How to Gain Muscle Weight Effectively and Safely

Spread the love

Muscle weighs more than fat, and a person’s makeup and build depends mainly on genetic factors. This is where understanding how to gain muscle weight can get confusing.

Even though there is a lot based on genetics, your body is capable of change by increasing your muscle weight with eating more food and training with more weights.

However, it’s important to remember that gaining muscle weight can be just as challenging as losing weight. It takes patience, as the results aren’t going to happen overnight. Here’s some info from Visual Impact Fitness.

Nutrition

If you want to gain more muscle weight, one of the most critical factors is nutrition. There is a quality over quantity plan that you need to follow. If the number of calories that you take in is less than the number of calories that you burn, then you’re going to lose weight instead of gain.

The secret to healthy muscle weight gain is to ensure your calories are nutrient-rich. If you spend your time eating empty-calorie foods, such as chips and soda, then you aren’t going to build muscle, repair tissue, or strengthen your bones.

Nutrition

Here are some food suggestions and tips that you should keep in mind when building muscle weight:

  • Use a calorie counter so that you know how many calories you are eating on an average day
  • Eat more calories than you need in order to maintain your weight and more than you burn
  • Eat a minimum of three healthy meals daily, and make them larger portions if needed
  • If your appetite is small, spread your meals out to five or six times a day
  • Make sure you drink water before and after every meal, but not with your food
  • Avoid low carb diets to aid with muscle weight gain
  • Avoid very high-protein diets because they won’t make your muscles grow faster
  • Choose nutritious, healthy fats such as nuts or avocados
  • Add more flavor to your meals with grated cheese, peanut butter, almond butter, and whole-grain muffins
  • Avoid processed foods such as potato chips and soda
  • Use healthy oils such as whole olives, olive oil, avocado, nut, or sunflower seeds to top your salads

Strength Training for Muscle Weight

Resistance training promotes muscle growth, which supports muscle weight. You can use free weights, your body weight, resistance bands, weight machines, and more to get the strength training that you need to build up your muscle and put on some weight.

Here are a few common suggestions:

  • Train two or three times a week so that your body has the proper amount of time to recover. It’s not the exercise that causes your muscles to grow; it’s the recovery.
  • Use compound exercises instead of isolated ones as they workout multiple body parts simultaneously. This means that your body is working to recover more areas during the rest, which speeds up your muscle weight gain process.
  • Don’t waste your time or money on any powders or supplements that claim to increase muscle growth and weight. They usually aren’t scientifically proven.
  • Look into professional advice, so you can avoid injuries while you are doing strength training. It’s also suggested that you consult with a gym nutritionist who can provide you with additional help.

Motivation

It is easy to lose your motivation for anything; especially when it comes to weight gain, weight loss, and muscle gain. When you don’t see the changes in your body immediately, it makes you want to quit or fall back into your old habits.

Motivation

One of the best ways to keep you motivated is to track the progress that you are making—even if it’s slow, it’s still progress. You may also want to work with the team at Visual Impact Fitness.

Among the tips to keep you motivated include:

  • Keep a diary so you can watch your calorie intake, output, and training schedule each day.
  • Muscle weight gain requires that you steadily increase your calories as your muscles grow. It can be quite helpful and motivational to build meal plans that you know are going to work.
  • Keep realistic goals so that you aren’t disappointed. As an example, an increase in a handful of pounds can take approximately a year to reach. You need to be happy with not only small gains but with non-weight related successes too.
  • Regularly consult with your doctor to get utterly accurate progress reports.

Lifestyle

Everything mentioned above is great and is going to get you on the way to building muscle weight. However, it’s critical that you understand that building muscle and the weight that comes with it is an entire lifestyle change. If you incorporate the processes into your life temporarily, eventually, your built muscle and weight is going to go away.

Eating healthily is probably the most significant lifestyle change you could do. You need to replace all of the unhealthy foods with healthy foods, and you need to eat even when you aren’t hungry.

Sometimes, it can get uncomfortable to eat the calories required for you to gain muscle weight, but it’s recommended that you fill your fridge with appealing snacks that encourage you to eat more. Try setting a timer that reminds you to eat every two hours.

Unfortunately, with the introduction of smartphones and streaming services, the majority of people keep their face buried into their phone, or they can be found binge-watching their favorite show.

If this is something you’re known for doing, you need to throw those habits out the window like you tossed the unhealthy food. Keeping yourself sedentary isn’t good for your body, and it’s not going to help you gain muscle or muscle weight. It does, however, help you with gaining fat.

Conclusion

If you want to gain muscle weight, you most definitely can. There are a lot of resources available to you to teach you how to gain muscle weight, and Visual Impact Fitness is one of them. Eat the right kind of foods, do the right workouts, get your rest, and keep motivated. The process might take time, but it’s worth it in the end when you see your results.