Sports nutrition complex for weight gain for ectomorphs

It is extremely difficult for ectomorphs, that is, people with accelerated metabolism, to gain muscle mass. But you shouldn’t despair, in fact, genetics can always be overcome - even Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very slight child until he was 15 years old. It is only important to set your priorities correctly, because for an ectomorph, the priority is not training, but a balanced diet.

An ectomorph is a type of body constitution characterized by thin, elongated bones and a low level of subcutaneous fat. Ectomorphs are also called hard gainers because their metabolism is too fast, making it very difficult for them to gain muscle mass. It’s easy to determine if you belong to this body type – wrap your thumb and middle finger around your hand. If your fingers touch and there is still at least a little free space between them and the hand, you are an ectomorph.

How many times a day should you eat

As we have already said, nutrition for ectomorphs is the main growth factor. Eat 5-6 times a day, and it is important that there are no long breaks between meals. Ideally, an ectomorph should eat every three hours - this is exactly how much time is needed for the body to completely absorb proteins and complex carbohydrates.

The calorie content of an ectomorph’s diet should be at least 500 calories higher than the average daily requirement. The norm is approximately equal to body weight multiplied by 30. That is, for a person weighing 70 kg, the average calorie content to maintain current weight is 2100 calories. An ectomorph will need at least 2600 calories to gain weight.

Who are ectomorphs?

Content

A person belongs to one of three body types:

• endomorphic;
• mesomorphic;
• ectomorphic.

The first two types are prone to rapid weight gain, with mesomorphs gaining predominantly lean muscle mass, and endomorphs easily accumulating fat.

Ectomorphs, on the other hand, have a faster metabolism, which means it is much more difficult for them to gain weight. They are almost always tall in appearance, with long, thin bones and noticeable thinness.

For an ectomorph, gaining weight is always a difficult task.

The basis of the diet is carbohydrates

While others lean on proteins, for ectomorphs it is more important to provide the body with the necessary amount of carbohydrates for muscle growth. There should be approximately 50-60% of them in the diet, with the main part being complex carbohydrates, that is, cereals, porridges, pasta. Simple carbohydrates are also needed, but it is better to consume them in the first half of the day.

Proteins make up approximately 25% of the ectomorph’s diet and must be present in each meal. You need to eat at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. To prevent your digestive system from malfunctioning with such protein consumption, eat more vegetables and take additional enzymes.

The remaining 20-25% of the diet is fats, which are no less important for an ectomorph than protein. But these should be healthy, unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts, and fish.

Gainer – salvation of an ectomorph or marketing?

Almost everywhere you can see a mention that gainer is the No. 1 product for ectomorphs, but is this really so? To give an answer, let’s delve into what a gainer is and compare it with other sports nutrition, in particular protein. If protein is a supplement that contains 70 percent or more of pure protein (most often we are talking about whey protein), then in a gainer its average concentration is about 30%. Otherwise, two-thirds of the product consists of carbohydrates and some fat.

As you know, it is protein that forms muscles, therefore it has the main value in this process. Carbohydrates are important, primarily as a source of energy, but are they deficient? In the food industry, any restaurant or supermarket, foods high in carbohydrates and fat always predominate. Absolutely everyone can ensure the norm of calories and carbohydrates, while with proteins it is much more difficult to do this.

Regular cereals or even baked goods will allow you to fill up with carbohydrates no worse than the best gainer, but at what cost? As a rule, the price of many gainers is not much different from the protein, and if when buying whey protein you get only a protein product, then the gainer contains mostly carbohydrates. Moreover, many gainers contain regular maltodextrin, that is, a fast carbohydrate that is processed starch. Do you need it?

The only option when an ectomorph needs a gainer is the inability to eat a lot of food. For example, if you have a poor appetite or simply don’t have time to eat well.

Sports nutrition

Of course, it is difficult for the gastrointestinal tract to absorb such volumes of food. In addition, ectomorphs often suffer from decreased appetite, so food has to be literally pushed inside during weight gain. In this case, sports nutrition products will come to the rescue; they can replace two or three meals of solid food. The main supplement for an ectomorph is a gainer - thanks to the ratio of proteins and carbohydrates of 1 to 3, it allows you to avoid a lack of substances the body needs. Taking pure protein usually gives ectomorphs much less weight gain.

In combination with a gainer, you can take creatine to increase mass - it retains water in the body and allows you to increase strength, and this is an excellent stimulus for muscle growth, especially since ectomorphs have great difficulty gaining weight.

Fast metabolism promotes catabolic processes, so ectomorphs need to carefully protect their muscles from decay. To do this, you need to take BCAA during periods of increased catabolism - immediately after waking up, as well as during and after training. To avoid lack of fats, you can additionally take an omega-3 supplement.

Boris Ushakov, sports doctor, comments:

– I consider whey protein, casein, creatine and BCAA to be the main supplements for gaining weight. If you really have problems with weight gain, then you can add a gainer to your diet. The main thing is to fit it into your daily calorie intake. It happens that the body cannot absorb large amounts of natural products, in which case a gainer will come in handy. But practice shows that there are only about 7-10% of people who, due to physiological characteristics, cannot gain weight. The problems of the rest are psychosomatic in nature - people are initially convinced that they will not be able to gain weight on natural products, without sports nutrition.

Ectomorph diet

Nutrition for an ectomorph should not be limited to simply increasing calories. Muscle development requires a diet that emphasizes complex carbohydrates, protein, and adequate fiber.

The ectomorph regime is based on the correct ratio of the number of calories consumed and the level of physical activity. Food should be healthy and natural, but in rare cases indulgences in the form of fast food are acceptable.

Table of permitted products

To build muscle mass, an ectomorph needs to eliminate the consumption of empty calories and give preference to foods with a low glycemic index.

List of main acceptable products with calculation of BZHU per 100 g:

Calculation of calorie needs

For proper weight gain, a high-calorie diet is prepared. Calories required are calculated using the formula: 60 x athlete's weight x activity level = permissible calorie intake.

The number 60 in the formula indicates the number of calories per kg of weight that are necessary for the normal functioning of the ectomorph’s body.

Activity level calculation

To measure activity level, a person's daily activities should be studied. If most of the time he moves little (office work, no physical activity), then the activity level is 1.

If a person’s work involves high physical activity, then the coefficient is 1.5. For an office worker, calorie needs will increase on workout days.

Be sure to read: Nutrition for athletes for every day: menu, list of products, types of supplements

Nutrition before and after training

An hour before training, an ectomorph needs to load up on complex carbohydrates, which will provide the body with the necessary energy. You can also take BCAA immediately before training - some of them will serve as fuel, and the other part will help not burn muscles.

After training, it is important to provide the body with everything it needs for a comfortable recovery. After leaving the gym, you should immediately drink another portion of BCAA. A gainer will help close the protein-carbohydrate window, and creatine will help restore creatine phosphate reserves. An hour and a half after the training, a full meal must follow, including proteins and complex carbohydrates.

Comments Konstantin Ivanov, beach bodybuilder:

– As a beach bodybuilder, I don’t have a so-called mass-gain period, so I don’t use products such as gainer and creatine, which retain water. But in general, the majority of guys who come to the gym are very skinny, and they, of course, need to achieve an excess of calories in order to gain weight, and this is almost impossible on a purely natural diet; the digestive tract cannot cope with such a volume of food. So for ectomorphs, a gainer is a great option. It is even preferable to protein, because the need in this case is not so much protein as calories. I can also advise ectomorphs to eat high-protein cookies between meals, you can even replace one of the meals with them - this is a good alternative for increasing the caloric content of the diet.

Difficulties in gaining weight in ectomorphs

The active metabolism of an ectomorph helps burn calories much faster than a mesomorph and endomorph. In his youth, the ectomorph has such a fast metabolism that he can often eat only high-calorie fast food, and at the same time he will have almost no fat deposits. With age, all metabolic processes will slow down, and a person may begin to grow a belly due to poor nutrition, which will noticeably stand out due to the fact that the person is otherwise thin.

Very often, novice athletes, out of desperation to gain weight, begin to consume the maximum possible number of calories, thinking that the result will come faster. But due to the fact that most of the calories are useless for gaining muscle and health, a person may simply lose his last hope and give up. Therefore, it is important to initially choose the right approach to your body.

Bottom line

Let's summarize. To gain muscle mass, a hardgainer must adhere to the following nutritional rules:

- Eat on average every three hours;

— Consume at least 500 calories above the daily norm;

— Consume as many carbohydrates as possible, mostly complex ones;

— Eat at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day;

— Drink gainer, creatine and BCAA.

#BCAA #gainer #creatine #mass gain #sports nutrition #sports nutrition #ectomorph

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4 comments

• maxis

  April 14, 2021 at 07:28
  Interesting article, thank you.)

  answer

• Leonid

  May 13, 2021 at 11:10 pm
  With this protein calculation, you get stuck at a certain point and don’t grow

  answer

• Ivan

  September 28, 2021 at 02:32
  Geiger drink more risk of developing diabetes do not buy gainer

  answer

Sample menu for the day

The menu for an ectomorph to gain weight should look something like this:

1. After waking up, eat a banana or apricot. You can also take a serving of BCAA.
2. For breakfast you can eat 100 g of dry oatmeal and a banana. From proteins - eggs, from 2 to 4 pieces, boiled or fried.
3. For lunch, eat meat, at least 250 grams (beef), with a side dish of 150 grams of pasta, boiled potatoes or buckwheat/rice. It will be useful to dilute this with a vegetable salad dressed with olive oil.
4. Before training – light proteins about 200 grams of chicken along with 100 grams of buckwheat or rice.
5. During training, you can consume simple carbohydrates in the form of dried fruits to maintain energy levels. If available, drink a couple of servings of BCAAs.
6. Immediately after finishing your workout, drink a portion of gainer or protein along with fast carbohydrates.
7. For dinner, 200 grams of boiled chicken or turkey. Garnish – 100 grams of pasta or potatoes.
8. After 1.5-2 hours - a second dinner, consisting of 250 g of fish and vegetable salad.
9. Before going to bed, you need to consume milk protein. It is best to eat 200 grams of protein, as well as about 50 grams of nuts.

Sample menu for the day

Recommendations for training

Effective muscle mass gain for an ectomorph depends on sports activity no less than on nutrition. Since this body type has weak muscles, it is best to give preference to split training. This means that you should train one or another muscle group on different days, for example, train your back and arms on Mondays, and your legs and abs on Wednesdays.

• Firstly, this approach will allow you to maximally include the desired muscle group in the work;

• Secondly, the risk of overtraining is reduced to a minimum, and for an ectomoph this is of great importance. Once you become overtired, progress slows down and all previous efforts become meaningless;
• Thirdly, by the next workout the muscles will have time to fully recover.

Another advantage of split classes is the ability to increase the weight of equipment, which will contribute to the desired hypertrophy. Don’t forget about general physical training to increase the endurance of the whole body, and about sound sleep at least eight hours a day.