I often times have a lot of people in the gym ask me how they can gain some muscle. They are always complaining that no matter how much they lift they still cannot gain any muscle. Well, right there is part of the problem. They think that lifting is the key to building muscle so they are in the gym day in and day out but still skinny as a bird. Lifting is important but do I dare say that Diet is more so. In the case of a HardGainer I don’t think I am going out on a limb by saying that diet is the most important piece of the puzzle of why you are not gaining any muscle. Usually I would just say “you need to eat more bro” and be done with them, but I guess in my old age I am trying to be more helpful now. So what I am trying to do here is basically put something in writing that I can basically hand over to these HardGainers so they have something to work with, hence the HardGainer’s Bible. So my fellow Eroiders are getting a sneak peak at my first draft and can hopefully add to it.

Here is the first thing I notice about someone when they say they can’t gain any weight/muscle. They are a classic ectomorph. Not once has a meso or endomorph come up to me complaining they can’t gain any weight. Usually it is the direct opposite; they are always complaining they are gaining to much fat. So just that we are all on the same page here, this is what my definition of an ectomorph is. What the hell, let’s define all the somatypes.

The Somatypes

Now keep in mind that people can be a combination of the different body types and they are not always cut and dry fitting entirely into one class. For instance you could be an ecto-mesomorph or endo-mesomorph. Keep in mind that you can also change your somatype, which is what you Hardgainers will accomplish if you follow through with this.

Ectomorph – The classic HardGainer

Ok, this is the naturally skinny dude that hardly seems to have any fat on them and most of the time hardly any muscle. This body type typically has a naturally smaller frame with a lighter bone structure, and like I said before they are skinny and have a difficult time gaining weight whether it be muscle or fat. Not an ideal body type if your goal is to become a bodybuilder but with hard work and dedication it can be done.

Mesomorph – The classic Bodybuilder

I consider myself a mesomorph. This body type is your classic bodybuilder or athlete. This body type gains muscle easily and can usually burn body fat pretty easily also. They typically have a wider clavicular structure and smaller hip frame which gives that classic X-frame on stage (wide shoulders and small waist).

Endomorph - The Big Boned dude

These guys are the ones that naturally seem to be heavier, dare I say big-boned. They have a naturally heavier frame with wider hips and shoulders. They tend to accumulate fat easily but they can also gain muscle rather easily too. These guys are on the opposite end of the scale from ectomorph and need to be careful with diet or the fat piles on to rapidly.

Tips to No Longer Being a HardGainer

Now this is going to be obvious but you have to lift big and eat even bigger. Obviously if this was easy for you, you would no longer be a HardGainer. So here are some tips to make this easier for you and bust out of your HardGainer status.

Tip 1 - Forget about the Glycemic Index (GI)

This is the only time you will ever hear me say to forget about the glycemic index, but for your special HardGainer status don’t worry about the glycemic index of the carbs you eat. Once you bust out of your HardGainer status and have some quality mass on you, then you need to for sure be concerned about the GI. Just not now.

The reason I say forget about the GI right now is because it is going to be a struggle for you to eat enough food. You can only eat so many sweet potatoes, steaks, and oatmeal before you are so full that you can’t think about getting another bowl of oatmeal down. No matter how full I am though, I can still put down a couple bowls full of Captain Crunch, Cocoa Pebbles, or Golden Grahams with some whole milk. I think you get the point here, you need calories and it is much easier to eat some types of food than others. So eat whatever your heart desires and don’t worry about the GI, calories are more important in this case.

Tip 2 – It’s OK to Drink Your Meals

This tip follows the coat tails of tip 1. I know you hear the mantra over and over that whole food is better, (which I agree with) but with your HardGainer status it is just sometimes easier to make a calorie dense shake and drink it than it is to eat another four course meal that would have the same amount of calories. We are again concerned about calories. So eat them or drink them whatever it takes.

Tip 3 – Skip the Rabbit Food

Your HardGainer status requires that you eat lots of calories so you need to eat caloric dense foods, and not fill up on rabbit food. How can you expect to grow when you are filling yourself by eating types of food like salads and celery, which is what I call rabbit food. That rabbit food is taking up space in your gut that could be filled with steak and potatoes. Catch my drift here. If you eat something it better have lots of calories, so stick with the meat and potatoes and good fats. Add some coconut oil, peanut butter or almond butter to your shakes; throw a big chunk of avocado on your sandwich. Do whatever you can to add calories to your meals. This is productive to breaking your HardGainer status, rabbit food is not.

Tip 4 – Skip the Cardio

This really gets my goat. You are complaining you can’t gain any weight, then why in the hell are you burning up precious calories doing cardio that would otherwise go towards building mass. Need I say more? If you are a HardGainer and keep doing cardio, don’t waste my time complaining to me that you can’t build any mass. Stop that cardio and put that effort into your weight training. Nuff said.

How Much Should I eat?

I am sure you have noticed a recurring theme here - CALORIES. Calories are you best friend if you ever want to break your HardGainer status. Your next logical question then is well, how many calories should I eat? To start with you need to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Here is an online calculator you can use to determine that.

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Since you are in an elite group of individuals known as HardGainers, you can start off by adding 1000 Calories on top of your TDEE. That should put you on your path to remove your HardGainer status. All of these calories should be spaced out into at least 6 meals. You should be eating something at least every 2.5 – 3hours throughout the day. Two key meals here are your post-workout meal and your meal just before bedtime. All your meals are important but these are good times for some shakes. If you don’t know by now how important the post-workout meal is then we have to have another discussion, but for now this is an optimum time to mix up a shake with some whey protein and lots of carbs. The more calories, carbs and protein you can fit in here the better. Drink this right after you are done working out. Before bedtime is another time that a shake can come in handy. This time though, use casein protein instead of whey so that you have a good slug of slow digesting protein to keep you in positive nitrogen balance throughout the night.

There is one other important point here that cannot be neglected. You need to log and keep track of the macros and calories you are consuming. There is no guessing or estimating approximately how many calories you are consuming. You either log them and do this right or you can continue complaining about your HardGainer status. If I ask for your caloric log you better be able to show me or there is no point in talking to me further about how much of a HardGainer you are.

Final Thoughts

I know this going to be a tough journey for you. I know you have a hard time eating enough but these tips should make it easier for you. It all depends on how much you want it. You have to be diligent with your meals just like you are with your training and it will start to become habit and before you know it you will no longer be a HardGainer. Congratulations on losing your elite status.