How To Gain Weight As A Skinny Person or Ectomorph - Part 1
I can hear you saying it right now:
““The Weight Loss Guy” has now turned into the “Weight Gain” Guy. Can 2020 get even more topsy-turvey?”
Let me give you some background to this first.
Last night I was on a Coaching Call with my coaches Jordan Syatt and Mike Vacanti and they challenged me to make some different kind of content.
But the thing stopping me from ever doing this was the fact that I really don’t want to lose any more weight…and my clients and who I speak too…pretty much do.
This is basically me:
How can I show them how to lose weight, when I don’t want to. And its not because I don’t really want to. But at the minute I am 6ft 4in tall, I weigh 79kg (174lbs) and my Body Fat Percentage is about 9%.
I can’t literally lose weight.
So this is my plan.
I am going to purposefully try to gain 7lbs in total bodyweight by December 31st.
And then come the New Year…cut back down to 79kg (174lbs).
Gaining weight has always been a very hard task for me. No matter what I have done in my life…my bodyweight always hovers around 79kg and 81kg.
The main photo at the top of this Blog Post is me today. At 79kgs. So that is where I am starting…and what happens will be anyone’s guess.
I’m going to use this blog to document how I am getting on with the whole process. I will share my workouts, my food logs, and generally how I am feeling and how it is going.
A little story of how I gained weight…then again how I lost weight.
Before we begin, I want to be rather forward and ask if we can become friends?
As your friend, I’ll email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it would be delightful to connect with you.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “How To Gain Weight As A Skinny Person or Ectomorph - Part 1”
The principles behind “bulking” and “cutting”
1a. How To Bulk
1b. How To Cut
Can you lose weight and build muscle at the same time?
How I am setting up this “bulk”
3a. My Calories and Macros
What I think will be my biggest challenges
How To Gain Weight As A Skinny Person or Ectomorph - Part 1
The principles behind “bulking” and “cutting”
I have always avoided using the terms “bulking” and “cutting”. I still get extremely uncomfortable with them.
Coz I ain’t a bro. And I feel like they are very “bro” terms.
But in actuality the two terms simply mean:
To Gain Weight - “Bulk”
To Lose Weight - “Cut”
That is it. I don’t know why the Fitness Industry has to use a different language for just about everything. But here we are.
How To “Bulk”
We know that this means to gain weight, and whenever there is a requirement for gaining or losing weight we need to look at just one thing:
Calories.
Now you may know me as the “lose weight guy” the “calorie deficit dude” and therefore you will know the principles behind energy balance.
If you need to brush up on that again then read my most popular article here: What Is A Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
So to gain weight…all you need is to consume more calories than you are burning.
This is known as a Calorie Surplus.
Not burning to the point of your Basal Metabolic Rate. But to the point of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) or to put it in more easily: all daily movement.
This is not a pass to go wild and eat pizza and drink cocktails each and every night…because there is gaining weight and then there is gaining weight.
We often refer to the Pizza and Cocktail route as a “Dirty Bulk” and this where you put on weight but have no regard for your body composition.
As Mike Matthews of Legion Athletics points out on his blog: How Many Calories Should I Eat?
The most optimum point for your calories to be at is at about 110% of your TDEE or (TDEE x 1.1) as this will create the best balance between your gaining muscle and gaining fat.
You basically don’t want to gain too much fat, and the 110% marker is the point at which that occurs. If you go into a range of 120% - 130% the amount of muscle you build will be the same…but you will gain more body fat.
You can only increase your muscle at a rate of 10% above TDEE.
Mike also points out that you don’t want to bulk until you are at around 10% Body Fat.
Within this spectrum of increased calories, you still need to make sure that you are consuming foods that are high in protein, lots of vegetables, and will aid the ability of your body to build itself in a “healthy” way.
A term for this is “Clean Bulking”. The problem with a fast food/junk food style bulk is that it will hinder what you can achieve in the Gym, it will lower your testosterone, and it will therefore affect your ability to build muscle.
Personally, I think you should base your Macros off of your Lean Body Mass and at these numbers to gain weight successfully:
Protein = 0.8g-1.1g/day of Lean Body Mass in LBS
Carbohydrates = 1g -3g/day per LB Total Body Weight
Fats = 0.25-0.5g/day per LB of Total Body Weight
To find out your Lean Body Mass use these pictures for reference:
That’s the Calories taken care of.
Now for the exercise…
Well if you want to Gain Muscle…you do need to train.
Heavy and hard in the Gym.
And the best bit is this: You will have more energy for working out as you have increased your Calories.
Therefore you need to follow a structured and progressive resistance training program.
There is a thousand ways to skin that cat but I personally would suggest following a split like this:
4 Day Split:
Day 1 = Lower Body
Day 2 = Upper Body - Push
Day 3 = Lower Body
Day 4 = Upper Body - Pull
3 Day Split:
Day 1 = Full Body
Day 2 = Full Body
Day 3 = Full Body
3 Day Split:
Day 1 = Upper - Pull
Day 2 = Lower
Day 3 = Upper - Push
Then in terms of exercises, you need to place a high focus on Compound Lifting starting each session with exercise such as a Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Pull Up and Overhead Press.
Added to all do this, if you struggle to gain weight, you should very much limit your Cardio options during your Bulk.
As the weeks roll on I will share my workouts more and more with you so you too can get a guide on what to do.
How To “Cut”
Well in terms of diet you basically need to do the total opposite in terms of calories.
As opposed to a Surplus…you need a Calorie Deficit. Which is a topic within itself.
But you can read all about that right here: What Is A Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
In terms of exercise…you should follow a training plan very similar to the one I laid out in the Bulk section above.
But you need to keep a focus on your daily movement and can engage in Cardio if you so wish.
Can You Lose Weight and Build Muscle At The Same Time?
This is a question that I get asked…ALL THE TIME.
And the answer by all accounts no matter who you are is a resounding “Yes”.
Let me explain…
As a beginner, you can quite easily burn body fat and build muscle all at the same time. As your body isn’t used to the work you are putting it through, and so it starts making big changes quickly.
This is why you see so many people with big progress from the 12-week courses that they do, and the sudden drops in weight when they try something new.
However, as a more advanced gym goer, your ability to lose weight and build muscle becomes inhibited.
For one very clear reason: Energy Balance.
You need a Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight and a Calorie Surplus to gain weight.
So how do you square this circle?
You need a bigger perspective on your program.
Rather than look at your training as a day by day or week by week thing…you need to look at it with a much wider view.
You need to do what we call periodize your training.
Take a yearly view of your goals and build in periods of “bulking” and “cutting.” Give yourself 3 months in one phase, three months in the next, and so on, and so on.
In each bulk, the goal is to increase muscle mass. In each Cut, the goal is to lose body fat but preserve as much muscle as possible.
By doing this you will be building muscle and losing weight on the same program…but, not at the “same time”.
If you do this, over a year, within that year you will have lost weight and built muscle at the same time.
How Am I Setting Up This Bulk?
Firstly, I am giving myself a really tight time frame…which of course I do not advise for anyone and their goals.
But it feels like a big challenge for me and it feels like I will learn a lot as I do this.
Plus I am really happy with where I am at right now…so whether or not I succeed at this goal, I know it won’t affect how I actually feel about myself.
Hence I can pressure myself, with much fewer negative effects compared to someone who might want to lose weight quickly for example.
My Calories and Macros
These have been set as per my own Calorie Calculator.
Which you too can download by heading right here.
The Calculator sets my Calorie Surplus at 2421kcal a day
Protein: 127g-174g a day
Carbohydrates: 189g-197g a day
Fat: 47g-75g a day
The food will be tracked on MyFitness Pal each and every day.
My Workouts
I will follow a three-day split as I am aware that I can be consistent with that.
It will be split thus:
Day 1 = Push (Pull-Up, Barbell Bench Press, DB Incline Bench Press, DB Bench Press, Overhead Press, and Push-Ups)
Day 2 = Pull (Pull-Ups, Barbell Deadlift, Super-Set of Barbell Row and One-Arm DB Row, Lateral Pull Down and Push-Ups)
Day 3 = Legs (Pull-Ups, Front Squat, Goblet Squat, Lunges, Glute Bridges, Push-Ups)
I have put in Pull-Ups on each workout and Push-Ups on each Workout as they at my Gym they are relatively easy to set up and work on two Body Parts that I need to keep my load higher on to keep progressing on.
I will be doing 3 sets of each exercise.
And work to a Rep Range of 6-8 Reps. Once I very comfortable get 6 Reps out, I will move up a weight.
My goals here will be to see an increase in my weights, reps, and form over the months upon which I am doing this “Mini Bulk”
Weigh-Ins
For my weigh-ins each day I will simply weigh at the start of the day after I have been to the loo, and before I eat anything.
This will then be tracked on a Graph that will document my progress.
The key to this will be to not look at my results day on day, or week on week.
I will only know if I am making progress when looking at my results monthly.
Therefore I will compare Week 1, Month 1 to Week 1, Month 2 and so on.
Worrying about the results in a shorter time frame than that will probably make me give up as I won’t see the progress that quickly.
And thats it.
This is my plan.
And I hope to update you as much as I can with it.
If you want more frequent updates I would suggest following me on Instagram right here: @thegymstarter.
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