While we all know a lot of people suffer from issues related to being overweight or obese, there is an extremely contrasting scenario where there are dudes who are struggling to put on weight. In bodybuilding terms, they are known as hardgainers who irrespective of the amount of food they eat, they struggle to put on weight. While the reasons you hear the trainers give are that your metabolism is too high or you are an ectomorph (does not really matter), the main reason for you struggling to gain weight is that you are NOT eating enough calories.

And this also comes down mainly to you making a lot of filling bro-food choices like oats and potatoes all the time which are high-satiety foods and will fill you up, making you eat lesser calories than needed to gain weight.

So it is time to ditch the oats and start including these foods in your diet:

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A 100 gram serving of dates comes down to consuming 6-7 dates which is an easy task to do.

The calorie and macro breakdown of this serving is as follows:

Kcals - 270 kilocalories

Protein - 4 grams

Carbs - 62 grams

Fats - 0.5 grams

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This is one of the higher calorie/carbohydrate fruits out there. A medium-sized banana has the following calorie and macronutrient breakdown:

Kcals - 99 kilocalories

Protein - 1.1 grams

Carbs - 23 grams

Fats - 0.3 grams

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While intra-workout carb drinks are not needed for almost anyone who is into resistance training alone, it can be a good addition for the hardgainers to get in some calories.

A couple of sachets of Gatorade or some carb-drink would add the following calories and macros to your routine:

Kcals - 188 kilocalories

Protein - 0 grams

Carbs - 46 grams

Fats - 0 grams

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Liquid calories are the least satiating ones, meaning you can consume a lot of these calories without feeling full. Adding honey or maple syrup to some protein pancakes could be a boon to get in your calories.

Two tablespoons of honey or maple syrup will provide you with the following macros and calories:

Kcals -  115 kilocalories

Protein - 0.1 grams

Carbs - 28 grams

Fats - 0 grams

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A lot of brands have flooded the markets with almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter, mixed nut butter and what not. Though they are not necessarily very helpful for those trying to lose weight, that is not the case for hardgainers as they are getting a calorie bomb by consuming these. Two tablespoons of a nut butter would provide someone with the following calories and macros:

Kcals - 147 kilocalories

Protein - 4 grams

Carbs - 17 grams

Fats - 7 grams

To sum it up, if you are a hardgainer and you are struggling to put on weight, ditch the bro-bodybuilding foods and eat some high-calorie foods.

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram.