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The Skinny Guy's Guide to Building Muscle

Skinny guy: “Man, I can’t gain any weight. What do I do?”

Big guy: “You need to eat more.”
Skinny guy: “I eat plenty.”

At this point, the skinny guy usually walks off in search of the secret training program that’ll explode his puny pipe cleaner arms in 30 days or less.

But, seriously.

If you’re a naturally skinny dude who can’t put on a pound, eating more is the place to start – but that doesn’t give you a lot of context, so let’s dig in a little with seven tips for skinny guys looking to gain muscle.

RELATED: Best Mass Gainer for Skinny Guys

Eat More

There’s a right way and wrong way to go about it. Implementing the “see food” diet, where you gorge out at Chinese buffets every second day is the wrong way. The right way is to set yourself up in a modest calorie surplus to start.

Step 1 – Set your calories

Calories x 12-15 = multiply bodyweight by those numbers (gives you a calorie range – i.e. 180 x 12 = 2,200 calories, 200 x 15 = 2,700 calories)

Eat 2,200 on days you don’t workout Eat 2,700 on days you do workout

In all likelihood, if you’re a true hard gainer, you may need to eat at the upper limit of that range every day, regardless of activity levels.

But assess your weight gain in the early going. Are you gaining a pound or two a week? Good. Stay the course.

Step 2 – Set your protein minimum

Just meeting the RDA of protein isn’t enough – particularly for active, skinny guys who weight train.

In a review published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition, researchers concluded, "Those involved in strength training might need to consume as much as 1.6 to 1.7 grams of protein per kilogram per day (approximately twice the current RDA).”

A good rule of thumb is to aim for 1 gram per pound of bodyweight in protein every day. I.E. 180 pounds = 180 grams of protein.

Fill out the rest of your calorie requirements from carbs and fats.

Track Your Intake

Use a website or app and track your food intake. Most skinny guys dramatically overestimate how much they eat. You’re going to need hard numbers to make sure you stay on track, especially if you have the appetite equivalent to Kate Moss on a fast.

Plus, you're going to want to make adjustments based on your progress – or lack thereof. Are you gaining weight too quickly? Reduce calories. Gaining no weight? Increase. And it goes without saying: as you gain weight, you'll need to continue to eat more food, consume more calories, if you want to keep growing.

Hey, no one said it was going to be easy!

Get a Little Dirty

Make whole foods your base. Focus on natural calorie-dense foods, such as steak, nut butters and rice and pasta.

But don't be afraid to live a little and enjoy some junk food. Eating too clean can actually hurt your progress if you’re a skinny guy trying to pack on mass. Need some suggestions?

Pizza Omelettes with cheese Mass-gaining supplements Whole milk Chocolate milk Cereal Wings

If you're truly a hard gainer, you'll be amazed at how much you can eat without putting a dent in your calorie needs, so don't be afraid to go a little crazy.

Add Calories During Your Workout

You’ve heard that dirty word: Cortisol. It’s stealing your gains, right?

It’s certainly not always a bad thing. But too much of it can halt your hard-to-come-by gains in their tracks.

By definition, cortisol is a glucocorticoid, a steroid hormone released to ensure the brain has ample supply of glucose (sugar), its preferred fuel source in situations where simple survival is paramount.

Cortisol can promote glycogen breakdown in skeletal muscle (i.e. muscle wasting) when preferable energy supply isn’t present. That’s bad news if you’re looking to gain muscle.

So, what can you do?

Take in carbohydrates during your workouts.

One study found 50 grams of pure carbohydrate (Gatorade) in a workout drink consumed during a resistance training (lifting weights) session completely eliminated cortisol elevations compared to a control flavored drink. The carbohydrates had a direct influence on the amount of cortisol released during and after the workout.

Subjects within this particular study with the lowest cortisol (i.e. those who drank the Gatorade) made the greatest muscle gains.

Simply add a little Gatorade powder mixed in water. If you find it upsets your stomach while working out, use more water.

Your workout should be all about building muscle, not trying to burn fat in a gaining phase. 

When people consume carbs during training, anecdotally they report having more energy, training harder, and recovering faster. So try it for yourself.

Get Strong First

Unfortunately, skinny guys tend to follow the high volume workout routines of enhanced pro bodybuilders.

If you’ve been at it for a decade and still benching 135 for three sets, year after year, it’s time for a change.

Pick a program that focuses on the core lifts, and progressively add weight to the bar without compromising form.

Think bench presses and squats, not tricep kickbacks and sissy squats. Regardless of the program, the principle is the same – progressive overload and total volume (getting stronger and just enough to stimulate growth and recover from).

Need a training program to get you going in the right direction? Download this Thor-inspired 30-day workout program for skinny guys.

Take Longer Rest Periods

Are you the type who prides themselves on doing metabolic finishers, Crossfit WODs, supersets, trisets and giant sets till you puke?

As a skinny guy, it’s time you changed your strategy.

For one, longer rest periods lead to more muscle, according to one study.

Dr. Brad Schoenfeld recruited 21 men to this study, ages ranging from 18 to 35 years, with at least six months of experience in resistance training and a back squat max above their own body weight.

They were split into two groups:

The short rest group were instructed to rest 1 minute between sets.

The long rest group were instructed to rest 3 minutes between sets.

Aside from this difference, both groups had the exact same training program: 3 sets of 8-12 reps of seven different exercises per session.

Results After Eight Weeks

The long rest period group saw greater results in terms of muscle gains. Their biceps grew by 5.4% vs 2.8%, quads by 13.3% vs 6.9%, and triceps by 7% vs 0.5%.

They also got stronger. Their squat max increased by 15.2% vs 7.6% and bench press max by 12.7% vs 4.1%.

Their muscle endurance in bench press increased by 23.2% vs 13.0%.

That said, it’s important to take these results in proper context, Schoenfeld wrote on his site.

Schoenfeld theorized that the discrepancy may be related to a reduction in total volume load (i.e. reps x weight) over the course of the study. There is a well-established dose-response relationship between volume and hypertrophy. The short rest periods may compromise growth by reducing the amount of weight you can use on subsequent sets. 

There is no reason you can’t combine different rest periods to potentially maximize muscle hypertrophy, depending on the exercise.

Schoenfeld recommends you take longer rest intervals on your large-muscle compound exercises such as squats, presses and rows.

On the other hand, single joint isolation movements such as curls, rope pressdowns and leg extensions are not as metabolically taxing. With shorter rests on those exercises, you can heighten metabolic stress and its potential hypertrophic (read: muscle gain) benefits without negatively impacting total volume for the workout.

Chill Out

Often skinny guys are natural fidgeters and movers.

There’s something called NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. A fancy term for the calories you burn through involuntary actions like twiddling your thumbs or tapping your foot, as well as those burned from everyday actions you don’t think about too much. Standing, walking and anything not considered conventional exercise.

While it may seem insignificant, NEAT adds up.

For reference, the Mayo Clinic designed a study to look at the mechanisms that hinder fat-gain. They studied 16 non-obese subjects (12 males and 4 females), ranging in age from 25 to 36 years.

They volunteered to eat 1,000 excess calories a day (above what they needed to maintain weight) for eight weeks.

The researchers used highly accurate methods to measure changes in body fat (DEXA). Some of the subjects gained 10 times more fat than others, ranging from 0.8 to 9 pounds. The overall weight gain ranged from 3 to 12 pounds, some of which was additional muscle.

NEAT explained the big variation in weight gain. The subjects who rated high in daily expenditure from NEAT gained less.

The range in daily calorie burn from NEAT varied from 98 calories to as much as 690 calories more than baseline.

If you want to gain weight, reduce your NEAT.

Mitch Calvert is a certified trainer and online transformation coach for men. Visit www.mitchcalvert.com for more information.

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Mitch Calvert, Khareem Sudlow