13 Tips For Guaranteed Weight Gain

So you’re a skinny nerd

In the
fitness world you’re called a
“hardgainer.” You weigh 125 lbs.,
you eat whatever you want, and
you still can’t gain weight.  You’re
ready to bulk up, build some
muscle, and get strong like a
mofo…but you have no freaking
cue what you’re doing. Luckily,
you’ve found this site, and I’m
here to help (I used to be a skinny
guy too).
Here are 13 tips for you to get
started:

1. Eat a lot – This sounds much
easier than it really is.
Whatever you’re eating now,
you should probably double
it. If you eat three meals a
day, instead eat six. You
need to be eating every 2-3
hours, and each meal needs
to be the size of a normal
meal. This is going to be
difficult for a few weeks,
because you’ll often have to
force yourself to eat even
when you’re not hungry. 500
extra calories a day = 1 extra
pound gained per week .
Whatever you’re eating now,
add an additional 1000
calories (spread throughout
the day), and you’ll put on 2
lbs a week. Not just any
calories though…

2. Eat a lot of good things - You
need to eat a ridiculous
amount of calories (probably
3500+ per day) if you want to
gain weight, but you want to
make sure most of those
calories are GOOD calories.
You could easily get 3500
calories eating Taco Bell and
Twinkies, and drinking
Mountain Dew, but that will
just make you fat. If you
want to build muscle, you
want to eat healthy calories
that are loaded with good
protein, good carbs, and
healthy fats…which brings me
to my next point:

3. Protein = building block for
your muscles. Chicken, fish,
meat, eggs, milk, almonds,
peanuts. Eat lots of this stuff,
all the time. Read more
about protein

4. Carbs will help you put on
weight, but it won’t be
muscle – pasta, brown rice,
wheat bread, oatmeal, etc.
will help you put on weight,
but a lot of that weight will
be fat. Every meal should
have vegetables and fruit. If
you just eat protein, your
body will resort to using it for
energy rather than building
muscle. I learned this the
hard way in college; four
years of exercising and three
protein shakes a day got me
NOTHING. Unless you’re
eating tons of good fats
(almonds FTW), good carbs
(fruits and veggies), and
protein, you won’t be gaining
weight.

5. Keep track of everything you
eat - Sign up for a site light
dailyburn.com (it’s free),
input your stats and start to
track every one of your meals.
It will tell you if you’re eating
enough calories, enough
protein, and enough carbs.
This site has helped me put
on 15 lbs since last fall.

6. Compound exercises are
your friend– Concentrate on
complex, compound exercises
that recruit as many muscles
as possible: bench presses,
dumbbell presses, squats,
deadlifts, pull ups, chin ups,
and dips. Do these exercises,
and concentrate on lifting as
much weight as possible.
Don’t worry about triceps
extensions, shoulder shrugs,
bicep curls or crunches.  All
of the compound exercises
listed here use every muscle
in your body, and when you
overload your body with
calories and protein, those
muscles will grow. Don’t
worry about isolation
exercises until you’re up to
your goal weight and ready to
tone down. Read about
squats here , deadlifts here,
and pull ups here.

7. Appearance is a consequence
of fitness – This is the
mantra of the actors of who
trained for the movie 300 –
would you be okay looking
like a Spartan?  Concentrate
on being really strong and
lifting heavy weights, and your
body will follow suit. It
doesn’t matter if you can only
bench press 10 lb dumbbells
right now. Wherever you’re
starting out, concentrate on
being stronger each and every
time you exercise. Push
yourself, get stronger, lift
more, and before you know it
you’ll be ripped.

8. When exercising, keep your
rest between sets to a
minute or less, and don’t do
more than 12 reps in a set –
Keep your range of reps
between 6 and 12, and try to
keep the time you rest
between sets to a minute or
less. Example: incline
dumbbell chest press – 12
reps of 50 lbs, wait a minute,
10 reps of 55lbs, wait a
minute, 8 reps of 60 lbs.

9. Let your muscles rest - never
exercise the same muscle two
days in a row. Your muscles
get rebuilt (larger) during
your days off, so never
exercise the same muscle
before it’s ready.  I usually
wait at least 48 hours before I
hit the same muscle again.

10. Sleep – you need to be
getting 8-9 hours of sleep
every night for maximum
gains.  Your body is doing
nothing but lying there and
building muscle while you’re
sleeping. If you are only
getting 6 hours or less, you’re
not going to get all the
benefits of your exercising
and diet. I know it’s tough,
but those 3AM raids on
Runnyeye need to be put on
hold for a few months. SLEEP.

11. Cardio is your enemy –
Running long distances isn’t
going to help you. If you’re
going to run, do sprints or
run up a hill. Think about it:
would you rather look like a
sprinter or a marathon
runner?  Keep your distance
cardio to a minimum if you
want to put on some pounds.

12. Make it part of your routine
- It’s okay to skip a workout
here and there, but it is NOT
okay for you to skip a meal if
you’re serious about weight
gain. You need to be always
eating. It sucks, it’s
practically a full time job, but
it’s what you have to do. Eat.

13. Realize you will put on some
fat – with all of this eating,
you are going to be putting
on some fat along with your
muscle. That’s okay! Figure
out what your goal weight is,
and then add another 5-10
lbs on top of it. Once you
get to that weight, cut back
on the carbs in your diet, do
more sprints, and keep
exercising: you’ll shed the fat
quickly and be left with a
killer figure. Eat all the
vegetables you want, but cut
back on breads, pasta, rice,
and oatmeal.

source: CAMPUSPEEPS