Increasingly popular in the sports nutrition supplement market, gainers or "weight gainers" have made their way into the muscle world. Indeed, many people are looking to lose weight, but some hope on the contrary to gain muscle mass and this is where these calorie-rich products have their interest.
But what are they really? Can anyone use them? And above all, what is a good mass gainer? Here are four points on how to choose the most suitable mass gainer for your needs. A food supplement based on proteins very particular!
What is a mass gainer?
As the name suggests, mass gainers or weight gainers are used to gain weight, in other words: to gain mass. And to gain mass, the formula is simple: you need effective and adapted bodybuilding training, and a balanced nutritional programme with a calorie intake higher than your needs. Indeed, the body allows muscle growth only if the diet is sufficiently rich in calories, proteins and carbohydrates.
The latter two are involved in the process of muscle protein synthesis. This is why gainers generally consist of 25-30% protein and a large majority of carbohydrates. Like standard whey, mass gainers mix in water and contain protein, but they are quite different products.
Let's take a closer look at the ingredients that make up this classic sports nutrition product:
- Proteins: Often from animal sources (whey protein, casein, etc. ), there are also vegetable protein-based gainers. Proteins are the main constituents of muscles, so it is essential to consume enough of them to guarantee muscle development. This is why the richer the product is in proteins, the more the objective will be to gain "dry" muscle.
- Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are present only to provide the energy missing from the diet and necessary for muscle growth. It is important to avoid gainers that contain only fast sugars because of the potentially harmful effect on health linked to the insulin peaks that this causes. The ideal is therefore a mixture of different complex and simple carbohydrates. These include maltodextrin, dextrose and instant oats.
- Other components: they can be enriched with other components such as amino acids, vitamins or minerals to stimulate recovery or performance.
- The limiting factor for people who fail to gain muscle mass is often a lack of energy in the diet due to a lack of appetite, time or bad habits.
Who should eat them?
Generally speaking, all people who do not manage to gain weight because they do not manage to have a diet rich enough in calories. Before using this type of product it is important to establish a food diary, to know your needs and bad habits.
This allows you to calculate your protein and calorie deficiency to see if you can adapt your diet to reach your goals, or if you need this food supplement. Because even with a healthy and balanced diet, it is not always easy to reach the recommendations.
Indeed, some people find it difficult to eat 3 (or more) meals a day because it is not always easy to digest. A shaker of powder with water between two meals therefore provides protein-rich snacks that are easy to digest and increase the daily calorie intake.
It is important to consume these food supplements in a well-considered way, having calculated your needs thanks to the food diary and the nutritional plan, because an excessive consumption risks making you store fat mass.
To gain muscle mass, a slight caloric excess is necessary. On the other hand, if your intake is too high in calories you risk storing fat mass in a much higher proportion than the muscle mass you have gained.
Although the weight on your scale is increasing, it is not quality. It will therefore be all the more complicated when you wish to do a dry run to lose the excess fat accumulated 1
Which mass gainer is best for me?
If your metabolism is very fast and you are unable to gain weight, you are advised to choose a high calorie mass gainer, rich in complex and simple carbohydrates.
These can exceed 1000Kcal per dose! They are therefore not recommended for anyone who wants to build muscle mass as dry as possible and who has a tendency to store fat mass easily. It is necessary to go for what can be called a "lean gainer".
That is to say, gainers rich in protein, with a proportion greater than or equal to that of carbohydrates. This type of "lean" product is an intermediary between protein powders (whey protein type) and the classic high-calorie gainers.
When should I take it?
First of all, you need to determine how many doses you need thanks to the food plan you have established beforehand. Then, the first shaker you should consume will be just after your training if you do not have a meal within two hours after your workout.
In fact it has been shown that combining carbohydrates with amino acids after a workout increases muscle protein synthesis and therefore in other words, anabolism 2. If, however, you have a full meal immediately after your session, it is preferable to consume your gainer as a snack in the morning or afternoon (or both if necessary).
Because it is obvious that consuming this very heavy shaker before a meal may spoil your appetite.
Our advice
Once again, it is essential to establish your food plan in order to know your needs and thus the proportion of nutrients that must be provided by the supplementation. If your objectives are to gain weight very quickly, or if you do not manage to gain weight, it will be necessary to choose a high calorie gainer by referring to the nutritional values given by the labelling of the product.
If, on the contrary, you wish to achieve a more controlled weight gain or if you tend to put on weight easily, you should choose a gainer with a reasonable calorie intake, mainly from proteins.
Finally, if you do not find the gainer that corresponds exactly to your expectations, it is always possible to make it yourself. Indeed, by combining your protein powder with instant oats or maltodextrin you will obtain a gainer that you can dose according to the desired nutritional values.
Bibliographie
Ina Garthe, Truls Raastad, Per Egil Refsnes & Jorunn Sundgot-Borgen.
Effect of nutritional intervention on body composition and performance
in elite athletes, European Journal of Sport Science 2013
2. Rasmussen
BB, Tipton KD, Miller SL, Wolf SE, Wolfe RR. An oral essential amino
acid-carbo hydrate supplement enhances muscle protein anabolism after
resistance exercise. J Appl Physiol 2
