One of the biggest struggles for hardgainers is how to gain weight, thus the name hardgainer. Those of us with overactive metabolisms or small appetites find it quite challenging to gain weight and to keep it on. How to gain weight for hardgainers takes a commitment to achieve what you think is impossible to achieve. It takes dedication, motivation, perseverance and a strong desire to achieve. A little bit of knowledge can’t hurt either. That’s where this article comes in.
If you are a hardgainer and you want to gain good, quality weight then you must change the way you think about eating. If you are strictly a three meal a day person it’s time to let that go. You need to change your mind set and start eating 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day. If you have a hardgainer’s metabolism then eating three meals a day won’t allow you to gain weight. There is too much time in between meals to allow you to maintain an increased caloric intake.
In order to effectively gain weight you have to know how many calories you typically burn on average during the day. You can learn this by searching the web for a BMR calculator. This tool will determine what your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is. Once you know how many calories you burn in a typical day you have to adjust how many calories you eat in a day. In order to gain weight you have to eat more calories than you burn off. It is not a bad idea to spend a few weeks documenting everything that you eat in a typical day. You should record how many calories you take in per meal and per day. This will be helpful because once you know this amount you can adjust your caloric intake to a higher level and ingest more calories per day.
The best way to start regarding how to gain weight for hardgainers is to increase your caloric intake by 500 calories per day. You should do this for 1 to 2 weeks. If you are not gaining any weight during that time increase your calories per day by an additional 300 to 500. If you are gaining weight then continue this for a couple more weeks. When your weight gain plateaus increase your calories by another 300 to 500. Continue this process until you have reached your desired weight.
In many cases it is too difficult or impossible for someone to eat 5 or 6 times a day. The solution for this lies in protein shakes. Protein shakes will help you supplement your protein intake as well as your total caloric intake throughout the day. It is fine to eat 4 meals a day and drink two protein shakes to make up the other meals that you are missing. The convenience of drinking a protein shake is an added benefit. A good tip is to make one or two pitchers of your favorite protein shake recipe ahead of time. Take a thermos large enough to hold two servings so you can drink them on the go.
An important sidenote regarding what you eat to gain weight. Stay away from foods that contain “empty calories.” This is not the kind of weight you want to gain. You must eat foods that promote lean muscle growth. This way as you are gaining weight and lifting weights you will develop a foundation of solid, lean muscle growth. If you are consuming a large quantity of foods high in saturated fat then you will have to work all the harder to burn that weight off to achieve a lean muscular appearance.
