How to put on weight by Paul McCarthy
For those of you who don’t know, about 7 years ago I embarked on a journey to transform my body. As every teenager does, I had insecurities about myself and more specifically my body. Weighing only 130lbs at 175cm tall, I was pretty much the smallest guy in the year and it dented my self confidence greatly. So in my stupidity of youth, I went to the gym Rocky style for the next three years, pretty much training myself into the ground and getting no results. When you are young, you’re impressionable and you believe what you read in the magazines and the media hype around supplements and training. I had some ridiculous machine ridden, high rep, feel the burn type workout that got me no results at all. On top of this, my diet was awful; nowhere near enough calories and when I did eat enough, it was all the wrong stuff. How times have changed. I’m now sitting here writing this at 13 stone (not a big guy, but just perfect for me) with lifts that most be people other than the freaks of nature would be impressed with. Having spent so long trying to get into this position, I now believe I am qualified and have the knowledge to pass on to others who are trying to achieve the same goal. In this article, I’m going to talk about the basics of putting on weight; and when I say weight, I mean lean weight rather than scoffing a bunch of cakes every five minutes and turning into something that wobbles too much.
So, in a nutshell, here are some key pointers to putting on lean weight. In this article I’m concentrating soleley on the nutritional aspect of bulking up with the assumption that you have already got the training side of things nailed. I have many other articles that cover the training side of putting on muscle mass, so feel free to check those out.
1/ Eat more than you consume
Guys, this is really fundamental and completely logical. Muscles can’t just appear from nowhere they need to be built up from a range of processes. Fuelling these processes is food. Your body won’t prioritise building muscles over more fundamental biological processes such as feeding the vital organs so you need to take your internal environment into a state of anabolism where resources are excess such that your body can afford to expend the additional energy on building up the musculature. In short, calculate your BMR and your daily calorific requirements, and eat 500 calories more a day. If you don’t know how to do that, then Google is your best friend!
2/ Eat the right stuff
Another fairly fundamental bit of information for bulking up is that you need to eat the right stuff. You can sit in the corner eating chocolate gateau all day in the hope that you’ll gain weight (and you will), but it won’t be the type of weight that you want! A bulking diet should be high in low G.I carbohyrdrates such as bread, pasta, rice, wheat, potatos aswell as being high in proteins such as chicken, beef, fish, any lean meat, nuts, cottage cheese, whey protein shakes etc. A little known fact is that you should also consume a decent amount of high quality fats; these are known as Essential Fatty Acids that can’t be produced by the body. Omega 3, 6 and 9 all have their purposes in the body – make sure you are getting an adequate amount of all of them. EFA’s can be sourced from Flaxseed oil, Fish oil, Cod Liver Oil and Rapeseed oil. If you just want a full blend of oils in the right ratio then I suggest you Google “Udo’s blend”. This brand of oil is pretty much known for being the best blend of Essential Fatty Acids that is on the market today.
3/ Eat small meals spread throughout the day
Did you know that your internal environment has windows of approximately 3 hours? This means that your body can change from a calorie surplus state to a calorie deficit state in that time frame. Therefore it follows that you should consume adequate meals through the day rather than sticking to the traditional three square meals approach. Some people eat up to 7 times a day; obviously the meals are smaller and can even be in the form of a shake or a supplement to help you get all the calories down you.
4/ Have the breakfast of champions
Breakfast “breaks” your evening “fast” – hence the name! It is the meal that gets the day off to a good start and you should be your biggest meal of the day. You have 16 hours of activity ahead of you, so get those calories down you. A typical breakfast could be: 2 slices of wholemeal bread with olive oil spread, 4 egg whites, glass of orange juice, bowl of oats with milk and 1/2 a protein shake. This will kick start your day with a full does of anabolism!
5/ Post workout meal is hugely important
Having just beat yourself up in the gym, your body is crying out for nutrients to recover from those gruelling drop sets. The quickest way to inject the nutrients into your body is through a low G.I carb and fast absorbing protein mixture. Something like 50g or whey mixed with 50g of dextrose in water is the perfect post workout meal. Make sure you follow this up with a post post workout meal about an hour later!
Summary
I have only really covered the basics in this article, so don’t think you know it all yet. I have put together a free guide that covers all of this in greater detail, you can download this for free through my link in the footer of this article.
I wish you all the best with your bulking and hope you can go through the transformation that I have!
Paul has written a 20-page How to bulk up guide that you can download for free.
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