Do weight gainer shakes really work?
If you’re planning on getting into better shape and putting on some muscle mass, then you’ve probably been looking into different types of protein shakes.
And one thing you’ll notice is that there are actually two different types of shakes that are commonly used to help people bulk up and put on weight.
Protein shakes and weight gainer shakes.
Now, it’s really important to understand that there’s actually a crucial difference between these two different types of shakes.
Protein shakes are specifically designed with more protein and fewer carbohydrates. They’re specifically designed to fuel up your muscles to help you add lean muscle mass without adding overall fat to the rest of your body.
Weight gainer shakes and mass gainer formulas, however, are slightly different from protein shakes.
Mass gainer or weight gainer formulas tend to contain fewer servings of protein, and tend to contain more carbohydrates and fats.
In other words, they’re literally designed to help you create a calorie surplus in your diet, to help you push over that calorie deficit level to start putting on more bodyweight overall.
Now, weight gainer formulas and weight gainer shakes can be effective—especially if you’re super skinny and looking to put on some extra body weight in conjunction with a workout plan.
However, it’s really important to understand that weight gainer shakes don’t necessarily lead to increased muscle mass—unless you’re actually working out really hard and really making sure to dial in your fitness macros with a focused fitness plan.
Weight gainer shakes are far more effective at helping you to gain weight than protein shakes, but protein shakes are far more effective at helping you to actually build lean muscle mass.
You’ll tend to gain more weight with weight gainers, but you’ll tend to build more lean muscle mass with protein shakes.
Some people actually make the mistake of using a weight gainer instead of a protein shake when what they actually want to do is focus on lean muscle mass.
People who do this may end up gaining extra fat in other places on their body (like their hips, thighs, or stomach) instead of lean muscle mass in their key muscular areas.
This can obviously be problematic, and it can lead to a fitness situation where you may have to backtrack and lose that fat in order to start gaining lean muscle mass to achieve the body you want.
Weight gainers can be useful though, especially if you need to gain a bit of weight to help meet your fitness goals, and if you’re not necessarily concerned with that weight being made up by extra muscle mass.
It’s just really important to understand your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish.
If your goal is to put on more lean muscle and to bulk up, you’ll probably want to stick more with products like creatine shakes or protein shakes.
However, if you’re not quite as concerned with lean muscle mass, and you just want to thicken up a little bit with some extra body weight overall, then weight gainers can be an awesome addition to your fitness plan and diet to help you do that.
This is especially true if you find it difficult to eat enough food to create a hypercaloric environment within your body.
For example, if you tend to eat a very healthy whole food diet, you may struggle to bring in enough calories to tip the scales over into weight gain territory.
And this is what weight gainers are really good at—helping you to just tip those scales to get more calories into your body at a faster pace for a limited amount of time while you gain that extra weight that you want to gain.
