The Skinny guy's bulk up guide: diet and exercise
By Martin Ebner, Head PT and Sports nutrition specialist at Ebylife
Weight gain is a topic that is often heavily outweighed by what many view as the bigger affliction, obesity and weight loss. While the latter may have more associated health risks, the truth of the matter is, for skinny guys, putting on weight can be a colossal challenge that is both equally frustrating and troublesome.
The good news for all you lanky lads is, with careful planning, hard work and most importantly consistency, putting on weight is well within your grasp.
Diet
The key to most health and fitness goals is around 70% diet and weight gain is no exception. Especially for those trying to bulk up whilst contending with a hyperdrive metabolism!
If your typical day of eating consists of a variety of processed foods, frozen boxes and a microwave, some very drastic changes will need to be made to your diet in order for you to successfully gain weight.
Track your calorie intake
One of the main problems that skinny guys have is the tendency to overestimate the amount they actually eat. You probably don't eat as much as you preach and without doing the math, you stand little chance of making any serious weight gains.
Whip out the scales and spend a few days carefully tracking your calorie consumption. Once you have a clear idea of how much you currently eat, you can set about making the necessary changes required to pack on some size.
Eat 3500+ calories every day
Let's set the bar at 3500 calories minimum per day. If you're young, have an overly-active metabolism or if you live an especially active lifestyle, you may need to aim significantly higher.
Now, while consuming 3500+ calories per day of junk food is fairly easy. Consuming equal amounts from high-quality food sources is not. It takes dedication, consistency, planning and preparation. Depending on how thin you are, you may be required to eat every 2-3 hours, that's 6-10 meals a day. You may have to force yourself to eat even when you're not hungry and cram it down until you can't stomach another bite. Gluttony is not one of the even deadly sins without reason. The good news is, the more you eat, the more likely your body is to adapt to the seismic portions of food and it should get easier over time.
Carbs are your best chum
Carbohydrates are the most easily consumed macronutrient and should make up the majority of your calorie intake (around 60%). With the exception of refined sugar and processed food, anything and everything goes here. Think buckets of pasta, potatoes, bread, rice, oatmeal, cereals, you name it, you eat it, and eat it in abundance.
Related article: The skinny guy’s bulk up guide: Count macros, not calories
Protein
Despite what you may have heard and seen, consuming excessive amounts of protein is not required to gain weight. Unlike carbohydrates, any protein that your body can't use will then be excreted, not stored for later use.
As a rule of thumb, eat around 2 - 3g of protein per kilo of bodyweight and try to include a healthy serving of high-quality protein with every meal or snack.
Example: A 70kg man should aim to consume 140 - 210 grams of protein per day.
Fat and calorie-dense foods
At 9 calories per gram, fat is by far the most calorie-dense of all the macronutrients. By including ample amounts of healthy fats and calorie-dense foods in your diet, you stand a far greater chance of hitting your 3500+ daily calorie requirements.
Top calorie-dense foods:
Nuts and nut butter
Avocados
Cheese
Whole milk
Eggs
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Oily fish (Salmon)
Full-fat Greek yogurt
Liquid calories are king
If the idea of chomping your way through 2000 calories in a single sitting is enough to make you gag, throw it in a blender and slug it down! Try my bulk up super smoothie recipe below:
3 Tbsp peanut butter
500 ml whole milk
150g Oats
2 bananas
2 Scoops of Protein powder
Nutritional content: 1802 calories, 187g carbs, 74g protein, 66g fat
Drink full-fat milk
At around 60 calories per 100 ml, whole milk is a great way to accumulate additional calories to your diet.
If you're lactose intolerant or prefer not to consume dairy, there are some great calorie-dense plant-based alternatives like almond and oat milk.
Make sure your kitchen is fully stocked
As rudimentary as it sounds, it is so important to keep your cupboards, fridge and freezer fully stocked with everything you need. By putting a little thought and extra planning into your supermarket sweep, you'll avoid running low, skipping meals and going hungry.
Eat lots of fruit and veg
While eating lots of fruit and vegetables isn’t necessarily associated with weight gain, they are packed full of all the vitamins and minerals you need to help fuel your training and lifestyle. Not only that but they tend to be full of fiber which will help move the abundance of food required to gain weight through your internal plumbing.
Pre and Post-workout nutrition
While you are what you eat, what you eat when can be just as important for your fitness goals. When it comes to bulking up, your pre and post-workout nutrition should be your highest priority meals of the day.
Pre-workout nutrition should focus on fuelling your body with a healthy balance of protein and carbohydrates (aim for a ratio of around 3:1 carbs to protein). If you deprive your body of easily assessable energy during a workout, it may look elsewhere to fulfill its energy requirements, burning fat and muscle for fuel. A big no-no when you're training for weight gain.
Post-workout is when your body seeks replenishment to help repair and build new muscle. In the 5-60 minutes following your workout, aim to get a healthy serving of fast-digesting carbs and protein. (again a ratio of around 3:1 carbs to protein is ideal). Avoid fat immediately following a workout as it can slow down the absorption of carbohydrates.
Supplements
While supplements should never replace a healthy and balanced diet, they can come in extremely handy for Ectomorphs. Especially when bulking and the thought of another chicken breast, sweet potato and giant serving of broccoli is too much to handle.
Transparent Labs offers a fantastic range of supplements to help you hit your optimal daily macronutrient goals for muscle growth without any additional chewing.
Check out their fantastic Muscle building essentials & Vegan strength stacks.
We also recommend our partners at Performance Lab and Roar ambition for their high-quality all-natural plant-based performance supplements.
The Skinny Guy’s BULK UP meal plan
If the idea of eating 3500+ calories a day still has you scratching your head, fear not!
Welcome to the ultimate Bulk-Up diet plan for skinny guys.
What’s included in the diet plan:
✔ A fully comprehensive and easy-to-follow 7-day food plan (To be repeated until you reach your ideal weight and/or results).
✔ A carefully calculated calorie surplus, macronutrient split and precise measurements to maximize weight gain and encourage muscle growth for Skinny guys.
✔ 2 Delicious post-workout smoothie recipes to help fuel your gains.
✔ A weekly grocery list and instructions.
✔ A sample workout from our 5-day split bulk-up workout plan for skinny guys.
✔ Combines perfectly with all of our Skinny Guy bulk-up workout plans.
This diet plan is perfect for Ectomorphs and ‘hardgainers’ looking to build muscle and gain weight.
The file is in PDF format and is compatible with all phones, computers, and tablets.
Exercise
Weight training can be the skinny man's ticket to bulging biceps and a fuller-looking physique. However, there are a few important aspects to take into account when training for more effective results.
Workout plan
It is so important to know what you're at the gym to do. Yes, we know your goal is to gain weight but without a well-planned periodized workout plan to follow, your results at best will be limited. Follow the advice below to create a highly effective weight training workout or ask a personal trainer at the gym to create a tailor-made workout plan specific to your goals.
Compound exercises
For more bulk for your buck, center your weight training workouts around compound exercises. While isolation exercises like bicep curls and leg extensions are great for fine-tuning, compound exercises target the greatest portion of muscle fibers. The result is a greater release of anabolic hormones (testosterone and growth hormone) in the body which will yield far greater muscle building results.
Best compound exercises for muscle growth
Squats (Front and back)
Deadlifts (Traditional, Romanian, Sumo etc)
Bench press (incline, flat, decline)
Push-ups (incline, flat, decline)
Rows (seated, standing, bent-over)
Military Press (standing or seated)
Bulgarian Split squats and lunges
Pull-ups
Don't skip leg day!
The reason many men skip leg day is either because A.) They're far too obsessed with beach muscles (Chest, arms and abs) or B.) Their pain threshold is too low. Either way, the result is always the same, a disproportional physique.
Lower body workouts that include a variety of compound exercises increase growth hormone and testosterone more than any other exercise, literally shocking your body into better all-around muscle growth. Just do it!!!
Rep ranges, sets and rest times
Reps
While it's beneficial to experiment with different rep ranges. When your focus on weight gain through muscle growth, sticking to the 8-12 rep range has proven time and time again to be the most beneficial for maximum hypertrophy.
Sets
If you are new to weight training, start with 3 sets, gradually working your way up to 5 as your form, strength and confidence improves.
Rest times
Whilst this is a highly debated topic, for those looking to maximize growth, the majority of studies suggest that 60-120 seconds is the optimal amount of rest between sets for maximum muscle growth.
Avoid cardio
Despite all of the health benefits associated with regular cardiovascular exercise, slogging it out on a treadmill for hours at a time is massively counterproductive for weight gain. Especially when your goal is to gain weight. Unless you want to bump up your calorie intake even further to accommodate your already immense calorie requirements, give it a miss for the time being.
If you simply can't live without cardio, incorporate one short HIIT session into your weekly workout routine.
Note: Regular activity is fine: a walk, light cycling to work, a hike with your girlfriend, working in the garden, etc. Just don't make cardio the focus of your exercise efforts.
Rest
Forget the no days off crap. In order to grow, you must rest! I cannot emphasize this enough. As motivated as you may be to gain weight, working out when your muscles are still recovering will have disadvantageous results. Aim to rest for at least 48 hours between same muscle group workouts for optimal results.
The Skinny Guy BULK UP workout plan
If you’re still unsure of how to train for your body type, fear not!
Welcome to the ultimate 3-day Full-body bulk-up workout plan for skinny guys.
What’s included in the plan:
✔ A fully comprehensive 3-day workout plan (To be repeated for 8-12 weeks or until you reach your ideal weight and/or results).
✔ 3 Full-body workouts designed for maximum muscle growth (hypertrophy). You will be hitting all of the major muscle groups every workout with a selection of compound and isolation exercises.
✔ A daily sample from our Bulk-up meal plan for skinny guys.
✔ A delicious post-workout smoothie recipe to support your gains.
✔ This workout plan combines perfectly with all of our Bulk-up diet plans (Omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan) for skinny guys.
While this plan is suited for all fitness levels, it’s ideal for men with 12 months or less of strength training experience.
The file is in PDF format and is compatible with all phones, computers, and tablets.
