How to Pick the Best Mass Gainer

Updated 2nd February 2020

When it comes to body composition, most people are typically trying to lose weight. After all, obesity has been an on-going health concern for decades now. However, if you are training to be a bodybuilder or athlete where muscle mass and functionality are important, you will be looking to put weight on the scales, in the form of lean muscle mass.

Unless you're engaging in strongman/strongwoman or powerlifting. These sports typically require a tremendous amount of muscle mass as well as general body size. 

For some, weight gain can be a tricky task. No matter how much they eat, they just seem to stay rail-thin. For others, however, just looking at a piece of cake the wrong way can lead to significant gains around the middle. Protein cake bites are okay though!

It all comes down to our metabolic rate, and the state of our general health as well. For instance, an overactive thyroid can make it difficult to gain weight, as does smoking, while an underactive thyroid and insulin resistance (hopefully not in combination) has the opposite effect.

Weight gain isn't just about eating everything you can get your hands on. Though this method usually will lead to weight gain, it is important to consider the quality of those calorie-rich foods.

After all, we don't want our health to fall apart in the process of attaining the size we desire. This leads to a greater possibility of health issues, which may lead to the loss of that mass, and also reduces the functionality of that size we gained in the first place.

The eating everything that remotely resembles food method will usually can lead to fluid gain as well, in the form of fluid retention, due to digestive overload, the generation of "leaky GUT" and potential immunological sensitivities.

And for competitive athletes, or anyone who wants their new size to be sustainable, approaching a protein powder for weight gain with your general health in mind with quality nutrition is as important as quality training.

Conversely, a poor diet, loaded with donuts and deep-fried mars bars, is the exercise-equivalent of going to the gym and pushing random weights around with no specific focus on bodypart, repetitions, sets or technique.

That would be a crazy and peculiar thing to do, right? If that's what you're into though, no judgement. At least it's exercise ...

Are you what the industry calls a hard-gainer? Instead of standard protein powders, it's a better idea to give a mass gainer a go. These products include carbohydrates and healthy fats as well as protein, providing you with the macro-nutrients you need to get enough of a calorie surplus to build muscle.

After all, building muscle is difficult without a lot of calories coming in, and plentiful protein. With loads of calories, recovery is faster, and we tend to have more energy and motivation to train, which means we train harder. A higher calorie intake also makes it much simpler to eat plentifully of quality protein food and energy-dense shakes.

Choosing the best mass gainer for weight gain depends on many factors. For instance, do you have a fast metabolism? Are you tall or short (body composition)? What work do you do (are you sitting in an office or doing physical work)? What type or training or sport are you gaining for (bodybuilding or rugby)?

All of these factors and more play a role in what mass gainer will suit your particular needs. For instance, a 6 foot 7 inches individual with a fast metabolism who works as a labourer and is training to be a powerlifter will have extremely high calorie and protein needs.

On the other hand, a 5 foot 6 inches person with a normal metabolic rate, who works as an accountant and wants to just bulk up a little, will do well on a more moderate mass gainer.

Once you take into consideration some of these factors, it makes things a little easier to find the mass gainer that will suit you. A protein powder for weight gain makes it that much easier to boost your calories up in order to create a positive energy balance, I.e., you are consuming more calories than you are expending.

The Best Mass Gainers are convenient and help you understand precisely how many calories per serve as well as the protein to carbohydrate ratio. This ratio can vary significantly for example a 50:50 protein to carb ratio or 30:70 protein to carb ratio.

If you have chosen the protein powder for weight gain for you the most important thing is how you use it. Ideally, eat 6 to 8 times daily, with 2 or 3 of those meals as shakes. Again, this depends entirely on the goals you are working towards.

This means taking your shakes as far away from normal meal times as possible, as you don’t want to be full from the shake when the next meal time comes around, and vice versa.

In order for you to gain size you need to increase your calories consistently, which can’t be emphasized enough. It is the consistency in the increased calories and quality protein as well as the training that are going to increase your muscle mass and overall size.

Whatever your reason for wanting to gain weight/size, protein powder gives the best and most convenient option to increase your calories. Just ensure you take into consideration as many of your requirements as you can before picking the best mass gainer protein powder for you. Then, you should be on the right track towards some serious muscle gains.

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