Getting skinny is the goal for most people, but for some of us, it’s the exact opposite. You’re tired of being called "lanky" or "scrawny." Maybe you've tried eating everything in sight and still haven't seen the scale budge. It’s frustrating. Honestly, it's often harder to put on healthy weight than it is to lose it. People think you're lucky, but you're just hungry and tired of failing. If you're looking for the best way to gain weight, you have to stop thinking about just "eating more" and start thinking about biological leverage.
Most people fail because they treat their stomach like a trash can. They eat donuts, pizza, and milkshakes thinking the calories are all that matters. Then they feel like garbage, their skin breaks out, and they develop a "skinny fat" look where they have a gut but tiny arms. That's not the goal. You want muscle. You want substance. You want to feel strong, not just heavy.
Why You Aren't Growing
It usually comes down to a simple math problem, but your body is playing tricks on you. Your metabolism might be high, or more likely, your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is through the roof. Some people are just "fidgeters." They burn hundreds of calories just by tapping their feet or moving around while they talk.
You think you eat a lot. You really don't.
If we actually tracked your calories for a week, we’d probably find that you have one "big" day where you eat 3,000 calories and then three days where you barely hit 1,800 because you're still full or too busy to eat. Consistency is the silent killer here. To find the best way to gain weight, you need a surplus that doesn't feel like a chore.
The body is a survival machine. It doesn't want to carry extra mass because mass is expensive to maintain. It takes energy to keep muscle alive. If you aren't giving your body a reason to grow—and the fuel to do it—it stays small. Period.
The Role of Genetics and Hormones
Let's be real: some people are "hardgainers." Dr. Claude Bouchard, a researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, has done fascinating work on how different people respond to overfeeding. In his famous twin studies, some people gained a massive amount of weight on a surplus, while others barely changed. Some of it is just how your body partitions nutrients. Some people's bodies are just inefficient at storing fat and building muscle. That doesn't mean it's impossible. It just means you have to be more strategic than the guy at the gym who just looks at a protein shake and grows.
High-Density Fuel: Eating Without Exploding
The biggest mistake is filling up on "healthy" foods that are too voluminous. If you try to gain weight by eating nothing but chicken breast and broccoli, you’re going to fail. Your stomach will be physically full long before you hit your calorie goals.
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You need calorie-dense foods.
Think about it this way: a massive bowl of spinach has about 15 calories. A single tablespoon of olive oil has 120. Which one is easier to get down? Exactly. You don't have to eat "dirty" to eat dense.
- Liquid Calories are a Cheat Code. This is probably the single most effective tip. You can drink a 1,000-calorie shake in five minutes and be hungry again in two hours. If you ate those same 1,000 calories as whole oats, eggs, and fruit, you'd be stuffed for half the day. Blend oats, peanut butter, whole milk (or a heavy plant milk), a banana, and some whey protein. Drink it while you check your emails. Easy.
- Nut Butters and Oils. Add a tablespoon of olive oil or avocado oil to your savory meals. You won't even taste it. Put peanut butter or almond butter on everything. It’s an easy 200 calories that takes up almost no room in your stomach.
- The "Palm" Rule. Every meal needs a protein source the size of your palm, two palms of carbs (rice, potatoes, pasta), and a thumb of healthy fats.
Don't Fear the Fat
For years, we were told fat makes you fat. In the context of the best way to gain weight, fat is your best friend. It has 9 calories per gram, compared to the 4 calories per gram in protein and carbs. If you're struggling to hit 3,000 calories, doubling your fat intake is the fastest path to success. Use butter. Eat the egg yolks. Buy the 5% fat Greek yogurt instead of the 0% version. These small shifts add up to thousands of calories over a week.
Resistance Training: Teaching Your Body Where to Put the Food
If you eat in a surplus and sit on the couch, you’ll get fat. If you eat in a surplus and lift heavy weights, you’ll get big.
The best way to gain weight isn't just about the scale; it's about body composition. You need to provide a stimulus. This means compound movements. Forget the bicep curls for a minute. Focus on the "Big Three" plus a few extras:
- Squats: They tax the whole body and trigger a massive hormonal response.
- Deadlifts: The king of building a thick back and strong legs.
- Bench Press/Overhead Press: For that upper body frame.
- Weighted Pull-ups/Rows: To widen the lats.
You should be lifting 3 to 4 times a week. Don't do too much cardio. I know, heart health is important, but if you're running five miles a day, you're just burning the fuel you're trying to save for muscle growth. Keep the cardio light—walks are great. They keep the heart healthy without incinerating your calorie surplus.
The Concept of Progressive Overload
You can't lift the same 20lb dumbbells for six months and expect to grow. Your body will adapt and say, "Okay, I'm strong enough for this, no need to build more muscle." You have to force it. Every week, try to add 2.5 lbs to the bar. Or do one more rep than last time. This constant pressure is what signals your cells to take those extra calories from your dinner and turn them into muscle tissue.
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Sleep: The Most Underrated Growth Factor
You don't grow in the gym. You grow in bed.
When you sleep, your body goes into repair mode. Growth hormone (GH) peaks while you're in deep sleep. If you're only getting five or six hours of shut-eye, you're cutting your gains off at the knees. You're also making yourself more insulin resistant, which means your body is less efficient at using the carbs you're eating for muscle glycogen and more likely to store them as fat.
Aim for 8 hours. If you can't get 8, get 7 of high quality. Use blackout curtains. Keep the room cold. Stop looking at your phone an hour before bed. It sounds like generic advice, but for someone trying to find the best way to gain weight, it's as important as the steak you had for dinner.
The "Hardgainer" Myths We Need to Kill
We’ve all heard them. "I have a fast metabolism." "I eat so much I’m basically a vacuum." "My dad was skinny, so I’m stuck like this."
While your "basal metabolic rate" (BMR) might be slightly higher than average, it's rarely more than a 200-300 calorie difference. The real issue is often appetite regulation. Some people have very sensitive "fullness" hormones like leptin. As soon as they eat a bit more than usual, their brain screams "STOP!" and they lose interest in food.
If this is you, you have to treat eating like a job. You don't eat because you're hungry; you eat because it's 2:00 PM and your schedule says you need 600 calories. It’s not always fun. Professional bodybuilders often talk about how the hardest part of the sport isn't the training—it's the "force-feeding" during an off-season.
The Problem with "Dirty Bulking"
You'll see people online telling you to eat a gallon of milk a day (GOMAD) or hit Taco Bell every night. Please, don't.
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Systemic inflammation is real. If you flood your body with trans fats and massive amounts of refined sugar, your digestion will wreck itself. Bloating, diarrhea, and lethargy are not conducive to a good workout. If your gut is inflamed, you won't absorb nutrients efficiently anyway. Stick to "clean" calorie-dense foods 80% of the time. Rice, potatoes, oats, avocados, steak, salmon, nuts. The other 20%? Sure, have a burger or some ice cream. Just don't make it the foundation.
Tracking: If You Don't Measure It, It Doesn't Exist
You need a scale. Not just a body weight scale, but a food scale.
Just for two weeks.
Track everything in an app like Cronometer or MyFitnessPal. You will likely be shocked at how little you're actually eating. You’ll see that your "huge" bowl of cereal was only 400 calories. To gain weight, you generally want to aim for 16-18 calories per pound of body weight. If you weigh 150 lbs, that’s roughly 2,400 to 2,700 calories. If you're very active, it might be 3,000.
If the scale doesn't move after a week of hitting your target, add 200 calories. Keep doing that until the scale moves. It’s a slow process of titration.
What Does "Normal" Progress Look Like?
Don't expect to gain 10 lbs of muscle in a month. That’s not happening unless you’re using "extra-curricular" hormones. A realistic goal is 0.5 to 1 pound of body weight per week. Anything faster than that is almost certainly mostly body fat. Slow and steady wins here. You want to look back in six months and see a completely different person in the mirror, not just a puffier version of yourself.
Actionable Steps to Start Today
Start now. Not Monday. Now.
- Go to the grocery store. Buy a bag of white rice, a jar of natural peanut butter, a carton of whole eggs, and some olive oil.
- Liquid Gold. Make your first high-calorie shake tomorrow morning. 2 cups of whole milk, 1 cup of oats, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, and a scoop of protein powder. That’s roughly 800-900 calories. Drink it.
- Find a Program. Don't just wander around the gym. Look up a basic "Starting Strength" or "StrongLifts 5x5" routine. Focus on the compound lifts.
- Salt your food. This is a weird one, but salt helps with digestion and keeps your muscles hydrated. It also makes food taste better, which helps you eat more when you aren't hungry.
- Carry snacks. Never be caught without a bag of almonds or a protein bar. If you're stuck in a meeting or a class for three hours without food, you're missing an opportunity.
The best way to gain weight is a combination of patience and mechanical eating. It’s about being a scientist with your own body. Take the data, adjust the variables, and wait for the results. You'll get there. It just takes more peanut butter than you think.