Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at
1:01 pm
I often get asked this question — how many meals a day should I eat if I’m a hardgainer?
The answer is an emphatic, “As many as you can, but no less than 5!”
Why? The answer really lies in keeping your muscles bathed in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and of muscle.
It’s far better to take in 40 grams of protein per meal, 5 times per day, than 3 meals of 70 grams. It’s hard to say, without a lot of testing, how much protein any given individual can digest and assimilate in a single feeding, but I’d error on the low side (20-50) rather than on the high side (50+).
Why? It’s expensive and puts a greater strain on your kidneys.
I often tell people to “graze.” Eat as often as a horse (or cow), which means all day long. Act like you’re in the hospital on a feeding tube, getting a constant drip of nourishment, only with eating, you’re taking in food you like, such as meats of all kind, poultry, fish, nuts, bread, milk, eggs, and potatoes and pastas. All the good stuff!
Gaining weight is hard work! It takes concerted effort to maximize your eating, and you may feel like you’re going to explode. It’s also hard to keep from getting bored with eating the same foods.
This is why I recommend the following practice:
Every 4th day, forget about food. Don’t try to eat 6 or 8 times a day. Eat what you want, when you want, and don’t take any supplements. Let your body detox, let your mind go free.
You don’t know how effective this method is, until you try it.
Here are some articles that mention eating frequency for hardgainers:
Obviously, this is a well-covered topic!
