Looking for a healthy method of rapid weight gain for the next phase of your fitness plan? There are quite a few weight gainer supplements out there, but how do you know which ones are healthy? Many of those bodybuilding products include extra fat or unhealthy ingredients like ephedra. Fortunately, rapid weight gain is possible through only natural methods. This is not only healthier, but will save you a ton of money on supplements over the course of a year. These three tips will help you pack on the pounds naturally.
1. Eat more…a lot more. This may seem like an obvious tip, but trouble gaining weight usually means you are not eating anywhere near enough food. Even if you think you are eating enough to gain weight, you may not even be compensating for the extra calories burned by your workout. Most people underestimate the sheer amount of calories needed to gain even one pound. While most sedentary people will have trouble restricting their calorie intake to less than their expenditure, physically active people may burn up to five or six thousand calories per day.
2. Use online calorie counting tools and weight loss calculators to set goals and track your progress. In the past, keeping track of your calories was tedious and time-consuming. You had to look up every food in a calorie book and write down your calculations in a notebook. Now you can easily input the food you just ate into an online calorie counting site and it will look up the calories for you. Many sites allow you to set up a free account to record of your intake and print reports showing the breakdown by food type.
A weight loss (or gain, in this case) calculator will take your measurements, physical activity level, and desired weight to give you a required calorie intake per day. Combining this with your online tracking site lets you quickly and easily see if you are meeting your calorie goals for the day. It is helpful to see if you will fall short because then you can adjust and eat a larger dinner or add a snack before bed. The breakdown of fats, carbs, and proteins is also useful for changing up your intake as the day progresses. Review your reports at the end of the week to see if there are any empty calories that you can remove from your diet.
3. Change up your workout to focus on gaining muscle. There are adjustments you can make while you are in the gym to speed up your weight gain. Progressively overloading a specific muscle group with increasing amounts of weight will maximize your gains in size from one workout to the next. Be sure to keep pushing your body by periodically changing up the types of exercises you do in the weight room. Also, getting enough rest in between sessions is crucial to making the most of your workouts. Many people think they need to workout more in order to achieve rapid weight gain, but that only breaks down the muscles without giving the body a chance to rebuild itself.