This blog post is for all you guys and girls out there who can't seem to put on the weight and muscle mass you want. It can be frustrating when you feel like you're force feeding yourself endlessly but you still can't get the scale to move up and if it does it's only for a day or two. You want to fill out your t-shirt or look curvy in your dress but nothing you do seems to work, here are some answers for you.
These are tips I use myself when trying to grow while staying lean and tips I have used for 100's of my clients to get results. I am sure these will help you on your way to your dream physique.
1/ First things first, DO NOT DIRTY BULK , please do not copy people eating McDonald’s and doing 10k calorie challenges thinking they’re putting on “size”. They’re putting on FAT and that’s it. If you want to put on good quality muscle and still look and feel good, eat healthy meals 80% of the time. Do not start having doughnuts for breakfast thinking calories are just calories, you will end up fat and feeling sluggish all the time.
2/ Avoid weight gainer shakes. Make your own shakes always using diet whey protein even if you want to grow bigger (diet whey/oats/banana/ honey or peanut butter)
3/ If you struggle to get an appetite it’s usually because you’re trying to do as little as possible in an attempt to save calories, but this is counter productive. You can’t get an appetite to eat if you’re sat not moving. Train hard and do cardio to make your body need to eat, cardio is not just for cutting or losing weight. It's a useful tool for bulking also.
4/ Eat a protein source with fats instead of a lean protein. Eat chicken thighs, salmon , lamb , duck anything that isn’t super lean protein like chicken breast. This is a good way to add in some more calories in a healthier way.
5/ Nuts are high calorie and low density meaning you can eat a lot of calories in just a few handful so use this and have them as snacks if you’re struggling to get calories in.
6/ This might sound a bit obvious but wake up earlier, if you lie in it’s going to be hard to get all your calories in during a shorter time period. Try to stick to a routine of waking up at a certain time and having breakfast. This especially matters on weekends when we tend to sleep in and miss breakfast. Then we try and play catch up with calories and end up eating junk food.
7/ Use olive oil when cooking or even drizzle a little over some of your meals this is a good way of adding in some healthy fats and calories.
8/ Lift heavier while you have the energy from all this extra food, put it to use to help build muscle. That doesn’t mean just do low reps but try and up your weights you’re lifting no matter the rep range you use.
With these tips I’m sure anybody can up their calories in a healthy way and stack on some good quality muscle. If you would like any additional help to bulk up and add some mass please email me at coach@muscleperformancecoaching.com