Being naturally thin is one thing.
Being so skinny that your family members show concern for your health is another. If you’re anything like I was, you feel cheated by your “skinny genetics”.
You’re convinced that, perhaps, gaining weight is just an uphill battle…in a blizzard…with a huge monkey at the top throwing barrels down your path. Well, rest assured…you’re not doomed. And guess what? It has nothing to do with:
- your genetics
- your metabolism
- your somatotype (i.e. ectomorph, endomorph, etc.)
- or how many times you eat in a day
If you’re having trouble putting on size no matter how much you eat, how hard you train, or how many chalky protein shakes you guzzle, then this may be the most important article you ever read. I am going to give you 11 actionable tips guaranteed to put meat your bones!
1. Eat in a Hefty Surplus
If you’re not gaining weight, you’re not eating enough.
We know this because the laws of thermodynamics are pretty damn clear. Particularly the first one – Energy Balance. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only modified in form.
How Much Should I Eat to Gain Weight?
Finding a starting point and tracking your progress is critical for anyone who is trying to build the maximum amount of muscle mass without adding unwanted belly-fat.
If you’re a hardgainer, I would recommend starting at 16x your bodyweight in calories.
16 x 140lbs = 2240kcal
Now because this will vary from person to person, the 16 won’t always be accurate. However, it isn’t meant to be a definitive answer. It is simply a starting point. If you’re just starting out and gaining 0.5-1lbs per week, you’re in a big enough surplus to build muscle without too much fat gain.
2. Go High Carb
Anyone who is training regularly should never be afraid of carbs – especially if you’re a naturally skinny guy.
Truth is, despite what you may have heard in the latest Netflix Documentary, carbs are not very efficiently stored as body fat. In fact, carbohydrates play a vital role in your ability to gain weight and build muscle.
You see, carbohydrates are readily broken down into the body’s main source of energy – glucose. Glucose is used as energy and/or stored as glycogen in the muscles. The more energy we have available, the better we can perform. The better we can perform, the more adaptations we’ll stimulate. More adaptations equals more new muscle tissue.
How Many Carbs Should We Eat?
We have a good understanding of exactly how much protein we need on a daily basis in order to build muscle (0.8-1g per pound of bodyweight).
Science has shown that we don’t need more than 0.3-0.4g of dietary fat per pound. Once you’ve figured out your starting protein and fat intake, take whatever calories are left over and consume those in carbohydrates. They should make up about 50% or more of your total daily energy intake.
EAT ALL of the carbs…Image courtesy of: freeportusa.com
3. Wake Up Early
Intermittent fasting is a tool that trainees can use to reduce caloric intake, effortlessly, by reducing the amount of the time during their day in which they are allowed to consume meals.
If this strategy is extremely successful for weight loss, then it would only make sense that doing the opposite would be a viable option for weight gain.
Here’s what I mean. If you’re waking up at 10am and going to bed at 11pm, you’ve got 13 hours in which you can fit meals in. If you got up just a couple of hours earlier, it would give you a 15 hour window to consume the same amount of calories. Having an additional 3 hours to fit in a hefty 500kcal meal will, effortlessly, increase the amount of calories you eat in the day – making it much easier to reach your nutrition goals.
4. Never Skip Breakfast
Maybe you’re already getting up pretty damn early.
The problem may just be that you’re just not hungry when you wake up – and it causes you to fast till lunch time. Simply adding in a breakfast meal or shake upon waking can add anywhere from 250-500+ calories to your day.
This could be the difference between being at maintenance and reaching that necessary caloric surplus. Adding that breakfast meal may seem tedious for the first few days. Eventually, you’ll begin to adapt and notice yourself already hungry upon rising.
Mornings, before the sun rises are an absolutely magical time of day. Image courtesy of: the1thing.com
5. Keep Cardio to a Minimum
No, you’re not going to lose your muscle and end up looking like Christian Bale in The Machinist.
In fact, when done properly, cardio can actually help you build muscle. Another huge benefit of cardio, particularly for us skinny guys, is increased appetite. It’s probably why cardio has been linked to fat gain.
But the fact is, cardio is physical activity. Physical activity that 1) stresses the body and 2) expends energy. The higher our energy output, the more we need to input if you want to make up for lost calories. My suggestion is simple. If you absolutely must do cardio, keep it to 1-2 hours per week of low intensity steady state.
6. Eat First, Drink Last
Drinking water with your meals has been shown to increase satiety – making you feel fuller, faster.
Although this may be a great strategy for someone whose goal is weight-loss, it doesn’t help much when the goal is weight gain. For most of us, a huge reason we can’t gain weight is due to our energy needs exceeding our appetite.
If the goal is to gain weight and build muscle, we should aim to increase our appetite, not suppress it. This is why I highly suggest that you eat first and drink last.
7. Don’t Overdo The Protein Intake
Protein has been shown to decrease appetite, dramatically.
This is due to how slowly proteins are digested. That’s why it’s much harder to get 250 calories from a lean chicken breast than it is from a bag of potato chips.
And because we are fully aware that we don’t need to consume more than 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, we shouldn’t.
Follow a proven program that focuses on overall muscle mass by making heavy compound lifts the focal point. Image courtesy of: muscleandstrength.com
8. Build Your Body, Not Your Biceps
If you’re scrawny, you’re a beginner.
And if you’re a beginner, you don’t have weak points – your entire body is weak. This is why you should ditch specialization training that focuses on building specific muscle-groups.
Instead follow a well thought out, proven program that focuses on overall muscle mass by making heavy compound lifts the focal point. If your training program doesn’t prescribe squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, bench press, pull ups, or at least a variation of these, cut it loose!
9. Learn to Cook
Learning to cook will save you some money (especially when you get good enough to replicate the meals you typically order at expensive restaurants).
Preparing the food yourself also lets you adjust the ingredients to fit your goals. There are no cons to knowing exactly what you’re putting in your body.
More importantly, learning to cook will allow you to prep your meals in advance. And because we all live extremely busy lives these days, having food readily available makes it that much less likely that you’ll end up short on calories for the day.
Preparing for Success
Take a look at your schedule for the week and find a couple of days where you have a bit of free time.
If you have to sacrifice TV time, do it! Once you have your 1 or 2 days picked out, schedule a 1-2 hour block dedicated to preparing your foods.
Allowing 48-72 hours between “meal prep days” would be ideal. This will allow you to prep accordingly. For example: Prep meals on Monday for Tuesday, Wednesday, and the better part of Thursday. Then Thursday night can be dedicated to prepping for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
10. Forget “Eating Clean”
Eating Clean – What the hell does that mean anyway?
Are some foods really more sanitary than others? Should we throw our pop tarts in the washer before consumption?
Seriously, though…the whole idea of “eating clean” is extremely restrictive. It leads us to believe that some foods are good, and others are bad. But no one has ever dropped dead from 1 candy bar – just like no one has gotten up in the morning lean and healthy from consuming a few servings of vegetables. This is not to say that we should opt for the mint chocolate chip ice-cream over apples and carrots. But being too restrictive in your diet is 1) making it damn near impossible to eat enough and 2) removing one of the biggest joys of life – delicious food.
If you’ve ever attempted to get 3000kcal from chicken and broccoli, you know what I’m talking about. Although I do advocate a, mostly minimally-processed, whole food diet – I also promote a flexible way of eating. If 80-90% of your foods are coming from minimally-processed, whole foods, then don’t be afraid of getting the other 10-20% from that strawberry pop-tart– assuming it fits into your overall macro and micronutrient goals. Not only will this make dieting more enjoyable, but consuming enough calories to grow becomes a breeze when you actually enjoy what you’re eating.
Eating Clean – What the hell does that mean anyway? Image courtesy of: thrillist.com
11. Know Where You Are – Get Where you’re Going
If I asked you for directions to your house, but you had no idea where I was coming from, do you think you could tell me how to get there?
Similarly, if you don’t know how much you’re eating or how big of surplus (or deficit) you’re in, then how can the proper adjustments be made? The same goes for your training. If you don’t know how much work you did in your last session, how can you expect to aim for progression in the future?
Tracking Your Calories
Free apps like My Fitness Pal or My Macros+ make tracking your nutrition simple. Once you know your macronutrient goals, simply plug in your food items as you eat and the app does the rest.
Tracking Your Weight
Tracking your weight is the only way you’ll be sure that you’re eating enough.
This is due to fluctuations in weight caused by inconsistent sodium intake, water, glycogen, and a number of other delicate variables. If you’re not tracking, you’re guessing.
What I suggest is simple:
- Start hitting macronutrient numbers, daily.
- Start weighing yourself every morning under the same circumstances.
- After week 1, get an average of your daily weigh-ins.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2.
- After week 2, get an average of your daily weigh-ins and compare it to week 1.
If your average weight has stayed the same, then you’re at maintenance. Simply add some carbs (15-25 grams per day) and that should be more than enough to put you in the green.
If your average weight has increased, then voila, you’re in a caloric surplus and you’re putting on size. If you’ve gained less than 0.5-1 pound, increasing your carb intake by 15g should do the trick. If you end up losing weight, although it’s unlikely, that’s fine too. This means that the current intake is not enough to sustain your current weight. If this is the case, bring up the carbs by about 50 grams.
Tracking Your Workouts
As a beginner, progression in the gym should be linear.
This is due to our being hyper-responsive to the stimulus when we’re new to weight training. As long as we can continue to increase the stimulus, we will adapt and grow.
A few ways to do this are:
- Increase the intensity (weight used) without sacrificing volume (sets and reps).
- Increase the volume without sacrificing intensity.
As a beginner, your program should take full advantage of your distinct ability to progress from session to session. If the last time you bench pressed, you managed to hit 135lbs for 4 sets of 8, then a simple progression would be to move up to 140lbs for the same total volume.
For example:
135 x 8 reps x 4 sets = 4,320lbs Total Workload
Simple Progression:
140 x 8 reps x 4 sets = 4,480lbs Total Workload
If we can manage to maintain a consistent surplus over time – while also ensuring that we are increasing the stress we place on our muscles – our body will be forced to adapt to the stimulus by building new muscle tissue while ensuring that we have the necessary nutrients available to optimize this process.
In Closing
Gaining weight and building muscle is simple – adhere to your program, eat more energy than you expend, aim to get stronger in the gym, and voila!
However, it’s not enough to know how many calories you need, you actually have to consume them consistently. And getting stronger, after a certain period of time, is easier said than done.
If you manage to stay consistent, track your progress, and be patient – you’ll have no problem building a body that will get you out of the kids section when clothes shopping.
About the Author
Alain Gonzalez is a former skinny guy turned jacked fitness pro whose transformation story has been featured in articles on websites all over the internet. He has dedicated his life to helping naturally skinny guys like himself to overcome their genetics and take their physiques to the next level.
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