Gaining weight and muscle starts with creating a calorie surplus that puts your body in a calorie surplus and increases your anabolic hormones. Many naturally skinny guys and serious hardgainers enter a muscle-building and diet regimen known as a bulking period to achieve this.
However, most naturally skinny guys don’t understand how to properly set up a bulking period. Not only is it important to eat a lot of calories during your bulking period, but it’s also equally important to integrate the concept of macronutrient timing and the type of foods you are consuming.
Creating a calorie surplus is not rocket science. Most hardgainers achieve this by consuming pretty much every kind of food in sight. While you will gain weight doing this, the majority of the weight you will gain will be body fat. This is not what we want to achieve. If you follow my simple bulking formula, you will maximize lean muscle gains while minimizing fat gains. This is exactly what you need to achieve during a successful bulking period. Just because you are a hardgainer doesn’t mean that you want to gain an excess amount of body fat. In fact, all this will achieve is getting you a “skinny fat” physique.
Follow this simple bulking formula to gain weight and muscle effortlessly and maximize your body’s most important muscle-building hormones. Remember that timing is everything and that if you want to maximize certain anabolic hormones and certain times, you need to pay attention to what macronutrients your body needs at specific times of the day, such as directly after your workout.
Simple Bulking Formula Rule #1
A good rule of thumb is that you want to consume about 1.25 grams of protein per pound of body weight during a bulking period. You will have to test out what exact amount works for you, so experiment and start with a minimum of 1.25 grams per pound of body weight. This will give your body the abundance of protein and amino acids it needs to maximize its lean muscle gains and create a constant “anabolic atmosphere.”
Most importantly, you will want to spread your protein intake out throughout the day. This is ideally achieved by consuming 6-7 protein-packed meals every 2-3 hours. As a naturally skinny guy, one of the most important things you can do to gain weight and muscle is to constantly drip-feed your body with protein and amino acids. This is why they say it is best to consume small protein-packed meals throughout the day.
You will want to consume only high-quality sources of protein on your bulk, such as chicken, turkey, all kinds of fish, grass-fed beef, eggs, beans, whey protein powder, soy protein, etc.
Stay away from poor choices of protein such as cheap ground beef, fried chicken, fast food protein like chicken nuggets, ham, salami, Spam, roast beef, fatty cuts of steak, fried fish, etc. Many of these products have estrogen-forming by-products and will lower your natural testosterone levels.
Simple Bulking Formula Rule #2
Many guys don’t realize that one of the most important anabolic hormones to manipulate is insulin. Insulin is in fact a highly anabolic hormone right after your workouts. This means that we want to elevate our insulin levels post workout to maximize muscle recovery and lean muscle gains. While insulin is usually a fat storage hormone, it becomes highly anabolic following an intense workout. This is why most advanced sports nutrition books recommend consuming a rapid digesting form of carbohydrates along with a fast digesting protein source. Not only does this spike your insulin levels, but it also helps to shuttle nutrients into the cells and replenishes muscle glycogen, helping your body prepare for the next workout.
It is also really important to fuel up your body before an intense training session with carbohydrates. This means that you want to have between 50-75 grams of slow digesting carbohydrates before an intense workout along with a lean protein source. This will give your body a sustainable energy source to endure a tough workout and will fill up your muscle glycogen for a maximum strength workout. If you have ever trained on a low carbohydrate diet, you know how important it is to have an adequate supply of carbohydrates in your system for a maximum intensity workout. As a naturally skinny guy, you need to have really intense workouts to maximize your time in the gym and increase your anabolic hormones. This will be achieved much easier with a good supply of carbohydrates in your system.
What is the exact carbohydrate formula for a simple bulking period? I recommend consuming 40-70 grams of slow digesting carbohydrates about an hour before your intense training sessions. Some of the best slow digesting carbohydrates include pasta, brown rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, black beans, kidney beans, and lentils. Play around with the exact amount and figure out how much your body requires for maximum energy.
Directly after your workout, you will want to consume a rapid digesting source of carbohydrates along with your whey protein shake. I recommend picking up a dextrose or glucose powder to achieve this effect. You should take in about 40 grams of rapid digesting carbohydrates for every 100 pounds of body weight.
Then, about an hour after this post-workout shake, you should be taking in more carbohydrates in the form of a slow digesting complex. Once again, things like brown rice, whole grains, pasta, black beans, quinoa, and sweet potatoes are ideal.
Follow this for carbohydrate timing around your workouts and you will see some incredible gains in weight and muscle mass.
Simple Bulking Formula Rule #3
Another integral part to my simple bulking formula is consuming healthy fats on a regular basis. Healthy fats will serve as the foundation to your calorie surplus and testosterone production.
Since fat is 9 calories per gram, this will make it really easy to create a strategic calorie surplus. Many forms of healthy fat also contain cholesterol, which is actually a precursor to testosterone production. You actually want to consume cholesterol to maximize testosterone production as a naturally skinny guy. This can be achieved by eating whole eggs, chicken, turkey, and grass-fed meats.
Some other healthy fats to consume on a regular basis to create a muscle-building calorie surplus are avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, whole eggs, almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, walnuts, cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, and salmon. Make sure to eat a wide variety so you can create a healthy calorie surplus and feed your body a nice variety of omega fatty acids.
Simple Bulking Formula Rule #4
Creating a calorie surplus and macronutrient timing is one part of the simple bulking equation. The other is up to you and your workout intensity. Your workout intensity will make or break your results because it is directly related to your anabolic hormone levels.
One of the most important things you can do while entering a bulking period is to lift with maximum intensity on all compound exercises. These are the exercises that you are using your body’s largest and strongest muscle groups.
Performing maximum intensity compound lifts will break down muscle fibers in your largest and strongest muscle groups, such as your pectorals, back, quadriceps, and hamstrings. Compound exercises also work secondary muscle groups so you are getting the best of both worlds. Take, for instance, the dead lift. You are working your hip flexors, hamstrings, lower back, traps, and shoulders! This is so much more effective than doing countless bicep curls.
You want to perform compound exercises at the start of your workout when you have maximum energy levels. Don’t wait until the very end of your workout to do crucial muscle-building exercises such as the deadlift, squat, bench press, pull-up, dip, barbell row, and barbell shrug. You need to lift with 100 percent maximum intensity on these exercises to break down the optimal amount of lean muscle mass and raise anabolic hormone levels. This is the winning formula for a great bulking period!
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