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How to gain weight and muscle

People who are naturally skinny or have an ectomorphic body type usually have a hard time putting any amount of muscle or mass on them. This is not due to them just being naturally skinny. It’s due to a multitude of reasons that affect them. Apart from health complications for which, always consult your doctor. On the other hand, these reasons prevent them from either gaining muscle or ending up making them skinny fat . So how can you gain weight and muscle at the same time? Let’s find out

How to gain weight and muscle. Basics to muscle building

The Basics to muscle building

In order for you to build muscle, you need energy which comes from either what you are consuming or your own bodyfat, if you have enough to spare. Water is extremely essential for muscle growth as muscle is made up of up to 70-75% of water. Your water intake affects your performance as well, since if your dehydrated or have less water in your system, your performance in the gym that day will drastically drop.
Now you need to eat more protein so that when you recover from your workout, you have enough protein in your system for your muscles to recover and build. Protein is a very important component of building muscle. The last thing you need is mechanical tension, The more stress you put on your muscles for a certain period of time (sets) the more they will grow overtime.

What to eat or avoid

What to eat or avoid

Apart from training to failure and using mind-muscle connection. What can you do to increase muscle mass as a beginner who is skinny? It comes down to the diet part. What are you eating? Where are your calories coming from? If your calories are coming from junk or processed food like fast food, sodas etc., you’re bound to gain skinny fat instead of building any muscle. The gym or any sort of resistance training cannot work with a diet that leaves you malnourished specifically, one that has little to no protein and is full of fat and sugars.

If your someone who, let’s say is a skinny gamer, and is trying to gain weight and muscle at the same time and your choice of foods is either fast food or instant noodles. None of which are good for your body and one is just carbs and sodium with no protein. Once you start lifting weights, all of that needs to change or at least needs to be limited significantly. Just working out will not get you the physique you want or avoid being skinny fat without a dietary change.

The workout approach

The recommended gym or home workouts approach is to use free weights if your doing it at home to add resistance to your workouts properly and build muscle. If your going to join the gym you will have a lot of choices to choose from. If you need a list of workouts you can do. read top-exercises-for-building-muscle-at-the-gym-or-home/.

Whatever workout plan you decide to follow or create for yourself. Do it with time under tension and practice mind-muscle connection. These two components are essential for optimal muscle growth as well as better contractions during your sets, making hitting hypotrophy easier. Allowing you to build muscle and gain weight at the same time. The weight that you should try to gain needs to be healthier whether you are going to go to the gym or not. Even if your not planning on working out at all. All of this will ultimately help you.

Liquid calories

Cut out high calorie liquids from your diet, whether it is from sugary drinks, coffee or drinks like soda. You need to completely eliminate the sugary drinks and substitute the calorically dense coffee with black coffee or add some low fat milk to your black coffee to make it as fewer calories as possible and palatable. Coffee has a lot of benefits, such as hunger suppression and provides energy as long as its not turned into a meal with added ingredients.

If you cannot stop drinking sodas, just substitute them with diet soda. If your choice of soda doesn’t have a version with lower calories, then you need to completely cut it out from your diet. Let’s say an average Pepsi can (12oz) is 150 calories. How many can you drink easily per day? It turns into multiple meals due to its addictive taste and ease of consumption.

What is zero calorie drinks?

What is zero calorie drinks?

Now take a diet Pepsi of the same size, which is close to 5 calories. It’s never zero. The labels are allowed to label a product 0 if the calories are below 5 kcals according to the rules of the FDA. Nothing is made out of thin air. Everything has calories. It’s just below 5 kcals, which allows it to be labelled that way.
This difference in just your drink from regular to diet has saved you a lot of calories and is going to be a proponent of you losing weight. But in no way is diet Pepsi healthier. It isn’t. Too much of anything is never a good option. It’s just an alternative that has fewer calories in terms of you losing weight.

Conclusion

  • These approaches can be applied by everyone regardless of their gender.
  • The way you workout and train matters a lot in terms of building muscle
  • Your diet is the biggest key factor in you gaining weight and muscle at the same time.
  • Do not underestimate the importance of drinking water and being hydrated before your workouts. Your performance depends on it
  • To know more diet related tips. Read best-diet-to-lose-weight
  • To know more about how what you eat effects your fitness. Read you-are-what-you-eat-how-food-affects-your-weight
  • To know how you can get visible abs. Read how-to-get-abs-the-best-tips-you-will-ever-need
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