Gaining 30lbs in 30 days – Is it possible?

If you have any experience in the world of bodybuilding/weight training, you have probably already heard of or seen miraculous compounds, cycles, workout routines, supplements and dietary programs that promise you’ll gain 30lbs of muscle in just 30 days if you just buy it and do whatever they say. Well, to cut it short, you most likely won’t, unless you fit in one of these criteria:

1. You’ve already had that weight: say you have 170lbs of body weight today for whatever reason, but you’ve trained for several years and at some point, reached 200lbs and kept it for a while. In this case, you might be able to put on the 30lbs of mass in 30 days;
2. You’re extremely underweight: if, for any reason, you’re currently way under your considered “normal weight” due to lack of food and/or a very busy routine with high cortisol levels, you might just be able to gain 30lbs in 30 days if you start eating an enormous amount of calories and working out properly;
3. You’re coming back from an injury/disease: much like item a), if you’re someone who lifts regularly, eats well and for some reason has fallen sick or had to stay in bed for weeks due to a surgery, for example, it’s normal to lose a significant amount of weight during that time. In this case, you will be able to regain it very quickly as your body is used to being much heavier and will try to get back to where it was before;
4. You just have godlike genetics: of course, there are many factors involved, but simply put, what determines how much lean mass you carry around are your hormonal levels, your androgenic receptor’s affinity and bind responsiveness to these hormones and how low your myostatin levels are. If you happen to have the perfect combination of these genetic factors, you might be able to reach this mark. However, we’re talking about those one-in-a-million type of guys here and odds are you’re not one of them;
5. You’re on your first cycle: natural strength athletes or bodybuilders that have been on proper eating/training routines for years with “virgin” muscle receptors and are close to their natural genetic potential and, of course, have the genetic factor on their side, will often times experience a swift and significant weight gain when taking steroids for the first time coupled with an increase in daily calories eaten.

What’s also important to keep in mind is that there’s no way possible you will gain 30lbs of pure muscle in this time. As always, it will be a combination of muscle, fat and water. Another thing to keep in mind is that any rapid increase in body weight has consequences of its own, such as the appearance of stretch marks, loss of pretty much all of your clothes, difficulty in doing simple daily tasks, and most importantly, quickly gaining mass will make your cardiocirculatory system have to work extra-time to be able to oxygenate and feed all this new tissue. This alone can lead to higher blood pressure, increased cardiac rhythm and other adverse conditions possibly leading to a coronary event.

If after all of that you still want to try and see how fast you can put on as much weight as you possibly can, you should definitely try these tips:

• Stick to “wet drugs” on your cycles: water retention is key if you want to be your heaviest yet and you want to do it quickly. Stick to testosterone (medium to long esters), nandrolone (deca) and dianabol for increased weight gain;
• Keep aromatase inhibitors to a minimum: ideally, if you can get away with the side effects, don’t take AIs, but if you must, keep the doses low to favor estrogen conversion as having some estrogen in your body will maximize weight gain;
• Don’t try to eat clean: If you want to gain as much weight as you can, eat everything in front of you and when you feel like you can’t eat anymore, eat some more;
• Train the right way: keep training sessions short and extremely heavy to maximize weight gain. Stick with few training sessions a week and include as many compound exercises as you can (3 full body workouts or a day-on-day-off push pull legs routine should work fine here);
• Sleep properly and take naps: make sure you have a good night of sleep everyday to recover from training and to give your body a chance to use all the food and build mass. Also, a couple of 45min to 1-hour naps throughout the day will make you gain weight faster and be able to train harder;
• Use insulin to your favor. WARNING: THIS IS AN ADVANCED TECHNIQUE THAT MAY SEND YOU TO THE HOSPITAL OR POSSIBLY THE CEMETERY, SO RESEARCH EVERYTHING YOU CAN BEFORE USING INSULIN. Using insulin before meals will cause them to be absorbed faster and will allow you to eat more throughout the day. This has to be done properly (calculated UIs and timings). or you will gain a whole lot of fat. If you can afford using HGH it will work much better with little to no fat gain;
• Add fats to your food: fat has 9kcal/g, the most of all macronutrients, so adding fats wherever you can is a good way to add a good amount of calories without even noticing it too much. Good sources are cream for your coffee, cheese or butter with your steaks/meals and vegetal oils (coconut, olive, corn, soy, etc.). Be sure to take it easy as your body adapts to it or you will get frequent diarrheas and gut problems.