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How to Gain Weight

Perhaps one of the biggest desires of many weight trainers is the need to increase body weight. Here are a few guidelines that should help keep the scales moving, but with minimal fat increase.

  • Eat 6 roughly equal meals a day.
  • Get 30g protein per meal.
    Use whey protein, tuna, chicken, milk, or other moderate quality sources. See the "Comparison of Protein Sources".
  • Drink 1-2 gallons of water a day.
  • Eat roughly 20 times your bodyweight (in lbs) of calories per day.
  • If you are moderately lean to begin with, don't be afraid of putting on a little bit of fat.
    Attempting to limit the amount of fat that you put on will almost certainly guarantee a slower rate of muscle increase. Fat can generally be dieted off at a later stage easily.
  • A relatively good, cheap weight-gainer is chocolate milk.
    It has about 180 Cal per serving, with enough fat content to dampen the resulting blood-glucose peak from the high sugar content.
  • Don't buy a "Mega Gainer".
    If you're going to purchase a weight-gainer, don't buy one of these Mega Mass 4000, etc. products. These are usually caseinates / egg white protein with considerable dextrose or maltodextrin added. You would be better off buying a Met-RX ripoff (240Cal, 37g protein, 24g carbohydrate), and mixing it with skim milk.
  • Have a quality meal at least every 3 hours.
  • Eat your breakfast (high in protein) as soon as you wake up.
    This gets your metabolism started as early as possible and helps get your body out of the early-morning catabolic state. If you're taking creatine monohydrate, then eat your breakfast 30-45 minutes after your dose for maximal CM absorption.
  • Immediately after your workout, get a good 30g quick carbohydrate snack.
    This will help to start the replenishment of your glycogen stores.
  • Within 2 hours of the completion of your workout, eat a full high protein, high carbohydrate meal.
    This is the most important meal for protein.
  • The day after your workouts, a time for recovery, is another period when increased protein is suggested.
  • Get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.
    To make getting to sleep easier, eat a small carbohydrate meal before bedtime, and avoid significant protein. The carbohydrate snack will help release l-tryptophan, a good sleep inducer. Melatonin is also beneficial in aiding sleep.

Cal.

 

Reader's Comments:

Please leave your comments or suggestions below!
2014-04-11 
 by others here. For every gram of daetiry fiber consumed, you will flush 7 calories from your system through elimination.If you were to eat a normal amount of food (good food) say 2000 calories,but 40 grams of fiber, say a orange(10gr) apple(5gra) wholebread(5gr per slice=10), maybe fiber snack bar(10) pear(5) just example, you also eat a small amount of protien (chicken, fish etc, no skin) ok so now you formulate the grams of fiber at 40grams, 40 times 7 =280,,,,,,,,ok calorie intake is 2000,,,,,,, 2000 minus 280(calories lost through stool elimination) equals1720 calories . You do however still need to burn those calories through some sort of movement, housework, excersize, etc, whatever you normally do, for every movement theres a certain amount of calorie loss(ok not really loss, but use.) Also eating small portions several times a day helps, eat some thing every two to three hours during the day, it keeps the metabolism working throuhout the entire day, so the body constantly burns calories.
2009-10-16Dan
 Met-RX...WHats that? A weight gainer?
 It was a popular meal replacement supplement: Met-Rx on Wikipedia
2009-03-10anabel
 am lossin my ass i use to have it when younger after i had my kid idk what happen i had diabetes for my pregnancy idk if that affected me but i will like to get some help on how to gain my weight back as nfar as my ass and everything else
2009-01-05Leo Cobb
 hey im am 18 year old male who weigh's 165 pounds and at a height of 5"10. Im not satisfied with my weight, i eat 5 medium meals a day and somtimes i will pack my plate with fatty foods like eggs, bacon, sausage and foods like that. I,ve been doing that for a while and i havent seen any results, I was just hoping if you could help me out with my problem.
2008-08-05Candice Yong
 i am a skinny girl, my body is very thin....... anyone can tell me how to gain weight on my ass, shoulder, arm and breast.......

please help me, cause i ate like a monster too......it's useless for me to gain weight no matter how.
please tell me .....help me, thanks!
2008-06-25Ashwin
 Could you please tell me some of the easily indian market available products for weight gain ....Is Met-RX ripoff as mentioned a useful product ..please advice
 
2007-06-28Nithish
 Hey!
Am 5'7 about 137 pounds. Ill look 120 tho, blame it on my bone wight. I have recently started to visit the gym. I dont think i can lift wights, but i do a lot of other Stuffs @ the YMCA, bench press, Arm curls, Lat pull downs, Shoulder press arm extention, chest press, abdominal crunch. APart from these Cable Shrugs and a few other cable curls along with fore arm curls. i think am pretty much streamlined in this, i can feel a few of muscles flexing.
But the 2000 Calorie goal is wat i find tough, cuz i prepare my lunch n dinner @ home not sure how many i intake.
B/f i have a couple of waffles n a glass of chocolate milK.

Should i start takin this coffee coolatta with Skim milk from DD after my workout, cuz they r low fat, high calorie protein drink.. going by the nutrition facts!!!..

If not, Suggest a few High protein n some high carbo food.

Thanks!!!
2007-06-06frederick sammons
 ive been in iraq now for 8 months and the 1st 2 months i went from 168lbs to 185lbs. but have only gained 3 pounds in 6 months. i eat 4 times daily and lift every other day, and take a 51 gram protein shake right after i lift. on my workout monday i do chest and triceps, wed. i do back and biceps, and on fri. i do legs, is this a good routine? how do i break this plateu?
2007-02-15cody
 to loose your body fat try running and cardio workouts not so much of lifting, also try fat losing pills they actually do work.
2006-10-30Jerel
 Hey, I've been weightlifting for a year at age 14 and I haven't gained any weight. I really don't know how much protein I'm taking because I eat meat and rice but I don't weigh it to know how much g I'm taking. My solution is a protein powder, but can you suggest any foods that would help with weight gaining and strengthening of my muscles effectively without giving me a measurement (average an amount please?)
2006-10-05Jason
 First of all, you definately need to eat more than 30g of protein for each meal. At 30g/meal and 6 meals a day, that's only 180g of protein. Any poor to average bodybuilder will recomend the consumption of atleast 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, and up to 2g per pound. 180g is not enough to help supply your muscles with the necessary protein needed to gain sufficient muscle mass. College athletes such as myself are advised to eat about 1.5g protein per pound of bodyweight, which would be about 350g per day for myself. This is a lot, but to continue having your body in an anabolic and hypertrophic state, it is best to consume more than your body can absorb. Protein intake is like a gas tank, you should always put more than necessary in the tank just to make sure to cover all the bases. As far as lbs. go, you must create an excess in calories every day to assist weight and strength gain. 3500 cals will equal one pound of body weight, so shoot for an extra 500 cals a day to gain good weight consistently and safely.
2006-10-05geo
 I work out 4 days a week for about 2hrs and all thats been happening is that ive just been getting stronger and i havent gained more than 5lbs and i have taken aminio acids whey protein and cell mass and none of that has helped. And I need to gain weight before next spring so that I could play football in the college level. What can I do?
2006-09-25kevin
 i dont get it.. y not mega mass 4000? wot does dextrose do?
 The main point is that they are composed with a significant proportion being simple sugars such as dextrose. It is far better to get a more even balance with proteins, complex carbs and fats if possible -- simple sugars will tend to cause significant short-term fluctuation in your blood sugar level, which may leave you feeling hungry again. Everyone's body reacts differently, so if they work for you, by all means go for it!
2006-04-19Drew
 I ate like a monster, but why is it that my tummy is the only thing that increases in size?
 Assuming that you were consuming quality meals (high in protein, relatively low in fat), then it will take time to put on lean mass. Over-eat in a short period of time and that food will instead be stored as energy (fat). The hard part is finding a balance where you are consuming more than you expend (ie. eat more), but not so much that you are exceeding your ability to put on the LBM.
2006-04-05Heath
 i work out about three days a week and all i hear is how to gain but can anyone tell me how to lose my body fat?

 

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