How to gain weight in minimum possible time for skinny folks (without any supplement)!

Being an ectomorph, hardgainer or you can say a skinny guy, I always struggled to put on some body mass. For that purpose, I ate mindlessly everything that came to my way without even knowing its nutritional supply, its advantages, disadvantages.

I beyond any doubt can say this thing that you also do the same thinking that it will bulk you up no matter in what quantity you are eating that.

That's where all the problems start accumulating.

Skinny folks generally are in a misconception that they eat a lot and still they don't gain weight i.e they overestimate their calorie intake. They also live in a misconception that if their genetics are bad or they are an ectomorph naturally, they can't gain weight.

Now a question may arise in your mind what is an ectomorph body?

Elaborating that an ectomorph body type is that in which a person is very lean, have a lean muscle mass, thin shoulders, have a fast metabolism and they are those who always find it difficult to gain weight. Keeping that in mind, they are also known as "hardgainers".

Main reason behind why "an ectomorph finds it difficult to gain weight"?

The main reason due to which an ectomorph finds it difficult to gain weight is because of their fast metabolism.

Metabolism is the whole range of biochemical process that occurs within a living organism.

It consists of anabolism (build-up of substances) which is required in muscle growth and catabolism i.e the break down of substances.

In simple words, metabolism is a rate at which your body breaks the food components and transform into energy.

Are skinny people unhealthy?

This is also a misconception that needs to be cleared that are skinny people unhealthy?

Breaking down this myth with a very famous example of the UFC fighter Conor Mcgregor who is an Irish professional MMA fighter.

If you look at Mcgregor, he doesn't have an attractive body, huge arms or chest.

But still, no one can't call him unhealthy or unfit.

That is because fitness doesn't only consist of hypertrophy, it contains many factors that are to be met.

What should be calorie intake for hardgainers?

Now talking about calories intake, a skinny guy should focus on a calorie surplus diet.

A calorie surplus diet is that in which you need to take more amount of calories than your maintenance calories. Maintenance calorie is that which is required to maintain the normal biochemical process of your body.

Now, most of the skinny people overestimate their calorie intake in spite of the fact that their calorie intake is even less than what is required to maintain your body i.e less than the maintenance calories.

So you have to track your calorie intake in order to have a calorie surplus diet.

For example, your maintenance calories are 2600, so in order to have a calorie surplus diet, you have to add 10% more calories of your maintenance calories i.e 2600+260=2860

High carb and High protein diet!

In today's generation or present times, people focus more on "low carb and high protein diet".

That can be considered good in case of an endomorph but not in case of an endomorph.

An endomorph should rely on a diet that consists of both high carbs and high protein.

Carbs or carbohydrates are essential to give you energy during your workout.

Glycogen is the store of carbohydrates or you can also call it as a stockpile of energy.

As more and more carbs you will take in, the size of your glycogen will increase and at a point, it will automatically send a signal to your muscles to grow in size if you keep yourself stick to a particular calorie surplus diet program.

On the other hand, protein is needed to recover your muscle tissues and support muscle growth after a workout.

I would recommend you take a high carb diet one hour before your workout so that you will have enough energy to kill your gym session and a high protein diet after your workout to recover your muscle tissues as fast as possible.

What to take for pre workout and post workout without any supplement?

If you don't wanna go for any supplement, you can take banana in your pre-workout which will provide you with enough carbs in your workout or you can take black coffee as it contains caffeine to give you a kick for your workout. 

If you want to know more about "why to take coffee as a pre-workout", you can check my article on that, here https://avjfitnesss.blogspot.com/2019/04/coffee-as-alternate-to-pre-workout.html.

In post workout, you can take fat-free milk and fat-free yogurt to provide you with enough proein or you can also take oatmeal which fulfills multiple nutritional requirements with a half cup of dry fruits for the same purpose.

How often you should take a cheat meal?

As I mentioned above that skinny people overestimate their calories and for that purpose, they eat everything that comes to their way. Similarly, it is one of  "the biggest myth", that skinny people can have as much cheat meals as they want to thinking that it will help them in gaining weight.

Of course, it will help you in bulging out your tummy and of course not in gaining lean muscle mass. If that is your goal then go for it.

The main reason why a continuous cheat meal is unhealthy for you is that it contains bad saturated fats that can increase your cholesterol level and can also lead to many risks for heart diseases.

I personally recommend you take only one or two cheat meals in a week. If you are too much addicted to cheating meals, you can take it two times a week but you ought to make it one after some time.

Focus on compound movements!

If your ultimate goal is to gain a lean muscle mass then I would suggest you to do more of compund movements and less of isolation movements.

Reason being that compound movement will help you not only in lifting heave but to target more than one muscle group of your body whereas isolation movements work on a single body part.

If you are a gym going guy/girl, deadlifts, squats and lunges are one of the most important compound movements that you can do.

If you aren't able to make it to the gym, there are many bodyweight compound exercises that you can perform anywhere. For example:

• Free-weight squats
• Pull-ups
• Dips
• Push-ups
• Free-weight lunges etc.