Custom Weight Gain Meal Plan

If your primary goal is gaining weight, then you need to up your calorie intake and push hard in the gym. But it’s not as simple as eating junk food and lifting heavy because you want to build muscle and not just get fat.

For that reason, you need a personalized weight gain meal plan that shows you exactly what to eat for healthy weight gain without excess fat storage. And I’m going to give you a detailed plan to pack on pounds.

All you have to do is meal prep and eat, it’s that easy. The best part is, that you don’t need any expensive supplements or dangerous drugs. All you need is the right fuel and consistent hard work. It’s so simple even skinny people will gain weight!

Benefits Of A Weight Gain Meal Plan

What Is a Weight Gain Meal Plan?

A weight gain meal plan is a diet and workout program where you prioritize increasing scale weight. The main idea is to add as much weight as possible with the understanding that your body fat will go up as well.

However, you can prevent unwanted or excessive fat gain by adhering to some simple principles, which I’ll layout in a below.

With this strategy, you align your nutrition and training to make the most gains possible. So if you’re looking for a dramatic before and after picture, this is the plan for you!

Weight Gain Meal Plan Basics

Now that you know what the plan is, let’s get into how to do it. This section explains a four-pronged nutrition strategy that helps you pack on pounds efficiently.

1. Proper Calorie Surplus

First and foremost, you must be in a calorie surplus to gain weight. Meaning you’re eating more calories than you burn. It’s a simple concept, but you’d be surprised by how many people miss it!

And you might be even more surprised by how much you actually have to eat to gain weight. Still, you can’t go stuffing your face with as much food as possible, or you will get fat.

So the first thing I do is figure out how many calories you burn from your metabolism, daily activities, and exercise. The calories you burn are called your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

From there, we can find the perfect calorie intake where you maximize weight gain without storing too much fat. And, for most people, the magic number of calories is 15-25% more than you burn.

2. Nutrient Dense Foods

The second thing that helps you gain weight is food choices. And the best way to ensure you hit your calorie target is by eating nutrient-dense foods.

In other words, high-calorie foods with plenty of vitamins and minerals per serving. Nutritious foods make the best fuel for your workouts and your recovery.

In terms of calories per gram, healthy fats take the crown. These include foods like olive oil, nut butter, and avocado. But you’ll also want to include lean meat and starches.

3. High Protein and Carbs

Everyone knows you need to eat protein to gain weight and muscle mass. But the typical advice of eating 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is a huge oversimplification.

For example, an overweight person would be eating too much protein with that rule. At the same time, a skinny hard gainer wouldn’t be eating enough protein!

In contrast, the weight gain meal plan system calculates your calorie intake first based on your lean mass (not total body weight). Then gives you a protein target based on a percentage of calories.

Next, let’s talk about your carb intake. A high-carb diet is absolutely beneficial for pushing hard in the gym and maximizing weight gain.

However, you also don’t need to be inhaling carbs like an ultramarathon runner because the excess will get stored as fat!

Again, my system calculates your energy expenditure first, then assigns your carb intake as a percentage of your calories. That way, you get enough carbs to fuel your training without spilling over!

In addition, your carb intake is matched to your activity level. So you get more carbs on days you workout and less on days you don’t – a very conservative version of carb cycling.

4. Meal Timing

The final piece of the nutrition puzzle is when you eat your meals. And just as important is what you eat for those meals in terms of foods and macros.

As illustrated in the chart below, eating (especially carbs) promotes anabolism, leading to weight gain. While fasting or eating low carbs is more catabolic, leading to weight loss.

With this in mind, we can use strategic meal timing and food choices to build up your body throughout the day.

This is particularly true in the time immediately following your intense workouts – also known as the anabolic window. And yes, that is a real thing!

Weekly Weight Gain Meal Plan Examples

At this point, you might be feeling a little information overload. So it’s easiest to jump into some examples showing you real-life weight gain meal plan examples.

3 Day Weight Gain Meal Plan

For our first example, let’s say Steve works out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That means his rest days are Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

In that case, his weekly weight gain meal plan would look like this:

In the chart above, the color-coding represents the number of calories and carbs. The darker the shade of green, the higher the calories and carbs.

Remember, you get more carbs on days you workout compared to days you rest.

5 Day Weight Gain Meal Plan

In this next example, let’s say Sarah works out Monday through Friday and takes the weekends off. Her weekly weight gain meal plan would be as follows:

Of course, your actual schedule could differ depending on how many days per week you choose to exercise and what days you work out. But the examples above should give you a good idea of the overall concept.

Daily Weight Gain Meal Plan Schedule

Another aspect of a weight gain meal plan is what (and when) you eat to hit your daily macros. So I will show you a typical medium carb rest day and high carb workout day.

Medium Carb Rest Day

First, let’s look at a medium-carb day. Medium days are when you don’t do any intense exercise like weightlifting. However, low-intensity activities like yoga or light aerobic exercise are fine.

On rest days, you need fewer carbs since you aren’t burning as much energy. As you can see below, each meal consists of protein and fat with lower carbs.

I’ve also included three example recipe options for each meal to give an idea of what kinds of foods you could eat. Most of the meals are healthy whole foods with an occasional protein shake.

With the meal plans I provide, you get six recipes options for each meal so you can choose the foods you like best. And you get plenty of variety so the meal plan doesn’t get dull.

High Carb Workout Day

Next, let’s go through a high day. That is a typical workout day where you do resistance training or moderate to high-intensity exercise.

You should get most of your carbs and calories around the time you work out. Again, you’re giving your body energy when it needs it.

In the example below, Sarah works out in the morning. And most of her daily carbs and calories are in the meals before and within a few hours after training.

In this meal plan, “Lunch 1” and “Lunch 2” represent two mid-day meals with the same calories and macros. You could combine these into one large meal or have them a couple of hours apart, depending on your appetite and schedule.

With these samples, you should know how to eat each day. But your body and situation are probably different than the examples.

Therefore, your weight gain meal plan will differ based on your body type, activity level, and schedule. That’s where I can help!

Create Your Own Weight Gain Meal Plan

Fill out the simple questionnaire below, and you can try your custom weight gain meal plan free for 14 days. Your free trial includes personalized calories, macros, and a meal planner to help you reach your fitness goals.

Actual Weight Gain Meal Plan Results

I understand if you’re not ready to pull the trigger on a paid plan just yet! Because you’re right about being cautious with all the misinformation out there.

But results speak louder than words. So let me show you a real-world outcome of using this system.

Below is my client Dylan’s progress after using his custom weight gain meal plan for a few months. As you can see, he didn’t skip leg day and achieved some tremendous muscle growth!

And here’s another example of what’s possible in just a matter of weeks when you follow a structured plan. In this case, I was able to add 20 lbs of solid mass without gaining an excessive amount of fat.

Weight Gain Meal Plan for Females

Finally, I should point out that these meal plans are not just for men. And the weight gain principles work whether you’re a 20-something bodybuilder or a 40-plus soccer mom.

In fact, most of my clients are women! And they have gotten results as good as the men (if not better).

Here is what some of my female clients are saying:

About Me

Of course, I don’t expect you to follow my plan without knowing who I am. My name is Jeremy Fox. I’m an NASM-Certified Nutrition Coach/Personal Trainer, fitness competitor, engineer, and the founder of Nutritioneering.

Click below to learn more about my background and personal fitness journey.

Start Your Fitness Journey

If you’re ready to embark on your fitness journey and transform your body, you can start right now! Click below to sign up and begin your free trial – it only takes a few minutes.