Hardgainer? Can't gain weight? READ THIS!!!

[Relpur]

Great post- I've always felt like I've had a hard time gaining but I'm sure its from lack of dieting. Coming from that standpoint and deciding I want to gain a good base of muscle before I start a cycle like everyone on here suggests - how long do you guys think I would need to stick to a solid diet and workout program before it would be ideal to start a cycle?

Currently 6'3" 210lbs - not sure of BF% yet but going to find out tomorrow - probably a little bit higher since I was at about 12% last year when I weighed 185lbs and its been mostly fat gain since.

[cliffjumper]

Some great common sense stuff here. FOUNDATIONAL. Thanks.

[cliffjumper]

Oh and I also like the "big 5". I always tell my friends in the gym to DO THOSE. The response I get: "but they're so hard" --- that's WHY you need to do them!

[Flawdaboy]

Great post- I've always felt like I've had a hard time gaining but I'm sure its from lack of dieting. Coming from that standpoint and deciding I want to gain a good base of muscle before I start a cycle like everyone on here suggests - how long do you guys think I would need to stick to a solid diet and workout program before it would be ideal to start a cycle?

Currently 6'3" 210lbs - not sure of BF% yet but going to find out tomorrow - probably a little bit higher since I was at about 12% last year when I weighed 185lbs and its been mostly fat gain since.

You wanna get that diet under control for like 6 months min buddy uuntil it becomes routine in that time focus on keeping you bf below 15% during that time and after that keep going till you hit a strong plateau with your workouts, and have gotten nice size lm gains in that time. Then my friend it would be a good time to enter some AAS if you so choose, but if all your foundation isnt in place youll be wasting your time an money on a cycle. Be sure to read up on beginner cycle before that as well. good luck boss

[1wheelr1]

Very nice!

[dj erk15]

Great post. lol i really kills me when my friend says "dude how can i gain some size?" My response is always the same u have to eat big to get big. Then he always comes back with, i do eat alot man. My point being thanks bro imma make him read this thread tomorrow.

[slumchop]

great post, im a very hard gainer, im borderline on thyroid, numbers say one thing and symptoms say another, but endocrine doc wont script me yet. even though thyroid function is off, my tsh level is in just barely normal and my t levels arent. so im hyper i guess so i dont really bother to eat clean or healthy anymore. I just pack it in as much as possible. i burn it fast as hell any way. when i eat healthy and clean i lose weight very fast. i was a whole foods eater, and ate no dairy at all for years couldnt get over 180 pounds even at 4500+ calories a day, not enough fat in my diet i guess

[Moparman]

Ya I used to think I couldn't gain weight either. Until I read I should be taking in a lot more Cals than I was. Supposedly I should be hitting 7000 Cals a day being 6'6" at 250. (started at 215 several years ago). So ya it works. I think it's hard to chow all the time but it def works.

[inan_fener]

Good. Thanks!

[West Coast Winner]

great post, im a very hard gainer, im borderline on thyroid, numbers say one thing and symptoms say another, but endocrine doc wont script me yet. even though thyroid function is off, my tsh level is in just barely normal and my t levels arent. so im hyper i guess so i dont really bother to eat clean or healthy anymore. I just pack it in as much as possible. i burn it fast as hell any way. when i eat healthy and clean i lose weight very fast. i was a whole foods eater, and ate no dairy at all for years couldnt get over 180 pounds even at 4500+ calories a day, not enough fat in my diet i guess

I'm identical to this.

[bradhore]

bump.

amazing post

[DuggyPhresh]

Try eating 300g protein, 400g carbs, and 150g fats.

You will grow.

-A&F-

Check and check!!

[IronDave]

Thanks for the post! I found this very useful.

[Macolish]

Awesome post!!

[skaz915]

Can't is an old Chinese word meaning I'm not trying hard enough. Eat some steak and lift

[littlemansyndrome]

websites are helpful, good informative post
No training or gains can be achieved without eating just the way you put it simple and plain.

[Macolish]

Thanks this is a great post. Opened my eyes

[powerlifterty16]

good post bro. If you can't gain weight your not trying hard enough IMO.

i know this post is from 2005 but that isnt always true...i used to never be able to gain weight, until i sorted some health issues out and got older/slower metabolism....and ive been training for 8.5 years. I actually eat less now than i do then..have gone from 110 to 210 pounds and bf is around 14 where id like it(powerlifter)

[sagittarius]

300g of protein? It is not easy to eat that much.
I'm not an expert but I heard many people saying that there's no point to get high amount of protein (like 300g) because your body will not be able to use it. Things are changing if you take steroids .
I think most of the people recommend up to 1.5g of protein per pound. For a 150 pounds person this will be 225g of protein.
I'm really confused now.

[austinite]

There is NEVER a reason to multiply grams of protein by total weight. That makes zero sense whatsoever.

[CLiQx]

Great info. Never knew you shouldn't mix Carbs/Fats/Protein at once, certainly going to keep that in mind and try to better balance my 40/40/20 ratio

[Phoenix18]

Great info right here. Changing my diet was the only way I could gain weight no matter how hard I went in the gym

[RewardingLabor]

Edit: quote missing. Diesel121 i always gain natural up to around 200 lbs, then ever spring summer i go down to 170-185.... around 6%, i'd like to go under... it sux shreeding... its like i wonder if all i do is gain fat


this. a thousand times this.

[rahulsingh265]

I've gained 44 lbs in one and a half year.... Milk+banana(my natural juice)....without pct

[Brawny Snickers]

Thanks for the info.

[Kidanis]

I have a question that none seems to want to answer. I eat I have the apettite of a greek god I count my calories right, measuring cup and weighting my meat, measuring the cups on my liquids all all that. I have hypethyroidism thats a metabolic condition that keeps you VERY skinny I used to weigh about 98 pounds at 5'9" after 3 years of lifting I've gained up to like 135 I'm on a 3.5k calorie diet atm. I'm gaining about a quarter pount a month which is pretty horrendous. My doc said its impossible for me to gain weight fast with just a diet. I want to be at least 150 for health reasons but I want to get there before i'm like 60 years old.

I want to get on a short small doze cycle of test to speed things up. because my weight hurts my self esteem but peoepl on the forum just tell me "eat more food forget the juice" But I honestly want to bulk up FAST wayyy faster I want to know how to properly PCT abd keep sides at a minimum of course I'm going to eat wayyy more on a cicle thats a no brainer... but I dont know how to properly PCT

[blake702]

Thankks for all the info!

[manstrom]

Great post, Diet was always my biggest downfall. I never hit enough calories and had the mindset of "more protein and I'll be set!". That's why I'd spend a year going nuts in the gym then say screw it. After studying more on proper diet and nutrition (I barely ate any carbs so I constantly had severe migraines and felt weak/tired) I've been growing like a weed... Well not that drastic but I'm not the "skinny-fat" twig I was.

For years I floated at 147-155lbs at 6'1" now I'm around 175 and guesstimating around 13% with a lot more work to do.

[craftspace2345]

Sorry but this post is filled with a LOT of BS.

1.) "The main difference is that on a clean bulk, you NEVER eat carbs and fats together."

No that's what a clean bulk is or a dirty bulk.. A dirty bulk means an excessive amount of calories above maintenance (something like 800 calories or more above maint.) Clean bulk is generally 300-500 calories above maint.

2.) "Eating carbs and fats together causes almost all of the fat to get stored instead of used for energy. Don’t eat carbs in your last 2 meals of the day because they get stored as fat while you sleep."

COMPLETLY incorrect. Carbs don't get stored as fat just because you eat them at the end of the day... Neither does fat...

NOTHING gets stored as fat unless you eating more calories than you burn. You even stated it earlier "Eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight; eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight."

I don't understand why you're contradicting yourself

3.)Your body can only digest so many calories at a meal, and the rest gets stored as fat. Lowering the amount of food eaten at one time reduces the “extra” over what you need.


Incorrect again. You can eat as many calories as you want in 1 meal as long as you aren't above maintenance, you won't gain weight...

4.) Muscles start to catabolize (break down) if they are without protein for 3-4 hours unless you are sleeping. Hell, when I'm bulking I drink a milk/casein shake when I get up to piss at night.

Not even remotely true. They can go quite some time without protein. You don't need to eat protein every 3-4 hours..

I'm sorry but you really need to educate yourself before posting such BS. Almost everything you wrote is incorrect.

[kpowers]

Great post. Not sure why it took me long to find it!

[gio2012]

Ouchhhh...

[tkdan63]

Great information. It took a lot of trial and error for this hard-gainer to get my meals right in order to put on muscle.

[hardgainer1]

Diet is 75% of bulking up IMO. You can lift like Ronnie Coleman, but bottom line you will not grow any muscle without the calories behind it for bulking. Simple biology and one equation---->

Calorie balance=Calories in - Calorie expenditure

If you aren't gaining weight, you are not in a positive calorie balance so you need to either cut out all cardio, eat more, or both. Eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight; eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. The kind of weight you gain or lose is dependent on your macronutrient breakdown, timing of meals, training, cardio, etc. Try adding up your calories using the links at the bottom of the page, many people who think they "eat all the time" actually eat under 3000 calories per day, which is very low for a bulking diet. Get used to eating frequently also, like every 3 hours tops. The only time I was hungry on my last bulker was right when I woke up in the morning. Remember: an appetite is not necessary to eat. You need to get used to eating what/when you MUST, not what/when you want.

There are two ways to bulk: A clean bulk (slower, but leaner gains) and a dirty bulk (faster gains, more fat storage if metabolism isn’t fast) The main difference is that on a clean bulk, you NEVER eat carbs and fats together. Milk is bad for this reason. Eating carbs and fats together causes almost all of the fat to get stored instead of used for energy. Don’t eat carbs in your last 2 meals of the day because they get stored as fat while you sleep. Eat at least 40g protein with every meal, and make meals either protein/fat or protein/carb.

PWO=Post Workout, the most anabolic (muscle building) time in anyone’s day is the half hour following a workout. It is best to use a fast-acting protein like Whey. Your muscles soak up protein like a sponge. It is also useful to eat twice as many carbs as protein to help shuttle the proteins to the muscles. The PWO shakes I use are

---50g Optimum Nutrition Whey
---50g Dextrose (Corn sugar, causes an insulin spike to increase absorption of protein)
---50g Maltodextrin (Powdered complex carb supplement)

Some people prefer to drop the maltodextrin and just do 100g of dextrose. Try both and see what works for you.

Eating approximately every 2.5 to 3 hours is good for 3 reasons…
1. You can eat more calories in a day if your meals are smaller. Its easier to eat 600 calorie meals 6 times a day then it is to eat 1200 calorie meals 3 times a day.
2. Your body can only digest so many calories at a meal, and the rest gets stored as fat. Lowering the amount of food eaten at one time reduces the “extra” over what you need.
3. Muscles start to catabolize (break down) if they are without protein for 3-4 hours unless you are sleeping. Hell, when I'm bulking I drink a milk/casein shake when I get up to piss at night.

For all you 130-150 pounders thinking about taking steroids... re-evaluate your diets. If you can't gain weight naturally, steroids aren't going to do anything for you except shrink your balls. Think about it... raw materials to form muscles have to come from somewhere right? They don't just appear out of thin air. Calories are the bricks that are building your house.

Try eating 300g protein, 400g carbs, and 150g fats.

You will grow.

A couple useful links

1) FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal <----Huge database of foods, can look up pro/fat/carbs and calories on them.

2) http://www.ntwrks.com/~mikev/chart1.html <------Basically the same

3) http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi41.htm <----- An equation that you
plug in your weight and bodyfat percentage and it will tell you how many calories you need to eat every day to grow.

If your diet is "all that and a bag of chips", and you STILL weigh 140 pounds dripping wet, either you have a SERIOUS thyroid problem or your training sucks. Remember "The Big 5" - Squat, Deadlift, Row, Bench, Military.

GET BIG!

-A&F-

I wish I read this 12 years ago.. great info thank you

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[mxgregg]

Time to start eating more.