5 Reasons Why You Can't Gain Weight

Does it seem that no matter what you do, you can’t gain weight? If so, you need to take a look at your diet and training plan and set your sights on bigger gains. 

 

There’s a term for people who find it difficult to gain weight – Hardgainers.

If you’re a hardgainer, there’s no doubt that you’ve probably been fairly skinny all your life, yet you dream of one day looking like a bodybuilder, professional athlete, or cover model.

 

When we talk about gaining weight, we’re not on about putting on fat. Anyone can add fat easily enough. You just need to gorge on donuts, cram down bag fulls of candy and make soda your drink of choice. Combined with spending all day sitting in front of the TV, you’re on course for gaining a ton of fat. It won't even take that long; you can get fat in a matter of months.

But that’s probably not the kind of weight gain you want.

 

 

What you want is slabs of muscle – bulging arms, a sculpted chest, a back so wide it blocks out the sun, and tree trunk legs. In short, you’re after the perfect body.

But for some people, this ideal seems so far out of reach that you can feel like it’s not even worth you bothering. Don’t be disheartened though, because you can achieve a perfectly-chiseled physique like this, but there are several reasons why you’re not gaining weight you need to deal with first.

Genetics plays a big part in how you develop. You probably know someone who’s one of those people who seem to put on muscle easily. They only have to look at a barbell and their arms grow, and despite rarely training, they’ve got the strength of a bear. Likewise, you toil away for hours in the weight room and have little to show for it.

However, while genetics do play a role, you can overcome the natural cards you were dealt. Realize you may find it tougher to put on weight, but don’t use poor genetics as an excuse for failure.

You don’t eat enough. Building muscle requires a surplus of calories, which entails eating lots of food. If you’re naturally what’s known as an ectomorph – small joints, low body fat, smaller, weaker muscles, and long limbs, your metabolism is likely to be faster than the average person's, which means you burn calories at a quicker rate. Therefore, you’ve got to eat more to gain bulk.

If you’re not gaining weight, the number one reason is probably that your food intake wouldn’t be enough to sustain a baby sparrow. Eat more, but also eat smarter. Pile on the healthy fats and protein if you want to go "bear mode."

Are you putting in maximum intensity in every gym session? If not, there’s another big problem. How are your muscles going to grow if you’re not fully breaking down the tissue every time you hit the weights?

Training hard is important, but so is resting. Your muscles don’t grow when you train – they grow while you’re resting. Training is needed to break them down, but the recovery process doesn’t start until around 12 hours after your workout has finished. Therefore if you’re training every day, or hitting the same muscle groups over and over again each week, you’re not giving your body time to repair, recover and grow. You bet that stops you from gaining weight!

Being active is certainly a good thing for your health and fitness, but having an active job, or doing lots of cardio-based activities uses up precious calories that could be used for building muscle. You don’t have to stop doing what you do, but you should eat more to compensate.

With all of these going on, it may seem like the odds are stacked against you, and outing on good-quality muscle weight is an unachievable task. Fortunately, though, there are several really simple strategies that can get you started on your way to the ultimate muscular physique.

Start Eating – A Lot

Most skinny guys are afraid of eating too much in case they gain fat, but with a fast metabolism, that’s the last of your worries. There are two approaches you can adopt – either to eat everything in sight or to work out how many calories you need to build muscle.

 

The first option works well if you want to gain weight, but you may add some unnecessary fat if you eat too much. The second option requires a little more planning, and you’ll need to use an Online calorie counter to determine your caloric needs, but it is more accurate.

 

 

Once you’ve decided on your approach, get eating.

Your diet should be based around protein-dense foods such as steak, eggs, fish, chicken, and dairy products like cottage cheese and milk. Eat plenty of good quality carbs too, from oats, potatoes, rice, bread, and pasta. While these may be the enemy for dieters, they should be your new best friend. Carbs provide energy and much-needed calories while helping to shuttle nutrients to your muscle cells and improving recovery. Don’t forget fats either. Fats are useful for hormone production and boosting your calories further. Go for fattier protein sources, and add in nuts, seeds, olive oil, peanut butter, and avocados on a daily basis too.

Reduce Your Routine

As discussed earlier, you only grow when you rest, so cutting down the time you spend in the gym may seem mad on the face of it, but actually makes a lot of sense.

You can get amazing results from just three workouts per week, performed on non-consecutive days. Follow an “A-B” routine. In week one, perform workout A on a Monday, workout B on Wednesday, then workout A on Friday or Saturday. The next week, train on the same days but switch to B-A-B. In week three, go back to week one’s sessions and repeat the sequence. Here’s the routine –

Workout A:

Deadlifts – 5 sets of 5 reps
Leg Presses – 1 set of 20 reps
Dips – 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Barbell Rows – 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Dumbbell Curls – 2 sets of 12-15 reps
Calf Raises – 2 sets of 12-15 reps

Workout B:

Squats – 5 sets of 5 reps
Stiff Legged Deadlifts – 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Chin-ups – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Bench Presses – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Lateral Raises – 2 sets of 15-20 reps
Decline Sit Ups – 2 sets of 15-20 reps

Warm up for 10 minutes before each session with a mixture of cardiovascular work and light resistance exercises. Aim to increase the weights you use slightly each session, while maintaining perfect technique.

Rest and Recover

Make the most of your rest time. This can’t be stressed enough. If you’re used to being very active and doing lots of sports or cardio, then while you don’t need to cut it out entirely, you either need to reduce your athletic activity or eat more calories to replace the ones you’re burning.

If you’re struggling to eat more calories, then don’t be afraid of a little junk food either. The majority of your diet should be based around healthy, nutrient-dense foods, but if you’ve not got a big appetite, there’s nothing wrong with some pizza, ice cream or chips here and there to help meet your calorie goals.