Should Skinny Guys Use Mass Gainers

Hey man , Shane .

Here today .

Let's talk about mask gainers .

A topic near and dear to my heart because they're the only supplement on the entire market designed specifically for skinny guys who are trying to bulk up instead of needing to force down an entire meal .

All you need to do is drink a sludgy shake that's full of the exact nutrients you need to build muscle or that's the promise anyway .

And it's a very tempting one .

At least for me , on the other hand , these gainers are full of heavily processed carbs and artificial flavors .

Is that actually good for building muscle ?

Will it make us fat ?

And is it bad for our health ?

Let's dive into it .

So , first of all , masks like this are normally made out of three different components .

The first is a protein powder such as way protein concentrate .

The second is a starchy powdered carb such as maltodextrin or waxy maize or ground oats .

And the third are all the colorings and flavors that give it that look feel and texture of chocolate cake dissolved in swamp water .

You'll notice that a lot of these mask skinner are very low in dietary fat .

That's by design , they're made for people who are gaining weight very quickly .

And when you're gaining weight very quickly , it's very easy for your body to take the extra fat you're eating and store it directly as body fat .

That's not true with protein and carbs before your body could store protein and carbs as body fat .

We need to break them down into amino acids and glucose and then we need to convert them into fatty acids and that can happen .

But it's a costly process .

So you wouldn't store that much fat .

And it's actually pretty rare .

Most of the fat in your body .

Maybe even all of the fat in your body has come from the dietary fat .

If you aren't bulking that quickly , then you don't need to stress too much about minimizing your intake of dietary fat .

In fact , having some good sources of fat in your diet can be very good for your health and your hormones .

Still though the bulk of the extra calories you add into your diet should come from carbs and protein and weight gainers are very good for that .

Weight gainers actually do pretty well in the research too .

In this study , the participants drinking a weight gainer managed to get way more muscle than the control group and they did it without gaining any extra fat .

It's true that some people get fat from using mask gainers , but it's usually not the fault of the gainer .

It's usually because they're driving way too deep into a calorie surplus mask gainers have huge serving sizes .

So , if you aren't careful , it's easy to consume too many extra calories causing you to gain weight too quickly and causing a disproportionate amount of fat gain .

But if you're careful about that , you should be able to make pretty lean progress .

That doesn't mean mask gainers are perfect .

They aren't and we'll get to that in a second .

But it does mean they're popular for a reason for better and worse .

They're one of the most effective bulking supplements on the market .

Right .

If they're with creatine , caffeine and protein powder , I've used a few different gainers on a few different bulks .

I've tried quick mass serious mass mutant mass , my plex and I never really liked any of them .

I always hated how they tasted .

I hated that sludgy texture and I hated how lethargic I would feel after drinking them .

So I started buying the powders individually and making my own homemade gainer shakes .

I'd adjust the quantities based on how many calories I needed .

But I started with 60 g of unflavored way protein , 90 g of maltodextrin , 5 g of spina and 5 g of creatine giving me around 600 calories overall .

I'd bring that powder to the gym with me .

I'd add some water and I'd sip on it while I was working in it .

Then when I was done my workout , I CHG whatever was left , these homemade gainer shakes were still a filling , awful sludge .

But I finally gave me a steady source of energy as I delve deeper into my workouts .

I'm not sure if there's any evidence to support that and the placebo effect could very well explain all of it .

But it worked really well for me and it worked well for a lot of other skinny guys too .

The main reason I was drinking these Gainer shakes though is that they stopped me from falling behind on my calories .

When I would go to the gym , it would take me around half an hour to walk to the gym , maybe 15 minutes to change and warm up .

And then it'd work out for an hour , maybe even an hour and a half .

At which point I would have to walk back home again .

By the time I got back home I'd often missed a meal or a snack .

And it was really hard for me to catch up on those calories .

If I tried to eat a bigger meal in the next meal , then it wouldn't fit in my stomach and I'd get acid reflux overall .

I think the Gainers really helped me .

They made it much easier to gain weight .

I never gained a disproportionate amount of fat and once I started making my own shakes , they actually fit into my lifestyle pretty well .

Mind you , the rest of my diet was pretty good .

I was only having them three times per week .

And the serving sizes that I was using were relatively small just because they fit into my lifestyle doesn't necessarily mean they'll fit into yours .

In fact , most people will benefit from adding more whole foods into their diets , not more processed foods .

And as I've gotten bigger , my stomach has gotten bigger too .

As I've gotten healthier , I've gotten much better at processing food .

And as I've had more practice bulking , I've gotten much better at eating a good bulking diet .

So nowadays I don't need those gainer shakes anymore .

If I need extra calories , I'll have a smoothie or maybe eat some trail mix .

And if I want to eat processed food , I'll eat something I actually enjoy like a pina colada or some bread of the dead .

If you can stomach it .

That's what I'd recommend for you as well .

Try to get more of your extra calories from real foods .

That way you get more fiber , more vitamins , minerals , phyto , nutrients , probiotics , all of which are great for your long term health .

And then if you need extra calories on top of that , it's totally fine to use a gainer , but only use as much as you need .

All right .

That's it for now .

If you have any questions , comments or criticisms , drop them down below , I hope to see you in the next one .