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When it comes to dieting, you can find many articles on the internet that explain how to lose weight and lose weight in no time. However, if you feel too thin and decided to hit the gym to gain some muscle and mass, you may have a harder time finding valuable information. As many hard winners can witness, good volume is not an easy thing to achieve. That is why I am here today to give you some tips that will get you on the right track towards your physical goals.
Controlling your body weight begins with a very simple statement. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to maintain its mass. If you go below that amount, you will lose weight and if you go, you will gain something. It’s as simple as that. You have two ways to calculate your maintenance, the first is to follow the same diet for a week or two and keep track of all your calories every time you eat something. If your weight has not changed at the end of this period, you will get an approximation of its maintenance. All you need to do is increase your calorie count by 10-15% to start gaining weight.
If that seems too complicated, you can find a way to calculate that maintenance based on your age, weight, height, and activity. The formulas are available on the Internet and many applications can now do it directly for you.
Now that you know your maintenance, you can easily create a surplus and start building some dough! However, it is not enough if you want to keep your volume clean.
In fact, you can gain some weight by eating ridiculous amounts of cookies and pizzas every day, but I don’t think you have started gaining weight to gain weight and become unhealthy. To get good volume, you need to keep your diet clean and get the right amount of all the macronutrients.
As many people know, protein is essential for building muscle, so you might think that increasing your intake as much as possible is a good idea for bulking up. It is not! Protein, unlike fat or carbohydrates, cannot be stored by your body. Therefore, your body will use the amount it needs and will naturally evacuate the rest. This is why eating protein powders and chicken breasts ten times a day will not be effective for you. It is generally recommended to consume around 1g of protein per pound of body weight for optimal results.
Fats should also be a very important part of your diet and people should not be afraid of it, whether for bulking or cutting. Although some are to avoid like trans fats, there are many healthy fats such as Omega 3, 6 and 9 that you can find in nuts, olive oil and fatty fish, for example, that are essential for your body. It is generally recommended to get about 20% of your total calorie intake from fat. However, as a gram of fat offers many more calories than protein and carbohydrates (9 kcal instead of 4 kcal for the other two), you can increase that amount a bit to increase your calorie intake and reduce your consumption.
Last but not least, carbohydrates should not be forgotten as they are the first source of energy for your body! Carbohydrates fall into two categories, simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates (sugar, fruits, sweets …) will give you instant energy but will not last long. We generally recommend taking them during or right after your workout to maintain energy or to increase insulin levels and start building muscle after exertion. Complex carbohydrates (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes …) take longer to assimilate and, therefore, will provide a sustained amount of energy for a longer period. Once you’ve calculated your protein and fat needs, all other calories needed to reach your desired amount should come from carbohydrates.
Now you have all the basics to get started with good volume! With an excess calorie diet packed with the right nutrients, there is no reason not to reach your goal. You just have to be patient, constant and hardworking during training.