How to Gain Weight and Muscle if You’re Skinny

By: FitNRG.net

If you're a hard gainer like me, gaining weight is one of the toughest things for your due to your fast metabolism and body type. I know this firsthand, and having been weight lifting for almost two decades, I have some good ideas and methods to show you how to gain weight and muscle, even if you have very fast metabolism, and consider yourself a hardgainer. The thing is, gaining weight isn't all that difficult, even if you have fast metabolism - simply consume more calories than the calories you burn on a daily basis.

While this concept sounds pretty simple, it's actually quite difficult when you put it into practice, simply because the amount of calories you need to consume makes it difficult and sometimes impractical, and yes, it takes dedication to simply eat, eat, and eat some more.

Do you know how much calories you burn in a typical day, and do you know how much calories you need to consume to gain weight and muscle? Below is a general rule of thumb to quickly determine how much calories you should be consuming each day:

For weight loss:
Your body weight X 10 to 12 = The range of your daily caloric intake
For maintaining:
Your body weight X 13 to 15 = The range of your daily caloric intake
For bulking up:
Your body weight X 16 to 18 = The range of your daily caloric intake

For example, for a 150lb person, the weight gain caloric intake range would be about 2400 to 2700 calories per day.

I follow a 40/40/20 diet plan with 40% of the calories coming from proteins, 40% from carbs, and 20% from fats. So this works out to 1080 calories from proteins, 1080 calories from carbs, and 540 calories from fats. Divide 1080 by 4, and you get 270g of protein and 270g of carbs. Divide 540 calories by 9 and you get 60g of fat.

A sample day diet looks like this:

Breakfast: Raisin bran / milk / ground flax
In between: 1 protein shake
Lunch: Shrimp / Corn / Green beans
In between: 1 protein shake
Dinner: Salmon steak / Broccoli / sweet yam
Snack: Peanuts
Late Snack: Egg whites (6)
Bed time shake: 2 scoops of pro complex.

This particular day's diet worked out to 276g protein, 261g carbs, and 61g of fat, for a ratio of 40.84% / 38.70% / 20.46%. Pretty close to the 40-40-20 diet I have planned. If you're skinny and want to gain weight and muscle, you have to eat clean. As well, you'll need to have a good workout program in place that will provide the stimulus to make your muscles grow.