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Diet is the biggest mistake made by all people. The reason why most people never see quality results is because they under eat and over train. A few extra protein shakes is not going to do anything.

You must eat big to get big. Gaining weight = gaining muscle. That does not mean solely protein; it means consuming a sufficient ratio of protein, carbs, and fats.

How Much to Eat

The number of calories you eat will ultimately make you or break you. To find out how much you should eat to gain wait, multiply your weight by 18. Eat that amount everyday for a week. If you don’t gain .5 - 1.5 pounds, add another 500 calories.

Slowly increase your calories week by week to continue gaining weight, but do so slowly. 1 pound per week is optimal.

What to Eat

Stick to only quality sources of calories.

Protein:

• Chicken breast
• Steak and ground beef
• Fish
• Pork
• Turkey
• Tuna
• Cottage cheese
• Milk
• Eggs
• Whey protein powder

Carbohydrates:

• Oats
• Oatmeal
• Brown rice
• Sweet potatoes
• Barley
• Yams
• Anything whole wheat

Fat:

• Almonds, unroasted
• Almond butter
• Natural peanut butter
• Mixed nuts, unroasted
• Olive oil
• Fish oil
• Avocado

Sample Diet

Here is a very simple “bulking” diet that you can split up into many different meals. Just make sure at the end of the day you’ve consumed the following:

• 1 pound of lean ground beef (720 Calories)
• 1 gallon of skim milk (1440 Calories)
• Dozen egg whites scrambled (120 Calories)
• 2 cups of Brown Rice (388 Calories)
• 3 cups of Rolled Oats (900 Calories)
• 2 tbsp of Natural Peanut Butter (190 Calories)
• Lots of fibrous vegetables such as Broccoli, Asparagus, etc.
• Assorted fruit
• A minimum of 1 gallon of water everyday

That’s just shy of 3,800 calories total - enough for the average 170 pound male to gain weight, considering he has a moderately active metabolism.

Meal Frequency

Focus on eating six solid meals evenly spread out throughout the day. It will end up being about every three hours. This will allow you to feed your body and muscles on a constant basis. Eating this frequently sounds intimidating, but once you get into the routine of it, your stomach will adapt and it will become habit.

How To Cook All This Food

Diets can look fine on paper, but once you start to actually cook it and eat, you start to realize that you need to practically become a full time chef just to gain muscle. Don’t stress about it though, you will get faster and more efficient as time goes on, remember this. For now, follow these tips

• Use an electrical griddle instead of pots and pans
• Buy a rice cooker
• Buy a food scale
• Weigh your meats, pre-cook them, then freeze them for the week
• Use Tupperware

How To Deal With Your Diet On-The-Go

We can’t just sit around our houses and cook all day, right? So, try this:

• Bring food with you in Tupperwear
• Find a fridge at work or school and try to use it
• Limit eating out to social occasions 2 or 3 times a week
• Eat at places where they provide nutritional information (Ex: Subway)

But I’m Afraid I’ll get Fat

Most guys are real sensitive about losing definition or their semi-defined six pack. But here’s a tip: you will never gain any weight until you let go of your fear of getting fat and losing your six pack. Just let it go and focus on eating big. If you focus on eating quality calories (and lots of them) you will be very satisfied with your gains.

Realistic results

If you combine the diet knowledge in this article plus good training and adequate rest, you can expect to gain around 1 – 1.5 pounds of quality weight per week. Any more than that and you’re sure to put on too much fat. Beginners may see faster results because their bodies haven’t adapted yet, where as more experienced gym goers may see slower results.

The only way to really see your success is by measuring. Just looking in the mirror everyday will be deceiving so I recommend using the following to gauge your results:

• Before and after photos
• Physical tape measurements
• Body fat percentage change
• Mirror and Scale

Before and after photos are definitely the most satisfying and realistic way to measure your success. Plus, it’s what I use to help me push through discouraging times. When I’m feeling down about my progress, I continually look back at my original before photo and remind myself of my success.

But whatever you do, do not quit. Keep sticking it out, eating big, and training heavy and you will achieve your results. It just takes hard work and patience.