Sup fellas,

Plenty of good threads in this section on hard gainers. First sticky especially. I am a true hard gainer and follow all the rules. I do everything right but sometimes you need to do a little extra to figure out what's going on in your body. Tips below should helps supplement the already great info in this section.

I eat every 2-3 hours. Even in the middle of the night. I have insomnia so this might not work as well for you if you sleep hard. I eat dinner fairly early and noticed I'd wake up about 8# less in the am and then work to get it back up throughout the day. Eating while I got up in the middle of the night helped this. Protein shake, oatmeal, tuna and rice. These are the things I'd eat when I'd wake up.

I eat clean af.
Check my other thread for what I'm eating. Pics and description.
https://www.eroids.com/group/a-league-of-not-so-extraordinary-gentlemen/...

In the AM I make egg white, oatmeal, waffles, and coffee. Every damn day. I make my oatmeal with water... Added honey for sweetness and a fruit in the oatmeal. I usually do blueberries or strawberries. Egg white I usually buy the 32oz carton. One will last me 3 mornings. I eat this meal twice. Once when I wake up and again 2 hrs later. Why these specific items? Oatmeal is going to help remove bad cholesterol in your body. If you're juicing and eating protein shakes ..you'll benefit from this. Eggs whites for a similar reason. If you eat whole eggs everyday that cholesterol will add up. And of course you need a solid carb in the AM...so waffles are good for this.

Lunches/Dinners (I eat two each)
I have a rice cooker I've had for 25 years. Works great and cooks alot of white rice. I eat rice with all of my meals except breakfast. With the rice I have a protein that I've either bought (grocery store roasted whole chicken), or cooked at home (duck, salmon, snapper, tuna, beef, chicken breasts, lamb, pork, etc). Sometimes I'll add a green but if you're juicing you need to watch the greens that have vitamin k..they will thicken your blood and increase the risk of strokes and clots (broccoli spinach things like that have high vitamin k). So I add them in occasional. I'll eat things like green beans and what not. Otherwise it's just rice, potatoes, maybe some fruit and the above mentioned protein. I eat this same setup throughout the day. Two lunches and two dinners.

Protein shakes
Gotta have em. 300-400g of protein a day for me. I try to get the majority of that from food and use the shakes to supplement. Two in the day time with double the scoops and one in the middle of the night. Try to save one for post workout.

Cardio
If you are a true hard gainer and are on a bulk cycle..keep cardio to a minimum. I do a warmup every time I walk into the gym. Half a mile at 4mph on a treadmill with a hard incline. Get the blood pumping..then hit weights hard. Overdo the cardio and you'll be burning all the calories you ate...so no marathons or 10ks please. Sprints work too but don't overdo it.

Sleep.
This is my troubled spot. I have insomnia from the military. I fall asleep fine but don't stay asleep. To help get enough sleep I try and take a nap here for there. If you don't get enough rest you won't be building back those muscle fibers like you should be. Rest is important af.

Working out
Hard gainers should be lifting on the heavy side. 5 days or gym sessions a week minimum . 2-a-days for faster results. I usually go twice a day 3 times a week. Leave one rest day during the week. All other days once a day. Heavier weight and lower rep for bulk. 4-10 reps is where you wanna be. I typically start at 12 reps...up the weight the next set and lower reps by 2 reps. Rinse repeat til you get down to 4 or 6 reps. This give me good bulk while keeping some definition while I add weight. Everyone is different so tailor this to your own body.

Hope this helps the hard gainers. I struggled with it for years and found a sure fire way to add quality mass and keep it.