Wait time is over, and you’re finally ready to put on some size, like serious size. You’re tracking your eating, have gotten rid of all the unhealthy binge-worthy foods, you’re training hard, and you’re doubling down on your supplements.
Everything looks like it’s in line to get you there.
But the thing about gaining mass is that it requires eating. A lot of eating. It takes time. It gets expensive. And that doesn’t even touch on the fact of how you actually fit that much food into your stomach…
This is precisely where mass-gainer supplements enter the picture.
If you’re ready to take a drive to muscle town, we’re giving you everything you need to know about using mass gainers to get there.
What Are Mass Gainers?
Mass gainers are designed for people who are looking to gain weight without having to consume additional calories as physical food. Basically, they’re a speed pass to rack up calories without making yourself feel sick from eating huge meals every 2-3 hours.
Unlike the standard protein shake, mass gainers combine everything your body needs to maximize muscle growth and weight gain healthily.
Most mass gainers you’ll find will vary in ingredients, but it’s typically a tub of powder that’s high in protein, higher in carbs, and low in fat. With caloric values ranging anywhere from 500 to over 1500, you’re getting a lot of energy in a relatively small amount of “food.”
Why A Mass Gainer Can Be Helpful
To gain mass, you need to give your body the proper ratios of macronutrients, which is why carbs are higher and fat is lower. The default split when trying to gain muscle is lower carb for weight loss and higher carb for weight gain. You’ll find that if you drop your carbs too low, putting on mass is going to prove to be a massive headache.
The reason mass gainers are high carbs is that carbs are your body’s primary source of energy. Yes, the body can definitely perform well on a low-carb diet from ketones, but glucose is your driver during high-intensity work.
And if you’re trying to gain size, you’re likely training harder than you would otherwise, which means you need the nutrients to accelerate and maximize both your growth and recovery.
Carbs are the best way to do that; they drive glucose into your muscles and replenish glycogen stores. More glycogen in muscles means better insulin sensitivity and a reduced chance of fat accumulation 1.
And for most people, higher carb intake also means better performance in the gym to further maximize the potential for muscle gain.
Now, there’s nothing to say that you couldn’t eat the same amount of carbs in food, but for most people eating that quantity would leave you full and uncomfortable far more often than you’re probably willing to deal with.
The Best Supplements For Putting On Size And Mass
Carbs and protein are the two most important macronutrients when you’re trying to gain mass because they help regulate two hormones involved in the muscle-building process: insulin and cortisol.
Cortisol is released during intense physical activity and is a catabolic hormone that breaks down muscle tissue to release fuel. Insulin, on the other hand, is released in the presence of carbs and works to counter the response of cortisol; insulin is an anabolic hormone that triggers cells to pick up energy. Basically, insulin drives nutrients into cells.
Carbohydrates
Like we said before, you don’t need carbohydrates to gain mass, but it’s going to be more of a challenge if you don’t have them. In a mass gainer, carbs serve as not only your energy source during training sessions, but also as fuel to rebuild muscles after a hard workout.
This is where insulin comes into the picture for muscle building. Your muscles need amino acids for repair, and those amino acids come from protein. But in order to get those amino acids and other required nutrients into cells, cells have to be open to it. Insulin does that.
By nature, insulin is an anabolic (building) hormone that promotes muscle protein synthesis, assuming there is adequate muscle blood flow, amino acid delivery, and availability 2. When insulin is present, amino acid uptake by cells increases and thus so does MPS.
But the other reason carbs are important for gaining mass is that they help to replenish glycogen stores that are depleted during exercise. These stores are important for providing an immediate source of energy during your training sessions. And when you combine carbs with protein, you have the ultimate muscle-building combo.
Here’s a quick summary of why carbs are essential if you’re looking to gain mass:
- Prevent muscle weakness—Loaded glycogen stores act as an energy reservoir during workouts to prevent fatigue
- Improve athletic performance—Carbs are easily metabolized and provide the quickest source of energy during workouts
- Repair muscle damage—Glucose spikes insulin levels, which helps to shuttle nutrients into cells for damage control
Protein
Protein is the second half of the equation for mass and muscle growth. It obviously takes the credit for building muscles, but as you just saw, carbs pull their weight, too.
The reason protein is part of a mass gainer is pretty straightforward—it’s needed to build and repair muscles.
Protein breaks down into amino acids that are used to repair existing muscle tissue and build new tissue through what’s called muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Without sufficient levels of amino acids, muscle protein breakdown (MPB) exceeds muscle protein synthesis (MPS), and mass declines 3.
However, sufficient dietary protein results in a higher degree of MPS and thus growth. Without adequate protein, you can’t repair the damage done during a workout, and you’re not going to grow.
The Problem With Most Mass Gainers
- They’re loaded with garbage—The one thing about mass gainers is that the ingredient label is usually excessively long and filled with loads of ingredients you can’t pronounce. Some of them are vitamins and minerals, but when you’re getting into things like maltodextrin, dextrose, added sugars, and other unnecessary ingredients, you’re shifting more towards metabolic damage than anything else, which is going to work against your health and fitness goals in the long-run. Instead, you want a clean mass gainer, which can be hard to come by.
- They’re excessively high calorie—Like we said before, some mass gainers can be upwards of 1500 calories per serving, which, if you’re not actually training hard and expending calories, can lead to the wrong type of weight gain. A poorly constructed weight gainer loaded with fats and the wrong kinds of carbohydrates could mean packing on a lot of fat and very little muscle.
- The serving size is massive—If you thought taking a double scoop of protein was a lot, check out the serving size on most mass gainers. Even if they’re the same number of scoops, the size of the scoops is what matters; they’re usually twice as big as a traditional protein scoop, which means you’re chowing down on a chalky, powdered drink.
- They’re poor quality—Just because it’s a nutritional supplement doesn’t mean it’s healthy. A lot of mass gainers contain poor quality ingredients that can cause allergies and digestive issues. Since a lot of them contain whey, casein, and soy, people with food sensitivities or who follow specific dietary restrictions have to choose their mass gainers carefully.
- They’re full of artificial sweeteners—A lot of people think artificial sweeteners are a better option than sugar, but they can be just as harmful. The body knows what sugar (glucose) is, but it doesn’t know what these artificial sweeteners are. So, when it recognizes a sweet taste, it releases insulin to help shuttle sugar into cells—but there is no sugar. As such, you have insulin floating around your bloodstream with nothing to do 4. Studies have found that chronic consumption of artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain (the wrong type of weight gain) due to the insulin response triggered after consumption 5. Other studies show similar results with artificial sweeteners linked to increased caloric intake, increased body weight, and increased adiposity 6, 7.
The Best Mass-Gaining Stack
With all of that said, if you’re a little hesitant to purchase a mass gainer, we don’t blame you. They can be questionable at the best of times, so rather than spending your money on something that may not add to your goal, opt for something clean and effective that promises to get you results.
The combination of Performance Lab Protein + Carb creates the ultimate training stack to get you the results you’re looking for. They add mass and boost muscle growth without having to worry about packing on fat.
Performance Lab Protein
Protein powders can sometimes be dodgy both in origin and ingredients—but not this one. Performance Lab Protein is the cleanest and most effective protein powder supplement you can get your hands on.
Unlike traditional proteins derived from animal ingredients that can cause gastrointestinal upset, Protein features Oryzatein® certified organic brown rice protein made with natural enzymes and low heat to give your body the cleanest and most absorbable source of vegan protein.
In fact, it’s the only rice protein shown to build muscle as effectively as whey, with leucine that absorbs 30% faster than most other supplements.
And if that wasn’t enough, it’s the only brown rice protein patented for athletic performance, scientifically proven to build muscle, increase power, enhance strength, improve endurance, accelerate exercise recovery, and curb hunger more effectively than any other products.
And with flavors and sweeteners derived entirely from natural ingredients, Performance Lab Protein is the cleanest, best-tasting plant-based protein powder you can find.
Performance Lab Carb
When it comes to finding a carb source, sure, you can have rice, quinoa, or any other grain, but you’re not going to get the same slow-burning effect that a carb supplement has to offer.
Performance Lab Carb is a super clean and effective carbohydrate supplement that elevates traditional sports drinks to a new level, and pairs perfectly with Protein to create the ideal mass gainer.
Carb provides fast-acting, long-lasting fuel for 2+ hours of stim-free muscle energy to power you through workouts and kick-start the muscle repair and growth processes afterward.
Unlike other carb supplements, you don’t have to worry about crashing, bloating, or gastric distress because it contains no weird or unrecognizable ingredients. Not only that, but its fast-absorbing, sustained-release design helps to support strength, endurance, growth, and recovery.
Because Protein + Carb contains minimal fat, it’s the perfect substitution for conventional mass gainers to help maximize muscle growth and boost your results.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking to gain size and mass, a conventional mass gainer will do the trick—but it may not do it specifically in the way you want. Most supplements you’ll find on the market are designed to get the job done fast but not necessarily right, so you’ll pack on a bunch of fat along with muscle.
When you combine Performance Lab Protein with Carb, you’re consuming two of the cleanest and most effective gainers out there to give you stellar results. It’s a sure-fire combination to get you exactly what you’re looking for.
References
- J Jensen, PI Rustad, AJ Kolnes, YC Lai. The role of skeletal muscle glycogen breakdown for regulation of insulin sensitivity by exercise. Front Physiol. 2011;2:112.
- S Fujita, BB Rasmussen, JG Cadenas, JJ Grady, E Volpi. Effect of insulin on human skeletal muscle protein synthesis is modulated by insulin-induced changes in muscle blood flow and amino acid availability. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006;291(4):E745-E754.
- T Stokes, AJ Hector, RW Morton, C McGlory, SM Phillips. Recent Perspectives Regarding the Role of Dietary Protein for the Promotion of Muscle Hypertrophy with Resistance Exercise Training. Nutrients. 2018;10(2):180.
- K Mathur, RK Agrawal, S Nagpure, D Deshpande. Effect of artificial sweeteners on insulin resistance among type-2 diabetes mellitus patients. J Family Med Prim Care. 2020;9(1):69-71.
- KR Tandel. Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2011;2(4):236-243.
- SE Swithers, TL Davidson. A role for sweet taste: calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behav Neurosci. 2008;122(1):161-173.
- T Hampton. Sugar substitutes linked to weight gain. JAMA. 2008;299(18):2137-2138.
