Sometime back, when I exposed the uselessness of mass gainers, there was a lot of hue & cry in the following months, on how, as always, I don’t know anything about supplements, and how I simply can’t expose something which has been used for so long (or should I say, abused and falsely marketed for so long).
But, not a single comment could justify the common-sense logic I used to put my point, especially when it comes to the addition of mass gainers to the Indian diet. Though, there were quite a lot of doubts, which I tried and clear, but one question was quite justifiable on the viewers end, i.e. “being and ectomorph, can you tell me a convenient way to boost calories, without the use of a mass-gainer??”
Though the solution is quite simple, something which I, and millions of others have been using on themselves or their clients (as a coach), since decades, i.e. the use of calorie dense, homemade shakes, which uses pure whey/plant protein as an ingredient, instead of a cheap mass gainer.
Let me give you a real time process on how to prepare such a shake, with proper calorie calculations to back it up.
To start with, take a mixer/blender, and line-up the following ingredients:
Ingredients | Calories | Fats | Carbs | Proteins |
500ml Full Cream Milk | 309 | 17gm | 23gm | 17gm |
2 Tablespoon Peanut Butter (app. 32gms) | 190 | 16gm | 6gm | 8gm |
1 Medium Banana | 105 | 0.4gm | 27gm | 1.3gm |
2 scoops Whey protein (60gm) | 235 | 4gm | 6gm | 45gm |
2 tablespoon Honey | 128 | 0gm | 34gm | 0gm |
TOTAL | 967 | 37gm | 96gm | 100gm |
Add all these ingredients in a blender, and add some water if needed to make it less viscous. An amazingly tasty and healthy, calorie dense shake would be ready in no time, and you would get a phenomenal boost to your daily calorie intake.
For someone who needs to gain weight, it becomes very difficult to add solid food to the already heavy diet. If they try to do so, digestive issues crop up, and many feels extremely nauseated, stuffing so much food in their stomach.
A calorie dense shake is an excellent way to add calories to your daily food intake. They are easily absorbed, and very convenient to gulp down, as compared to an entire solid meal, with equal number of calories.
To start with, add an app. 500cal per day to your normal diet, and then observe, if your digestive system is fine, and you are able to maintain this addition consistently.
To do this, simply divide all the ingredients by 2. For e.g. take app. 250-300ml whole milk, 1 tablespoon peanut butter and honey, 1 banana and 1 scoop of whey.
If you are fine, and the body is able to absorb this boost in calories, add another 500cal, by simply consuming the entire shake, as mentioned above.
So, if you have been consuming 2000cal/day, a boost of 500-1000cal is a jump of 25-50% of calories, just through 1 shake.
There is no best time to have this shake. Divide the shake into 2 glasses, and have it between meals like between breakfast and lunch, or lunch & dinner, or anytime you feel is fine.
Enjoy the boost !!