What supplements should I take for weight gain?

[Dream101]

Hi,

I burn a lot of calories everyday through work and practicing muay thai 3-4 times a week. I weigh about 145lbs.

1. How many days should I lift to gain weight? Would like to get up to about 160 lbs. but as mentioned I burn a lot of calories everyday.

2. What are some supplements I should take? I know I should be taking lots of protein and calories but anything else like creatine, BCAAs, glutamine, multivitamins or anything you would recommend for a busy lifestyle?

 

[Bekim]

Peanut butter........

 

[Bekim]

You should also eat the bananas that fall from the banana tree.......

 

[Badger67]

creatine is fine. The rest is expensive urine mostly. Eat your veggies, invest in peanut butter and ground beef.

 

[UL]

No real need for supplements, just eat more

Creatine you can use but I don't think it'll help you much

You can get normal vitamins and cod liver oil from your supermarket

I never really bothered with all that bcca, I used to get it free and didn't notice much, did taste nice though (cherry flavour)

Just look at some diet plans and get an idea of what you should eat, which food has higher calories

 

[Steveston]

Whole Milk.

 

[j123]

You would need to be on a caloric surplus. In order words, you need to eat more. For lifting, it depends on your priorities, is Muay Thai the focus, or bulking?

Supplements... well basically what you normally have: multi-vitamin, fish oil, etc Whey protein (to hit your daily protein macros), maybe Creatine as well.

 

[Osculater]

Increase calorie and protein intake. You can try weight gainer shakes and drink it an hour before bed time.

 

[Misfit23]

Burritos

 

[XxanaxX]

I used a lot of steak, potatoes, eggs, butter, burritos, pizzas, double cheeseburgers, oatmeal with bananas, peanut butter and brown sugar mixed in, and also spaghetti with garlic bread during my bulking sessions. As stated by the other contributors to this thread, you don't need to worry about supplementing with amino acids and other shit like that. Keep your calories high with the aforementioned and make it a point to prepare as much of this stuff as you can manage at home, if you can handle it. One caveat, though: stay away from sugar contained in soda's, sports drinks and deserts, as that will put in sloppy weight and send your insulin output into overdrive. Moreover, you need to find out how many calories you will enable you to add mass without putting on too much fat. Similar to weight loss, you want to be methodical about how much you are gaining as well.

 

[HaggardSky]

Mass gainers... mass gainers... and more mass gainers.

 

[rocketskates]

Whole milk, creatine, peanut butter.

All three cheaper and easier than supps.

 

[smart.feller]

No supplement will taste as good as a slab of prime rib. Go food, get big.

 

[PUO3]

You should eat calories. If you want them in the form of a supplement than a weight gaining protein/carb powder.

 

[nhbfan8080]

Hi,
........
2. What are some supplements I should take? I know I should be taking lots of protein and calories but anything else like creatine, BCAAs, glutamine, multivitamins or anything you would recommend for a busy lifestyle?

Supps like bcaa's, glutamine are abit of a waste for gaining mass since you're already going to be eating more. Mass gainer powders aren't worth it since they contain alot of simple sugars/carbs and its cheaper if you whip it up yourself anyway. Calculate your calories and protein intake and see if you're doing ok(there are several rules of the thumb) and you don't need more than an extra 1000cals/dy over that.

Protein powders are ok but only if you treat them as supps and not main meals. The best thing is to eat meat 3x daily with a protein meal/shake or two btwn meals. Getting enough and some extra sleep is important.

 

[T-Bone]

I am sssuming you have not lifted before. Avoid bodybuilding routines and Train for strength... and that functional strength will help you in your muay thai.

All beginner's make good gains training each body part 3 times per week. Expect to gain 20 pounds your first year.

Others here gave good advice. My advice is a multi vitamin and maybe fish oil. I like Whey protein shakes after a workout, and with breakfast, and as an in between meal snack. But I eat 3 balanced full meals per day. So I suggest Whey protein that has lots of supplements in it already, like BCCA, etc.

As for putting on muscle, there are many formulas that compute ballpark calories per day you'll need. One way is to compute lean body weight that ignores fat weight. I think it's lean weight in pounds times 20? So if you are 145 with 10% body fat, you have about 130 pounds lean, time 20 = 2600 calories to put on weight.

Problem is that you are already active and these formulas are rough estimates. How many calories do you eat today? Is it close to 2600?

Another rule for new lifters is to eat 500 calories more than you need to maintain weight. So try 500 extra calories on top of your current intake.

Hope that helps.

-T

 

[PUO3]

Supps like bcaa's, glutamine are abit of a waste for gaining mass since you're already going to be eating more. Mass gainer powders aren't worth it since they contain alot of simple sugars/carbs and its cheaper if you whip it up yourself anyway. Calculate your calories and protein intake and see if you're doing ok(there are several rules of the thumb) and you don't need more than an extra 1000cals/dy over that.

Protein powders are ok but only if you treat them as supps and not main meals. The best thing is to eat meat 3x daily with a protein meal/shake or two btwn meals. Getting enough and some extra sleep is important.

Have to disagree strongly about mass gainers. You want a lot of carbs if you want to gain size/weight. A lot of quality brands are about 10g of sugar per serving so not a huge amount.

Most people really wanting to pack on size have some trouble piling down 5+ meals and all those calories through whole foods. Its a chore honestly. Very easy to slam down a shake and get a huge number of your macros. And theyre pretty cheap per serving when you factor in the macros you actually get.

 

[MASShole]

Whole Milk, Natural PB, Olive oil on everything. Each meal should have whole milk as your liquid. Eating pizza? Add olive oil. Done with your meal? Nope, make a PB sandwich and finish it after.

MuscleMilk Gainer is pretty high on carbs and protein. 2 scoops gives you 50+ grams carbs, 16g protein and a bit of fat.

 

[nhbfan8080]

Have to disagree strongly about mass gainers. You want a lot of carbs if you want to gain size/weight. A lot of quality brands are about 10g of sugar per serving so not a huge amount.

Most people really wanting to pack on size have some trouble piling down 5+ meals and all those calories through whole foods. Its a chore honestly. Very easy to slam down a shake and get a huge number of your macros. And theyre pretty cheap per serving when you factor in the macros you actually get.

Considering that 40-50g is the the recommended upper limit of daily sugar intake by national/international health orgs, 10g/serving is still quite alot. Making your own mass gainers by blending up cooked carbs/oats/fruit/milk/protein is cheaper and better.

 

[Contempt]

Considering that 40-50g is the the recommended upper limit of daily sugar intake by national/international health orgs, 10g/serving is still quite alot. Making your own mass gainers by blending up cooked carbs/oats/fruit/milk/protein is cheaper and better.

Maybe 40-50g a day would be sufficient for a fat fuck office worker that lives their life in front of the TV but not likely for someone that trains hard 3-4 times a week like TS. I'm currently on about 250g of carbs a day, doesn't seem to be hurting me at all.

Hit 1-1.5g of protein per lb of body weight and add fat and carbs to your preference up to +250 kcal per day over maintenance to start with. If not gaining enough then up to +500 kcal over maintenance. Much more than that and you are likely to pile on too much fat along with the muscle but it's just a matter of experimenting with what works for you. Not rocket science.