Disclaimer: This article is strictly intended for the genuine, ectomorphic, metabolically gifted hard gaining person. As any person that does not display these traits will morph into a hot, steamy, fat, pile of lard.
I want to give my hard gaining homies out there some advice that could help you in your plight to gaining new mass in order to bust through annoying plateaus.
When you are looking to accrue muscle mass, but have an extremely difficult time holding weight, let alone gaining weight, you need strategy and trickery. We never want adipose stores to fill up, but to be completely honest, some fat will always come along the ride with new muscle mass. In order to minimize fat mass, we need to keep an eye on excess dietary fats added to the diet. That means easy on the nut butters, nuts, cooking oils, and of course overly fatty cuts of animal meats. Eating for mass means more calories than you use for fuel, and you’ll inevitably pick up beyond enough dietary fat to facilitate muscle growth.
The key detriment to us hard gaining individuals during this phase is eating enough for growth, which is predicated by our shitty appetites. The most important macronutrient to accrue muscle mass is of course protein -- which is also the main macronutrient that you become sick of, repulsed by, and easily satiated with--when consuming overall excess calories.
My Bag of Tricks -
I coined the term “Protein Driver’s” . Protein Drivers are basically carbohydrate or fat based snacks that help drive extra protein into our system without wanting to barf from another plain chicken breast. The Protein Drivers are typically low-fat /fat-free carbohydrate or fat based snacks.
Here are some examples of convenient Protein Drivers -
Flavored rice cakes - these are what I use to “carry” my cottage cheese into my mouth which makes the cottage cheese much more enjoyable. You can even spread sugar free jam on the rice cake then spread your cottage cheese over the rice cake for a treat.
Toast - Same deal for cottage cheese. Spread some organic jam or SF jam over the toast first, then spread the cottage cheese and drive that protein down the hatch.
Low Fat Tortilla Chips - If you cannot locate baked tortilla chips at a grocery store, then make homemade chips by slicing up corn tortillas into triangles, then bake until crispy with sea salt. Use these as drivers for dipping into cottage cheese or make low-fat nachos with shredded chicken, 96% ground beef, plus fat free cheese etc… over the top. Bake in oven until cheese melts.
French Bread Loaf - Oh yea! Go to your Grocery store and get a fresh baked loaf in the bakery section. Butterfly in half, spread some fat free marinara over each half , add fat free cheese, and lay on some shredded chicken, or lean beef, etc…. Bake in the oven until it looks delicious and browned then drive that protein into your stomach.
These are just a few of my Mass Gaining tricks I use to make things more appetizing and palatable when the last thing I want to do is eat more food.
