You need to consume more calories than your body burns to gain weight.
You cannot gain weight if you are eating fewer calories than you are burning. In order to gain weight, you must eat more food than you are currently eating.
Are you looking to put on some muscle mass? If you’re naturally skinny or have a hard time gaining weight, this guide is for you.
Why You Can’t Gain Weight
Skinny people often believe they can eat whatever they want and not gain weight because they have a fast metabolism. Some think they can’t gain weight because they don’t digest the food they eat, are stressed out, or “have worms.”
If you want to maintain a slim figure, you can still enjoy your favorite foods – you just have to be mindful of how much you consume. Overeating is what leads to weight gain, not specific foods.
If you want to see why you’re not gaining weight, spend the next week logging everything you eat in an app like myfitnesspal. You’ll likely see that you’re not eating as many calories as you thought. This is the main reason why skinny men always overestimate how much they eat.
A high metabolism does exist, however, some people have a more difficult time gaining weight because they are more active. People who are naturally skinny tend to have small frames and aren’t born to be big and strong.
Anyone who eats more calories than they burn will gain weight, regardless of their metabolism, body type, or genetics. The only difference is that skinny people or people with high metabolisms will need to eat more food than the average person to gain weight.
The following text is about how metabolism affects weight gain. It argues that people should stop making excuses based on metabolism and instead focus on eating more than they burn. Believing that you can’t change your body because of your metabolism is a common excuse. However, this is mostly a matter of nutrition. If you consistently eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. It’s that simple.
The Best Types of Food to Eat for Weight Gain
The most important factor in gaining weight is the amount of food you eat, but the quality of your choices is also important.
A poor diet will make you feel sluggish, have a negative impact on your workouts, cause you to gain more fat than muscle, and potentially lead to health issues in the future.
Instead of eating whatever you want, you should aim to eat clean. Clean eating means eating more healthy foods that are made with simple, recognizable ingredients and avoiding heavily processed foods. Whole foods are usually rich in the nutrients you need to be healthy (vitamins and minerals).
This is because they contain a range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are essential for good health. Healthy foods can help you in many ways. They can help you recover from workouts faster, build muscle, and promote a better mood, energy level, and overall health in general. This is because they contain a range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are essential for good health.
This means that you don’t have to be perfect all the time, but you should try to be consistent and eat a balanced diet.
It can be difficult to stick to only eating whole foods when you need a lot of calories. In this case, it can help to eat more refined carbs and quick sources of energy. This is also where high-fat and energy-dense foods are useful.
7 Eating Strategies for Skinny Guys to Gain Healthy Weight
1. Eat more frequently: fuel your body with smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day to stoke your metabolism and avoid overeating. 2. Make sure you’re eating enough protein: protein helps to build muscle, so aim for 0.5-1 grams per pound of body weight. 3. Incorporate healthy fats into your diet: healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, and nuts are essential for building new tissue. 4. Eat plenty of carbs: carbs are essential for providing your body with energy to build new tissue. 5. Be patient: it takes time to put on new muscle, so don’t expect results overnight. Increasing the frequency of your meals is a good way to stoke your metabolism and avoid overeating. Eating more protein will help you to build muscle. It is also important to eat healthy fats and plenty of carbs for energy to build new tissue. Be patient, as it takes time to put on new muscle.
1. Choose Low Volume Foods to Gain Weight
Low-volume foods are options that are higher in calories but come in smaller portions. This means you can consume more calories without having to eat large amounts.
It is easier to get energy from smaller meals than from salads, but this does not mean that you have to eat junk food. There are many healthy foods that can support your increased needs.
One way to get concentrated macros (oils, proteins, sugars, etc.) that provide a significant source of calories is to extract them from whole foods. This is easy to do and doesn’t take up much space.
It also allows you to choose the type of bulking macros that work best for your health and your needs.
Healthy high-calorie foods to eat more of include:
Fats
- Plant-based oils, 1 tablespoon = 120 calories
- Olives and avocado, 10 olives or 1/2 cup avocado = 120 calories
- Nuts, seeds, and nut butters, 1/4 cup nuts or 2 tablespoons peanut butter = 170 calories
- Full fat cream and cheese, 2 tablespoons cream or 1 oz cheese = 100 calories
Carbs
- Natural sugars like maple syrup, honey, agave, and molasses, 1 tablespoon = 60 calories
- Whole-grain muffins, pancakes, and waffles, 1 large = 175 to 200 calories
- Dried fruit, 1/4 cup = 100 calories
Proteins
- Whole milk dairy products like yogurt and milk, 1 cup = 150 calories
- Protein powders, 1 scoop = 120 calories
2. Track Your Intake to Gain Weight
You need to measure your progress if you want to know how much food you should be eating. You can do this by logging everything you eat and drink using a food tracking app.
Be as precise as possible by avoiding estimating whenever possible. Here are some easy tips you can use to get the most out of your calorie counting app:
- Measuring the amount you are actually consuming using measuring cups and spoons
- Consider weighing your food for even more accuracy
- Include ALL ingredients used, including oils, seasonings, sauces, dressings and toppings
- Track every food and beverage you eat or drink, even small bites and sips count
- Be specific about brands when searching in the app or use bar-code scanning
3. Eat More Protein
For a skinny guy who weighs 132 pounds, he should be eating about 100 grams of protein a day in order to help with muscle building and recovery. Here are some of the best proteins sources for gaining weight:
- Steaks, ground round
- Chicken breast, chicken thighs
- Tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines
- Yoghurt, cottage cheese, milk
- Whole eggs
The amount of carbohydrates and fats you consume in relation to each other is not as important as making sure you eat more calories than your body burns. Focus on consuming 0.82 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day to build muscle. Once you have met your protein goals, fill the rest of your daily caloric intake with carbs and fats. Keep your approach simple.
Avoiding carbs and fats will make it harder to gain weight because they have more calories than proteins. Most people cannot gain muscle and weight without gaining some fat.
4. Eat More Meals
If you need 3500kcal/day to gain weight, it is easier to eat 5 meals of 700kcal than three meals of 1150kcal. Your stomach is small from years ofeating like a bird . Bigger meals force you to push yourself to finish your meal, and can make you feel like throwing up. Eat small meals instead.
If you want to gain weight, you should increase your eating window by waking up early and eating breakfast. Many skinny guys don’t eat anything for breakfast, then have a bagel at noon and a pizza for dinner. Their eating window is less than 10 hours long, which is why they can’t gain weight. You need to have at least three meals with calories in order to gain weight.
In order to gain weight, it is easier to spread your meals over the course of 16 hours, as opposed to consuming all your meals within an 8 hour period. This way, your meals can be smaller and your stomach will have a chance to digest in between meals. For example, a meal plan to gain weight may look something like this:
- Breakfast at 7am – oats, raisins, yoghurt, milk
- Snack at 10am – mixed nuts, banana
- Lunch at 1pm – chicken, pasta, parmesan
- Snack at 4pm – dried fruits
- Dinner at 7pm – steak with potatoes
This meal plan is difficult to stick to if you only eat between noon and bedtime. In order to stick to this plan, you have to eat five small meals every two hours, or three meals that total 1000 calories every three hours. Most skinny guys can’t stick to this for more than a day or two before quitting because they don’t have the appetite and their stomach is small.
If you are a skinny man who wants to gain weight, intermittent fasting is not a good idea. This is because it limits your eating window to eight hours a day. This may be a good strategy if you want to reduce how much you eat for fat loss or maintenance, but not if you want to increase your body weight.
You should wake up early, eat breakfast, and then eat three to four more meals later in the day.
5. Drink Mass Gainer Shakes
When you blend your food, it becomes more easily digestible than if it were in solid form. The blending process breaks down the food particles, which mimics pre-digestion. As a result, you don’t feel full for as long and can eat again more quickly. Therefore, if you consume some of your calories in liquid form, it will be easier to gain weight.
One simple way to make sure you’re getting enough calories each day is to make your own mass gainer shakes. They only take five minutes to make, which makes it easier to hit your calorie surplus every day. Here’s a recipe for a home-made mass gainer shake that has 1000 calories, which is perfect for skinny guys who want to gain weight.
- 100g Oats
- 1x Banana
- 1tbsp Peanut butter
- 300ml Whole Milk
- 2 scoops Whey protein
Just blend all the ingredients together. This shake will give you 1048 calories from 80g of protein, 120g of carbs, and 28g of fat. Drinking one for breakfast means you’ve consumed a third of your recommended daily calorie intake. You will gain weight easily if you eat two more meals and some snacks throughout the day.
Do not take weight gainer supplements as they often contain cheap sugars which will make you gain weight and produce gas. Buy regular whey protein and make your own weight gainer by adding oats and milk. This is cheaper and also healthier because you get vitamins, minerals and fiber instead of fake sugar.
6. Do Training
Lifting weights causes your body to create muscle mass. Your body uses the food you consume to heal your muscles and create new ones. Lifting also makes you hungrier, which helps you eat more.
If you don’t lift weights or do it correctly, you will store excess food as fat. This is what happens to people who eat more calories than they burn. Their body stores the extra energy as fat, usually around their belly. You want to go from skinny to muscular, not chubby.
Lifting is essential for skinny guys in order to increase their body-weight. The following are basic rules for lifting that all skinny guys should follow: ____________________________________________________________.
- Free Weights. More effective than machines because you must balance the weight yourself. Safer because you control how the bar moves. More effective than dumbbells because the weight is heavier, and you can add as little as 0.5kg/1lb per workout.
- Compound Exercises. Squats, Deadlifts, Bench, Press, Rows. These exercises work several muscles at the same time, with the heaviest weights. They trigger maximum strength and muscle growth in your entire body. The big fives must be the bulk of your routine.
- Progressive Overload. Always try to lift more weight than last time. This forces your body to gain in strength and muscle mass to lift the heavier weights you’re exposing it to. You can’t build muscle if you lift the same weight all the time. You must add weight.
- Proper Form. You must work your muscles through a complete range of motion for proper muscle development. Half Squats give you half the gains. Proper form also prevents injuries and help you lift heavier so you gain more strength and muscle mass.
- Rest. Muscles need rest to recover from your workouts. They can’t grow if you train them every day with gazillion of exercises. Skinny guys don’t need more than three full body workouts a week. Doing more won’t make you gain weight. Eating more calories will.
Working out more frequently will lead to more calorie burn, and therefore will require more food intake to create a caloric surplus. Cardio is not a good idea for this purpose. The bare minimum should be done to gain muscle.
7. Be Consistent to Gain Weight
There is no such thing as progress, growth, or change without consistency. Results don’t happen overnight and you can’t expect lasting results from a few weeks of work.
The most important part of any nutrition plan is staying consistent, although this can be difficult. Research suggests that consistency is vital for success, so it’s important to choose a diet you’ll be able to stick to.
It is important to build a strong foundation, keep up with training, and have a healthy diet to see results. Be patient and they will come!
