Bodybuilding for Skinny Guys and why it is so hard.
Skinny guys are often in a difficult situation: They are sick of being ‘pencil boy’ but terrified of putting on fat or worse yet, getting a pot belly. Traditional weight gain methods have often resulted in either or both of these situations. The key to gaining ‘quality mass’, ie, muscle and not fat, always comes down to the same two factors: diet and exercise. The difficulty many skinny guys have is threefold: Appetite, Metabolism and Fear of Fat. As a former skinny guy I understand all these factors.
Appetite.
Many skinny guys simply can’t eat enough – otherwise, they wouldn’t be skinny !
The answer here is to consume quality calorie dense foods that won’t fill you up as quickly. Good examples are avocadoes, natural peanut butter, whole eggs, tuna and salmon in olive oil, rice, pasta and potatoes. These are good, but sometimes 6 meals of tuna and rice can get a little tedious, and foods high in fat, even good fats, tend to suppress the appetite. This is where shakes and Meal Replacement Powders (MRPs) come in. By teaming 3 ‘proper’ meals of whole food with 3 MRPs or shakes, the skinny guy is much more easily able to consume the required calories to feed his growing muscle.
Metabolism.
This one is a bit tougher to control, as the more activity you do, the more calories you will burn. For skinny guys trying to put on weight, cardio must be seriously cut down or eliminated. Running, boxing and any activity that leaves you puffed is burning calories that would otherwise be used to grow muscle.
Metabolism naturally slows down at when we sleep, so make the most of that: have a final protein rich shake just before bed. This will feed your body with essential nutrients just when it is doing the most growth. Remember: you don’t grow in the gym; you only grow when you sleep – so don’t skimp on the sleep!
Fear of Fat.
As skinny guys, we have spent out whole lives without much body fat, and the thought of putting fat on our frames is scary. It is this thinking that holds us back from really eating up big and feeding our muscles properly and we convince ourselves that our muscles will somehow grow on the same diet that has kept us skinny all these years! Let’s just say that there is no easy way around it. The diet has to change. In order to grow muscle, you must gain some fat. Period.
Once you accept that, you are well on the way to changing your body. The good news is that once we have the muscle, we can carefully use cardio to run off the fat while keeping our hard won muscle if we do it right. Various methods are used to make a net gain in muscle and a net loss in fat over a given timeframe, but all involve a variation of bulking and cutting, sometimes within a few days of each other. If done right, such as in these recommended programs, you will see a gain in muscle and maintenance or even a small loss in body fat %.
So there you have it. The factors holding back skinny guys from building mass. All are in your control to a large degree, so what are you waiting for ? - Pick up that dumbbell, chug down a shake, then get some rest !
For more free bodybuilding information and program reviews, go to http://www.buildnaturalmuscle.com
Article Source: http://www.fitnesshealtharticles.com.
About the Author:
Max Heywood has been into fitness and bodybuilding since he was a 69kg (150 pound) university student. After years of getting nowhere, following various programs, he came across a former bodybuilder who put him on the right path. Within 9 months he had gone from 75kg to 93kg, whilst training largely the same. The secret was NUTRITION and REST, two factors he looks for in the programs he reviews. Contact him at: MaxHeywood@buildnaturalmuscle.com. For more free articles and bodybuilding information, visit http://www.buildnaturalmuscle.com.
Bodybuilding for Skinny Guys
