Why Gaining Weight is so Hard

People always talk about the struggle of losing weight. It’s everywhere. On social media influencers will post their weight loss journeys and their tips and tricks. Celebrities and models are featured on every magazines front page, looking perfectly toned. But what about all those who are wanting to build muscle or simply gain some mass?

A lot of us, basic human beings, have an ideal body pictured in our minds. These images can look wildly different from person to person. Either it’s a more muscular lean physique, being skinny, having some well placed curves or something completely different, it often has to do with weight loss.

The majority of people think that they will reach their goals, concerning their “dream body”, by losing weight. Mostly focusing on shredding fat, people dive into a vast assortment of diets to choose from. HIIT training, dieting hacks, the elimination of food groups, calories in vs. calories out. All of these are found on every Pinterest front page, Instagram fitspo accounts and now they even appear within Tik Tok dances. It simply is everywhere!

But while there is an overflow of information regarding losing weight, there is little to no information about gaining weight. And as someone who has tried both, I found to myself that the gaining part is a lot more difficult than the losing part. A lot of the difficulty is caused by the lack of information and the judgement you face in public.

While trying different diets and overexercising have become more and more normal in everyday life, people look very critically at people who are trying to gain weight/muscle. The simple reason behind this is that most people think that gaining is really easy. Just eat some more candy and ice cream, right?

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

But let me tell you why it is not as simple as just eating some more candy bars and stuffing yourself with ice cream in front of the TV.

The reasoning behind this is quite simple. Most people who are their way of gaining mass, are not on the hunt for more body fat in particular, but for a broader, muscular physique. And in order to achieve this kind of goal, you mostly want to gain weight by putting on muscle, not by adding fat. This means that you will have to feed your muscles appropriately, so that they can grow in the best possible way.

Sadly, muscles do not feed well on sugar or saturated fats. This means that sweets, candy, ice cream, etc. are not the optimal choice for growing muscle.

Yes, you will need to increase your caloric intake to be in a surplus. Yes, you can include treats of all sorts into your diet. But sadly, no, you cannot forget to get the majority of your food from more nutritious food groups. Including a healthy assortment of proteins, carbohydrates and fats is key to building up muscle and gaining strength. But these foods also tend to fill you up quite a bit. This is why they are often featured in diets, because they are so saturating.

So if we do some simple math of a person who’s currently living on an average of 2100 calories a day. If this person wants to gain muscle mass and strength, it will need to increase both strength training and caloric intake to withhold the calorie surplus. Starting of it would be enough to increase the daily calories by around 20%. This will lead us to an average of 2520 calories. This sounds attainable, even if it consists out of whole foods with the necessary macronutrient background.

But, like with dieting, you will hit plateaus. This means that your metabolism will have adapted to the new level of activity in regards to the daily caloric intake. The solution is simple. Eat more! So we increase by another 15%, getting us to a total of ca. 2900 calories. This is already a lot of food. Especially for women. But it won’t stop here. After a couple of weeks your metabolism will have adapted , mostly. Some people will maybe have reached their goals by then, but if not, you’ll have to increase again. And this is where the numbers are getting really big.

Being hungry is a lot easier then eating on a full stomach!

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

So while this calculation seems simple enough. It is not. One of the hardest parts is the response of your social surroundings. People are not willing to hear about your struggle to gain weight, because they are all concerned about losing weight. This is why “bulking” can be hard on your soul as well. It is not only about eating, but is is about:

1. Eating right
2. Adjusting after plateauing
3. Training hard
4. Not letting others talk you out of your plans
5. Trusting the process by being consistent

In conclusion, the lack of information about gaining weight properly makes it really hard for people to actually achieve their goals. A lot of people end up only gaining body fat or not gaining at all. It is really hard to overfeed yourself and it is even harder to obtain a caloric surplus for more than a month or so. This is why it is important for me to share my journey and help people finding their way.