How To Safely Gain Weight & Muscle

Jun 20, 2015 by Tatianna

Hello my Lovies,

Today I have a guest blogger Rick Grimes bringing us an amazing article on how to safely gain weight and muscle.

How to safely gain weight and muscle

There are millions of articles, guides, faqs, videos and instructions on how to LOSE weight, but hardly any when it comes to safely putting on a few healthy pounds.
Gaining weight can be just as important to some people as losing it. Whether you’re a very skinny girl who wants to fill out a little bit and show off the curves or a tiny guy who wants to beef up into an Adonis, gaining healthy muscle mass is your goal.
In this article we’re going to go over the 3 main components of gaining weight and building muscle

• Nutrition
• Exercise
• Rest

Nutrition

Just as they are with losing weight, your diet and nutrition are the main keys to your weight gaining goals.
Simply put, gaining weight comes from eating an excess amount of calories over your maintenance. Your body has a  specific number of calories it needs to: gain, lose and maintain weight.
Your first step is to figure these numbers out, specifically your maintenance calories, which is the amount of calories you need to consume per day to maintain your current weight. You can do so with this awesome calorie calculator.
Once you have figured out your maintenance number, the trick is to eat 200-300 calories OVER that amount of calories every day. But remember, you’re also going to be burning off extra calories through exercise, so you’ll have to account for that too.

To clarify: If you calculate your maintenance calories to be roughly 2000 calories/day, then in order to gain weight you’ll need to end up with a caloric intake of over 2000 at the end of your day. The more calories over 2000 that you consume per day, the quicker you’ll gain weight.
The tricky part about gaining muscle mass is that the more you have, the more calories your body burns. However, don’t focus so much on the scale numbers, focus more on the mirror. If you LOOK like you’re gaining weight and muscle, then you are! It doesn’t matter much what the scale says, because you may be losing fat at the same time.

The importance of protein

 
Obviously we want to gain healthy weight and not fat. Well healthy weight is mostly going to be muscle mass, and you aren’t going to pack on any muscle without partaking in a high protein diet.
Protein is the nutrient that recovers and builds muscles. You will especially want to be consuming higher amounts of protein if you’re lifting weights. A good rule of thumb is to consume 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight you have per day. This will give your body the proper nutrition it needs to repair and feed your muscles so that they can grow after an intense training session.
While there are things such as protein shakes to consider, your best course of action is to consume foods that are high in protein.

Here are a few high protein foods to consider:

• Lean meats (chicken, turkey, steak, pork)
• Dairy (yogurt, milk, cheese)
• Eggs
• Vegetables (broccoli, potatoes, spinach, peas)
• Fruits (avocado, dates, raisins, bananas, guava, apricots)
• Seafood (tuna, salmon, octopus, tilapia, halibut, shrimp, crab)
• Snacks (peanut butter, mixed nuts, beef jerky)

Some quick nutrition tips to gain weight:

Eat high protein foods (listed above)
Eat a lot, but HEALTHY, never resort to junk food to increase calories
Think about adding a protein powder or weight gainer shake to your daily routine
Make your own weight gainer shakes in the morning.  This one is an awesome high calorie protein shake recipe.

Exercise

This one is also important. Very important. Preferably if you are looking to build muscle, you are going to want to be lifting weights.
I know that may seem intimidating to a lot of people, but don’t stress it, it’s really not that hard once you get the hang of it. And the meathead stereotype is vastly exaggerated, some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met have been in the weight room and are always eager to help and give pointers. Plus, with the internet, you have an endless amount of information and motivation to browse through.
There are other benefits to lifting weights too. It increases your strength, speeds up your metabolism and can even help fight depression! Along with that, it can also boost your confidence. When you’re constantly setting and meeting goals in the weight room, you just get this good feeling about yourself, you get to test yourself, push yourself to your limits. You get to see what you’re made of and it’s almost always more than you imagined.
But, all that aside, the biggest result of lifting weights is the muscle gain. Not only do muscles look good on you, they add healthy mass onto your frame AND your body burns a lot of calories when it has extra muscles to take care of. This results in a lot less fat being stored around your body.

How to get into weight lifting

Most people avoid weight lifting because it can seem confusing at first. So I’m going to give you a few pointers below to help you get into the groove of things.

Do the research

 
There are TONS of online resources to help you get into weight lifting, but my favorite would be bodybuilding.com
They have an amazing exercise database section that shows you what exercise to perform for which muscle. Check it out here:  http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/
Not only that, but they have an awesome workout routine section that you can browse through. They pretty much do all the work for you, all you have to do is follow them! You can browse those here:  http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/55-workout-routines-for-2015.html

Start at your own pace

A mistake I see a lot of beginners make is bringing their ego to the gym with them. Don’t do that. Don’t try to lift more than you can and definitely don’t try to impress anyone. You’re there for yourself, not for others. Stick to weight you can handle to avoid injuries and most of all embarrassment. Your ego is going to take a bigger hit if someone has to lift the bar off your neck.

Stick with it

This is another biggie! Stick with your routine and workouts! Don’t give up after a week, a month, hell even a year. Good things take time. Learning to lift takes time, building your body takes time. Just remember that and definitely don’t skip workouts. EVER!

Rest

For some reason people always forget about rest. It just goes right over their heads! Which is ludicrous, since I’d consider rest to be one of the most important parts of any health/fitness routine you choose to pursue.
Your body needs rest for just about EVERYTHING. From repairing muscles that are broken down at the gym to rejuvenating your brain after a long day at work. You simply must rest. End of story.
Most people think muscles are built at the gym, they’re not. Muscles are built in your bed at home while you’re sleeping. This is the time your body takes to repair everything that needs repairing. Muscle fibers are torn up (not dangerously) by weight lifting and they need to be fixed up by your body’s natural processes, this is what makes muscles grow. Try to get 6-8 solid hours of sleep at night, especially if you’re working out hard. It’ll pay off.

 
Wrapping Up

 
Let’s recap, in order to gain healthy weight and muscle you need to:
Outline and prepare a nutrition plan that will have you eating more calories than you burn, while also consuming a high amount of protein to feed your muscles.
Research and put together a weightlifting or workout routine that is going to build your strength and increase muscle mass.
Rest, rest, rest! Get some rest, don’t overdo it and whatever you do, don’t stress out!
So there you have it, some basic but very useful information if you’re looking to gain, not lose, weight. If implemented correctly a solid nutrition, exercise and rest routine is going to allow you to pack on extra muscle and fill your figure out in a good way. You’ll be getting all sorts of compliments in no time. And remember to stick with it, because if your mind gives up, so does your body!

Author
Rick Grimes is a fitness and health nut who used to play pro-soccer. He now spends his days learning, lifting, hiking, fishing and writing for top10supplements.com. You can find him on Google+ as well.

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