When you think about gaining weight you should really think about gaining muscle. No one wants to gain weight in the form of body fat. You need to be consuming extra calories but you don’t want them hanging around as fat. You want to convert those calories into muscle. If you want to gain more muscle and not excess body fat then you really want to make sure you are not consuming additional calories then what your weight gain diet requires.
If you have skinny genetics and have a hard time gaining weight at all, gaining some fat should be the least of your concerns. You naturally have very little body fat to begin with, so gaining 5 pounds of fat won’t look unsightly at all, and with the increased muscle mass it won’t look out of proportion with the rest of your body.
For years, the common method in the bodybuilding world to gain muscle mass has been to eat everything in sight in combination with intense weight training during the “bulking” cycle, followed by a period of dramatic calorie reduction in addition with cardio exercise during the “cutting” cycle to burn off the unwanted fat covering the newly gained muscle, just before a contest.
Since this has been the common methodology to gain muscle and lose fat, it must be the way to gain healthy weight and improve your physique, right? Well, believe it or not, there is a better way to gain muscle mass and not fat.
Realistically, you will always gain some fat when on a high calorie weight gain diet. This is an unavoidable fact and anyone who tells you differently is misleading you. Although you can’t totally prevent gaining some fat, you can keep it to minimal levels if you are disciplined with your diet and training.
Eat to Build Muscle, Not to Bulge
Nutrition is fundamental to gaining lean muscle mass. It makes sense that you need to eat more calories to fuel your workouts. However, this doesn’t mean eating everything and anything within your reach. The main reason I see people gain significant amounts of fat on a weight gain diet is usually because they are eating too many calories. Yes, you need plenty of calories to fuel muscle growth when lifting weights, but keep in mind too many calories will simply be stored as fat. Include foods in your weight gain diet which will help build lean muscle mass and avoid the bad fats.
What I recommend is increasing your calories in small increments (300-500 extra calories per day) while closely monitoring your body fat percentage. If you notice that you are starting to gain more fat, then reduce your calories slightly.
How Much Muscle Can You Expect to Gain Without Getting Fat?
There is no simple answer to this. How your body responds to implementing a weight gain diet and workout plan will be influenced by your body type, training intensity, and how strict you are with your diet. With that said, if you do eat well and train hard, you can expect to gain about 1lb of muscle per week within 8 weeks.
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