Instead of looking for a quick fix to gain weight, learn how to gain weight in a healthy manner by understanding nutrition and eating to build muscle.
If you are underweight and need to gain weight, understand that weight gain pills are NOT the answer! Training hard is very important to your weight gain program, but it’s only one of the steps that will lead you to success in gaining healthy weight. Eating well is just as important if not more important then lifting weights, and your diet should be tailored to support your weight training.
Most hard gainers are really only "hard gainers" because they simply are not eating enough. It all comes down to your caloric balance, which is the difference between the number of calories you eat and burn. If this caloric difference is positive, meaning you consume more calories than you burned, you will gain weight. Once you start getting serious about packing on muscle, as a hard gainer you will actually feel blessed with your genetics because you won't have much of a problem with gaining too much fat.
Did you know that 1 pound of weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. What this means is for every excess 3500 calories that you consume, you will gain a pound of weight (whether it be fat or muscle). Anyone who is trying to gain weight can expect to gain 1-2 pounds a week.
If you wish to aggressively gain weight, you may want to consume an extra 1000 calories each day. So if your calorie maintenance was 2000 calories/day, then you would want to eat 3000 calories/day weight gain diet to gain roughly 2 pounds each week. Most people will probably benefit from taking a less aggressive nutrition approach, because if they fail to keep up with eating the require number of calories they will lose the motivation to gain weight.
If you are working out hard but not eating enough calories to gain weight don’t expect significant gains in muscle mass. The following signs could be an indication that you probably are not paying enough attention to weight gain nutrition. In a nutshell, you need to eat more!
Losing weight instead of gaining weight
If you have been training hard consistently with heavy weights and you haven’t been gaining weight, then you might be eating just enough to maintain your weight. If you only focus on one component of your weight gain program then how can you expect to gain weight.
Decrease in muscular strength
If it appears that you are getting weaker rather than making strength gains, then you might not be eating enough or you could be over-training. You might be actually breaking down muscle rather than building new tissue. If this is happening to you it’s a good time to reassess your training program and make some adjustments. Don't train more then 3 days each week. Keep in mind that's its normal to experience the best strength gains in the first few weeks of starting a new weight training program. This is when your body is going through significant physiological changes.
Lack of energy during workout
Feeling fatigued will not only ruin your workout, but continuing to train while feeling like this might result in injury. One possible cause for these symptoms is not having enough stored energy in the form of muscle glycogen to supply your target muscle which are being exercised.
Make sure to eat on a regular schedule, ensuring you eat 6 proper meals each day, or you just won’t have the energy to operate at you best. This can be very frustrating and the trainee might not be able to explain why they don’t feel like themselves. If you are eating well and these symptoms persist seek medical attention.
Muscle strains and other workout injuries
It's important to realize that even though injuries happen due to things such as improper technique and over-training, you must consider the realistic possibility that poor nutrition increases the risk of injury. A diet and training program designed to gain mass, places heavy demands on your muscles, joints, bones, nervous system, and your system must have everything it needs to adapt to the changes placed on the body.
Finally, the majority of supplements don't work as claimed and are a huge waste of money. The money you spend on weight gain pills and other expensive weight gain supplements, you could have spent on real food. There are no shortcuts to gaining weight, just hard work and sweat.
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