Now if you’re like most guys then you want to gain muscle not fat. This is where eating healthy, doing the right exercises, eating the right foods at the right time and allowing your body to recover from workouts come into play.

Frankly there are a lot of things you can do to build muscle but none of those will do you any good if you aren’t eating enough calories each day. How many calories do you need each day? Well that answer is different for everybody and really different for each day. Somedays you burn more calories than others. This makes it really hard to pinpoint a specific number to aim for.

Here is a fairly easy way to find out roughly how many calories you need to start gaining weight. First, weigh yourself and write it down. Now for the next 3 days keep track of the calories that you eat and weigh yourself again at the end of those 3 days. If you maintained your weight then you can take the average of the 3 days and this is an estimate of how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. Now to gain weight you simply need to add more calories. One pound in roughly equal to 3500 calories so if you wanted to gain 1 pound a week then you would need to add 500 calories to the previous number.

If for some reason you add 500 calories for seven days and still don’t gain weight then simply add another 250 calories each day for the next seven days. Do this until you start gaining weight. I recommend aiming for 1-2 pounds of weight gain each week. Anything more than this and your gains will be more in the form of fat than muscle. Anything less than 1-2 pounds and you will probably loose the motivation to stick with it.

If you are extremely underweight and have a strong desire to put on a lot of weight fast without concern of adding body fat then GOMAD may be a good idea for you. You will gain weight if you do GOMAD properly however a fair amount of that weight will be fat.

If you are looking to gain weight but want to minimize how much fat you put on this is probably not the diet for you. You will want to stick with the diet I outline in my ebook.

How do you do GOMAD properly? Well as I said above you need to drink a gallon of whole milk everyday. This isn’t something that will work if you don’t do it consistently. You may not be able to do this the very first day you start the diet so I would recomend starting with a half gallon the first day, 3/4 of a gallon the second and a full gallon the 3 third and remaining days. It does need to be whole milk because of the saturated fat that whole milk has. This will help in increasing testosterone levels which in turn will help you gain muscle. It also has more calories than other milk which is one of the main points of GOMAD.

The other key is to be sure to continue eating when you’re on this diet. The milk needs to be in addition to your normal foods not a replacement of those foods. Eating a regular amount of food plus drinking a gallon of whole milk gives you the added calories and protein required to gain weight.

If you do try this diet I strongly recomend that you also use a product called Lactaid to take along with all that milk. Lactaid allows you to digest dairy products easier and therefore reduces the bloating, gas or cramping that might otherwise come with drinking all that milk.

I also recommend trying this diet for 2 weeks then taking a week off. During your week off assess your progress and decide whether or not you want to continue for another 1-2 weeks. If you do this diet for more than two weeks you may start to have excesive fat gain and start to experience stomach aches.

I will be sure to provide more details about this diet as well as my own personal results in my ebook (available in February 2012)

Not eating enough

It may seem obvious but the fact is most guys who are trying to gain weight don’t eat enough calories a day. Eat more calories than you burn each day and you will gain weight. This requires consistency. If you don’t eat more calories than you burn each day, your body will not respond but if you eat more calories than you burn every single day your body will have no choice but to put on pounds.

 Not getting enough protein

Protein is necessary to build muscle. You need around 1 -1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight each and every day. This needs to be spread out through out the day. Try getting around 30 grams every 2-3 hours.

 Not eating the right foods

 Just because you are a hardgainer doesn’t mean you should eat anything and everything. Eating junk food such as chips and candy is worthless for building muscle. These type of foods have little to no nutritional value and will fill you up and keep you from eating good, high quality foods that you need build muscle.

 Not tracking calorie and protein intake

I know this one is difficult for most guys but it really is important, especially if you’ve never done it before. The fact is it’s impossible to know how much protein or how many calories you’ve had if you aren’t tracking them. You can try and guess but chances are you will be way off. I recommend you get a small notebook that you can use to write down what you eat throughout the day. Carry it with you in your pocket everywhere you go. After a few days you will have a nice list of foods that you can reference each day which makes the whole process easier.

 Doing too much cardio

Cardio is great but too much will keep you from achieving your weight gain goals simply because you will burn too many calories. (see my previous article: How Cardio Affects Weight Gain)

 Spending too many hours working out

Some guys still think that the longer they work out the more they will achieve. While I admire these guys’ hard work and determination that fact is unless you’re using illegal products then you will not benefit from anymore than 1 hour in the gym 3-5 times a week.  Anymore than 1 hour in the gym and you will start to hurt your gains. 45 minutes is ideal.

The truth is though that as long as squats are done correctly they are great! No other single exercise will give you the same results that squats will. Squatting actually causes your body to produce more testosterone which in turn helps you build more muscle. You also use your upper body when you squat much more than most people realize. Not only does is work your core muscles to support the weight but you also work your arms and back. As you increase the weight on your squats your upper body will adapt to help support the extra weight.

Bottom line if you’re not doing squats you need to start. You must use proper form or you can injure yourself. I recommend starting off very light to work on technique then start adding weight very very slowly, but steadily. Start out by doing five sets of five to six repetitions. (after you have done two warm up sets) Don’t over do it to start with. Remember this is about consistency so you don’t want to can an injury or make yourself so sore that you can’t work out for several weeks.

Watch this video to see a demonstration of proper technique:

Some people think that abs are a special muscle and therefore should be worked out every day or nearly every day. This is true. Abs are like any other muscle. They need time to recover. You shouldn’t work them out more than two or three times per week and certainly not more than one day in a row.

When is the last time you rode a bike? If you can’t remember then it’s been to long! Biking is immensly beneficial for cardio fitness and weights loss. It’s also much more enjoyable than running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike in the gym. Re-discover the fun of biking as you burn up those calories and get your heart pumping!

If you’re not familiar with HIIT training (High Intensity Interval Training) you should consider it tryng it out. The basic idea is to go all out for thirty seconds or so then rest for thirty seconds when doing cardio (the times can be adjusted depending on your training level). This can be done while running or biking and more. This method is much more effective than just doing cardio at a steady rate. This type of training also requires less time.

It’s great to have specific fitness goals. You shouldn’t however obsess over this goal. Fitness should really be thought of as a life long habit rather than just trying to reach a certain goal. Your fitness plan should be something that you enjoy so that you can continue it for a long time. Fitness should always be a part of life even after we meet our goals.

In order to get the most out of your fitness routine be sure to feed your muscles protein and carbohydrates shortly after working out. This is when they are most receptive to the vitamins a nutrients that they need to grow. This will also help minimize soreness. You should get around 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of your workout.

If you’d like to build a muscular body, you must do it via weight lifting. It’s as fundamental as that. Cardiovascular exercises are not going to build muscle bulk in fact they may prevent it, although they are good for overall fitness and reducing bodyfat. (click here to read my article on Cardio’s affect on building muscle.) To build visible muscles, you’ll want to do resistance exercises with free weights, not the fancy exercise machines you find in all gyms.

Weightlifting should be a large part of any exercise program. Weightlifting will help build muscle mass and muscle burns more calories then fat, so slimming down can be a simpler goal to accomplish if you incorporate weightlifting. Lifting weights can also help you develop your strength and will increase your metabolism.

For anyone who takes fitness seriously, consuming a good amount of protein will aid your fitness efforts greatly. You should be aiming for 1-1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight. Protein causes you to feel full and above all, will assist you to build muscle and enable you work out longer without tiring out. Chicken, red meat, pork, fish, and beans are great foods that contain a lot of protein and should be a part of your daily diet.

When picking a training routine, don’t fall for gimmicks that say you’ll be able to slim down or build muscle while not having to work hard. Go with a training regimen that fits well with your schedule and is difficult enough to challenge you without bringing about injury. If your primary goals are to build muscle and add weight to your frame read this.

When attempting to gain weight however, cardio may be stopping you from achieving  your goals. All forms of cardiovascular exercises burn calories. When you are trying to bulk up you need to make sure you are taking in more calories than you are burning. (Be sure to read the diet page for more info on this.) This can be hard if you are spending much time on the treadmill.

Running burns around 500-1000 calories per hour depending on how much you weigh and how fast you run. Using a stationary bike you could burn 300-1100 calories. Walking will burn between 200-700.

If you are a “hardgainer” and are going through the 12 week training program outlined in my ebook I recommend you either stop your cardio temporarily or at least keeping it to a bare minimum. As soon as you reach your goal weight then you can pick up your cardio training again. If you do choose to continue doing cardio during Do one to two cardio sessions per week.

your bulking phase follow these strategies:

Keep your cardio sessions to 20 minutes or less

Do one to two cardio sessions a week.

Avoid overly intense sessions, aim for low or moderate indensity.

Eat an extra 250-500 calories everyday that you do cardio.

Take in calories both before, during and after cardio.

As I mentioned before cardio provides several benefits so it shouldn’t be stopped for good. In fact if you always focus on bulking up and never do cardio it can hurt your gains. It is important to have a strong and healthy heart so that it can pump the necessary nutrients to your muscles allowing them to grow.