Are there natural ways to gain weight? Or must I spend a fortune on foul-tasting weigh-gain supplements and protein drinks?

Of course there is, I mean you don’t need to make the stockholders of GNC any richer, you just need to know what, when and how much to eat – each and every day – and you’ll gain weight naturally; and that’s good weight, not fatty flab that your heart will hate your for in 15 or 20 years.

To gain weight you must to do two things, no questions asked, you must dramatically increase your calorie intake and do some sort of physical exercise to build muscle (you could sit on your butt in front of the TV and stuff your gullet with Hagen-Daz, but really?).

Caloric Intake

This must be done with health-consciousness in mind, otherwise, you’ll find yourself having to lose the weight and/or putting on weight in places that you don’t like and don’t look good on you (i.e., your gut! Your butt! Your chin!).

So you must plan – and stick to – a healthy diet that is high in protein and carbs, but low in saturated fats.

Since you want to gain weight, you have to estimate how much physical activity you do everyday and convert it to how many calories that you’re burning (there are numerous websites, like www.fitday.com, that will let your track your food intake and your activity levels) compared to how much you’re eating.

You will only gain weight if you consume more calories than you burn each day. You must also do away with the 3-square meals a day protocol that most of us follow – you’ll never get enough calories or protein down that way.

If you don’t want to employ a supplement, then it’s all the more important to design your diet and your meals time (6x/day).

Physical Exercise 30 Minutes Every Day

It can’t be stressed enough how important this is. The best weight to gain is lean muscle mass, as it raises your metabolism and makes your body “look” better than any other kind of weight gain.

Of course the physical exercise means that your increasing your physical activity level each day—you’re burning more calories—so you’ll have to eat more to compensate, but that’s always a good things (except for on your wallet).

There are a myriad of natural ways to gain weight, and bodybuilder extraordinaire Vince DelMonte’s discuss some excellent tried-n-true methods in his fantastic ebook, “No Nonsense Muscle Building”.

Look for it, and learns ways to increase your weight the natural healthy way.

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Every bodybuilding plan has one cornerstone – the weight-lifter’s diet, and the key to a weight-lifter’s diet is a weight gain meal plan.

Gaining weight, that is gaining the right kind of weight – lean muscle mass is not the easiest thing in the world to do, it’s not the hardest, either, although it might seem that way when you’re at the beginning of your workout plan.

If you’re just eating to be eating, then you don’t have a meal plan to gain weight, and that’s most definitely needed if you are going to spend any amount of time in the gym.

The mean plan to gain weight is structured around the concept of energy balance which is understanding how much food/energy you take in versus how much energy you burn.

If you have a positive energy balance, you gain weight – but you must make sure that the food your take in is high quality, with the appropriate amount of carbs, protein, “good” fat, and vitamins & minerals.

It can’t be junk food and other types of empty calories. Skinny guys complain that they eat all the time, but they don’t put on weight. It’s not a question of “eating all the time”, it’s eating smartly and with a goal for each meal.

Meal Plan to Gain Weight

You need to figure out how much calories you need to eat to match your activity level and then eat that much on the workout days and the non-workout days.

The surplus amount of calories that you’d normally burn on the workout days, don’t get burned on your recovery days… and that’s when you’re gaining the lean muscle mass that you’re striving for.

There are no ifs, ands or buts, if you don’t consume the surplus level of calories, you just won’t gain weight; I don’t care how much time you spend on the gym with your current so-called diet. In fact, you’ll probably lose weight (and you might get sick, too).

Bulk Up, Then Get Cut Up

The weight gain meal plan that you want to follow demands that you spend the next 4 to 6 months bulking up, putting on a tremendous amount of weight… while you’re working out, and then you’ll slim down and get cut up.

But the weight gain meal plan isn’t going to keep you fat (if you would even call it being fat) for more than 6 to 8 months of your life, and then afterwards you’ll be a ripped SOB for the remainder of your life.

To be successful at gaining the weight you want, you have to know what you weight gain meal plan is actually going to do on a nutritional level. What this means is cutting out the garbage and chemical-laced food that too many people eat.

You must eliminate all sodas and juices (the kind that are 10% juice, 90% water and sugar), all high fat processed meat, frozen desserts and ice cream, cookies, white flour products, baking supplies, and potato chips.

And then replace this sludge food with boneless chicken breast, cheese, dried fruit, eggs, egg whites, extra lean ground sirloin, fruit, extra virgin olive oil, green tea, whole wheat grain, lean turkey and chicken sausage, legumes, meat, poultry, and fish (particularly salmon and tuna), mixed nuts, and vegetables.

You can NEVER forget these or eat enough of them; consider that they spur muscle growth and you’ll never miss a chance to eat your veggies.

Vegetables are critical during recovery, and the antioxidants inside reduce the amount of free radicals in your body generated after a killer workout sessions.

As you can see the foods that you are “adding” to your diet is high quality food that will aid in establishing the proper energy balance.

Now that you know what to eat, you need to know when to eat and how much to eat – eat every two to three hours; this is a lot of eating, but look to eat more frequent meals as your shot to rebuild the ripped down muscle fibers from your super intense workout.

This means eating 6 times a day, which is a lot, but it’s 60% actual food and 40% power/protein shakes (this is how you get the 1.5x to 2x your goal body weight in protein each day, as that’s how you build muscle).

The meal plan to gain weight is no joke and requires discipline, strategy and execution to make sure that this part of the bodybuilding plan works to its highest potential.

To get a thoroughly detailed explanation of how to figure exactly how many calories your need to eat and other inside secrets about a quality weight gain meal plan, pick up Vince Delmonte’s exceptional eBook, “No Non-sense Muscle Building”.

He’ll give you a plethora of information and tools to help you track your food/fuel intake, and you’ll have gains in no time!

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“The simple equation is if you consume more calories than you expend, you will gain weight and if you consume lesser calories than you expend you lose weight”. You have heard this often.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. If you eat more and expend less you will certainly gain weight, but not where you’d like to. You will gain weight in the form of fat, not in the form of muscle.

To be fair to serious exercisers that sincerely sweat it out in the gym AND eat more than they consume, you will certainly gain muscle mass too. But if you don’t eat WISELY, your body composition will remain the same.

In spite of gaining muscle, you will not look muscular, only bigger. The trick is to eat wisely. Choose where your calories will come from. Eat at the right times. And eat the right amounts. What you eat, when you eat and how much you eat is the three cornered foundation on which you build your body.

What to eat to gain weight

Not all proteins, carbs and fats are the same. There is good and bad to everything. The type of food that you consume has different effects on your composition. Some sugars will cause the bloodstream to be flooded with insulin, while others will provide a steady flow to your muscles.

Some fats will go directly to your flabby parts, while others will actually help burn stored fat by increasing metabolism and increasing testosterone. Some proteins are highly beneficial only when consumed at the right time of the day.

Therefore it is vital to choose the right foods to eat even if they translate into the same number of calories as the other foods. So what foods to eat to gain weight healthily? And which ones to avoid? Here they are:

Foods to dump:

You think fruit juice is good for you? Not if you have sugar in it.
Sodas – No good.
Fatty meat – Don’t mistake it for good proteins; it is all bad fat and sodium.
Syrups, sweet sauces, ice cream, cold desserts – All laden with sugar.
Processed superstore food – Get rid of them, no matter how “healthy” they proclaim themselves to be.
Anything made of while flour – Ditch that white bread. Whiteness is achieved by the manufacturers at the cost of 75% vitamins and 95% fiber.
Stale food – Nothing is good to last for days together.

Foods to stack up:

Dried fruits – Excellent source of calories, soldiers out on the warfront carry nothing but dried fruits in their pockets.
Canola or olive oil – Use these for cooking, strictly avoid the bad oils.
All kinds of vegetables – More the variety the better.
Strong tasting cheese in moderate amounts – Great source of good proteins.
Poultry – Chicken breasts and lean turkey occasionally.
Eggs – Also go for the egg whites you get in cartons for toppings.
Lean cuts of meat
Fish
Wild salmon – Great if you can get hold of the wild salmon. Expensive than the farmed ones though.
Whole grain – Oats, barley, quinoa, wheat.
Legumes – Great source of fiber.
Nuts – Peanut, walnut, almond, cashew. They are full of good fats and a rich source of calories required for bulking up.
Fruits – Go for the whole variety and never miss the seasonal ones.
Water – Drink plenty of it throughout the day.
Herbal tea – Good antioxidant. Have the non-flavored ones.
Protein and carbohydrate shakes – Before, during and after workouts

Rule: Eat lean protein, vegetables and good fats with each meal

Proteins are the building blocks of our body and you’ll need plenty of protein eating to gain weight. Eat at least 50-60 g of lean proteins like fish, chicken, turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, etc. with each meal.

Vegetables are full of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals essential for bodily growth. Moreover, they speed up recovery of muscle tissues after vigorous workouts. Eat at least 2 cups of vegetables with each meal.

One third of your meal should consist of good fats. Good fats are vital for gaining muscle. Eat only from the list given above. At all costs, avoid trans fats found in margarine, shortening, fried foods, fast food, bakery products and the like.

Rule: Eat a variety of good foods

Break the monotony and go for variety. This way you will draw the goodness of everything that nature has to offer. And it’s easy because you won’t get bored of the same stuff day after day.

When to eat to gain weight

EAT EVERY 3 HOURS. Three square meals a day are no good for you. To really bulk up fast, you need to eat every 3 hours for the time you are awake. This is the most crucial element of building muscle.

Eat your first meal of the day within half hour of waking up. This will reverse the catabolic process that sets in your body during long hours of sleep.

Eating every 3 hours would mean 5 to 6 meals a day depending on how long you sleep. If that intimidates you, you better get over it quickly, because this is not a suggestion – this is a rule.

Get used to having your meals every 3 hours. Think of each meal to be a growth stimulator. Every ounce of what you eat will add meat to your bones. Every meal is an opportunity to replenish muscles that you broke down during exercise. Frequent meals are your only chance of bulking up, period.

Rule: Drink homemade protein/carbohydrate shakes before, during and after workouts

If you work out on an empty stomach, where do you think energy to exercise will come from? It will come from your reserves. And that will only make you smaller, not larger.

Ideally, the energy should come from something that you just ingested. You can benefit the most by supplying your body with liquid proteins and carbs before, during and after your workouts.

Proteins and carbs in liquid form is the best food to eat to gain weight around workouts. This will ensure that you don’t lose any muscle to support your workout.

How much to eat to gain weight

Bodybuilding is all a game of eating. The more you eat the better. There’s no way you can build muscle without eating all that you can. Target a calorie intake of more than 4K each day of the week to progress in your quest for a huge body.

To find out sample meal plans, homemade protein and carb shake procedures and workout routines to build muscle mass, get hold of the No-Nonsense Muscle Building e-book by Vince DelMonte. Here you will find a complete guide for transforming a skinny body into a muscular one.

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