Hardgainer Survival Guide
Do you struggle to put down the calories necessary to be in a calorie surplus in order to add muscle mass?
If so I’ve compiled a list of some of my top tips to beat your appetite and get down the necessary calories you need, so you can go from skinny to jacked.
Make sure you’re actively tracking your calorie intake. If you don’t know exactly how much you’re intaking you can’t make adjustments as you hit sticking points. Go to your app store on your phone and download MyFitnessPal and start tracking your food today. Everything you put in your mouth that contains calories needs to be tracked. Track your food and record your morning weight for 7 - 10 days and see what your weight trend is. If you lost weight or maintained your weight you need to increase your calories, but if you gained weight within the rate you wish to gain just be consistent with that intake until you’re no longer gaining.
Instead of creating a surplus of calories by just increasing carbs opt to increase carbs and fats. This will help to condense the food volume down since fats are 9 calories per gram vs carbs being 4 calories per gram.
Drink a portion of your calories to easily get down some calories. For example, start drinking milk with your meals, have a regular soda here and there or drink smoothies as a snack between meals. Peanut butter and olive oil can easily be added to smoothies to boost the calories without adding bulk to the smoothie…I promise you can’t taste the olive oil.
Learn your bodies hunger patterns, so you can take advantage of the times when your appetite is higher and get some extra calories down. For example, if you find you’re really hungry after your workouts take advantage of this and throw down 1,000+ calorie meals.
Instead of loading up on the low calorie options for foods or high volume foods throw in calorie rich foods like peanut butter, nuts, full fat ice cream, olive oil, butter, and pasta.
At the end of the day if you’re not getting in the needed calories to grow you’re not going to build muscle. Don’t be afraid to throw in some “dirty” foods here in there to boost your calories.
Bulking for hardgainers can be easier to tackle if you think about your calorie intake over the course of the week instead of day to day. For example if you need to consume 3,000 calories a day to gain weight over the course of 7 days that would be 21,000 calories. Going back to tip number 4 you can knock out a big portion of those calories when your appetite is the highest and just eat at maintenance the rest of the time. As long as you’re in a calorie surplus to where you’re gaining 1 - 2 pounds a month you’re set.
I hope this post finds you well and gives you some tips you can start implementing during your next lean gaining phase.
