Want to Know How to Gain Weight?
When you’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years and a gym owner for nearly a decade, you tend to get a lot of fitness questions thrown your way. The most common is how to lose weight. People see all of the fad diets and approaches. They see the miracles being hawked on TV infomercials with the B list celebrity endorsements. They hear the Bro science, as it’s known, of one guy telling another something to the effect of “trust me Bro, this works”. How to gain weight is a far less commonly asked question of me, but as usual, there’s no shortage of “expert” advice on this subject.
How to gain weight is a question I most often hear from young men looking to bulk themselves up so their peers will look at them with new found respect, and those they find attractive, will be more enticed to find the powerful man they have become, equally so. Occasionally, and much more interestingly, I get the question of how to gain weight from a person undergoing medical procedures, or from one who is battling a medical condition, such as an eating disorder. There’s a little more satisfaction, quite frankly, in that case scenario when you help them out as the need is definitely more pressing and isn’t simply a matter of ego.
How to gain weight sounds simple, and in most cases, it is relatively so. If you’re simply interested in moving the dial on your scale north, simply eat more. If you are interested in adding quality muscle and staying lean, however, there’s a bit more involved.
How to gain weight depends upon a multitude of factors, like anything else in health and fitness. What’s your metabolic rate? How old are you? Do you have any health issues such as diabetes, IBS, etc? The list goes on, but suffice it to say that it’s a very individual thing. There are a few universal truths, however, when wanting to know how to gain weight. The first thing to do is analyze your diet. Starting with the most elementary question of, how much do you eat, when do you eat, and what do you eat?
Gaining weight through exercise is a myth. Over my 2 decades as a personal trainer in Austin I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard young men telling me they’re lifting heavy weights so they can gain weight. Unless they’re planning on consuming those weights, it doesn’t work like that. Yes, exercise is how you will build muscle, but you will not gain weight by simply lifting weights. You have to fuel your endeavor as well.
Nutrition, obviously has the biggest role in the how to gain weight riddle. Whether it’s a simple matter of caloric deficit, or bad timing, or simply poor choices, you need to eat sufficiently and properly if you’re going to conquer the how to gain weight hurdle.
To start with, meals shouldn’t be skipped. If you are wanting to gain weight, you need to eat. That doesn’t mean loading up on fast food and cupcakes, but rather quality carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. A larger portion size may be required as well. For those looking to lose weight, I usually advise to stop eating once satisfied, before you’re full. If you’re wondering how to gain weight, the opposite holds true. Fill yourself up.
The timing of foods is important as well. If you go to bed hungry, your body will go from anabolic, to catabolic. This makes adding muscle, quality weight, impossible. Therefore, have a healthy snack before bed. Another consideration, is the balancing of the macronutrients. You’ll need an adequate supply of protein, carbs, as well as good fats in all of your meals. This will help keep them at a steady blood level and facilitate your efforts to gain quality weight.
No matter your fitness goals, you’ll have to pursue them with consistency and sustained vigor if you are to achieve them. This is the same for whatever you’re doing. Consistency in the weight room is obviously very important, but consistency in the dining room is equally important.
Ready to Get Started?
Andy
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