Lean but want to add more muscle

Vana9410

I’m lean but would like to add more muscle. Thought about a weight gainer since I am unable to stomach eating the extra calories to meet daily caloric goals. Anyone have good results with this or would you recommend I add a couple extra shakes/day? Thanks

Chieflrg

I usually recommend only two shakes a day because of the side effects such as bloating, cramps, headaches, nausea, etc...

If you are meeting or exceeding your protein needs, there are many calorie dense foods that are considerably less expensive than whey protein that are easily consumed. Ice cream and peanut butter are two of my favs. Adding olive oil to your meals is another way.

Justin_7272

You won't add muscle by eating. I'd recommend a progressive overload strength training program to build. Food alone will help you put on weight, but won't generally held build muscle.

engin45

Me trying the same Vana, 3 days of training, lots of carbo and protein to hit yhe calorie surplus and added 4 kgs recently, aiming 5 more.
How’s yours going on?

Pipsqueak1965

Lift weights and eat more - like Chiflrg said - there are easy ways to add a couple of hundred calories a day - peanut butter, normal butter, nuts, avocado. A couple of biscuits will do it! Not too hard.

Vana9410

engin45 wrote: »

Me trying the same Vana, 3 days of training, lots of carbo and protein to hit yhe calorie surplus and added 4 kgs recently, aiming 5 more.
How’s yours going on?

Not bad. Eating 2000 calories, no cardio but lifting weights 5 days/week. Need to add more carbs.

riffraff2112

I get weird stomach aches when I have more than one shake a day. I can tolerate power bars a bit more but boy are they pricey!
I got by on lots of rich dense food. My best friend was a 'hard gainer' and what worked for him was just good old fashion patience. Just keep eating at a surplus and you will gain, combined with a great training regiment of course.

DTurner90

Like others have said adding in some caloric dense foods such as ice cream and peanut butter is good. If you are maintaining on a 2000 calorie diet you increase minimally another 200 to 300 calories which is 1 protein bar or a small thing of ice cream. By doing things slow you will reduce the amount of day gain. You can look up lean bulk and get a ton of stuff out there.

GaryRuns

There's a whole thread with great food ideas for folks that have a hard time gaining weight. Check it out:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1

Make sure you're getting sufficient protein. Most consider the range of 0.8-1.0 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day to be the goal while attempting to build muscle. After that eat some of the calorie dense foods in the thread I linked above to get a modest caloric surplus.