You Are What You Eat

Three words for you hardgainers:  Calorie.  Dense.  Foods.

This means not filling up on liquid calories before and during meals, and not stuffing yourself full of high volume snacks like vegetables, oatmeal, potatoes and popcorn.  You should even limit water intake before and during meals.  The point is to leave all the room possible in your stomach to devour things like lean meat, cottage cheese, whole wheat wraps and bagels, and nuts—specifically almonds.  You don’t want to feel full before your body is able to get everything it needs from a meal.

Also important for you is the dreaded pre-workout meal:  a shake and a snack and off you go.  Again, you don’t want your body digging into your energy reserves during the workout.  You’ll need that energy for later.  Let it feed on the food in your gut.

A good pre-workout shake idea is to blend nine ounces of skim milk with 50 grams of protein powder, one banana, a quarter cup of blueberries and a tablespoon of peanut butter.  Eat a handful of almonds or a low-sugar protein bar (0 to 5 grams) in your car on the way to the gym.

Easy Is The New Hard

If you’re a hardgainer and you commit yourself to these tips, you’ll see improvement—simple as that.  And you don’t have to stuff yourself or overwork yourself in order to pull it off.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Don’t eat more; just eat more densely.  Have fewer fluids during mealtime, compound and stack your exercises, and rest more than you work.

See, that wasn’t so hard.


Sources:
Slack Inc.
Bodybuilder.com
gregplitt.com