Many people find it hard to gain mass even if they eat foods with high calories. There are tons of mass gainers available on the market nowadays. They are usually similar to protein powders but are more pumped up with calories. As the number of them increases, their credibility decreases and people are more prone to asking “does mass gainer work?” Well, they do. Top quality weight gainer supplements can serve your body with the calories you need to gain weight. But go through our entire article to know how they truly work.
How Does Mass Gainer Work?
There’s a common question around “will mass gainer make me gain weight?” It will but you have to decide for yourself how you want to increase your weight by using mass gainers. The best mass gainers are mixtures of proteins, calories, carbohydrates, and fats. The amounts of these ingredients vary from one product to another. Whey, soy, casein or plants are some of the main sources of protein for these mass gainers.
Most of the manufacturers rely on flax for fat sources. Maltodextrin, dextrose or waxy maize are the carbohydrate sources for these weight gainers. Some even contain extra ingredients like branch-chained amino acids (BCAAs), vitamins, minerals, glutamine, and creatine.
A single mass gainer serving can provide 15-65 grams of protein and around 1000 calories, which help build up weight. People with extremely fast metabolism mainly benefit from weight gainers since they are unable to get any calories from foods. This is how mass gainers actually work on our body:
- Helps build up muscle mass
- Helps supply the required calories to the body
- Provides especially formulated proteins and carbohydrates
- Helps maintain a healthy body filled with nutrients like vitamins and minerals
- Mass gainers containing fibers help with bloating and keeps the digestive system and the cholesterol levels balanced
Benefits of Mass Gainers
There are several benefits of mass gainers that we’re going to discuss in the following section.
1. Helps Building Faster Muscles
This is the most obvious reason why most people want to take mass gainers – mass gainers contain more protein in every serving than the simple whey protein shakes. This helps in boosting protein synthesis. Whereas 10g protein fused with carbohydrate stimulates the protein synthesis in the body, most of the mass gainers usually contain around 50g of protein in every serving. Creatine-based mass gainers are even better at muscle hypertrophy increase. Research shows that mass gainers with protein, carbohydrates, and creatine components are more effective than simple protein and carbohydrate components.
2. Boosts Recovery
Glycogen in the muscles works as a fuel for exercise. But glycogen synthesis takes time for restoration. So, when you’re in an intense routine of exercise where you don’t have enough time between the sessions, you need something that can boost the glycogen restoration.
People who are striving for mass gain generally benefit from an increased glycogen recovery speed. It’s even more so if you’re a bodybuilder or an athlete and you want to gain mass while training hard. Since mass gainers contain both protein and carbohydrates, they recover the muscle glycogen significantly faster than any carbohydrate-based drink.
Mass gainers also increase muscle endurance which ensures less muscle damage. It has also been revealed that protein and carbohydrate drinks like mass gainers are very effective at increasing fatigue time. Mass gainers are great for resistance exercises since they significantly reduce the chances of muscle damage.
There are mass gainers with amino acid components that not only reduce the damages in muscles but also muscle soreness. If you’re into eccentric training, you’ll need the best muscle recovery supplement. A whey mass gainer is the best choice in this case. Look out for mass gainers with creatine for your creatine refill in the body, which will make you prepared for the next training session.
3. Improves Performance
Not only are mass gainers a great supplement for muscle buildup but they are also fantastic at improving your performance in exercises. A 2003 study has found out that supplements with carbohydrates and protein (or mass gainers) help enhance aerobic performance.
Another 2007 study showed that mass gainers are far more effective than simple carbohydrate-based supplements if you’re trying to improve your cycling performance. It also increases fatigue time during workouts.
Mass gainers with amino acid compounds help extend the exercise during the heat. Mass gainers contain fat, protein, calories and carbohydrates. The mass gainers with creatine are more effective at increasing body performance.
4. Improves the Protein Balance
For muscle growth, regrowth and recovery, protein balance is very important. Protein synthesis is elementary in muscle maintenance. If you’re exercising, it will eventually create a bad protein balance in the body since exercising takes up a lot of protein from the body. To create a good and balanced protein synthesis, you need to take mass gainers regularly with your mass building workout routine.
How to Take Mass Gainer Supplements?
Before you ask yourself “does mass gainer really work?” you need to make sure you’re taking them correctly all throughout your weight gain journey. Mass gainers are simple drinks that you can just shake, make, and take. You can follow these simple directions for taking mass gainer supplement:
- Use 250ml of water or milk
- Put the milk/water and one serving (two scoops) of mass gainer in a blender/shaker
- Blend/shake the whole thing for 15-20 seconds
- After blending, take the mixture immediately
You can take mass gainers at any time you want. But you can follow the routine below:
- Before breakfast
- Before sleep
- Every time after working out
- Any time you feel the need to take protein
Mass gainers produce different effects based on the times they’re taken. It totally depends on the body’s calorie demand. Also, the effects of the mass gainers vary from person to person depending on the metabolism rates of their bodies. But it’s very important to understand that mass gainers and exercise should be incorporated together into one’s routine, or he/she’ll just end up gaining fat.
Be Careful About Mass Gainers Intake
Mass gainer works in several ways but the improper use of mass gainers can cause some side effects in your body. Some issues that you need to be careful about are:
- Creatine-based mass gainers can generate gastrointestinal distress. You can prevent this by altering your dosage
- If you’re not getting enough water, you can experience muscle spasm
- Taking mass gainers without any exercise routine will turn the excess calories into adipose tissue, which will make you fat and not give you any muscle mass
Mass gainers aren’t some magic formula that will give you body mass with regular intake. People often misconceive this and hence the popularity of the question: “does mass gainer work?” Mass gainer will surely accelerate muscle growth and recovery, and provide you enough calories, protein, and carbohydrates without harmful effects. But you have to follow some routine exercise with your mass gainer intake to enjoy mass gainer results.
