5 Simple Steps to Adding Weight

When looking at the fitness industry as a whole, we see so much information on how to lose weight and get skinny but fail to discover quality information on packing on weight and muscle. 

While most people tend to focus on losing weight, it can be just as tough for some people to gain weight. This can happen to a lot of women who are naturally thin and maybe don’t have very big appetites.

If they do a lot of exercises, this can really become a problem as they are burning up a huge amount of calories but not replacing the fuel, as they should be.

So with these types of clients, they must take our diet advice, as they will need to really up their calories to handle their volume of training. 

Men have the issue where they are what is known as a “Hardgainer”. This is where they want to pack on some muscle but find it incredibly difficult to do so. 

Whether you’re a male or female, the following 5 points will really help you start putting on some weight.

1. Commit to Weight Training 

Make sure you commit to weight training 4/5 days a week. A lot of people who struggle to put on weight do a lot of cardio-based activities, which will do nothing for putting on serious weight, especially muscle tissue.

Ideally, you can split this workout up into 2/3 different body parts each day. So if you hit your chest and biceps on day one, then you would do legs on another day.

This is the traditional way of doing it, but you can also do full-body workouts if it’s preferred. 

2. Increase & Track Your Calories 

Most of the time, you’ll need to increase your calories, as hard gainers are usually not eating enough calories per day. Most hard gainers think they eat a ton, but when you actually check their calories they’re far from their ideal caloric intake. 

In this case, you may have to eat higher-calorie foods such as fast food, pizza, chocolate, chips, etc. which is what most people would love to hear.

But, it can be tough for people psychologically as they see these foods as “bad”. No food is bad, anything is okay as long as it suits your goals and doesn’t get out of hand to cause health problems.

If the goal is to increase weight or put on size, you need to eat more calories than the body is using on a daily basis. This is known as a calorie surplus.

It's important to include the usual healthy foods like lean meats, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables. However, you should bear in mind that these foods are low in calories, which isn't conducive to muscle or weight gain.

With that said, there are some “healthy foods to further increase daily calories.

Healthy foods like nuts, nut butters, seeds, dried fruit, avocados, oils, butter, granola/granola bars are all considered healthy high-calorie foods. 

However, you can still choose to indulge in unhealthy foods like chocolate, cakes, and biscuits in order to put on that weight quickly. 

3. Patience 

This will take time, so it’s vital that you stay the course. You want to focus on yourself for 16 solid weeks of doing all these things before judging it. 

Even then, you will probably only have made little progress, but hopefully, it will be enough to give you some confidence to keep going.

As with any goal in life worth doing, it takes time. So quit trying to look for shortcuts and accept the fact that it will take time to get it right.

4. Sleep

As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s after your workouts when your muscles are really getting the job done.

The workout has broken them down, but now you want them to repair bigger and better than before. 

For this to happen, you need to be getting adequate sleep on a consistent basis. 7-9 hours, but ideally 8 hours plus each night. If this can’t be done due to work and/or family commitments, then try to get naps in as much as possible.

5. Hire a Trainer.

A quality trainer will be able to help you with technique to make sure you are doing the exercises right and not making a mess of them. The problem with weight training is that as you continue to lift heavier and heavier loads, then any faulty mechanics will get exposed and can easily lead to injury.

There are also ways of working around heavy loads if you have any type of injury or deficiency by doing single-leg exercises, using bands, or any amount of ways of changing things up to suit your needs. A good trainer will be able to help you with all of this.

He/she will also be able to guide you on what weight to be lifting on any given exercise, so that you aren't being too generous to yourself by lifting too light, but also not doing any harm by lifting too heavy.

The extra added bonus of hiring a trainer is having someone there to push you on. Let’s face it, we all need that extra little kick now and again which we rarely give if we are on our own.

So, these are the 5 simple steps for anyone looking to put on some weight, especially muscle of course.

Be sure to check out the links below for more information.

Darragh is a writer for La Tonique and also owns 2 Gyms in Ireland. To get more information like this you can check him out at any of the following:

Website - https://www.dutchysfitness.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dutchysfitness/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dutchysfitness/