How to gain weight? (Step by Step guide)
Some people may find it challenging to gain weight while others may find that they gain weight easily by eating small amount of food. Why is this so? This is because different people have different body types. Those people who find it difficult to gain weight are likely to be an ectomorph. They are also known as “hardgainers”.
So what is ectomorph? To briefly explain, ectomorph refers to people with fast metabolism which burn calories faster than normal people. This also means that they have a hard time gaining weight. They have to eat extra calories than the normal recommended levels in order to gain mass. For more details on ectomorph and the other body types, you may check out this link.
Here, I will provide a guide on how to gain weight. This guide can be use for ectomorph and mesomorph.
Step 1
Take note of what you are eating daily for a week or two and find out the total daily calories you have consumed for each day. Record these foods in a list. This is for you to take note of what you are eating daily and come out with a meal plan later.
Step 2
Plan to add an extra of 200 calories to your current daily calories consumed. This is your new calories intake. For example, if you are consuming about 2,600 calories a day, then your new calories intake is 2,800 calories.
Step 3
Determine the amount of macronutrients. An example could be 50% carbs, 30% proteins and 20% fats. You may use Table 1 as a reference. The number shown on the extreme right column is the amount of macronutrients you should consume daily. In this example, it is 2,800 calories. Take note that 1g of carb and protein is 4kcal and 1g of fat is 9kcal.
Table 1
Macronutrient | Percentage | Calorie calculation | Quantity calculation (grams) | Daily amount required (rounded to nearest whole number) |
Protein | 30 | 0.3 x 2800 = 840 | 840/4 =210 | 210g of protein |
Carbohydrate | 50 | 0.5 x 2800 = 1400 | 1400/4 = 350 | 350g of carbs |
Fat | 20 | 0.2 x 2800 = 560 | 560/9 = 62 | 62g of fats |
Step 4
Find out the amount of calories and the macronutrients of the foods that you have recorded in Step 1 and put it in a table. Plan how many meals you want to eat a day. A guide will be 5 or 6 meals a day. Separate your meals with 2 to 3 hours in between.
Step 5
Plan the food that you want to eat for each meal and put it in a table format. The calories for each meal should total up close to the new calories intake for the day which you have added in Step 2 which is 2,800 calories.
Example
Meal 1: 700 calories
Meal 2: 500 calories
Meal 3: 1,000 calories
Meal 4: 300 calories
Meal 5: 300 calories
You can alter the food that you are going to eat every day or alternate days so long as you get the approximate amount of calories as shown in the example below. Plan a diet that you can stick with over time.
Example
Day 1:
Protein (g) | Carbs (g) | Fats (g) | Calories |
245 | 345 | 62 | 2800 |
Day 2:
Protein (g) | Carbs (g) | Fats (g) | Calories |
245.1 | 345.3 | 62.6 | 2816 |
Step 6
Follow this new calories intake for two weeks to a month before increasing your calories again. The calories intake should increase slowly so as not to gain unnecessary fats in your abdominal area and other parts of your body.
A good practise to use is to increase your calories by 200 for about two weeks followed by another 200 for the next two weeks and so on until you get your desired weight.
Go and get started to gain weight by following my guide now! If you find this article useful and helpful, you can click to subscribe to my free articles.
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