The Scrawny Guys Guide to Weight Gain

This article goes over how to pack on pounds.  For all the lightweight lifters out there looking to go up a class, or you mass monsters looking to pack on yet more size, this will definitely get you on your way to some serious size.


#1  Eat 6 Times per Day

Eating 6 times per day keeps the metabolism going which in turn will also sky rocket your fat burning.  Don’t think that you are going to gain quality size eating 3 square meals per day. The only type of mass you will put on eating that way will be the fat type, and this is not our objective.  There is no way that you can reach your caloric needs eating 3 meals per day, its impossible. If by some magical reason you can eat them in 3 meals, you will be so full that you won’t be able tie up your own shoes let alone pound out some heavy dead lifts.Ideally you should be eating every 3 hours.  (Hint:  pack an extra lunch and eat at your desk).  If you don’t eat often enough, you can limit the rate at which your body builds new proteins. Get rid of the mentality that power lifters can optimize their performance on three meals per day, it’s scientifically impossible. Eating 6 times per day will also keep your blood sugar levels stabilized. Eating several times per day will provide your body with a constant supply of nutrients that you need to recover from your hard workouts. 

# 2  Plan your meals

The best way to ensure success with your diet is planning ahead.  Make 4-5 days worth of healthy meals in advance.  Freeze extras you can easily pull out and heat up.  Make your meals a no brainer and you won’t be tempted to cheat on your diet.

Macronutrients are the Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats that provide you energy which is measured in Calories. It is crucial to know this and could be the difference between you building muscle and not building muscle.

Ratios are

• Building Muscle Ratio 35 Protein /45 Carbs / 20 Healthy Fats

Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein 30 minutes before you go to bed. Eat again as soon as you wake up. The more diligent you are, the better results you’ll get.

#3 Double it Up

One of the most practical steps you can take to gaining weight is by doubling what you are currently eating in the kitchen right now. If you are eating one chicken breast per meal than cook up two. If you are only eating two slices of bread than make it four. If you are eating one handful of nuts than make it two. If you are using only two scoops of protein powder than make it three. Pretty simple? Most likely you are only a few dozen meals short of filling out those underdeveloped body parts. I assume you are already in the kitchen and have the food out. Perhaps finding the time to get in extra meal is your next challenge to overcome but for right now you have no excuse not to shovel down a greater percentage of calories by doubling it up!

#4  Increase Daily Water intake

Drink lots and lots of water.  Adequate water intake aids in fat loss, proper digestion, and cell volumization.  This is where nutrients are pulled inside of the muscle cell causing a multitude of reactions that leads to muscle growth.  Hydrated muscle cells are more anabolic (muscle building).   Dehydration will cause a major decrease in performance. Even a 2% state of dehydration will cause your performance to go out the window.

Water keeps your organs functioning properly, clears toxins, reduces excess sodium from your body and it hydrates your muscle cells.  High protein diets require a lot of water.  The extra water is needed to reduce stress on kidneys and liver.  Water even liberates fat stores on your body so they are burned off as an energy source.  Water is very important in many processes including digestion, transportation and the absorption of nutrients.

So how much water should you drink on a daily basis?  The recommended amount of water for the average person is 8 glasses per day, but for building muscle and losing weight, water intake must be increased. How much water is needed will depend on weight, what supplements you are taking and if it is a rest day or workout day. The recommended amount is about 0.7 ounces per lb.   Bodybuilders who take Creatine will require even more water intake. 

#5  Sleep

Sleep is essential in gaining lean mass.  Your body repairs and recovers from your workout as you sleep.  During this time, your muscles grow.  Remember this, if you aren’t sleeping you aren’t growing and getting stronger. Think back to a time when you couldn’t get optimal sleep either during college exam time, or another time when sleep was of the essence. Think back how your strength level was, or how you were actually losing size. So how much sleep do you need per day?  You should be getting at least 8 full hours of sleep per day when trying to gain size. If you can get a 1 hour nap per day on top of this it will be even better. Getting proper sleep is a must for muscle growth. Without it you can kiss gains in strength and size goodbye!

#6  Consume Enough Protein

If you are going up a weight class and you aren’t eating the right amount of protein, guess what? You will put on a nice extra layer of fat over your body, instead of gaining some serious muscle tissue.  If you don’t eat optimal amounts of protein, you will never put on the muscle mass that you so much desire.  When trying to put on size, you have to make sure you constantly supply your body with essential amino acids throughout the day.  You should consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.  Consume between 1.25-1.5 grams of protein per pound when trying to pack on the size.  If you just jack up your carbs and fat without supplying your body with the protein that it needs, you will end up looking like “Mr. Marshmallow” instead of a strength athlete.  We cannot stress how important protein is to building muscle. If you cannot eat enough protein from meals get protein shakes.  Protein is number one above all other supplements when building muscle and maintaining it. No protein will equal no muscle.

Amino acids are the building blocks that you will need to gain lean muscle tissue, to ensure that going up a weight class will be muscle, not fat.  Protein helps in the recovery of your muscles from the intense training you perform as a power lifter. As you probably already know, protein is the main nutrient responsible for increasing lean muscle tissue. You can work out all day long but if you don’t eat the right amount of protein for your specific needs and activity expenditure, then you will never reach your peak in strength, that’s guaranteed!  

#7  Maximize your Carbohydrate Intake

When you are trying to gain solid weight, you have to consume carbs.  When trying to put on size, you should consume 1.5-3 grams of carbs per pound of body weight.  
This all doesn’t have to come from food, as there are many good glucose polymer drinks available that can help you fulfill your daily requirements. One glucose polymer drink can supply 100 grams of carbohydrates in as little as 12-16oz of water.  The majority of the carbs that you eat when you are trying to go up a weight class should come from complex carbohydrates. These include oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, potatoes, yams, brown rice, and grains including quinoa, amaranth, millet, and teff.  What’s nice about these grains is that they provide variety in your diet and are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates.

Let’s not forget your fibrous carbs including your salads and vegetables. These are very important and should be consumed with at least 3 of your daily meals. Fiber is very important in the digestion process and eliminating toxins from the body. If you are not getting adequate amounts of fiber in your nutritional plan, now’s the time to increase them.  It’s hard to pack on size if you have a severe case of constipation.  You may laugh, but this is one of the first things that happen to someone trying to gain weight.  Many individuals increase their caloric and protein intake yet, forget to do the same with their fiber and water. 

Down carbs after your workout.  Research shows that you’ll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates.  Post-workout meals with carbs increase your insulin levels, which, in turn, slows the rate of protein breakdown.  Have a banana, a sports drink, or a peanut-butter sandwich after your workout.

#8  Bump up your Fat Intake

Fats should consist of 30% of your total caloric intake.  Fat is where it’s at, especially if you are a strength athlete.  Your fat intake is definitely associated with how strong you will be. Now don’t get the wrong idea here. This doesn’t mean put extra Mayo on your burger, or a quart of gravy on your turkey breast, or to load up on fatty cuts of bacon and sausage. Yes, you want to increase your saturated fat slightly when trying to pack on size, but the majority should come from your Polyunsaturated and Monounsaturated fats.   Foods high in polyunsaturated fat include a number of vegetable oils, including soybean oil, corn oil and safflower oil, as well as fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring and trout.  Other sources include some nuts and seeds such as walnuts and sunflower seeds.  Salmon and other cuts of fatty fish are also good sources of Omega 3 fats.  Examples of foods high in monounsaturated fats include vegetable oils such as olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil and sesame oil.  Other sources include avocados, peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and many nuts and seeds. 

#9  Drink Milk

Milk is the drink of all strength champions.  If you look at the eating habits of the strongmen and power lifters of the past, milk was a major part of their diet.  Paul Anderson, a man whose strength feats have gone down in history, used to drink several gallons of milk per day. I read that he used to drink a gallon of milk just during his workout.  Even the old school bodybuilders used to drink large amounts of milk. It supplies the body with an excellent source of protein. Its main source is casein protein, which is a slower released protein source than whey. It also supplies simple carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals to help round things out. Milk has different caloric rates depending on which type you consume. Bodybuilders should drink 2% or whole milk, as it will supply you with valuable calories when looking to gain weight. The best time to consume them is with your protein shakes as it can really help with the taste. When trying to pack on mass, milk should definitely be part of your plan!

#10  Increase your Meat Consumption

Increase you lean meat consumption when trying to gain weight.   This includes skinless chicken breasts, lean cuts of steak, extra lean ground beef, turkey, veal and lean cuts of pork.  At least one meal of the day should consist of lean red meat and the other meals can be comprised of fish and lean white meats like turkey and chicken. Make sure that the cuts are lean and you cut off any visible fat.  If you consume all the fatty meats the only thing that will go up is your cholesterol, not your performance.


#11 Take a Weight Gaining Supplement Powder



Because you can only consume so much food, Weight Gaining Protein Powders like Optimum Nutrition’s Serious Mass bring quality calories in the form of a tasty shake.  Serious Mass provides quality calories from staged proteins and rapidly assimilated carbs to help replenish the glycogen burned up during all that heavy lifting.  ON’s Serious Mass delivers nutritional support with 1250 calories from 50 grams of protein and over 250 grams of carbohydrates.  It’s a mass building meal that’s ideal between meals and also for post-workout recovery.

ON’s Serious Mass brings added glutamine, creatine and a healthy dose of 25 vitamins and minerals-all without any added sugar.  Take a breather from the weight room conquest and size up the incredible potential these 1250 quality calories hold.  Your strength is making the commitment to push yourself with every trip to the gym.  ON’s strength is giving you the serious nutritional support needed to turn your effort into personal bests.

Adding Calories Has Never Been This Easy or Tasted So Good!

Mix and match the following ingredients to add variety and increase the caloric value of your Serious Mass shake:

Serving Size & Calories
1/2 cup Granola -250
1/4 cup Chocolate Chips, Semi Sweet -198
1 tbsp. Peanut Butter -190
1 oz. Almonds -167
1 oz. Peanuts -164
1/2 cup Ice Cream, Vanilla -160
1 cup Whole Milk -150
1/2 cup Coconut, Shredded -139
1 tbsp. Flaxseed Oil -115
1/2 cup Oat Bran, Dry -108
1 small Banana -105
1 tbsp. Honey -64
1 tbsp. Molasses -43


#12  Supplements To Help Build Muscle Fast

• Protein Powder Shakes– Protein shakes are great because they take minutes to make and servings are usually 32-40g of protein, which is like eating a steak or turkey. View Protein Powders Here.
• Multi-vitamin – Multivitamins are not just for building muscle but are important for improving of one’s overall heath. Vitamins help with our metabolism and are needed to stimulate thousands of chemical reactions within our bodies.  View Multi-vitamins Here
• BCAA’s – Branched Chain Amino Acids are building blocks of muscle mass and size. Metabolized directly in the muscle, BCAAs, may improve nitrogen retention by sparing other amino acid groups for repair and rebuilding. View BCAA’s Here
  
• Creatine– Creatine is an amino acid that is naturally produced by our bodies to provide energy to our muscles. Numerous studies have shown Creatine to increase energy, strength, muscle and reduce recovery time. View Creatine Supplements Here
  
• CLA – Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) has been show to increase lean mass (muscle) while decreasing body fat. All this while improving the immune system.  CLA has also been shown to increase metabolic rate, decreases abdominal fat, enhance muscle growth, lower cholesterol and triglycerides, lower insulin resistance, reduce food-induced allergic reactions and enhance the immune system

#13 Work Your Biggest Muscles

If you’re a beginner, just about any workout will be intense enough to increase protein synthesis.  But if you’ve been lifting for a while, you’ll build the most muscle quickest if you focus on the large muscle groups, like the chest, back, and legs. Add squats, dead lifts, pullups, bent-over rows, bench presses, dips, and military presses to your workout. Do two or three sets of eight to 12 repetitions, with about 60 seconds’ rest between sets. 

#14 Lift Every Other Day

Do a full-body workout followed by a day of rest. Studies show that a challenging weight workout increases protein synthesis for up to 48 hours immediately after your exercise session.  Remember to schedule and active rest days.  Your muscles grow when you’re resting, not when you’re working out.  View a Full Body Workout Here