dense and most complete meal of the day!"

2.) Make sure to allow each body part 1 full week for rest and recovery between workouts.

3.) Make it a point to stay active while your muscles are resting. Keeping your body in motion allows toxins and byproducts of the muscle building process to be flushed out of your muscles quicker. This means that your muscles will be less sore and sore for less time than they would be if you decided to sit around on your couch all day.

Stretch during and after your intense weight training workouts. This allows more blood and nutrients to enter your muscles.

4.) Make it a point to get enough sleep each night to feel fully rested and ready to take on the day. If you skimp on sleep, you will not get the weight gain results you are looking for. Sleep not only recharges your body, but also resets and reenergizes your mind.

5.) Make sure to drink a few glasses of water immediately after your workouts (ideally along with your post workout meal).

6.) Consider adding Glutamine Peptides or free form L-Glutamine to your supplement arsenal. These amino acids aid in muscle repair, recovery and volumization. Many bodybuilders who supplement with Glutamine report decreased recover times and a full "pumped" feeling in their muscles.