Gainers are hypercaloric supplements used by those who want to gain weight.
They are a mixture of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and sometimes some vitamins and minerals.
Above all, these are supplements that will help you increase the calories in your diet quickly and easily.
Now, are gainers really the solution?
Gainers and weight gain
This type of supplement is normally used by people who are underweight or very underweight.
Whether they are people with fast metabolisms or simply people who eat little.
In both situations, gainers seem like the ideal solution.
After all, to gain weight you need calories, and gainers are extremely rich in calories.
In practice, this type of supplement will actually help you gain weight.
In other words, it can be said that if your goal is to gain weight, gainers are effective.
Gainers vs Food
To gain weight and muscle mass, you already know that you need calories, and more than you burn.
You need a diet hypercaloric.
This is where gainers will help you lose weight, but food can do the same.
There is no advantage to using a gainer compared to using solid food.
You won't get better results by getting your calories from a gainer, rather than from a good plate of meat and rice.
In fact, the meat dish with rice is capable of bringing you better results.
This is because it is difficult to find a quality supplement of this kind at a decent price.
No, the Serious Mass not a good gainer.
Post-Gainer
Normally, those who use this type of product think about taking it until they reach their desired weight.
Then, as soon as you get the weight you want, you stop taking it.
This is where a big problem lies with this type of supplementation.
Just as they are easy calories to introduce into your diet, they are also very easy to remove.
What's going to happen?
To understand this problem, let's call José.
José and the gainer
José has a fast metabolism, and although he thinks he eats a lot, he actually eats little.
He is 1.80m tall and weighs 60kg, so he decides to join the gym to gain weight.
Since summer is almost here and he wants quick results, he decides to go to a supplements store.
At the supplement store he says he wants to gain weight, and he wants to gain weight quickly, so he leaves there with a gainer under his arm.
José starts using his recent acquisition, and as the label says to drink one shake a day, that's what he does.
Each shake has 1000 kcal, and after a month, he has already gained 5kg, but despite being excited, he still wants to lose more weight.
He therefore decides to buy another bag, because the first one is already finished, and at the end of the second month José no longer weighs 60kg, but 70kg.
José gained 10kg in two months, and now he is satisfied, and so he stops taking the gainer.
José after the gainer
Therefore, José gained 10kg, was satisfied and stopped taking the supplement that made him gain 10kg.
What will happen?
José has two options.
Hypothesis A
Follow the same diet you had with the gainer, but now without your beloved supplement.
With this, José will start to consume 1000 kcal less per day, and with this, he will gradually lose weight.
Eventually, you return to the weight you started with.
José ends up the same.
Hypothesis B
José realizes that it is not the supplement that gives him the weight he wants, but rather the calories he consumes.
Therefore, when he stops using the gainer, he continues to ingest the extra calories that the supplement gave him, but this time, with food.
José maintains his weight, and as he begins to learn more about nutrition and training, he continues to improve.
Conclusion
Gainers are effective weight gain supplements, no doubt.
However, that doesn't mean you should use them.
This type of supplement works simply because it significantly increases your calorie intake.
Not because it has magic ingredients.
As you may have gathered from José's story, if your goal is to gain weight, you need to consume more calories.
Not only do you need to consume more calories, you need to maintain that calorie intake.
A gainer can be useful to start this process, while you don't yet have much appetite or much knowledge about nutrition.
If it makes the difference between getting enough calories or not, it's worth it.
But in the long run, if you want to not only gain weight but keep it off, you're going to need to use food to achieve it.
Either that, or you keep taking gainers forever.
Hello,
I'm a skinny fat person and I can't gain muscle mass. I started training two months ago and was gaining some mass, but suddenly I lost mass and weight too. Before I started training I was on a low-calorie diet to avoid gaining weight and I continued with the same diet even while training. I increased my calorie intake and I also take 20g of Whey when I wake up and 30g after training. The problem with ingesting more calories is that my abdomen gets bigger. I would like some guidance because gaining and losing weight only makes me more flabby even when I train intensely three times a week.
Hi Diana.
Without enough calories you won't be able to gain muscle mass.