- to build himself up. Many hard gainers actually think they eat “lots of food”
and a “high-protein” diet. But if they would keep a food log for a few days
they would discover that they never consume more than , calories or
grams of protein per day. And no amount of amino acid capsules, cre-
atine, vitamins, or whatever-else supplement will help you if you are
deficient in the big factor—sufficient quality food. Keep a food log yourself,
and see where you actually stand rather than where you think you stand.. In summary, if your training is in good order as measured by the guidelines
of this book, and you are sleeping well and not running yourself ragged out
of the gym, you are almost certainly not consuming enough nutrients or
calories. It is that simple.. To gain muscular weight there are three fundamental factors which you
must satisfy before increasing your caloric intake. And you must consume
excess calories—you cannot build muscle of nothing.a. You must consume a healthful diet of nutrient-dense food.
b. You must know the baseline caloric intake that maintains your body-
weight.
c. You must train intensively and appropriately to stimulate growth with-
out overtraining.. Add calories to your maintenance daily caloric intake. After a few weeks,
determine if you have increased your bodyfat. Use fat calipers to keep tabs
on your bodyfat. (Your technique must be consistent each time you use the
calipers.) If your bodyfat does not increase, add another calories and
monitor your bodyfat. Continue this gradual process until you reach the
point where you can detect a (slight) bodyfat increase. en stick there
for as long as you continue to gain weight. When your gains plateau, and
assuming that your training and recovery are in good order, increase your
daily intake by – calories.. is gradual increase in calories will enable your digestion to adapt to
increasing demands, and let you determine the most you can eat without get-
ting fat. If you just eat “a lot more,” how will you know exactly how much you
are consuming, and at what point you went overboard? And big increases in
caloric intake will produce digestive tract distress in most people. Make the
increases incremental and gradual, and your digestive system will adapt.