How Many Times Per Day Should A Hardgainer Eat?

June 10th, 2009 by chrisr

As you have already gotten past the headline you probably know what a hardgainer is. If you are not sure then the term hardgainer refers to anybody whoc struggles greatly to increase their bodyweight! Often this may be due to that person having an overly speedy metabolism.

Metabolism or metabolic rate refers to how speedily your body can use up the calories it has taken on by processing the normal chemical actions required by the body. If your metabolism is particularly slow then it will be easier to put on fat tissue as you are not burning up as many calories at rest as someone with a faster metabolism.

For muscle building purposes we should be trying to take on a large amount of extra calories that are available to build muscle mass, however this is difficult for hardgainers as they are constantly using up calories at a high speed even at rest. So, what can hardgainers do to counter this? Here is our how to build muscle guide for hardgainers:

1) Keep the cardio workouts to a minimum. Aerobic workouts will clearly consume calories during the exercise but will also increase your metabolic rate so that you continue to burn off calories at a faster speed even when resting. You must avoid this if you are trying to create a surplus amount of calories.

2) Eat for two! You must eat lots of calories. To do so try doubling up all the portions that you would normally eat. Buy some large sized bowls and plates so that you will not forget about this.

3) Take on board every day 5-7 meals. This is critical to build muscle mass. Your body can absorb only a fixed amount of nutrients at any given time that is why spreading out meals is necessary and to ensure the body is never waiting for food. Eating 2-3 meals per day is claimed to slow down the bodies metabolism which is true but this doesn’t mean it is something that hardgainers sould do. Why? because your body can slip into starvation mode triggering the release of certain chemicals that will inhibit the muscle building process.

4) Take supplements. Take full advantage of the numerous excellent supplements that are available such as protein shakes and meal replacement powders. These include extremely high amounts of exactly the correct ingredients you require. Great times to take them are just after training and just before bed as these are times when your body is going to need the nutrients most.

Stop doing exercises that isolate muscles singularly like concentration curls, stick with compound multi-joint exercises. Your program should include: Squats, dead lifts, pull ups and bench presses. These are the best and quickest method to build muscle mass in the right places fastest.

6) Stop doing so many sets. You can stimulate growth in short 40 minute intense workouts of just 3 sets per body part and maybe as little as 10 sets per workout. More is often worse for hardgainers! ignite growth then shoot out of the gym and keep your calories available for growing.

7) Consume plenty of water. it is very important for the reactions within the body so don’t skip over this one. Drink lots and often.

There we have it, try those tips out. Be persistent with these for a couple of months before your judge them. Just go for it? I hope you found our how to build muscle fast tips useful.

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