Skinny guys aren’t cursed forever to be underweight. In this article, we’ll tell you the five biggest things to focus on to gain weight.
As a skinny guy myself, I can tell you right now: there’s few things more frustrating than being skinny. Yes, I said it, despite seemingly every person in the world wanting to lose weight.
You see, that’s it. That’s why it’s so damn frustrating wanting to pack weight but not being able to.Because about 95 percent of the discourse on weight management is the opposite: how to lose weight.
Us skinny guys get left with crumbs when it comes to information and attention.That leaves us frustrated with our genetics, high metabolism, and inability to chow down copious amounts of food without hurling. Ugh.
But… we’re not cooked. There is a way to gain weight, and we’ve personally experienced it. It won’t be easy, it won’t be fast, but it usually is effective even for the biggest ectomorphs in the world (believe me, that was me at one time). Keep reading and we’ll let you know the five biggest things you need to do to gain some (healthy) weight!
Eat More Than You Think You Need
Let’s start with the boring answer but also the most important one: you need to eat more calories. You really can’t gain weight without doing this thing.Seriously. It’s the number-one thing you must do to add weight.
I know what you’re probably thinking, “but I already eat a bunch of calories.” No, you probably don’t. Not if you’re still skinny.
Most skinny guys swear they’re eating, but when they actually track their food for a week, the truth comes out. They find disparities throughout the week. Maybe they had a huge breakfast one day, but then skipped lunch the next, ate a big dinner on Friday, then forgot to eat half of Saturday because they were busy. This inconsistency is not a recipe for adding weight — it’s for staying the same.
We’re going to repeat this until we’re blue in the face: if you want to gain weight, you need a consistent calorie surplus. That means eating more food than your body burns every single day, not just on the days you remember.Start by adding 300 to 500 calories per day and watch the scale. If nothing changes after two weeks, add more. Do the Michael Phelps challenge if you have to. Per the trusted folks at SportsBettingSites.com, the Olympian had a 12,000-calorie diet during his peak race years. Ok, maybe that’s excessive, but you get the point — get those calories in however you can.
And no, this does NOT mean you need to eat like Joey freakin’ Chestnut (the competitive eater that’s always a betting favorite across the top-reviewed sportsbooks). The easiest move is to add calorie-dense foods to your diet.That’s peanut butter, olive oil, whole milk, rice, eggs, avocados, pasta, trail mix, and smoothies.
Also, avoid this classic skinny guy mistake: trying to gain weight on chicken breast and steamed broccoli alone. That’s a diet for someone cutting, not someone trying to finally fill out a shirt. You need calories, and you need lots of them.
Drink Your Calories
Struggling to chow down food? Then try to drink it. For most skinny dudes, that’s easier than scarfing down hard food.
Let’s say eating more food feels just impossible, now what? Welp, you can always drink some of it.
This is probably the easiest cheat code for skinny guys. Liquid calories are way, way easier to get down than another plate of food, especially if your appetite is garbage. You might struggle to eat 800 extra calories, but drinking them in a tasty shake? Much more doable.
A good weight-gain shake does not need to be over the top, either. Whole milk, protein powder, peanut butter, banana, oats, and such should do the trick. Throw it all into a blender and boom, you’ve got a calorie bomb that takes two minutes to make and five minutes to drink.
It’s really that simple. And in fact, this is where a lot of skinny guys start to overthink. They look for the perfect mass gainer powder or some magic supplement (steroids, for some). You don’t need that, not early on at least. You need calories and more of it, whether that comes from a drink or whole food, it matters less than just getting them into your body.
The key to all this is making it part of your everyday routine. Drink one shake daily. You decide when — maybe after training or first thing in the morning, it don’t matter, just get into repetition. Systemizing it in this fashion is better than hoping you get “hungry.” Spoiler alert: that’s not working, hence why you’re slim.
Lift Heavy And Track Progress
Eating more is step one, but if all you do is eat more and sit around, you’re probably just going to gain the bad kind of weight.The one that makes you “skinny fat” and you don’t want that.
That means you need to lift weights.The goal when training is progressive overload, which is just a fancy way of saying you should get stronger over time. Add weight. Add reps. Improve your form. Give your body a reason to use those extra calories to build muscle instead of storing them wherever it feels like.
Focus on the big basic movements, too. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, rows, pull-ups, lunges — all the fundamentals of weight-training. You don’t need some 15-exercise influencer slop routine. Seriously, stick to the basics and classics.
And please track your lifts. Write them down in your phone or bring a physical piece of paper. If you chest pressed 95 pounds for eight reps last week, try to beat it the next time — that’s the “progressive load” we mentioned before.
Stop Burning Off Your Gains
Here’s another biggie:try not to be too active. As good as moving the body is, just like everything else, too much activity has a negative consequence. For skinny guys, that’s burning the precious calories they just forced into their mouths.
If your goal is to gain weight, you need to account for how much energy you burn. Say you play basketball three times a week, great. Eat more if you don’t want to lessen your hoops time. If your job has you on your feet all day, eat more. If you’re doing long runs while trying to bulk, maybe ask yourself whether those goals are fighting against each other.
Be Boring Long Enough To See Results
This is the part nobody wants to hear. The real secret to gaining weight is being bored for a long, long time.
Eat similar meals. Drink the shake. Lift consistently. Sleep enough. Track your weight. Adjust when needed. Repeat for months and months, not days.
Most skinny guys quit too early because they expect dramatic changes fast. They bulk for two weeks, gain maybe one pound, then decide it’s not working. But gaining good weight takes time. If you gain half a pound to one pound per week, that is a big win. It may not sound sexy, but over six months, that adds up.
Boring works if you’re doing all four essential things we mentioned. Do it over and over again, and watch your skinny frame transform. Trust us!
