Most people trying their best to seek various advices from their friends and colleagues on how to gain weight quickly. Some prefer to follow different websites that promised to make you pounds of weight in a week.

Don’t be under the misunderstanding that some magical pills or supplements can will help you gain weight fast without taking any efforts. Often these guidelines from various sources might be misleading and you might end up with nothing.

Well, here a a few myths prevalent about people gaining weight rapidly:

Myth 1 : increase 5-10pounds of weight instantly in a week

These ads in various magazines, websites, TV program, might be tempting to a skinny and hardgainers individuals. The fact is that such a large and rapid gain in weight is not at all feasible. You can gain an average of 2 pounds a week if at all you follow good guidelines about diet and exercise.

Myth 2: only taking proteins supplements will increase your muscle

This is obsolutely untrue because you should necessarily have an allied exercise program to make the supplements work. Some supplements are supposed to give you more strength to do your workouts while others help to develop your muscle only after you exercise.

Myth 3: eating any food items in bulk will increase your weight

Not all food items you consume provides you with good amount of calories.Fats provide about 9 calories per gram while carbohydrates and proteins provide about 4 calories per gram in intake. While eating any food items, you should consider it’s composition to know how much calories you should be getting.

Myth 4: overeating can help you increase your muscle

Overeating will not increase your muscle mass but only increase your body fat. You will gain weight by eating more fat-rich foods. To develope your muscles you need to undergo rigorious strength training along with high proteins-rich diet.

Myth 5: forget about meals, just have supplements

Some people tend to replace their meals completely by protein supplements. Remember that this might have an adverse effect on your health. Natural food items not only provide you witth carbohydrates, protein and fat but also with essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants necessary for body functions.

Myth 6: creatine supplements can help you gain weight and muscles

This is only true for those who undergo resistance workout and having a balaced diet. Creatine increases your strength to do more exercises and thus stretch your muscles more. It must be consumed in proper amounts and under expert guidance.

Myth 7: women become too muscular by doing exercise

Some underweight women fear that doing exercises while undergoing weight gaining program will make their body look muscular. This speculation is not valid because women have less secretion of hormone testeoterone which limit their muscle growth. Exercises will help them maintain their body shape while gaining weight.

Myth 8: inactivity can help you gain weight

This is partially true for some people. Some individuals tend to put on weight when they start living a passive lifestyle. While for other inactivity and passive lifestyle creates lack of appetite which leads to consume less and hinder their weight gain.

Only having protein supplements will not help you gain weight and muscles. Nor will eating any foodstuffs will get you enough calories. You should make smart choices in choosing your diet. Don’t ever replace your meals completely with supplements which might have an adverse effects on your health.

Hardgainers are the people having a tough time to increase their weight and muscles. They might have tried all sorts of weight gaining programs, protein-rich supplememts, various exercises but little turn out in their favor. Such people have a high metabolism and so they burn more calories than average individuals.

While an average person requires about 2,500 calories, hardgainers might require 500 calories or even 1,000 calories more. Futhermore, they need to put on extra 500 calories daily to gain weight steadily. They must consistently follow their high calories diet and adequate exercise schedule for about 3 months to see visible results.

It’s really a big challenge for hardgainers. If you are one of them, the following few pieces of information may help you out:

1. You need to consume excess calories than an average joe since you are having a high metabolism. Your calories intake should exceed your metabolism rate to help you gain weight.
2. Do not follow the regular weight gain programs. You need a modified one keeping in mind your metabolism rate. It should have a balanced diet and workouts to suit your needs.
3. It is better you do not consume your meals in bulk but divide it into 4-5 meals and 2-3 snacks after an interval of 1.5-2 hour within each.
4. One positive point to note is that as a hardgainer, you have a high possibility to gain weight from muscles and very less from body fats.
5. You should limit your exercises. You should not do stress exercises for more than 45 minutes at a time and three times a week. The “more you exercise more you gain weight and muscles” will not work in case of a hardgainers. Excess exercises can make you lose your weight instead.
6. You should check your weight once in a week after you start a weight gain program. If there is no desirable increase then you should increase your food intake. Increase of 1.5-2 pounds is desirable for you.
7. Modified your workouts to gain better results. Go for compound training and free weight workouts which have shown good results for hardgainers. Exercises must be steadily increased for duration and intensity.
8. Take enough carbohydrates and fats to assimilate the extra proteins your are consuming,
9. Minimize your calories expenditure. As a hardgainers, you are already burning more calories than average. You should try to avoid calories spend on activities like aerobics, running, cycling which give yo no fruitful results.

Increase in calories intake and minimizing calories expenditure must be the goal for hardgainers. Exercises must be done for a limited time and must be suitable modified. Consistency in efforts is very essential to gain desired results.

To gain healthy weight naturally, you have to consume more calories per day to increase your body weight steadily. How much to consume depend on individual metabolism.

What is calories actually?

The food items that you eat provides you with the energy to do your daily tasks and this energy is measured in calories.

To determine the extra amount of calories needed, first you have to understand a few facts:

1. Average calorie requirement to carry out daily tasks for men is about 2,500 calories while that for women is about 2000 calories.
2. Daily calories requirement solely depends on the nature of your work but make sure that your daily intake of calories never fall below about 1,450 calories.
3. You need about 3,500 calories to gain about 1kg-1.5kg of weight per week (on an average considering low digestive efficiency for few people).
4. Plan to take 500 calories more per day to steadily gain weight.
5. Just sitting and writing can make you spend about 100 calories per hour.
6. Walking, doing housework and other such moderate activities can cost you about 200-300 calories per hour.
7. Intense physical activities like running, playing tennis, pulling heavy weight object, exercises by athletes require about 400-500 calories per hour.

Once you determine your daily calories requirement, you can increase it intake accordingly. The nutrient and calories content of the food you are consuming are also important result in weight gain:

• Carbohydrates provide 4 gram of calories per gram,
• Proteins provide about 4 gram of calories per gram,
• while fats provide about 9 calories per gram

You should plan your daily meals accordingly to achieve your target requirements. However, to increase weight many people tend to consume more of fat-rich food items to gain more calories.

 Fat-rich foodstuffs have more energy content (more calories per gram) and will increase your body weight. But proteins are utmost important in building your muscles which in turn increase your body weight.

Weight gain from increase in muscle size is considered healthier than just increasing in body fat. A well balanced diet suggest that of the total calories intake, 50% must come from carbohydrates, 30% from fat and 20% from proteins.

Therefore, your daily calories intake to gain weight should be planned keeping in mind your requirement as per your sex, age, occupation, and your eating habits.