Hardgainer example eating plan for 1 day
Jun 14, 2024 mindpumpFor hardgainers, it can be hard to find enough food to get in throughout the day. Even harder is finding what foods to eat to make sure you get enough calories in. I’ll go over a sample day of eating for a hardgainer.
What I want you to keep in mind is if you are a hardgainer, one of the factors to consider is the need for a lot of calories. The other factor is the variable that you either won’t have the appetite to eat that many calories, or it’s just SO many calories it’s impossible to do through all whole food sources.
Breakfast
High Calorie Smoothie: I recommend starting with a smoothie. Most people aren’t that hungry first thing in the morning, but if calories are what you need to get in, the more you get ahead of it, the better. In this shake don’t just throw in random calorie dense stuff. We still have macros we want to hit. It would be good to include whey protein isolate and Greek yogurt for high quality protein sources. For fats, you could do chia seeds, nut butters, and avocados. For carbohydrates, you can include any frozen fruit you enjoy, as well as oats.
Depending on how much of each you use, this can easily become an 800-1,000 calorie shake to start your day ahead of the game.
Snack
Nuts and seeds are a very nutrient and calorie dense food source that will allow you to get calories in without too much volume. It’s always good to have a variety of nuts around that you enjoy, to snack on whenever you get a little bit of hunger. They also have a bit of protein in them. You can also include a shake. Or, if you prefer a whole food, having yogurt is good, too.
Lunch
With all of our meals, we want to make sure there is a protein source so we can hit our 1 gram per pound of ideal weight. Consider having a fattier cut of meat or ground beef for additional calories instead of a lean chicken breast. You could pair that with white rice cooked in bone broth. If you still need more calories, you can add avocado on the side.
Snack
Here I would mimic the previous snack, but do the opposite. So, if you did yogurt as your first snack you can do a whey shake here instead for variety. Throw in some fruit and drizzle honey on top for extra calories. You can even throw the mixed nuts onto the yogurt.
Dinner
Similar to lunch, consider including a fattier cut of meat, ribs, or fatty fish for your protein. You can pair that with olive oil drizzled on vegetables, potatoes, rice, or any carb source you find easy to consume. On occasion, you could do pasta with a sauce if you are really behind on calories, and need a smaller portion with big calories, although I try to stick to whole foods and not processed ones.
Snack
If you are still behind on calories you can use this last snack as a way to catch up. Some people like to have cottage cheese with fruit on top. You could also do a calorie dense shake like you did at breakfast, although if it is close to bed time, I’d try not to make it AS calorie dense so that you can get higher quality sleep. Choosing easy to digest sources, like milk (if you can handle it) and bananas are good options. This is why that morning routine is so crucial. The more calories you get in earlier in the day, the less you are playing catch up at night when your body should be priming itself for digestion and sleep quality.
