Am I a Hard Gainer?

I need help deciding if I am a hard gainer or a easy-hard gainer…i know im not an easy gainer…what characteristics do each have?

This thread’s going nowhere positive.

All aboard.

A hardgainer is a guys who is afraid to eat too much and/or has a horrible workout routine.

Post both of yours…

Your mostlikly neither, stop making excuses. Characteristics include not eating enough and not training hard enough.

Hardgainer status is even more of a bullshit term than endo, ecto, and mesomorphic builds (or how ever they’re spelled).

Genetics will determine how quickly you see results and, at a more elite level, how good you can look when you reach your peak potential.

With a good workout plan and a legitimately substantial diet genetics can only keep you away from a triple bodyweight bench press and 19 inch arms. Anyone who is healthy can still work their way up to 16.5 inch arms, a lean build, and a 500 pound deadlift.

Pride yourself in being too hardcore and too motivated to even question if you’re a hardgainer.

But just for good measure, eat like you’re a hardgainer. Recognize that in order to get results you need to overcompensate by eating better and training smarter and harder than everyone else.

One simple way to find out - eat, lift and rest so you’re 20 pounds heavier in a few months. Then see how much of that 20 pounds is muscle.

[quote]Acebgd12 wrote:
This thread’s going nowhere positive.[/quote]

Neither is this attitude. You’re setting yourself up today for tomorrow’s excuses.

Calling yourself a hard gainer isn’t making an excuse. I would say I am myself a hard gainer, considering I eat around 4000 calories everyday and am taking creatine, as well as having quite a good work out routine for a couple weeks, still only gained about 2 pounds so far.

[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
Calling yourself a hard gainer isn’t making an excuse. I would say I am myself a hard gainer, considering I eat around 4000 calories everyday and am taking creatine, as well as having quite a good work out routine for a couple weeks, still only gained about 2 pounds so far.[/quote]

And I say that because I know of people who eat less than I do but still gain weight a lot quicker than I can.

[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
michaelangelos wrote:
Calling yourself a hard gainer isn’t making an excuse. I would say I am myself a hard gainer, considering I eat around 4000 calories everyday and am taking creatine, as well as having quite a good work out routine for a couple weeks, still only gained about 2 pounds so far.

And I say that because I know of people who eat less than I do but still gain weight a lot quicker than I can.[/quote]

Well, you just have to eat more then. Your metabolism must be sky high if you eat a lot and still don’t gain weight.

And 2 pounds in 2 weeks isn’t bad. Don’t expect to gain 10 pounds in just 2 weeks. Gaining muscle mass takes a lot of patience.

BTW, if you’re not becoming bigger but you’re getting stronger, I wouldn’t consider that as being a hardgainer.

Some sites say that it depends on bone structure :

narrow shoulders+small joints => hard gainers.

large bones,wide,heavy built= easy gainer.

But I don’t know if this theroy is true.

hrmmm a pound a week… Thats horrible. That’s only like 54 pounds of muscle a year…

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
michaelangelos wrote:
michaelangelos wrote:
Calling yourself a hard gainer isn’t making an excuse. I would say I am myself a hard gainer, considering I eat around 4000 calories everyday and am taking creatine, as well as having quite a good work out routine for a couple weeks, still only gained about 2 pounds so far.

And I say that because I know of people who eat less than I do but still gain weight a lot quicker than I can.

Well, you just have to eat more then. Your metabolism must be sky high if you eat a lot and still don’t gain weight.

And 2 pounds in 2 weeks isn’t bad. Don’t expect to gain 10 pounds in just 2 weeks. Gaining muscle mass takes a lot of patience.

BTW, if you’re not becoming bigger but you’re getting stronger, I wouldn’t consider that as being a hardgainer.[/quote]

I know someone who gained 10 pounds of muscle in the first two weeks that they started creatine. And I know someone else who gained 30 pounds of muscle/fat (mainly muscle) in 2 months at 3000 calories a day.

I’m taking creatine and getting 4000 calories a day. I’m not getting much bigger but I am getting stronger, but I do still think I am a “hard gainer”.

[quote]Horazio wrote:
Some sites say that it depends on bone structure :

narrow shoulders+small joints => hard gainers.

large bones,wide,heavy built= easy gainer.

But I don’t know if this theroy is true.[/quote]

I have wide shoulders so I guess that isn’t true.

[quote]Taquito wrote:
hrmmm a pound a week… Thats horrible. That’s only like 54 pounds of muscle a year…[/quote]

It’s funny because I’m trying to gain muscle and fat but I’m only gaining 1 pound a week.

I dont understand what you are trying to say michael. 1 pound a week is great unless it is 100% fat which i doubt because you said that you were getting stronger. And why would you try to gain fat? wouldnt you want to try to gain 100% muscle and just accept the small % of fat that comes along?

Michael. 1 pound a week is no ‘hardgainer’ no matter the dubious 30lbs in 2 months story.

If you kept that up until new year you’d look very different.

You just sound impatient not disadvantaged.

To get 1 lb of only fat means you need to fully digest 3500 calories in excess of what you used - i mean ingest, not swallow then crap out later that same week.

The most common reason for sudden loss/gains in very short time is water, nothing like some glycogen and water to fill out excercised muscles, some diets (notably poor ones) can also cause water retention leading to a soft ‘watery’ look, not exatly a look to shoot for.

I am able to gain weight, it just seems harder for myself to do it than most people which is why I would call myself a “hard gainer”. I take very long to gain fat and/or muscle. I would love to eat 3000 cals a day and gain weight, but if I were to cut out 1000 I would probably start to lose weight even.

michael, you’re basing your hardgainer status on two people. TWO people. Compare yourself to the general population before calling yourself a hardgainer.

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
michael, you’re basing your hardgainer status on two people. TWO people. Compare yourself to the general population before calling yourself a hardgainer.[/quote]

So you’re saying that most people can’t gain weight like they did? I don’t know if they’re normal or I am, I’ve only asked those two people how quickly they gained weight.