How to Pack on Mass Fast for Skinny Guys (or Hard Gainers)
You’ve been training for some time, eating all the ‘bodybuilding food’, and on paper, it seems like you’re doing everything right. But you just can’t seem to put on any size despite all the hard work, and get frustrated. You look at yourself in the mirror daily and feel like you’re just destined to be skinny forever, or in other words, a hard gainer.
I’ve come across many people who once thought they were hard gainers. No matter how much they ate or trained, they just can’t seem to put on any weight onto their skinny frame. Although there are studies that show that body types are not pseudoscience, it is still definitely possible for hard gainers to put on significant muscle mass as long as they are eating and training right. And after these hard gainers realized their mistakes and optimized their training and nutrition, they started to add pounds of muscle to their frame after consistency and patience.
I am pretty sure most of you hard gainers can do the same too. And in this article, I’ll be going through the things skinny guys should be doing to put on muscle mass in the most efficient way possible. Let’s dive in.
Like losing weight, struggling to gain weight can be equally frustrating. Luckily, here are some ways to surely pack on more mass.
1. Track your Weight
Most hard gainers struggle to gain muscle simply because they aren’t eating enough. And how do you ensure you’re eating enough? It is by tracking your weight consistently. If you aren’t tracking your weight consistently, you won’t be able to know if you’re gaining mass or not. Visual differences can be so gradual that you won’t be able to tell with your naked eye. Even measurements of bicep, chest and shoulder circumferences can go unnoticeable on a week-to-week basis.
What you should do is to track your weight daily and compare the weekly average, aiming to gain about 1% of bodyweight per month. For example, if you’re 70 kg, aim to gain about 700 g of bodyweight per month. If you’re gaining less than that, you should consciously try to eat more. On the other hand, if you’re gaining more than that, you should try to cut back on your bulk. Gaining weight too quickly will just mean that you’re putting on too much body fat without putting on more muscle. This will be elaborated more below.
Tracking your weight - something simple yet so powerful.
2. Eat Calorie-Dense or Less Filling Foods
If you have been eating till you’re too full and uncomfortable, yet still not gaining enough weight, you should adjust the types of food that you’re eating.
A mistake commonly made by hard gainers is to only eat “bodybuilding food”, like chicken breast and broccoli. Just because bodybuilders are eating them, many think that it must be the go-to food to build muscle. The huge problem with that is that these foods are high in protein and low in calories, which makes them highly satiable and fill you up fast, making it hard for a skinny guy to put on mass.
As mentioned in my previous article, different foods have different satiety index. Simply put, the same amount of calories from different foods can make you feel less full. Using the same satiety index chart below, instead of choosing foods like potatoes, apples or porridge, you should preferably eat more white bread, white pasta, bananas, or even add in some cakes and donuts once in while! These will be effective in bumping up your caloric intake without making you too full.
Not Overeating Protein
As mentioned in my previous articles, protein is the most satiating macronutrient. If you’re going to eat too much protein, you’ll feel full faster and longer, which means you’ll subconsciously be eating less calories. It will therefore be harder to put on mass.
Although protein is the only macronutrient that builds muscle, it seems like the maximum protein intake required to build muscle is 2.2g per kg of bodyweight per day. You should not be eating any more than 2.2g of protein, but instead be eating more carbs and fats. This will allow you to feel less full, which can increase your calorie intake.
Drink Liquid Calories
Liquid calories like juices, smoothies or shakes are also low in satiety. For the same amount of calories, a whole apple is much more satiating than apple juice made from the same apple. Thus, it will be good to add in liquid calories into your diet to increase caloric intake. One good example of a calorie-rich shake is a blended combination of oats, bananas, peanut butter and of course protein powder.
Protein shakes blended with high calorie food like peanut butter is a great way to bulk up fast.
3. Increase your Meal Frequency
If you’re genetically very skinny and have a very small appetite, eating calorie-dense food can still be insufficient for you to gain weight. If so, you should increase the number of meals per day, instead of eating larger meals which can cause discomfort on your stomach and gut. Studies has shown that increasing meal frequency can be a more effective option to increase your caloric intake without affecting your appetite too significantly.
One way is to add nutritious snacks like nuts or dried fruits which can easily bump up your caloric intake without making you too full.
Nuts and dried fruits are one of the most calorie-dense foods.
4. Track your Calories
If you’re doing all of the above but still not gaining weight, don’t be disheartened just yet. The truth is that you might still not be eating enough (in a calorie deficit) even if you think you are. The best way to prove so is to track your calories.
After you have found out how much calories you are actually eating by tracking it, increase your calorie intake gradually by about 200 calories per day to avoid any appetite or stomach discomfort. Then progressively increase your calorie intake by 200 per day on a weekly basis until you are gaining about 1% of bodyweight per week as mentioned previously. This is a sure way to ensure weight gain.
For example, if you are eating 2000 calories a day, increase your intake to 2200 calories a day and track your weight closely for the week. If you’re still not gaining enough weight, bump up your calories to 2400 per day and track your weight again, until you’re gaining about 1% of bodyweight per week.
5. Don’t Dirty Bulk!
For those who are unfamiliar, dirty bulk simply means eating as much as you possibly can. If you want to build lean mass (or muscle), not just pure mass (including fats), you should not just be eating everything in sight without any form of control. If not, you’re going to put on excessive fat mass without putting on additional muscle mass. If it’s just pure mass that you’re after, then dirty bulking can be the way to go. But if you’re after lean mass (or muscle), studies have consistently shown that gaining 1% of bodyweight per month is the most effective weight gain to maximize muscle growth while minimizing excessive fat gain.
Eating without control will result in excessive fat gain. Even as a hard gainer, you wouldn’t want to gain too much fat, would you?
6. Lift Weights Effectively
Eating more food does not mean that you’ll gain muscle. The only way to build muscle is to apply tension or resistance on your muscle, through bodyweight exercises or preferably by lifting heavy weights. If you’re going to eat at high volumes but not lift weights, you’re still going to have the skinny appearance while putting on significant amount of fat. In other words, you’re just going to get from skinny to skinny fat.
Even if you’re lifting weights but not in an effective manner, you just aren’t going to put on significant muscle mass. The truth is that many hard gainers who struggle to put on size are making many training mistakes. These 2 tips should help you minimize those mistakes.
Add in Compound Lifts
The first important tip is to add in compound lifts into your routine. Compound lifts are exercises that allow you to stimulate several muscle groups at the same time, and involve multiple joint articulations. As a result, compound lifts are more efficient in building muscle. It also allows you move heavier loads and to overload faster. Some examples of compound lifts include:
Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift
Overhead Press
Pull Up
Bent over Row
Check out my Instagram page for step-by-step videos on how to perform them safely and effectively.
Ensure Progressive Overload
As you lift weights, you get stronger. However, by lifting the same weight at the same repetition and same number of sets all the time, you will reach a point where you stop gaining muscle. You need to provide your body sufficient stimulus in order to synthesize new muscles. This is done by always striving to lift heavier weights or increasing the number of repetitions or sets. This creates an environment where your body is forced to build more muscle in order to cope with the increased demands. And that is how you ensure that you are gaining muscle mass.
To put in simply, an arm that can curl 20kg will be significantly larger than an arm that can curl 5kg. You must plan your workout such that you’re getting stronger week after week or month after month. This is done by tracking your loads, reps and sets closely. If you’re a beginner, you can easily increase your load week after week. But as you get more advanced, increasing your load each week can be too difficult. Instead, you can increase the number of reps for each set, until it hits the top end of the rep range every set (12 reps). After which you can increase the load and restart the rep range again. For example, in week 1 you’re doing 4 sets of 8 reps of bench press for 60kg. If you can’t immediately increase the weight to 65kg in week 2, you should increase to 4 sets of 9 reps instead. Increase the reps each week until you hit 12 reps for all 4 sets before increasing the load to 65kg and restarting the number of reps to 8.
If you’re still not gaining muscle mass even with increased loads, it may be time to increase the number of sets per week. As elaborated in my previous post, you should slowly bump up the number of sets per week until you feel too fatigued before slowly cutting back.
Bulking without training right will just get you from skinny to skinny fat.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that whether you’re a hard gainer or not, muscle growth is a slow process which takes a lot of time, effort, and consistency. Even with all the right systems in place, I took about 8 months before putting on about 6 kg of muscle mass, while putting on some body fat as well. However, the end result is definitely worth it.
Need step-by-step coaching on how to gain mass in the most effective manner? Drop me a message!
