Supplements: Weight Gain & Specialist Nutrition

Where there is a requirement for an increase in both protein and carbohydrates, or to plug the hole in a diet lacking in calories, mass gainers are an ideal solution. For muscle growth to occur, an excess of protein must be present in the daily intake to have enough to keep you healthy and have enough left to build new muscle tissue. However, if the rest of the diet is lacking calories from carbohydrates and fats, the body will scavenge protein to use as energy. To ensure this doesn't happen, sufficient carbs have to be consumed to enable your daily activities to be performed, your workouts to be fuelled, and have a little bit left over to help build new tissues. Muscle tissue is protein, but the fuel that muscle contains is carbs and water. Without it the muscles won't function properly and look flat. For people with active lives and strenuous or manual jobs, additonal carbs will be required to make sure you have enough to do that job and be able to re-fuel the muscle fibres. A carb/protein drink is ideal straight after a workout or if you can't stop to eat for some reason (drivers, office workers, out on site etc). For athletes looking to increase body weight, an extra 7700 calories needs to be consumed to add just 1kg and mass gainers are a convenient way to do this.