Weight Gain Tips

A healthy diet and regular exercise are the most effective. If you are planning to weight gain or build muscle mass, you need to understand that like weight loss, weight gain doesn’t happen overnight. There are two key aspects that come into play if you want to gain the right amount of weight in the right places — exercise and supplements.

Here, we’ll focus on supplements and the science behind their functioning.

Weight Gain Supplements

A wide variety of weight gain supplements are available in the market. But before you buy any of these, you need to be aware of how do they work towards helping you achieve your weight goals.

The Science Behind Common Weight Gain Supplements

1. Creatine

Creatine is one of your body’s natural sources of energy for muscle contraction. It converts to phosphocreatine and is stored in muscles, which serves as fuel and helps build lean mass.

Commercially available creatine supplements help you to gain weight by:

• Boosting the natural stores of creatine in the body
• Decreasing the breakdown of proteins in the body
• Increasing the level of hormones, such as IGF-1 that are involved in muscle growth

2. Weight Gainers

One of the simple tips is to consume more calories than what your body needs to function. The exact amount of calories you need to have depends on your current weight and how much more you want to gain. If your daily diet fails to meet the desired weight targets, supplementing it with weight gainers is one of the effective tips.

Weight gainers contain vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, and proteins. It is usually recommended for people who have a high basal metabolic rate, which makes them unable to gain weight despite consuming a high calories diet.

3. Protein Supplements

Protein is necessary for optimal muscle gain. Ideally, around 10 – 35% of your daily calories must come from proteins. Although protein is not exactly a vitamin, the amino acid chains it bears help to repair and build muscle tissue.

You’ll be able to gain weight only when your body requires more proteins than it breaks down. So, if you are looking for weight gain tips, protein supplements should be considered. Some popular forms of protein supplements are soy, whey, and casein.

All the above supplements can help you to gain weight. But, it’s always a good practice to do your bit of research and consult a doctor or nutritionist before you add any of these weight-gaining supplements to your diet.