Welcome Steemit Friends!

Today I will be sharing with you how I gained 13 pounds of muscle in 4 months. The first photo was taken on January 22nd, and the photos on the left were taken on May 20th. I am a little late to posting this because I was contemplating wether or not this post will be good or not; although I came to the conclusion that I can help a lot of people who are struggling to gain weight like how I was for my entire life.

Before and After:
In the photos on the left I only weighed 113 pounds, and in the photos on the right I weigh 126 pounds.

Side View:

Back View:

You can really see the difference in the back photo the most!

Throughout all of my years I have always been underweight and finally in my life I am at a normal BMI. Here is how I accomplished this and how you can as well.

1)Make Sure You Are Eating Enough Food By Counting Your Calories
Most people who have a problem gaining weight simply do not eat enough calories. One simple equation to gain weight is to Multiply Your Initial Weight by 20. This number is how much calories you need to be eating everyday. Lets use an example:

If I weigh 113 pounds, I need to multiply 113 by 20. So, I will need to eat 2,260 calories a day.
113 x 20 = 2,260 Calories.

One way to keep track of how much you are eating is by a calories counter. The calorie counter I personally use is called the MyFitnessPal which can be found on the Apple App Store. I only have the free version, but you can pay for the premium option as well.

Getting used to counting calories can be a daunting task in the beginning, but overtime it will get easier. You will also get to the point where you do not really need to count your calories because you already know how much calories are in your meals from just practice and experience!

2)Weigh Yourself Every Week: On The Same Day At The Same Time
This is so you can get the most accurate weight of yourself. I would weigh myself at 12pm every Monday. You can also track your weight progress through the My Fitness Pal App as well! This feature helped me out a lot and shows you how much progress you made since you first started the journey!

Since you are going to gain weight every week, you have to adjust your calorie intake with your weight gain as well.

3)Drink A Gallon Of Water Everyday
All of you probably know water is the most important nutrient on this planet. Although few people do not know how important water is to gain muscle. A gallon a day will give your body the most optimal levels of water to gain weight/muscle. Strength training causes water loss through sweating and drinking enough water will prevent dehydration. Also, water is needed to recover from strength training workouts. If you do not drink enough water you will limit your gains. Water also regulates your bodies temperatures, prevents kidney stones, lubricates joints and produces healthy skin.

4)Eat The Highest Quality Foods:
Not all foods are created equal. You will want to put the best quality foods into your body as much as possible. This will help you feel better and have an overall stronger/healthier body. Which person do you think will perform better and feel better? Person A: who eats pizza, french fries and fast food? Or Person B: who eats organic grass-fed meats, organic brown rice and potatoes, coconut oil and leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach? The answer should be a no brainer.

Your foods should consist of any type of organic vegetable you love. Although, the bulk of your meals should consist of starches such as Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes and Brown Rice.

Your protein sources should ideally be organic grass-fed beef, chicken and eggs. Also, you can have a protein shake as well. The protein that I personally use is SunWarrior Plant Based Protein. This protein is made up of only plant based proteins such as hemp, pea and goji berries. This is one of the highest quality proteins that I found because it has no synthetic fillers and it is easily absorbable by your body. It is also organic and GMO free.

Healthy fat sources could be obtained from coconut oils, organic grass-fed ghee, and grass-fed butters such as KerryGold Butter. The breakfast that I would eat every morning is called my Power Pudding. This delicious recipe contained 6 raw egg yolk, 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 tablespoon of Ghee, 1 tablespoon of KerryGold Butter, a little bit of pink himalayan salt, half a scoop of Sun Warrior Protein Powder and 6 tablespoons of SurThrival Colostrum. This meal alone was 900 calories to start my day off! Literally just from my breakfast meal I was almost half way done with my calorie intake for the day! Here is the video of where I learned how to make it.

5)DO NOT EAT ANY GLUTEN
Why?
Because when you eat barley, rye, oats, spelt and mainly WHEAT, it cakes along the inner lines of your intestines and make it hard for your body to absorb nutrients. Here is a little video that I watched when I started my journey and I invite you to watch this video as well.

I did not eat any type of gluten on my weight gaining journey. And at least 1,000 of my calories went into potatoes, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. Like what Elliot said in the video, somehow these types of foods will just magically make the body want to gain weight so easily.

6)Work Out Intensely
If you are not working out hard, your body will not turn the calories that you are eating into muscle. This is crucial, because don't you will want to build muscle and not just gain fat, right?

Personally I trained with just calisthenics(body weight) workouts, because I just love to work out this way. Although, you can work out with weights if thats what you prefer as long as you work out intensely. I would also train different muscle groups on different days of the week. The majority of the time I would work out twice a day. Some days I would even do a full body stretch routine at night so my muscles will not be as tight when I wake up.

Monday I would train back and biceps(pullups). Tuesday I would train abs(leg raises). Wednesday I would train chest and triceps(pushups). Thursdays I would train legs(Squats). Then on Fridays I would train shoulders(handstand pushups), and Saturdays I would train my back(bridges). I would invite you to work out this way as well, training different muscle groups every day, once a week.

I followed the routine of the Big 10 Workout in the book: Convict Conditionig. This books teaches you how you progress through body weight training easily and safely; eventually working your way up to one arm pull-ups, one arm push-ups and one legged squats. I would usually do this routine in the morning or middle of the day.

Then for my second workout routine, I would train again at night or sometimes right after my Convict Conditioning routine. The second workout was from the Then X App. I love the daily workout routines that this app delivers. You can adjust the difficulties as well to match your fitness level. This app also has a introduction to calisthenics (which I totally recommend), a beginner calisthenics program, intermediate calisthenics program, advanced calisthenic program and a weighted calisthenic program.

Personally I worked out like a maniac because I could keep up with it. It might not be the same for you. Workout as much or as little as you want to. I do not want to see any one out there crash and burn from over exerting yourself.

7)Listen To Your Body
If something does not feel right then do not do it. You know what your body wants and doesn't want. You do not need anyone else to tell you that. If you can't work out that day because you are too sore, then chill out and rest till you can work out again to your maximum effort.

8)Stay Consistent And Don't Give Up
This might be the most important advice that I can give to you. You have to consistently put in work outs, consistently eat enough calories and consistently eat the most optimal foods. Some weeks you will put on a good 2 to 4 pounds! Then the next week you might lose 1 or 2 pounds. Do not get discouraged if this happens. Its part of the process and its normal. Sometimes you have to take 1 step back so you can take 2 steps forward. Also, if this happens, it could be a sign you need to adjust your program. Either you have to eat more calories that week or work a little bit harder that week as well.

9)Experiment
What might have worked for me and my body might not work for you. All of our bodies are different although these are the most important tips that helped me drastically on my path to weight gain and muscle growth.

I challenge you to experiment with the advice given to you in this article for 30 days. Lets see how far you can get! I am positive that all of you underweight/hardgainers will improve your results. Maybe we can even create a thread of before and after pics!

I know this article has a lot of information and can be overwhelming if you are just starting out. Although I believe all of these tips gave me the results that I achieved. Overtime everything will become easier and easier. Trust me :)

Thank you for taking your time to read this article. Please comment if you have any questions, suggestions about this article and/or future articles. I look forward to seeing your results! Also, share to anyone in your life who is struggling from gaining weight. I know personally for me being underweight made me very self conscious and I would like to help everyone out there who is going through the same thing.