Number 1: Consume more calories
It couldn’t be any simpler. People who are constantly saying "I just can’t put on weight" realistically just don’t eat enough food, plain and simple. They may think they eat a lot but when it comes down to it, they really don’t eat enough to meet or even exceed the demands of their daily energy requirements; hence they are not increasing their body mass. People with an ectomorphic physique will typically be tall and skinny by nature with longer muscle bellies, making it harder for them to add quality, dense muscle tissue to their frame. HOWEVER…It can still be achieved! Just because you are an ectomorph or don’t have the best muscle building genetics, doesn’t mean you can’t put on decent muscle mass. It just means you have to increase your energy intake to do so.
To add mass of any kind, you must first be in a calorie surplus i.e. consuming more calories than you are expending for energy. Take this one step further and we want the majority of those calories to be clean and coming from fresh, healthy, wholefood sources to ensure that the subsequent increase in body mass over time is from an increase in lean muscle tissue and not just extra body fat. A good starting point for any of you hard gainers is to calculate your BMR; then from there, taking into account your daily energy expenditure, work out your daily calorie requirement for maintaining your current body mass. Then once you have this number, increase it by 10-20% and this will be your daily calorie target to put you in a sufficient calorie surplus to ensure that you are consuming more calories than you are using for energy. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for optimal accuracy of BMR and subsequent calorie calculations to be sure you’re on the right track.
Number 2: Eat more meals
Once you have got to grips with how many calories you need to be eating to add muscle mass, the next thing on the list is actually finding a way to consistently get those calories in! This is where a lot of hard gainers fail. They just don’t eat enough meals throughout the day. What’s more achievable, trying to force down 4000kcal across 3 or 4 meals or spreading this number across 6 or 7 meals instead? Obviously the latter. Plus, most hard gainers prioritise protein over other nutrients but if you’re cramming in 1000kcal+ per meal then the chances are you’re consuming more protein per meal than your body can actually utilise in one go and anything above 30-40g is just getting converted into glucose or fat, which your body can get very good at. Therefore, spreading your protein intake over more meals will more effectively promote muscle protein synthesis and better help to maintain a positive protein balance within the muscle cells. Furthermore, it’s just easier to be able to smash a quick meal down in 15-20 minutes rather than sitting for ages trying to force feed yourself huge meals that bloat you out for hours which just hinders further food intake.
Number 3: Don’t be afraid to go slutty with your calories
You’re not an endomorph, you’re an ectomorph which means you don’t have to be afraid of a burger or two. The majority of your calorie intake should be clean and healthy calories but it’s very difficult to get the required calories in by only ever eating clean food, especially if your shooting for anything above 4000kcal a day. Now I’m not saying that the famous ‘dirty bulk’ is the way to go because it really isn’t. This method of gaining mass for hard gainers just leads to a host of GI disorders most notably gut inflammation which makes your digestive function increasingly poor, which translates to an inability to digest and absorb nutrients from food; which results in lowered muscle function and training output and eventually increased adipose tissue and visceral fat accumulation from poor quality calorie dense foods. But, having so called ‘bad food options’ fairly regularly can actually aid your quest to gain muscle. Eating your chicken breast, rice and broccoli every day is great, but it’s also a high fibre meal that keeps you full and slows down digestion, making it more difficult to eat more meals throughout the day. Having a ‘cheat meal’ such as a burger and chips at least once a week helps to ensure you meet your weekly quota for calories, as well as tasting damn good and it helps to not make you feel like you’re never enjoying your food.
I would even go so far as to suggest a meal of this kind every couple of days for some hard gainers as this will help to ensure adequate calorie intake as well as helping to keep muscle and liver glycogen readily stocked up to be utilised for training. This also wouldn’t cause any GI distress as would the dirty bulk approach, especially if you’re taking adequate measures to ensure optimal gut health by guaranteeing sufficient micronutrient and fibre intake from a range of fruit and veggies as well as taking a greens powder supplement and/or a probiotic on a daily basis.
A further option which works quite well for hard gainers is to follow a general 80/20 diet, where 80% of daily calorie intake comes from clean food, whereas the remaining 20% comes from slutty food. So for someone eating 4000kcal a day, this would be 800kcal from whatever naughty food they find tasty. Which in the grand scheme of their daily food intake isn’t really a big deal and will only help to ensure they get all their calories in without stockpiling excess body fat. Don’t forget, as a hard gainer you are lucky enough to not have to worry so much about putting on unwanted body fat as you’ll have a fast metabolism that shifts massively towards using food for energy rather than storing food for energy. Enjoy this gift!
About the author, James Rutherford Bio-Synergy ambassador and MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition
