If you’re very thin and have a difficult time gaining weight , then you’re what's called a hard gainer. Primary reasons for wanting to gain weight are to improve personal appearance or improve athletic performance. Weight gain for a hardgainer is usually significantly more difficult and frustrating than weight loss is for a person who’s overweight.
Why is gaining weight for a hardgainer so tough? Well, a big part of it is your genetics. However, you can work with your genetics to a certain extent and modify them through proper training and nutrition. You can modify over 70 genes with the right training and nutrition program. The other major reason people have a hard time gaining weight is because of a lack of sound nutritional information available.
There is so much more nutrition and exercise information (and misinformation through mainstream media hype) related to weight loss and fat loss than there is relating to weight gain. The reason there's so much more information on weight loss and fat loss
is because so many more people in our society are overweight than
underweight. So those who're looking to gain weight have a hard time finding credible resources and proper programs to follow. A lot of fitness training and fitness nutrition information on gaining weight that is out there is often shrouded behind the underground bodybuilding subculture or bogus supplement sales ads disguised as scientific research.
The good news is you’re not alone there’s men and women out there just like you who want to gain healthy weight, or lean muscle. I’ve personally trained and provided nutritional counceling to many clients who wanted to gain weight with great success and yes, I’ve had more than a few young women as clients who wanted to gain weight as well.
Being a female hardgainer can be particularly unnerving. In our society (and here in New York City especially), as a woman, it seems as though you can't be thin enough. Most people can't even comprehend the rationale for a woman wanting to gain weight. However, most women prefer to have some curves, and most men prefer women who have nice curves. It is healthy, natural and normal for a woman's body to have a higher percentage of fat than a man's. in fact, when the body fat percentage drops too low the body begins to function less like a woman's and more like a man's, and women with low body fat may have difficulty getting pregnant.
Being a hardgainer isn’t all bad. Just like anything else in life, it has it's positives and negatives
You’re muscle definition shows much more quickly than for someone who has a thick layer oif fat covering their muscles. This can also be a great source of motivation for you see the results quickly once you're on the right exercise and diet program.
You can afford to eat extras without stressing out over sabotaging your entire fitness nutrition regimen where as one hefty cheat meal can undo a weeks worth of hard work and self discipline for a person who’s trying to lose weight and fat.
Here are some basic strategies for gaining weight.
Recommended Strategies for Increasing Calories:
Although these tips may seem simple, these are guidelines for gaining weight made by the
NSCA (the leading authority in elite fitness and sports specific
training). If these strategies work for the highest level athletes
they'll certainly work for you. These principles should form the
backbone of your weight gain program.
By: Andrew Schmarje CSCS, BS Health Wellness