7 Tips For Weight Gain

"The Hardest Part Is The Part That Counts" - This phrase is something to remember when things get tough, this keeped me going when i thought i could not do another exercise or i just wanted to plainly give up.

Tip 1 - Count The Calories

Keep a food dairy for a week, making note of all food and drinks including snacks, treats, alcohol absolutely anything and everything you eat and drink throughout the day, also count how many calories each meal and drink is and note these values too, you can check the labels of the foods and drinks to find this information out.

After a week you will have a good idea from the food dairy about what you eat and drink in a typical week and how many calories you consume per day.

Now you need to start counting the calories, a typical man who's activity levels are light needs around 2000-2200 plus calories and for a women it is around 1500-1900 calories per day, thats just to maintain your current body weight, these values are unique to each individual as people are different heights, builds, have different activity levels and your body's metabolic rate are all factors.

To gain around half a kilo of weight a week, which is the recommended safe amount to gain, you would have to eat an extra 1000 calories per day, so start counting the calories and plan your meals ahead to make up the total amount you need to gain weight.

If you are not gaining weight after one week then add another 500 calories per day to your total calorific intake.

Tip 2 - Eat More

Eat larger portions and more frequently throughout the day, try to aim to eat a meal every three hours if at all possible, the reason for this is that a meal takes around two and a half hours to fully digest and if you put another meal straight in there, your body will use this to gain bodyfat and as a result weight.

Or if you cant manage every three hours, try five meals a day whenever you can manage them, but try to space them out throughout the day.

Tip 3 - Exercise

If your not already you will need to workout 2-3 times a week,concentrating on compound exercises.

Compound exercises are movements that involve many muscles at once and build larger muscles quickly.

Here are some main exercises for bulking up:-

Squat (Quadriceps)
Deadlift (Hamstrings)
Barbell Calve Raise (Calves)

Chest Press (Pecotralis Major)
Bent Over Barbell Row (Trapizius & Most Major Upper Back Muscles)

Barbell Curl (Biceps)
Tricep Dip (Triceps)
Reverse E-Z Bar Curl (Forearms)

Although these are some of the bread an butter exercise for bulking up, don't forgot to add some stomach and lower back exercises to get an overall body workout.

If you want more information on workouts and techniques then click here

Tip 4 - Get A Good Nights Rest.

Your body recovers, heals and grows while you are asleep, make sure to try and get at least 8 hours a night, if at all possible.

Your body will be healing, repairing and growing bigger and stronger from the damage you did to your body while weight training, so it is very important you get a good nights rest.

Your body can take a few days to fully recover from a workout, so even if you worked out last night, this is still as equally important to get enough rest the night after the workout as it is the same day as you worked out.

Tip 5 - Drink Fluids.

Drink plenty of fluids, especially water to help keep your body hydrated partically during exercise and drink fresh fruit juices, milk and energy drinks as well as they contain vitamins and nutrients that will help your body recover and be healthier.

Tip 6 - Start Weighting Yourself.

You need to weight yourself at least once a week, try to do this in the morning before your body has lots of fluids in it and try to aim for the same time every time.

The reason we need to weight ourselve is to see if we are progressing, but take into account that muscle weights more than fat, so sometimes when you weight yourself you may be the same weight as last week , but in reality you have more muscle mass and less bodyfat, you can measure yourself using something called calipers and take body measurements, but this is a little more advanced and i wont go into this yet.

Tip 7 - Change Your Diet.

You will need to eat a lot more of the following food groups:-

Carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice and pasta (These help build mass)

Proteins such as meat, fish and eggs (Muscle is mostly protein, so protein is essential in muscle growth)

Unsaturated fats such as nuts (peanuts, walnuts, monkey nuts etc..), vegetable, sunflower and olive oil and avocados, - Unsaturated fats contain essential fatty acids that cannot be manufactured by the body. This means you need to get them from food.

Vegetable and Fruit (Essential vitamins and Minerals).

Note: When you plan a meal try to add a component from each of the above food groups.

The information provided here is quite basic, if you want to find out more about gaining weight then click here