If you want to gain weight, you have to eat with the same intensity as you train. Just how important are your meals to gain? Let me put it to you this way. If you don't eat and pound down the protein you might as well forget about lifting all together. Eating is important to gain quality mass.
You need to try and get at least six meals in, every single day. Or, basically, to play it safe, you must eat every 3 hours. Period! Some say eat only during the time you are awake. I say, yeah right and miss a window of opportunity to get BIG. I don't think so.
Set the alarm to get up in the middle of your sleep time and take in a protein shake. Yes, rest is probably the next most important item in gaining size after training and eating but either do what I'm telling you or miss an opportunity for growth. Stay on an eating schedule and try and never deviate from it.
Why so strict? Well, if you eat everyday at 6 a.m., right after a.m. cardio, then you miss that meal, you're body will start to cannibalize your hard-earned muscles. Again, as stated about taking large amounts of protein and eating in the middle of the night some so-called experts will tell you not to do those things, and I say, yeah that's why you're not growing at the optimal rate if you're listerning to them. During sleep, your body is essentially starving and cannibalizing muscle. So feed it.
If post-workout nutrition is the most important meal of the day (and there you were thinking it was breakfast) eating before bed is probably the second most important thing. It's a myth that anything you eat before sleeping will turn to fat. Now don't go chugging snickers bars at midnight, that will make you fat, yes. But you have to figure that for the duration of sleep (7-10 hours if you know what's good for you) you are burning an average 67 calories per hour. That's if you are a quiet sleeper. That means, until you get breakfast (which can be 11 hours for some people, you are on a fast, when levels of nutrients are low, the body is cleansing itself and nitric oxide levels are hard to maintain. The first motive here is preparation. You are headed into a prolonged fast, so you want to make sure that you make up for the calories you'll be missing. Always be preventive. So if you sleep ten hours, getting 670 calories right before bed is a good bet. Don't put in too many carbs, insulin response during sleep is low, so chances are simple carbs will be stored as fat. Some is good, but don't go overboard.
The second part of the reasoning is that Growth Hormone levels peak during sleep. 75 percent of daily hGH output is produced during sleep and 60 percent of that in a large spike in the second hour of sleep. Since the body does a large part of its recovering at night, it makes sense to get all the nutrients you'll need, then let the GH do the rest. This way you will be fit, rested and recuperated for the next day's workout. For gaining mass, your last meal before bed is recommended to be a weight gainer. Just the right amount of calories, easy to prepare, mix with milk which improves the quality of your sleep and so on. That covers you until morning, then you get out of bed and start on breakfast. As soon as your first bite of breakfast is in, you’re ready to focus on the next day's nutrition, until that time you’re still working on the recuperation from the previous day.
A very simple rule of thumb: If you aren't growing, you aren't eating enough. It's that simple. You may think you are, but until you either put on weight or regurgitate your meals you haven't done all you can. This is also why I recommend weight gainers, especially for those who have trouble putting on weight. They are a cost-effective source of quality nutrients, they go down easy and taste great, but the best of all is that they add numerous calories (600-1200 cals per serving) to your daily diet in the correct manner. They are invaluable if you have trouble meeting your daily nutritional demands. The bottom line is simply: EAT MORE!
Crazy Ideas but it works!!!
^__^ HAPPY TRAINING FOLKS!!!
