How to Gain Weight without Gaining Fat
Dec 11th, 2007 by Mehdi Tags: Build Muscle, Nutrition
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Gain weight. Image credit: Side Salad.
You want to gain weight, but you want this weight to be muscle and not fat. How do you do that? Fernando asked in reply to How to Lose Fat & Build Muscle At The Same Time:
I worked hard to be at 175 lbs. I have a lot of fat to lose, my body fat is 17%. I want to build muscle but I’m afraid I’ll get fatter eating 18x of my weight kcal. If I lift weights without cardio will I be able to lose fat? My diet is the following:
- 0730 eggs, whey protein and oatmeal
- 1000 peanut butter or fruit
- 1230 chicken and salad or tuna
- 1530 nuts or turkey
- 1830 steak or chicken with salad or steamed rice and beans
- 2130 turkey or nuts or peanut butter or fruit or jerky or tuna
- Protein shake before workout and post workout
Get Stronger. More strength is more muscle. Muscle burn calories, fat doesn’t. Build muscle & you’ll burn more calories, meaning a lower body fat. Follow a strength training program that includes Squats, like StrongLifts 5×5.
Eat Enough Calories. Fat is emergency storage for your body. If you don’t eat enough, your body will hold the fat. Your body also needs food to build muscle & recover from your workouts. And you of course want to gain weight.
Start at your body-weight in lbs x 18kcal. Check the balance weekly. Gaining weight? Keep eating the same amount of calories. Not gaining weight? Add 500kcal. Repeat until you have your goal weight. Use FitDay.
Eat Clean. You will gain fat by gaining weight. However you can minimize the fat gain by eating as clean as possible. I like the 90/10 or 80/20 rule: 6 days clean food, 2-3 junk meals on Sunday. Try this.
- Protein. 1g/lbs daily: steak, chicken breast, tuna, mackerel, eggs, etc.
- Whole Grain Carbs. Avoid white carbs. Eat brown rice, pasta, oats, etc.
- Healthy Fats. Olive oil, flax seeds, fish oil, etc.
Watch out with milk. Eat most carbs post & post post workout.
Cardio. I don’t like the idea of doing cardio to burn the fat: it’s hard enough for skinny guys (girls) to gain weight in the first place. 30 mins moderate intensity cardio burns about 400kcal. You’d need 400 extra kcals to gain weight.
If you eat clean, train hard, Squat & don’t increase your calorie intake too fast, you’ll gain weight without gaining too much fat. And thus won’t need cardio.
Setting Goals. 17 % body fat isn’t “a lot of fat to lose”. 10% is a natural year round body fat for a man (15% for a woman). Losing 7% body fat is easy. Don’t worry about the fat gain as long as you don’t get over 20%.
Get stronger & eat clean food. The fat will take care of itself. More strength is more muscle, more muscle is more calories burned. Once you have your goal weight, you can lose fat if necessary. One goal at a time is easier.
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Great post Mehdi! One point that I can’t emphasize enough is to make sure that you are eating enough calories. Otherwise, the quality of your workouts will suffer, as well as your overall outlook on life. Not getting the proper nutrition places stress on the body. You are already placing enough stress by strength training, so you need to make sure that you give your body the materials it needs to recover. It’s better to gain a little bit of fat along with that muscle, as opposed to losing muscle & fat.
Some really helpful advice here, especially about cardio. Thanks Mehdi.
You might want to check your body fat levels instead of just weighing yourself. Either get somebody to do it for you, buy some fat calipers and do it yourself, or just judge yourself in the mirror. The scale itself may not tell an accurate story of progress. For example, you may gain some muscle and lose fat and they may cancel each other out on the scale. If you add more calories, you’re going to put on some unwanted fat pounds because you mistakenly thought you weren’t putting on muscle mass. Also, 1-2 pounds is the generally accepted safe amount of “weight” you will want to look for on the scale if you do weigh yourself. Any more and it’s probably more fat gain then muscle gain. Muscle gain generally slows as well as you become a more experienced lifter so be patient. Good luck!
Mehdi ~ I saw that your site was linked over on Leo’s post today (along with mine) so I thought that I would drop by
Very nice post with some valuable information, even though I am just working nowadays to maintain my weight at 175lbs.
I sure wish I /could/ gain weight, but as a wrestler I can’t really bulk up that much or I’ll go over weight.
Right now I work and eat light to stay around 140lbs, but often I have to throw on the sweats and run to lose some water weight before matches.
Luckily, after Christmas we get a 2lbs window to allow for muscle gain.
I really hate to advocate NOT doing cardio. Not only does cardio improve heart health and lung capacity, but also helps warm up your muscles prior to lifting. I would *like* to think proper diet, plenty of calories, and a solid weight-lifting regime will lead to increased weight regardless of cardio. In the end, I think the health benefits outweigh any detrimental slow-downs in weight gain. Just my two cents. I realize most big guys scoff at this.
Mehdi, I just stumbled upon your blog today, though I’d heard about it for a while now. Glad to see another smart blogger with solid advice on fitness and in particular, strength training. You might enjoy the interview I did with Jack LaLanne this past week. Best, Sam Page
You don’t mention vegetables at all. Whole grains are a poor substitute for vegetables. The nutrient density of vegetables far outweighs any grain. Everybody concerned with their health should eat 10-15 servings a day.
Stu
@Mark.
Thanks for stepping by. I’ve sent you an email.
@Peter.
Strength training increases cardio vascular fitness. Do 5×5 Squats with 1.5 bodyweight & tell me if your hart is pumping or not. I’m not a “big guy” btw, 155lbs at 5′8″
@Sam Page.
I’ll check it out, thanks for the motivating words on the blog.
@Stu.
Totally agree that you should eat veggies, but the title of the post is how to gain weight. 250g broccoli has 100kcal. 200g whole grain pasta is 700kcal. Try to gain weight on veggies.
Hey I like this article. I will follow your advice and put my body in shape.
good advice! a couple of the things that i do to gain good weight is lift heavy (keep a journal and always do more ‘work’ then the previous week), do the power moves (bench, rows, chins, dips, squats, deadlifts, cleans, overhead press), and get enough calories (40% coming from protein), and drink a lot of water. it couldn’t be simpler.
keep up the good work.
I have a new breakfast routine that’s been working well for me, everyday I take about two of those packs of oatmeal or the equivalent if you just have a box of it, and make it but with extra water so After its made it is kind of soupy, then add a scoop of protein powder. For me it is tasting really bad because I accidentally chose a really nasty tasting powder, I’m trying to use it up so I can buy a new one.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of rest too. If you don’t have at least 8 hours sleep a night your missing out on important recovery time. I also try to have a nap through the day to, it does wonders for your bodies repair process, I know it may be impossible for some people to have a nap through the day but if you can I would recommend it. Another great thing for protein synthesis while your sleeping is ZMA. It’s a strength stimulant, (or at least that what it’s promoted as anyways), but not just that, more importantly it’s a sleeping aid as well. If you ever wake up and your muscles are still sore or your still feeling a little tired, taking ZMA before bed will revitalize your body and you will wake up and feel completely fresh and awake. (Specially for those guys that work late or early, and struggle to get a full nights sleep)
I accidentally bought a really bad tasting flavored protein powder. It tastes the worst in water. Its ok with Skim milk , but you still have to down it really fast to tolerate. I recently found a new method. Mix it with Unflavored oatmeal. I originally had the flavored oatmeal with sugar but this mixed with the powder was awful. The unflavored oatmeal is so bland it kind of absorbs the bad taste.
Thats a pretty good idea, as long as your watching your intake of nutrients.
Great blog, and great article(s!). Just one question: Why is milk bad? Going by the nutritional information, it seems reasonably healthy enough. I hear lots of people say that milk is bad, but I don’t know exactly why. Keep up the good work, looking forward to your next article!
@Kris
Thanks for the motivating words ont he blog. Milk easily gets you fat. Many are lactose intolerant. Food allergies to milk product. It gets worse depending on how much milk you drink/day (one glass vs. one gallon). Experiment & see how you react to milk.
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People should also be eating potatoes, white, red, yellow. Doesn’t matter. They’re good and good for you. Consumed with proteins and fats, the GI becomes irrelevant.
Also, so-called “white” pasta is fine too provided it’s made from semolina, which most of it is. Barrilla brand, as well as Creamette both make their pastas from semolina. Additionally here as well, eat the pasta with a good helping of ground beef for proteins and fats and the GI is, once again, irrelevant.