With the emphasis in society today so heavily focused on weight loss, there are much fewer resources for those looking to gain weight. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. In fact the methods are simple if you follow along with the tips we give you in this article you will be on your way to gaining weight the right way. On your way to gaining serious muscle mass. Weight gain is a product of what you eat and what calories you burn every day. It is as simple as that. How you gain your weight though can be complicated.
In order to gain weight you need to consume more calories than you burn. This becomes more and more difficult the more you participate in a rigorous lifting routine. You lift so hard to gain muscle mass, mean while you are often burning the very calories that you need to gain that mass. In order to provide your body with the fuel that it needs for serious weight gain and muscle mass you can use a simple formula as your starting point. Take your own weight and multiply it by 18. 200-pounds, you’re eating 3600 calories a day.
This can be difficult to do. It’s not hard to eat 3600 calories a day. Some of the drinks you can get at your local coffee shop will get you half way there before you’ve even started your day. But that kind of diet isn’t going to get you the kind of muscle mass gains that you are looking for. In order to get healthy weight gain you need to get your calories from a good source. This often means that you need to eat four, five, or even six meals a day rather than the traditional three.
Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to consume six meals, get your lifting in, and live your life. We can’t change lifting and we’ll leave your life up to you, but for the meals, you can always turn to a healthy meal replacement shake to quickly take in those missing calories. This is also a good option if you get all the meals in but the healthy food you are eating just doesn’t pack all that calories that you need.
Another thing that can benefit your weight gain and muscle mass is dietary supplements. Supplements containing specific amino acid blends, such as creatine and glutamine have shown some benefit in gaining muscle mass.
The last aspect of weight gain, and this is the most important one, is lifting. There is no substitute, no short cut, no easy way around the fact that you will need to lift heavy weights in order to gain muscle mass. A standard workout routine consists of moderate weight being lifted 10-15 times per set. Any one exercise can have from 4-6 sets. In order to gain muscle mass, you need to drastically increase the weight and change your routine to do 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps. Make sure that you are getting the most out of the time that you spend lifting. Check out our articles on compound exercises vs. isolation exercises as well as free weights vs. machine weights. There you’ll find tips for getting the most muscle gains out of the time you spend in the gym.
