Weight Gain Diet Without The Weight Training

...My question is: If I begin a weight gain diet, what will happen if I do not participate in any bodybuilding? Will i still gain weight? How will this effect my body? Are their simple exercises that can replace the bodybuilding aspect, pushups sit ups etc.? (from Super Skinny Darren)

When you consistently give the body a surplus of calories (calories in excess of its energy demands) it uses these calories to build tissue -- fat tissue or muscle tissue. The ratio of muscle to fat tissue you end up with is determined by genetics and what you signal to the body that you need to survive.

You can't change your genetics but you can change what your body perceives as its survival needs. This is the reason for weight training on a weight gain program. You are giving the body a need to build muscle tissue -- you are triggering the body's survival mechanism, telling it you require more strength in order to be able to thrive.

When you train in a way that demonstrates to the body a need to increase muscle mass, the body responds by increasing the production of hormones necessary for muscle building. These hormones (i.e. testosterone) cause the body to dedicate a greater amount of the surplus calories you are providing it through your weight gain diet to muscle building as opposed to fat building.

If you skip the training and fail to provide the body a reason to add and maintain muscle tissue, you will get fat tissue beyond what your genetic programming has predetermined is a reasonable amount of muscle. If given the choice, the body will opt to store energy in fat tissue rather than to add lean muscle tissue. Fat is much less troublesome to maintain.

Caution: Many skinny people approach weight gain with the idea that they really don't care what kind of weight they gain, they just want to add pounds, fat is fine with them. The problem with this approach is that the placement of fat tissue is completely determined by genetics as well.

People imagine that the fat will be pleasingly proportioned on their bodies. Unless they have the genetics for this, it isn't going to happen. In naturally thin people, fat tends to go disproportionately to the mid section - not what most envision.

A much wiser course is to set your goals at gaining lean muscle tissue as opposed to "any weight." Unlike fat tissue, muscle tissue likes to distribute itself proportionately and through your training you do have control over how it displays itself. The end results will be much more aesthetically pleasing.

In summary, yes you will still gain weight with a weight gain diet and no training. Your gains, however, will be maximum fat and minimum muscle. By adding proper mass gain training to the mix, you can instead move towards maximum muscle gain and minimal fat gain.

Without the use of weights, you can still encourage the body to build muscle. However, you have to keep in mind what triggers the body to increase muscle mass -- you have to keep pushing the body to handle greater weight loads.

Doing 100 push-ups doesn't encourage the body to increase muscle mass beyond what it needs to do 20 push-ups. It instead encourages the body to condition the muscle it already has in place. You are better off limiting your reps to 12 for most exercises and increasing the resistance if your goals are to gain weight and muscle.

This can be done without the use of traditional weights with a little creativity - some ideas in this post Muscle Building Without Weights. Ultimately, nothing is better than the use of free weights and as your goals progress, you may want to start considering adding some bodybuilding equipment to your arsenal.

Designing and Maintaining a Weight Gain Diet

Weight Training That Builds Muscle

JP Clifford