It’s generally believed that people who use mass gainers gain weight quickly. However, this doesn’t always have to be true. Unless you are eating more calories than you need to maintain your weight while not lifting weights, mass gainers won’t make you fat. Then, how do you utilize a mass gainer so you don’t gain weight but instead become muscular or keep your present weight? We’re here to explain!
In this article, we explain what a mass gainer is and how it works, but that’s not all! We also provide you with useful tips on how to utilize mass gainers without putting on too much weight and getting fat! Keep reading to find out all about it.
Contents
What Is a Mass Gainer?
First off, a starchy carb powder like maltodextrin or powdered oats serves as the major component of mass gainers. About 80% of the calories originate from there. In addition to protein powder, vitamins, minerals, sweeteners, and flavors, those powders are packed. Although serving sizes and macronutrient content vary between brands, it’s common to obtain around 250 grams of carbohydrates, 50 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat, and perhaps 1,250 calories altogether.
It’s questionable whether the vitamins and minerals, which are comparable to those found in a multivitamin, do anything at all. It is intended that you have a healthy meal and combine it with these muscle gainer smoothies in order to increase your calorie intake.
Mass gainers are just a less expensive and more practical option to eat more frequently and in larger quantities to reach a calorie surplus. These supplements often mix protein powder with carbohydrate powder to create a bulk gainer that is rich in protein, high in carbs, and high in calories. For slim men and “hard gainers,” in particular, mass gainers might help them overcome a poor appetite while trying to gain weight. They are therefore a fantastic method to increase your intake without feeling full.
A pre-made carb and protein beverage called a “mass gainer” can also be the ideal post-workout energy booster and repair catalyst. This makes them a fantastic option for gaining mass while engaging in demanding, high-volume activity, like bodybuilders or athletes, for instance. But, will including mass gainers in your diet make you gain too much weight? Let’s find out.
Will a Mass Gainer Make Me Fat?
You don’t become fat when you use mass gainers. If you are utilizing a mass gainer and acquiring a lot of body fat, you are probably consuming more calories than you need for daily maintenance. The quantity of calories you need each day to maintain your weight is known as your daily maintenance.
To avoid consuming thousands of calories at once while using a mass gainer to gain weight, you should try to use 1/4 to 1/2 of a serving. Decrease your serving size or stop taking the mass gainer altogether until you get your body composition to the desired range if you see that you are acquiring a lot of body fat while using it.
There is an easy math formula for taking a mass gainer without acquiring fat. In order to gain weight gradually, you should eat 200–300 calories more each day than you need for maintenance. This will guarantee that any weight gain comes mostly from muscle mass rather than fat mass.
So, assuming your everyday diet keeps you at your present weight, taking a 200–300 calorie serving of mass gainer every day would assure that you gain fat just barely. You also need to lift weights in order to get muscle. Lifting weights may encourage the production of new proteins, thus the majority of the weight you acquire may be made up of muscle mass.
Mass Gainers—Pros
1. Calories
Mass gainers’ high-calorie content is one of the key elements that enable supplements for muscle building to boost the natural muscle mass in your body. When combined with a nutritious, well-balanced diet, these supplements offer your body more calories, which causes you to be in surplus.
The greatest gainer for mass gain then boosts blood flow to your tissues and works to develop your body’s muscles, giving you the optimum body composition within a matter of weeks. You may get up to 4000 muscle gainer calories from one serving of this product.
2. Creatine & L-Glutamine
One of the most prevalent ingredients in a mass gainer for muscle gain is creatine. It basically aids in improving the quantity of blood your muscles receive and their natural ability to produce energy, as well as giving certain nutrients to your body.
Creatine can help prevent the accumulation of lactic acid in our muscles after extended physical activity. This makes it an excellent option component to add to many pre- and post-workout smoothies.
To operate effectively, our body needs all 11 necessary amino acids. These amino acids function by gradually increasing your protein intake and supporting routine activities like maintaining blood flow and increasing the concentration of oxygen in the muscles.
Another important ingredient of mass gainers is L-glutamine, an important amino acid that also supports the process by which muscle tissue heals after being stressed. A lot of sportsmen and bodybuilders can benefit from this.
3. Muscle Growth
Daily activities put a lot of strain on our muscles, causing them to deteriorate quickly. Gaining weight may worsen this process since you must mix a high level of physical activity with your food intake.
The mass gainer elements in this supplement, like important minerals, aid to reduce the development of lactic acid in our muscles while accelerating the process of muscular tissue regeneration.
Mass Gainers—Cons
1. Caffeine
Creatine and caffeine are two common ingredients in mass gainer protein. While each of these chemicals is healthy for the body when ingested separately, mixing them together and adding them to your diet without the appropriate ratio might have unfavorable side effects including dehydration, muscle loss, poor blood flow, etc.
2. Taste
The chemicals in mass gainer have a pretty bad taste that is impossible to disguise, despite the fact that it might not seem like much of a drawback. Mass gainers do make an effort to cover up this flavor by being mixed with bland liquids like milk and water, but this strategy is only partially effective.
3. Weight Gain
The majority of these supplements have extra chemicals like flavors and sweets, which might negatively affect our body weight. Instead of building up muscular growth, these substances make our bodies store fat, which can lead to a host of unwelcome side effects including obesity and heart disease.
The majority of your calories should come from natural, whole meals, and you should only turn to supplements like mass gainers as a supplement, not meal substitution. To prevent any unintended effects, these supplements must be taken in addition to a healthy, balanced diet.
Tips To Avoid Gaining Weight With Mass Gainers
1. Have a Modest Calorie Surplus
Being aware of how many calories you consume each day is the key way to prevent excessive fat gain when using a mass gainer. You may do this by adding the calories in the daily serving of your mass gainer (250–500 extra calories per day for muscle gain) to your daily calorie allowance. Remember that incorporating a high-calorie mass gainer in your diet will be more challenging the lower your daily calorie objective is.
2. Exercise Regularly
You most certainly want to build greater muscle mass if you’re using a mass gainer. You must perform regular resistance training exercises to give your muscles a cause to grow if you want to add muscular growth. Resistance exercise while taking the mass gainer has the extra benefit of helping you burn more calories, which can help lower your risk of gaining too much fat.
3. Take Smaller Servings of the Mass Gainer
If you are concerned about gaining too much fat while taking a mass gainer, we advise beginning with smaller servings or picking a mass gainer with fewer calories. This will make sure that you aren’t significantly over your maintenance calorie consumption, especially if you aren’t tracking your intake.
Conclusion
Although mass gainer supplements won’t make you fat, they can be a component of a diet that does. It’s crucial to avoid picking the food item with the most calories because more calories aren’t necessarily better. After a certain point, your body can only continue to burn calories as fat. There is a limit to how much muscle your body can grow.
The objective is to purchase the highest-quality mass gainer and generate a modest calorie surplus while consuming lots of protein, vitamins, and minerals if you want to gain a certain amount of weight in a healthy way. Make sure you listen to your body and don’t overwork yourself—the results will come in time if you stay consistent and determined.
