Are you a skinny guy or woman looking for the easiest ways to bulk up without getting fat?
Well, you’ve come to the right place because that’s exactly what I’ll be going over in this post. I’ll be going over multiple ways for you to put on size naturally at home and build muscle.
For a more detailed answer, keep scrolling and I’ll show you how I managed to pack on 1 – 2lbs every week. Allowing me to get bigger, stronger and build more muscle.
Yes, you can put on weight even faster but what’s the point? Think about it, those pounds you put on aren’t all muscle so don’t go crazy with your calorie intake or else you’ll just get fat. You want to focus on a lean bulk.
Table of Contents
1. Focus on breakfast
Focus on going all out on breakfast. You’ve been fasting for hours so your body is at its hungriest.
Now, if you’re like me, you don’t have a big appetite for breakfast. That’s why it’s critical to make breakfast as delicious as possible.
Personally, I like sweet stuff, so I try to make something sweet. If you like savoury things instead, then find a high calorie savoury breakfast.
My breakfast is 1,500 calories, so it’s a great chunk of calories taken off. I know after breakfast, I don’t have many calories left.
For breakfast, I like to make a healthy protein pancake.
Ingredients:
- Oat flour (70g)
- Flavorless protein powder (50g)
- Banana (1)
- Milk (100ml)
- Honey (20g)
- Cocoa powder (10g)
- Protein spread (20g)
- Powdered peanut butter (10g)
- Eggs (3)
Blend all these ingredients together except from the protein spread and powdered peanut butter.
Put some butter on the pan on low heat, pour in some of the batter and allow it to cook. You know it’s cooked when the top starts to bubble. Then flip it over.
Use up all the batter and stack up the pancakes.
Make sure to add some himalayan salt and spread your chocolate protein spread. With the powdered peanut butter, put it in a small bowl, add a tiny dash of milk and a couple drops of honey.
Then pour it on your pancake. And you’re done!
That’s all there is to these delicious protein pancakes. Super packed in calories.
2. Load up your protein shake
An easy way to get more protein and calories in is by simply putting a bunch of them in your shake. Here’s what I like to do…
Put 2 bananas in a bullet blender, add as much tasteless protein powder as needed to reach my protein goals. Then I like to add some ice to give it a tastier consistency. Also, the blender tends to heat it up.
And this can easily be 60g of protein in a shake and it’s not a huge task to drink.
This is a real treat!
3. Drink your calories
You can make a simple mass gainer shake. Add in a bunch of whole foods, blend it, then chug it down.
Here are the ingredients:
- Blended oat flower (70g)
- Bananas (2)
- Eggs (2)
- Tasteless protein powder (However much you need to hit your goal)
- Honey (Up to you)
- Milk (Will help determine the consistency)
- Peanut butter (20g – optional)
- Greek yogurt (40g)
- Frozen berries (However much you need to mask the taste)
Blend all these ingredients together. The berries are there to make the shake taste a lot better.
The amount of ingredients you want to add is up to you. This is going to give you a big boost in protein, carbs, fats and your overall calories.
4. Prepare your food in advanced
What? How is this going to increase my appetite?
Trust me, as someone who doesn’t have a big appetite, prepping your food goes a long way. It helps when you’re tired, don’t know what to cook or you just can’t be bothered.
Having that meal ready to eat, you can just say to yourself, “Yeah, I’ll just knock this out, it’ll take 5 minutes.”
Have some containers. Avoid plastic ones and go for glass ones as they’re less prone to breaking and leaking. Invest in some quality stuff if you’re serious about lifting.
Cold foods can help massively.
Pasta, tuna, mayonnaise is a great example. You don’t need to reheat it.
A basic sandwich will do the trick. You can add some chicken slices in there for the protein and the bread will give it a chunky boost in calories.
5. Have a pantry of quick foods
Quick foods are an amazing way to get some calories in.
The premise is, have some cheap foods available that are quick to combine with other food.
For example, a cup of greek yogurt mixed in with some protein powder and some fruits and nuts sprinkled on top is an epic quick calorie protein hitting meal.
Some crackers with some protein spread on top or philadelphia spread is another great idea.
Have a list of these types of meals and have the ingredients ready.
Quick healthy foods for weight gain:
- Greek yogurt mixed with protein powder and berries.
- Protein spread on crackers/rice/cakes/bread
- Tuna, light mayonnaise with sweetcorn on bread
- Leftover chicken and cheese with spinach in bread, toasted
- Have a protein bar, protein shake and a banana
- Pot Noodles/instant ramen with leftover chicken or add an egg boiled or fried (add some frozen veg as well)
- Add protein powder to your oats/porridge
6. Add protein powder your meals
If you’re like me, you love your carbs and fats but that’s not going to help you build muscle. Protein is.
So you’ve got to make sure you’re getting the protein in first. Why first? Because if you don’t have a big appetite and are eating your carbs and fats, it’s going to be a struggle getting the protein down.
The best way to do this is to combine the protein, carbohydrates and fats. Make your meals something special, something you would be happy with at a restaurant.
One easy way to get more protein in your standard meals is by adding tasteless protein powder in your meals.
Super high protein pasta bake
Ingredients:
- Chicken (cut into small pieces)
- Pasta (Get a high quality pasta, it will make all the difference)
- Pasta bake sauce (make your own or buy a jar, I go for the jars 🙂
- Low fat cheese (of your choice)
- Low fat cream (optional)
How to make it:
First, make sure to season your chicken and then cook it. You can season it with whatever you want. Make sure to add a little bit of honey to keep it from drying out.
Cook the chicken on the pan for 10 minutes.
Take your pasta bake sauce (without adding anything to it) and add some flavorless protein powder. Mix well. At this point, you can also add some low fat cream if you want, it will make a big difference.
Next, season the pasta bake sauce (even if it’s store bought). I like to add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano and drizzle some honey to balance out the acidity.
Drain your pasta and mix it with the sauce and cooked chicken. Make sure to mix in some low fat grated cheese of your choice in there.
Add it to a baking dish and add some grated cheese on top.
Put it in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees celsius/356 fahrenheit
And you’ve got a massive boost of protein without even trying!
7. Have a quality lunch bag
Let’s face it, we’re not all at home with the ability to cook at any time. That’s why you need to invest in a high quality bodybuilding lunch bag.
Something that will insulate your food, keeping it warm or cold. Something that has plenty of space and you can pack a lot of meals inside of.
Here’s a guide to the best meal prep lunch boxes.
This is a super easy way to have your meals whilst you’re at work and on the go. You can easily store your meals, keep them fresh for whenever you want them.
It also encourages you to prepare your meals.
8. Workout harder than last time
One thing that constantly gets swept under the rug is working out intensely in order to build a greater appetite.
If your workout is more intense, then you’re going to burn more calories, more calories burned means your body wants to replenish that energy. So you’re going to get hungry.
And on top of that, a more intense workout means you’ll be building more muscle. And I’m not talking about endurance here. What I’m talking about is lifting a moderate – heavy amount of weight to build muscle.
Find an ideal weight that you can do 10 reps with, then try to push it to 15. When you reach 10, that’s basically when you think you can’t go any further but you have more left in you. So blast out the rest of those 5 reps.
And then gradually increase the weight.
This is a great way to get your blood flowing, tearing down muscle fibers to build them back up and an amazing way to create an appetite.
9. Sleep
Make sure you get a good night’s rest, 8 hours at least. If you’re constantly waking up to pee or have a bad sleep schedule, it’s going to affect your muscle building process in a negative way.
Here are some great ways to improve your sleep quality:
Don’t drink or eat any sugar or caffeinated items before bed, you don’t want a high whilst you’re trying to get to sleep.
Put all devices in another room. I’m talking about your phone! Screens produce a blue light and this can trick your body into thinking it’s morning. Get a separate alarm clock if you need an alarm.
If someone may need to call you in the middle of the night for emergencies, you could get a separate flip phone and have them call you on that. A flip phone is far less distracting than a smartphone.
Use earplugs and an eye mask. This will help block out any distracting noise and stop light from bleeding in. This is great if you share a room, a property or live in a noisy environment.
Optimise your room’s temperature. If you’re trying to sleep in a warm room, you may struggle to fall asleep. Instead, reduce the temperature by using a thermostat (if you have one), take your clothes off, crack open the windows and doors or use a fan.
The same goes with being too cold. Warm up by putting some bedtime clothes on, use another blanket or put the heating on.
10. Prepare for the workout
Make sure you’ve eaten before you workout and drinking coffee will give you a boost. Have a sugary drink whilst you’re working out to give you a boost.
And make sure you’ve warmed up and stretched. Lift safely :).
This will give you the best chance of having a really good workout and achieving a juicy pump.
Let’s get juiced up brah! 😉
