How To Gain Weight

From the desk of Victor Pride
Subj: So you want to get big
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In my early twenties I was poor, boy!

I was so poor that I decided just to not eat. It was an easy decision, I didn't have any damn money for food anyway.

Back then I was 130 lbs at 6'2 (59 kg at 189 cm). I flexed in the mirror one day and my biceps were the same size as my wrists. I was skinny, boy!

When I wanted to gain weight I had to buckle down and start a dedicated eating plan. It takes true dedication for a skinny guy to eat enough food to gain weight.

But I'd had my first taste of the gym and I was hooked from the first minute in the gym. I was going to get big no matter how uncomfortable the eating got (and it did get uncomfortable).

I was skinny but when I buckled down and started getting serious about my eating I was able to gain weight very quickly. I went from 130 lbs to 160 lbs in just a few weeks (59 kg to 72.5 kg).

That was years ago and since then I've reached a peak weight of 210 lbs/95 kg but I now maintain a weight around 195 lbs/88 kg.

(Thought I admit I'm as fired up about the gym as ever and I'm probably going to get gigantic.)

When I want to gain weight there is one thing I have to do… Get serious about my eating.

After so long in the game, the eating is no longer a chore, it is simply a means to an end. I know that my 6 meals a day = J A C K E D.

So when I received this question from a B&D; reader, I knew I had just the answer…

I’m a slim guy naturally. I have a very fast metabolism.I have a busy schedule and I’m looking for a healthy way to gain weight without eating junk. Any advice?”

So you want to gain weight but you're a skinny guy?

Ok, here's what you have to remember…

Eat like it's your job

To gain weight you have to eat like it's your job. It will not be a fun, pleasant experience and you will not want to do it. Do it anyway and do not quit.

The light at the end of the tunnel is worth it, but to get to that light you will have to get through some shit.

Just remember that eating is your job and you are not a quitter, you are a go-getter and when you want to get big you go and get it.

Eating is a job. But you don't get paid until your work is finished. Your payment is a bigger, better body.

Eat 6 meals per day, eat every 3 hours

Every bodybuilder got big the exact same way… by eating 6 meals per day.

There is no other way to get big than to eat small(ish), frequent meals.

You have to get enough daily calories in but you have to make sure to not eat too much at any one meal.

Eating too much at a meal = fat gain, bloat, and general unpleasantness.

The food has to be spread out throughout the day.

You do not want to stuff your face in a feast, you need to be able to function and this is why you divide your meals every 3 hours.

Eating too much at one time will only help you to have diarrhea and a nap.

Eat breakfast

If you want to gain weight you have to start the day the right way, by eating. Eating will consume you and you will do it morning, noon and night.

DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST!

If you skip breakfast you may as well skip living life. Eating is your damn job so do what it takes and it takes eating every 3 hours.

You've got to start in the morning right away so you can get all of your calories in.

Eat real food

Cook most of your meals and eat real food from a farm.

Don't eat food that comes in a box, don't eat food that is ready to eat without cooking it, don't eat food that has more than one ingredient.

Eat meats, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruits, vegetables etc. Real food! You need to prepare your own food so that you know what is in it.

Avoid eating at restaurants too frequently. Restaurants use enormous amounts of vegetable oils and sugar. If you eat at restaurants 6 times per day you will get fat, guaranteed.

Avoid all vegetable oils, use virgin olive oil or cold pressed coconut oil to cook your food. Oils are your enemy, use the least amount you can.

It is only by eating real, natural food that you will gain good muscular weight instead of gaining fat weight. It's hard to gain weight eating real natural food, that is why it is your job to do so.

Every meal should have a moderate amount of protein, a good amount of carbs and a little fat.

An example would be: 8oz beef and 12-16oz potatoes. The beef has protein and a little fat and the potatoes have the carbohydrate. This is a perfect bodybuilding meal.

Exact measurements of macronutrients do not matter, just get your meals in at approximately a 40/40/20 split (explained below) and gain weight.

Eat saturated fat

Milk, butter, eggs, cheese are all necessary to help you gain strength, weight and increase your testosterone. These are the foods that help you gain muscular weight and strength the quickest.

Nobody ever got big on a zero fat diet. You need some fats. You don't have to go crazy on the fats but you do need them.

Of all the meats, beef is the best weight gainer. Lamb is also good to increase your weight gain.

Do not eat pork, there is a reason no bodybuilder eats pork. If you want to be healthy do not eat pork. Pork is a filthy meat full of filthy parasites. Stay away from it.

I personally hate milk but there is no denying that it helps you gain weight. Yogurt is a good weight-gainer too.

Eat carbs!

If you are trying to gain muscle, you need to use carbs to spike your insulin to shuttle nutrients to the muscle to improve your muscular recovery/hypertrophy.

You should never have a bulk diet deficient in carbohydrates. Carbs are where you energy comes from.

Calculate your calories

Calories are not everything, the scale is what counts. Make the scale move up. BUT! to make the scale move up you do have to have an understanding of your calorie needs.

This is how you find out how many calories you need to eat to gain weight…

• Find your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) using the following calculator: Calorie Calculator
• Choose the Harris-Benedict Formula for the BMR section and then plug in all the corresponding values for your age, weight, activity level, etc.

After doing this you should have a number under your “Total Daily Energy Expenditure” section showing you exactly how many calories your body requires each day to stay the same weight.

Use this number as your maintenance level of calories, and add 300-500 calories to this to start your bulk diet. By eating more calories than your body expends each day, you can slowly add more lean muscle mass to your frame and get the scale going up.

Eat a 40/40/20 protein, carbohydrate, fat split

A good bulking macro split is the standard 40/40/20 split. This split entails having 40% of your total caloric intake from carbs, 40% from protein, and 20% from fats. This split typically works very well for the vast majority of individuals during their bulk phases.

For example, let’s say your TDEE is calculated to be 2730 calories. Then your calories for starting your bulk up would be 3030 calories (2730 + 300).

Now, we calculate how many grams protein you will need. As we will be following a 40/40/20 split, 40% of your calories will be allocated to protein.

There are 4 calories in each gram of protein, 4 in each gram of carbs, and 9 in each gram of fat approximately.

So we will want 303 grams protein (1212 calories), 303 grams carbs (1212 carbs) and 67 grams fat (606 calories). Divide this by 6 meals per day and this is how you come up with your meal plan.

Do not miss meals!

It is better to eat something rather than nothing. I would rather see you eat 2 chocolate bars than miss a meal.

It is important to not miss a meal. If you want to gain weight you have to eat on a schedule and eating something is better than eating nothing.

You need to keep your metabolism firing and the way that you do that is by regular eating.

Make homemade protein smoothies

For 1-2 meals per day you can substitute whole food for a high calorie protein smoothie.

Use whey protein and include peanut butter, frozen berries, bananas, anything you want to make your smoothie taste good.

Protein smoothies are a great way to get your calories in when you can't stand eating so much food, or don't have time to eat.

Eat one daily cheat meal (if you're very skinny)

If you are trying to gain weight you shout NOT eat 100% clean. Clean food will NEVER help you gain the weight you want to gain.

You have to have some high calorie meals like chicken wings, burgers, pizza etc.

You will never gain weight without high calorie foods like this. Never.

Try to include one cheat meal every single day or every two days.

Lift weights at least 4-5 days per week

If you eat 6 meals per day but don't lift you can expect to get one thing, FAT.

The weight gain has to go into the right places, the muscle, and that is why it is important to lift weights hard and heavy. This is how the food knows where to go. Instead of making you fat, it makes your muscles bigger.

The less you train = the less you gain.

Follow Body of a Spartan for the best bodybuilding/muscle gaining program.

Don't drink water with your meals

Don't drink water 20 minutes before or after eating because water interferes with your digestion.

Digestion is very important, especially when you are eating so much food, and you want to take care to ensure proper digestion.

Do not drink water 20 minutes before a meal, do not drink water during a meal, and wait at least 20 minutes after eating a meal to drink water.

Monitor your weight gain

Weigh yourself daily, weekly and monthly and write down your weights in a notebook. If you are not making weekly gains, up your calories by 300.

You may find that it is uncomfortable to gain weight. Know why? Everything worth getting is hard work.

If you are not gaining weight you have to increase your food intake. Yes, you have to eat more food to gain weight. Even if it makes your tummy feel full, eat more food until the scale is moving up.

Take RED GROWTH

It is only after you have your diet and your training in order that you can start to look at supplements to help you gain weight.

When you do start to look at supplements to gain weight, there is one that works wonder…

There is no other legal supplement on the market that will put weight on you like RED GROWTH will.

Red Growth gives crazy gains and certainly it will be banned by government in the future, they eventually ban everything that actually works.

Red Growth has an ingredient called 1-DHEA which gives you crazy muscle gains. Look out for Red Growth in the very near future.

(When it is finally available, I will tell you all about it.)

If you want to gain muscular weight, Red Growth is an absolute must.

And that, friend, is the basic way you get big…

Eat like it's your job, train like all hell, take muscle building supplements like Red Growth.

Not really so hard is it?

Until next time.

Your man,

-Victor Pride

PS - All pictures in this article are from the Body of a Spartan training ebook.