How To Eat To Gain Mass

One major reason that people do not gain muscle mass in because
of an insufficient diet. Weight training only provides a
stimulus for your muscles to start growing. It is when you go
home and recover after the exercise that you start to add on
muscle.

For your muscles to grow you need to eat plenty of the correct
types of food. Your diet provides the raw materials for your
muscles to grow and if it is lacking then your muscles will
stay the same size and you will see no results for your efforts
in the gym.

The key to weight gain is to consume more calories than your
body uses. The excess will be stored as extra weight on your
body. This will either be muscle or fat but the key is to
consume extra calories.To build muscle you must consume extra
calories with sufficient levels of protein, if you eat just
extra calories but with no protein to build muscle you will
just get fat so we need to look at protein intake and calorie
intake combined.

There is debate about how much protein you should consume. The
amount most people agree on would be about 1.5grams per kilo of
bodyweight. So if I was 80kg I would need about 120grams a day
if I was 100kg I would need 150 grams per day. You then divide
this by the number of meals you eat in a day to get the amount
you should be eating in each meal. If I need 150grams of
protein a day and eat six times a day I will need to have 25
grams of protein in each meal.

The protein consumption needs to be spread out evenly over the
day. The body cannot store protein so if you eat more than the
body can process in one go then it will get burned as energy or
broken down and pass through the body. Eating it in smaller
amounts throughout the day gives your body protein evenly
leading to better muscle gain. Most sources say that the body
can process and utilize around 30grams of protein per meal so
going higher than this in one meal doesn't really have any
benefit.

The best sources of protein in the diet are meats and dairy
products. Meat on average uncooked is 20% protein so cooking
100grams of meat will yield about twenty grams of protein. An
egg is about 7grams of protein. Milk ranges from about 6 grams
per 200mil to 11grams per 200mls. The types of milk with the
highest protein levels are the high calcium milks. In general
meats provide the best sources of protein but it is good to get
a variety of protein sources to stop your diet from getting
monotonous the key is to eat an appropriate amount in every
meal.

The next thing to look at is how often during the day are you
eating. Some people eat lots in one or two meals but then eat
nothing else during the day. People should be eating about 5 to
6 meals per day. This means that the body gets energy throughout
the day making it less likely to store it as fat plus also you
can keep building muscle through the day. The most important
reason I feel however is that your stomach can hold only so
much food in one go. A huge plate of pasta or rice at most
could be around 1000kcals and if that make you full for the
whole afternoon then in total you wont have eaten as much for
the whole day as if you had smaller meals. The body can digest
a lot more food if it is spread out in slightly smaller meals.

When eating through the day it is best to have your meals
regularly spaced and about the same time each day, if possible.
This gets you body into a pattern and makes it easier to eat
your meals. If your meal times vary you my end up having two
meals close together and not be able to finish the second one.
If you are eating to gain weight you will most likely not feel
hungry when you are eating and may go for days without feeling
hungry. The thing though is that you may not be hungry but you
will still be able to eat if you stick to a schedule. If you
time your meals wrong you may feel stuffed and not be able to
even chew and swallow your food. This may seem like a lot of
eating but it only takes me 10-15 minutes to eat at each meal
so I can easily fit it into my workday.

Pieces of equipment you need

Diary
One thing you will need is a diary to track what you are
eating. The first thing you need to do is track your food
requirements for a week. At the start measure your bodyweight
at the beginning of the week. Then record everything you eat
for a week, record when you ate and what you ate but most
important the number of calories per meal. To figure this out
you will have to start looking at packaging that comes with the
food or making estimates based on nutritional guides you can
find on the net but you have to record everything that you eat.
Also record the caloric content of anything you drink as you may
be consuming a lot of calories in drinks etc. Recording this
will give you your calorie intake for the week and then divide
this weekly total by seven to see what you consumed on average
per day. Then measure your weight at the end of the week at the
same day of the day as when you measured at the start to see if
it has changed.

Most likely if this is how you normally eat your weight will
not have changed and we will have figured out what you need to
eat each day to maintain your weight. Most people need to eat
between 2000-3000kcal per day to maintain their weight
depending on age and size. To gain weight you will need to
start eating more than this amount. To gain one kilo of weight
you have to eat in excess about 7,000kcals of food. So if you
wanted to gain one kilo in a week you have to eat an extra
1000kcals per day. This is about the same as adding 250grams of
uncooked pasta or rice to your diet per day. But if you spread
that over a day that is only and extra 170kcals per meal if you
eat six times a day which is quite feasible.

Digital Scales
Now this is a very important piece of equipment. You need to
have a set of these so you can measure the amount of food you
are eating in each meal. Judging by eye is not a very accurate
method and scales ensure that you are eating consistently over
the day and not overeating in one meal or under eating. You
will be weighing out your carbohydrates and your protein. When
preparing meals you will have a protein source (Normally some
type of meat but also dairy products or eggs) you will weigh
out the protein source so you have the required amount per meal
(20-30grams depending on body weight) So if I was making a meal
with chicken I would measure out about 150 grams of chicken as
this will give me about 30grams of protein. Then I weigh out my
carbohydrate source (Potatoes rice pasta etc.) If was wanting
about 500kcals from carbohydrate I usually weigh out about 125
grams of rice or pasta (uncooked). You will have to start
looking on the packaging to see the energy value of the food
then from there you can then figure out how much you need to
eat and then weigh that out

Digital scales are pretty cheap. I bought mine from the
Warehouse for about thirty five dollars. I use them to weigh my
meat, pasta and rice, protein powder and other supplements since
they work down to the gram. This helps make sure my meals are
all the right size and have enough protein.

Bathroom Scales
Another important thing to have when trying to gain weight is
some scales to measure your bodyweight. If you cannot keep
track of how your weight is going it will be hard to know if
you are eating enough or too little. I weigh myself in the
morning and the evening and record what my weight is. This
helps me to see any patterns. Another trick is to weigh
yourself when you get home from work so you know how much you
have to eat to be on target for your weight gain for that day
or whether you don't have to eat as much this evening since you
are already at what you should be. Your weight will fluctuate by
one or two kilos between evening and morning so only use one of
the measurements as a guide for your overall weight gain.
Tracking how much you are eating and seeing how this relates to
your weight gain gives you a guide as to how much you need to be
eating to gain weight

Should I be using supplements?
When you are starting the most important thing is to have the
diet correct make sure you are getting enough sleep each day
(about eight hours a day) and weight training properly. If you
are not doing that supplements will not be much help. Protein
supplements can useful if you have trouble eating solid meals
six times a day or are unable to prepare a meal or are on the
go. You can get weight gain shakes and protein shakes which
have the same calories and protein as a normal meal but they
only take a minute or two to prepare and drink. If you are
sometimes in a rush or not very hungry they can be quite good
to have. They are also good to take straight after weight
training as you may not feel like solid food but your body
needs protein to help start the recovery process

Other Notes
One thing to watch out for when you are eating is that you will
have figured out what you need to eat to maintain you weight and
then you start to add extra calories but your weight gain is
lower than what you thought it would be. I have had this occur
myself and it appears to be that the body is trying to burn up
the extra calories. For me this results in my body temperature
going up, when I start eating more to gain weight my wife
quickly notices that my skin becomes a lot warmer to the touch
and this is the body trying to use the extra calories. However
the body can only burn so many calories this way and then it
will have to start storing it as extra body weight.

Useful Numbers
Most people eat the same types of food on a regular basis so
here are a few numbers to help you start to calculate the
number of calories you need to eat to gain weight. For more
nutritional information search on google for "nutritional
calculators"

Carbohydrate Sources
Bread (per slice) = 81kcal per slice
Pasta (Uncooked) = 361kcal per 100grams
Rice (Uncooked) = 357kcal per 100grams
Potatoes (Uncooked) = 83kcal per 100grams
Kumara (Uncooked) = 80kcals per 100grams

Protein Sources
Rump Steak (Uncooked) = 234lcal and 19.8grams of protein per
100grams
Chicken Breast (Uncooked) = 122kcal and 22.3grams of protein
per 100grams
Eggs (No 7) = 76kcal and 6.9grams of protein per egg.
Milk (Calci-Trim) = 92kcal and 11.4grams of protein per 200mls

Conclusion
Hopefully this advice will help you get on track to making
gains outside of the gym. Remember that diet and weight
training are equally important and some people even say that
weight training is slightly less important since you spend more
time eating that weight training. However if you stick to a
routine with your eating and make sure you are eating enough
then you will start to make gains. Remember this process will
take weeks and months but if you track your progress this will
give you motivation to keep on going.

About The Author: Graeme Muir has an interest in weight
training and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and improving performance
through supplementation, go to http://www.grmproducts.co.nz for
a range of supplements available and further articles.

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