There are probably more people out there who are desperately trying to lose weight and struggling with excess pounds in all the wrong places. However, being perpetually skinny can be extremely frustrating as well. And if you’re looking for some advice on how to gain weight, you’re often met with bewildered stares instead of good advice.
Particuarly for men, it can seem like a real curse when they have difficulties putting on weight. Of course, that extra weight should be mostly muscle mass and not just fat, and that makes the problem even more complicated.
So, how can a guy put on some lean muscle mass? Let me present you with two options:
How to Gain Weight: The Obvious-but-Still-Important Answer
The first and least surprising answer is, of course: Eat more food!
Well, duh. It may seem totally obvious, but there are two reasons why the above really needs to be emphasized:
- Many guys who want to put on weight claim that they eat a lot, but in reality, they don’t. On the one hand, increased food intake is something you just need to get used to while on the other hand, many are just afraid of eating too much and ending up with extra belly-flab.
- Note that I wrote eat more food. This is an important point. We’re not talking about french fries and sundae, here. We’re talking about actual, real food. You know, the stuff that doesn’t go through a dozen factories before you eat it.
For gaining muscle mass, eating real food as opposed to junk-food is absolutely essential. You need to give your body something to work with!
Essentially, to gain weight in muscle mass but not put on a lot of excess fat, you want to be sticking to only the best foods, but you want to be absolutely stuffing yourself with those foods. Vegetables, legumes, brown rice, lean meat: go crazy on that stuff!
Eating a lot of natural, unprocessed food vs. eating loads of junk-food is the difference between gaining healthy, solid weight and just turning flabby and sick. Don’t underestimate the importance of this.
The second thing to consider is this: Train less.
I see way too many guys work out like crazy and barely eat enough to cover their calorie expenditure. Result: Perpetual skinniness…
If you want to put on some weight, consider ramping up your food intake and reducing cardio to a minimum, while keeping the weight training down to two or three sessions (max!) per week.
I know this can be really scary, but that’s often just a result of bad conditioning. Many guys start out training relatively lightly and they see minimal gains. Motivated, they want more, so the start training more. But this does not lead to faster results. So they ramp up the training frequency even more… still no results. So, you’re in a state where you’re training really hard, but you still can’t seem to gain weight. Surely, if you trained less, you’d lose what little muscle you’ve gained so far!
Fortunately, this isn’t the case. More skinny guys over-train than under-train. Add a few more rest-days to your routine and you won’t only feel better, you’ll also likely gain more weight.
How to Gain Weight with GOMAD/LOMAD
GOMAD? What the heck is that?
GOMAD is an acronym for “Gallon of Milk a Day” and LOMAD is the metric equivalent: “Liter of Milk a Day”. It’s a very simple system for putting on weight and it’s no more complicated than what the name implies: every day, drink one liter/one gallon of milk.
Keep the rest of your diet the same and you’re likely to see some dramatic weight increase. Seriously, I know it sounds crazy, but give this a try. GOMAD can work wonders even for the hardest among hard-gainers.
No need for expensive “weight-gainer” shakes and powders, by the way. Just plain milk is awesome because it’s:
- Protein rich
- Carb rich
- Natural
- Affordable
It seems deceptively simple, but don’t kick it till you’ve tried it. Sidenote: GOMAD is a temporary thing. It will help you gain weight fast and once you’ve reached the target weight, you can reduce or completely remove the milk intake from your diet.
Conclusion
What it comes down to is not being afraid of putting on some fatty weight. You probably won’t be able to build 100%, shredded steel muscles and often, the only way to gain muscle mass is to also allow for a bit of fat to build up.
You can always cut that back down with some intense cardio, once you’ve reached your target weight.
