How To Gain Weight Fast
How I Gained 25 Pounds In One Week
by Nick Nilsson
This is a story of how to gain weight fast. I personally went from 192 pounds
to 217 pounds in bodyweight in only 7 days. Learn every
little secret technique I used to accomplish this mind-
blowing weight gain.
How Did You Get Started?
It started as a challenge to myself. If I took all the
knowledge I had about weight gain and put it to work all at
once, how much weight could I add to myself in one week?
What would my upper limit be? I had some vacation time
coming up where I could do nothing but eat, sleep and train
so I decided to do it. This is my story...
I knew from the start that this weight gain certainly
wouldn't be all muscle. In fact, it's impossible to gain
that much weight in muscle in only one week (unless you're
a baby elephant!). I was going to gain a combination of
muscle, water and most likely some fat as well. That rapid
of a weight gain, however, was going to force a lot of nutrients into my muscles quickly, resulting in some
permanent muscle gains.
I knew I wanted to gain weight quickly,
To start my maximal weight gain adventure, I first had to
set myself up for it by dieting down. Why diet down to gain
weight fast? Your body adapts most rapidly to extreme changes in
environment.
Changing Your Diet & Goals
therefore I had to first subject myself to a restricted-calorie diet. When I would reverse my goals and begin to
feed myself again, my body would react by rapidly sucking
up every available calorie and holding onto it.
To further set myself up, the diet I went on was a two-week
carbohydrate-restricted plan, much like the Atkins Diet.
For two weeks, I ate less than 30 grams of carbs per day,
sticking to meats, eggs, cheese and vegetables.
This
cleared out all the glycogen I had stored in my body as well
as reducing the amount of water I was carrying (water
attaches itself to carbs in your body - when you clear out
the carbs, several pounds or more of water will be flushed
out with it). It was kind of like squeezing out a sponge you can fit more water into a sponge that's been squeezed
totally dry than a sponge that's already moist.
It's important to note that I didn't restrict my water
intake at all. That will give you exactly the wrong effect.
If you restrict your water intake while dieting, your body
will actually hold onto more water. If you give your body
plenty of water, it will have no reason to hold onto every
drop you give it and will flush it out regularly.
For training during this phase, I did three high-intensity
cardio sessions per week for about 20 minutes each. This
cardio was extremely tough and designed to burn as many
calories as possible as quickly as possible. This would
make my body extremely hungry for nutrients and ready to
absorb as much as possible. I did high-volume, high-rep
weight training (12 to 15 reps per set), 6 sessions per week
with very short rest periods to further set up this effect.
After 2 weeks of this training and dieting, I was ready to
start my weight gain. On Saturday evening, after my final
training session for the week, I weighed in at 192 pounds.
On Sunday morning, I woke up and immediately took my first
serving of creatine and glutamine. My focus on this day was
to eat as much as possible, load up on creatine and glutamine
and drink as much water as possible. Both of these
supplements are excellent for forcing water into the muscles.
Taking creatine alone can result in a 5 to 10 pound increase
in weight over the loading phase of 5 days. To further
maximize this effect, I had been off creatine for 3 months
prior to this.
I took 4 servings of creatine and glutamine this day, along
with eating as much as I could (for example, eggs, oatmeal,
meats, potatoes, fruits, rice, etc.) and drinking buckets
of water. I would continue loading creatine for the next
4 days, taking glutamine only after each workout from then
on rather than with my creatine loading. I would start my weight training program on Monday. I was going to be doing
a very demanding program, doing 12 total-body training
sessions over the next 6 days.
My theory with doing multiple total-body training sessions
is this: every single bodypart was going to get as much
breakdown and stimulation as possible to maximize the amount
of nutrients being taken up over my whole body. I would do
more sets for the larger parts like chest, back and thighs
and fewer sets for the other smaller parts.
Every part
would get worked twice a day for six days straight. This
type of training is not appropriate for a long-term program
as it would rapidly lead to overtraining in a matter of
weeks. This was a one-week shot for me and I was putting
everything into it.
After taking my creatine, I made breakfast, which consisted
of 10 eggs and a bowl of oatmeal that would feed a family
of 4. For flavor, I mixed in some fruit yogurt. To gain
weight effectively, you really need to eat big.
I got to the gym for my first session that day and weighed
myself. I had gained 10 pounds in the first day. Not a
bad start! All that eating, drinking water and
supplementation was paying off. My body was extremely
primed for gaining.
My training session lasted about 45 minutes, during which I
worked every bodypart. After the workout, I immediately
took a mixture of whey protein (40 grams), creatine
(5 grams), glutamine (10 grams) and Tang (sugary powdered
drink mix) as well as some vitamins and minerals (multi-
vitamin, calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, and an anti-oxidant).
It's critical to provide your body with nutrients and raw
materials to rebuild with as quickly as possible after
training otherwise your body will just be breaking itself
down.
I got home and set to work making lunch, which consisted of
2 large chicken breasts and a big bucket of spaghetti and
meat sauce. Several hours later, I had a couple of cans of
tuna, a sandwich and some ice cream. Please note, these
meals are just samples of what I ate and not specifically
what you should eat.
All during the day and evening, I was constantly drinking
water. When I say constantly, I mean I got up every 10 to
15 minutes and drank a full glass of water over the course
of the whole day. I was very well-hydrated, which is
extremely important for weight gain. If your muscles don't
have enough water, they simply can't grow.
My evening training session was also a total-body workout.
At this point, my body was so flooded with carbs and water
from having come off a low-carb diet, everything I did was
giving my muscles an incredible pump. I was focusing on
heavy weights for sets of 6 to 10 reps during my sessions
and stretching out thoroughly after.
After the workout, I had another supplement and vitamin mix
then went home. I had 4 eggs and a bowl of cereal for a
post-workout meal, then a protein shake right before bed.
I mixed up a protein shake and set it beside my bed so if,
in the middle of the night, I woke up, I could drink a
protein shake.
This would provide extra calories and protein
and reduce the amount of time I went without food during the
night. And believe me, with the amount of water I was
drinking during the day and during my training, waking up
during the night was a given!
I repeated this type of schedule over the next days,
continuing with my creatine loading, food loading and water
loading. By the end of the second day, I had gained 15
pounds of bodyweight. By the end of the third day, I was
up 18 pounds.
When I finished my creatine loading after the fifth day, I
began taking a protein shake first thing in the morning
instead. Taking protein immediately upon waking is the best
way to start the day. It instantly reverses the catabolic
state your body is in after fasting during sleep.
My training was going well and my body was sucking up
everything I was putting into it. My strength gains were
rapid and my fat gains were actually quite minimal. I was
in the home stretch now. On Saturday afternoon, I went
over to a friend's house and had a huge meal of Shepherd's
Pie, which is basically a big pile of ground beef, potatoes
and corn. Great weight gain food.
My Results
I went to the gym that night for my final training session
of my weight gain week and tipped the scales at 217 pounds.
In only one week, to give you an idea of the amazing
strength and size gains I got, I was able to increase the
amount of weight I could bench press for 8 reps by 30 pounds
and I had added a full inch to my arms.
The best part is, this rapid weight gain was excellent for
stretching the fascia of my muscles, giving them more room
to grow, leading to permanent gains in muscle size and potential muscle size.
Using all my knowledge and techniques (and appetite) on how to gain weight fast, I had gained 25 pounds of bodyweight in only one week!
Nick Nilsson is one of the writers for the powerful All-Star Trainers eBook from AtoZFitness. In addition to a detailed explanation of how to gain weight fast, including a day-by-day guide and set-by-set workouts to follow, you’ll learn how to build muscle fast with secrets from 11 of the most knowledgeable and respected trainers in the world, including Tom Venuto, Pete Sisco, David Grisaffi, Jeremy Markum, Phil Campbell, Christopher V. Guerriero and many others!
All Star Trainers Secrets!
