Mass Gainers

October 3, 2011 –

In my Triathlon 90-day Training Block, I switched up some of my supplementation. The first change was a switch-up to Casein protein for my night time protein shake. (Click HERE for that article.) The second was a Mass Gainer. One thing that I did not want to do was lose weight. For example, many of the Brick workouts (Bike / Run) I was doing would burn 1500+ calories. As many of you know from reading my blog, I am a hard-gainer so the last thing I wanted to do was lose muscle mass.

What is Mass Gainer? What are it’s benefits?

To gain muscle mass, you need to consume more calories than you burn. Mass Gainers were designed to provide you an easy way to consume protein, complex carbs, and fat. Most also contain other proprietary blends.

I used GNC’s Amplified Mass XXX. I started by taking 2 scoops in the morning which amounted to 375 calories, 25g Protein, 62g Carbs, and 3g Fat. It also contains a significant number of amino acids, including L-Glutamine (5g), as well as a creatine matrix blend (1.5g).

When I kicked up my training, I actually increased my intake and took the full serving size of 4 scoops which doubles the amounts above. I was consuming 4200 – 4500 calories a day with ~55/30/15 C/P/F split.

How Much and When do I take it?

How much you take depends on how much mass you want to gain (and how much money you have). LOL! This stuff is not cheap. I would suggest starting at 2 scoops a day like I did.

You should try and take this post workout. You can take 1-2 times per day. The most important thing is to start slow and see how your body reacts.

My Conclusion

The good news is that I did not lose weight during my 90-day training session. I even gained 2-3 lbs of lean muscle. Was this the mass gainer or was it just the fact of Bringing It everyday! I don’t know.

If you do decide to supplement with a weight gainer, make sure you understand how it fits into your plan. There are a significant number of calories and many mass gainers contain other supplements you may be taking (like L-Glutamine and Creatine).

I am going off the mass gainer as I embark on my next 90 days which is focused on eating whole food plant-based food with very little supplementation. Given the cost of the product and my movement away from massive intakes of whey protein supplements, I will probably call this past 90 days as an my foray into mass gainers. I believe we can achieve the same results by simply eating more good quality whole foods with the correct nutritional composition.

I have included some more details on the label of the GNC brand below. You can see more on this product HERE.

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