How to Gain Weight Muscle for Skinny People
First, let's talk a bit about your diet and nutrition. Do you know how much calories you burn in a typical day, and do you know how much calories you need to consume to gain weight and muscle? Below is a general rule of thumb to quickly determine how much calories you should be consuming each day:
For weight loss:
Your body weight X 10 to 12 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
For maintaining:
Your body weight X 13 to 15 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
For bulking up:
Your body weight X 16 to 18 = The range
of your daily caloric intake
For example, for a 150lb person, the weight gain caloric intake range would be about 2400 to 2700 calories per day. A more precise way to determine how much calories you burn on a daily basis is to use a BMR / RMR calculator. During my weight gain cycles, I typically aim for the upper range of the bulking up calories intake, at around 2700 calories per day.
I follow a 40/40/20 diet plan with 40% of the calories coming from proteins, 40% from carbs, and 20% from fats. So this works out to 1080 calories from proteins, 1080 calories from carbs, and 540 calories from fats. Divide 1080 by 4, and you get 270g of protein and 270g of carbs. Divide 540 calories by 9 and you get 60g of fat.
Note: 1 gram of protein and carb has 4 calories each. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories.
Now that you know you need 270g of protein and carbs, and 60g of fat, the next thing is to figure out where you will get those nutrients from. Again, keep in mind I'm using a 150lb body weight as the example in the calculations. Simply substitute your own weight in to figure out your nutrition requirements.
270g of protein and 270g of carbs may not sound like a lot, but it takes a bit of a planning to get the right daily balance of proteins, carbs, and fats, and you simply cannot get these nutrients from junk sources. That should be obvious, unless you goal is to simply gain "weight" and only "weight", which in this case would be all fat. But to gain weight and muscle for skinny guys, you need to get your proteins, carbs, and fats from good sources - not all calories are created equal.
I try to get as much of the nutrition from my regular diet as I can, and reply on supplements such as protein powders and weight gainers to make up the rest. My typical day usually has 3 main meals and 3 snacks, along with 2 to 3 servings of protein shakes for some extra protein. A sample day diet looks like this:
Breakfast: Raisin bran / milk / ground flax
In between: 1 protein shake
Lunch: Shrimp / Corn / Green beans
In between: 1 protein shake
Dinner: Salmon steak / Broccoli / sweet yam
Snack: Peanuts
Late Snack: Egg whites (6)
Bed time shake: 2 scoops of pro complex.
This particular day's diet worked out to 276g protein, 261g carbs, and 61g of fat, for a ratio of 40.84% / 38.70% / 20.46%. Pretty close to the 40-40-20 diet I have planned. If you're skinny and want to gain weight and muscle, you have to eat clean. You certainly can stuff yourself with fast food, junk food, and junk calories, and you'll definitely gain "weight", as in fat from that. But if you want to gain weight and muscle, you can use the above ideas to setup your own diet and nutrition plan on the right track. As well, you'll need to have a good workout program in place that will provide the stimulus to make your muscles grow.
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