Posted on January 15, 2016June 1, 2020 by Prem Tiwari — 257 Comments

Weight Gainers: What Are They And Why Do You Need Them

If you want to gain weight and muscle and thinking about taking a weight gainer supplement. Read these details about weight gainer.

If you’re determined to reach your muscle-building goals, there’s a very good chance that you’ve considered or are considering taking a weight gainer.

Before you purchase these products, read this information. It helps you to invest your money in supplement.
Clearly weight gainers are for those who wants to add weight, and hence are high calorie products with protein content. Weight gainers usually combine a particular quantity of protein with a much higher quantity of carbohydrate and smaller quantities of fat to pack as many calories into a serving as possible.

Means weight gainers are combination of protein + carbohydrate + fat. (vitamins and minerals added are also important. They may also contain some chromium, creatine, glutamine, amino acids and/or other metabolites aiding weight gain.)

They tend to supply at least 500 calories per serving, with as much as 1,000 calories a serving.

Composition of weight gainers

Protein-carbohydrate ratio of weight gainers may range between 1:2 and 1:5. The needs of weight gainer may vary according to the different body types. Those who easily gain fat should take with a ratio of 1:2 or lower and people who wants to gain fat and muscle fast can go with 1:3 or more. But make sure that the carbohydrates are not more than 50% sugar.

Protein source in weight gainers

Mostly people who take weight gainers are ectomorphs, that’s why a blend of proteins, especially with casein and micellar casein, is preferred due to its slow release required to counter the fast metabolism in ectomorphs.

Carbohydrates in weight gainers

Weight gainers are rich in carbohydrates which is the key of weight gain. but it’s important to know what kind of carbohydrate it have.

In weight gainers, carbohydrate could be a combination of high-glycemic sugars and low glycemic starches and glucose polymers providing sugars, complex carbohydrates and dietary fibre.

A good weight gainer is high in ‘Total Carbohydrates’, low in ‘sugars’ and supplies a small-to-moderate quantity of ‘Dietary fibre’ as given on the label.

Fat source in weight gainers

Fats are presents in smaller quantities from various sources such as certain oils. Most products provide 5-10 gm of fat. Fat is not too much of a problem as long as less than half of it is of the saturated variety. The ‘saturated fat’, ‘trans fat’ and ‘cholesterol’ content specified on the label should be low.

Some high-quality weight gainers may specifically add beneficial fats such as omega-3-fatty acids.

Here I want to say again that weight gainers are best used by strict ectomorphs, who have trouble gaining muscle and size, regardless of how much they eat. If you are an ectomorph and not using pure protein supplements and high-glycemic carbohydrates as post workout, you can use weight gainers in a post workout meal.