Help for high metabolism/hard gainers.

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For anyone struggling with this, there are some good points to keep in mind.

Don't do too much cardio exercise. I've read that 2 to 3 times a week is best.

Do weight lifting and strengthening exercises to gain muscle and put on weight.

Make sure you are getting enough calories per day. I've read you need an extra 500 calories a day.

How to: Gaining weight for skinny guys

Here's an article on how to make your own high protein shakes to help with weight gain.

How to make a weight gainer protein shake

I can pretty much gain muscle by looking at a squat rack. Unfortunately I'm stuck perma-bulking. Oh well.

Don't ditch cardio! Wouldn't it be much nicer to have that extra 10 lbs of muscle and still run circles around the next guy? Olympic power lifts are good for building "functional strength". From there you use your functional strength and cardio to push more weight up than you could before.

Being a hard gainer myself it was strange that I gained 5lbs of muscle riding my bicycle to school. What OP posted is definitely a great start, but it all comes down intense motivation when your mind moves so fast.

I don't know if I believe in "hard-gainers." If you eat enough you'll get big.

Do heavy complex exercises. Squats with free weights or pistols if you don't have a gym membership. Then a smattering of other complex movements, push-ups, pull-ups, rows, presses, deadlifts, etc. Stay in the 5-7 rep range if possible (if you can do 12 push-ups, start doing decline pushups or working toward handstand pushups, one arm pushups, etc - and for weighted exercises just slightly increase the weight every workout or maybe every other workout). Do the heaviest movements first (deadlift and squat especially).

Keep it up, 3 times per week is a good starting program, focus on good form, high protein diet, choose calories based on where you want to go (don't expect too much, I don't think average guys can get to be 250lbs and 12% body fat without "help").

If you're not vegan, milk is all the "protein shake" you really need. Drink milk like there's no tomorrow.

I agree. .Well kinda, I've not been to the gym in over a month now due to RL and night shifts so am losing weight. But yea, Squats worked wonders for me. I'm one of those guys who could eat a horse and drink a weight gain shake and -just- maybe put on weight if am lucky. But I made more progress in one month doing Squats and bench presses than I did four months doing Isolation exercises with a few Riod monkeys I know.

As for deit, I'm planning on switching to a Paleo deit for a month to test it out.

[quote="IrishTusk"][quote="1000Knives"]I can pretty much gain muscle by looking at a squat rack. Unfortunately I'm stuck perma-bulking. Oh well.[/quote]

I agree. .Well kinda, I've not been to the gym in over a month now due to RL and night shifts so am losing weight. But yea, Squats worked wonders for me. I'm one of those guys who could eat a horse and drink a weight gain shake and -just- maybe put on weight if am lucky. But I made more progress in one month doing Squats and bench presses than I did four months doing Isolation exercises with a few Riod monkeys I know.

As for deit, I'm planning on switching to a Paleo deit for a month to test it out.[/quote]


I too can eat everything in sight and not gain weight. I know it's genetic in my case.

Paleo works good...for a month or so. Then you start getting low carb blues and hating your life. I switched back to my old pre-lifting diet of beans and stuff, lots of fiber, though now I know I'm slightly sensitive to wheat (I tested this by eating mostly pasta for a week.) I also only eat maybe 6oz or so of meat a day now. The problem I see in paleo/low carb/whatever is it makes your body very acidic, which isn't good for you, you get sick and stuff. For caloric restriction dieting, paleo sorta kinda works, as you're cutting out calories by not having carbs, but I believe it's mostly calorie restriction. You can also get shock weight loss, too, by going paleo/lower carb. Your muscles lose all their glucose and then you "lose" 8lbs or something by doing that in like a week, but it's fake weight loss.

That said, what I did learn from the Paleo/low carb kinda experience was fats are helpful in the diet. Don't go super low fat and be like, afraid of egg yolks or something. But, balanced diet, yeah. Do that.

I had a hell of a time putting on weight most of my life. High metabolism. I was into bodybuilding back when I was in my late teens/early 20s and here is one recipe that I was taught to use, that actually worked.

It's a milkshake. Put all this in the blender and drink.

Milk
Protein Powder (Weider, etc)
1 pack instant breakfast
1 spoon peanut butter
1 banana
1 egg
scoop or two of ice cream
honey

Wow, Weider is oldschool.

I'm 48!! LOL! Think how long ago it was that I drank that lol.