Hardgainer Training and Diet

A hard gainer is a person who has a hard time building muscle and creating a muscular body. A more scientific definition is ectomorph. This is someone with a high metabolism that tends to burn the calories faster than they can build muscle. Such people are usually tall, skinny and have long limbs with a thin bone structure. They have a certain wiry strength but do not have the muscle mass. There are a number of workouts for hard gainers that have been developed along with specialized hard gainer exercises. So, all is not lost if you are a hardgainer.

Setting aside hard gainer training for the moment, let's look at the type of hardgainer diet that hardgainers need to build muscle.

A diet that is higher in carbs while slightly lower in proteins and fats is usually recommended for hard gainers. The reason is that the high gainer metabolism burns calories rapidly and if not enough calories are consumed in a day, then their bodies start consuming muscle as fuel. This means that all that work on building muscle can be lost if not enough calories are consumed.

Here are some foods that should be in the hardgainer diet.

Whole eggs Yes, everyone is worried about cholesterol, but eggs provide saturated fat which helps raise testosterone levels and build muscle. So, don't go crazy and eat a dozen eggs a day, but one or two a day can actually help.

Nuts Unless you are allergic, nuts are a good addition to your diet. On average one cup of nuts contains over eight-hundred calories. Plus there are a lot of healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats that also help build muscle.

Dried Fruit Dried fruit is great if you are a hard gainer because drying concentrates calories while still retaining all those good for you vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Fish Fish is a great source of protein and of all fish salmon is the best for providing healthy fat along with the protein.

Red Meat Speaking of protein, lean red meat provides iron, which is important in growing muscle cells along with being a very good source of concentrated protein.

Oh, and try to avoid those store bought protein shakes. They often contain too much sugar and the wrong kind of fats. Instead, make your own by combining protein powder with low sugar or unsweetened yogurt, milk, soy nut butter or peanut butter and fruit.

Making a good diet part of your hardgainer routine is not just important, it's vital as hardgainers need good nutrition even more than other body builders.

Remember hard gainers have high metabolism and should do specialized hardgainer routines that work several muscle groups at once to build muscle mass faster than it can be lost to their metabolism.

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