Do Mass Gainers Really Work? All You Need to Know
This may seem like a bit of a worthless article when in actual fact there are a lot of misconceptions about mass gainer shakes on the Internet and when I went to do research myself when I started trying to take mass gainer shakes it took a long time for me to understand exactly if they really work or not.
It’s really not quite simple as the manufacturers make it seem. If you are looking to put on some serious size then without doubt you will have already searched for mass gainer shakes online. Especially if you are hard gainer you are gonna be looking to take on as many calories as humanly possible to really bulk up and make your goals and this is where mass gainer shakes really that come into their own.
What do Mass Gainer’s Do?
The most simple and essential part of putting on extra mass and gaining muscle in the process, not just fat then you will ultimately know that you have to eat a lot more calories than you will ever have consumed before. There is nothing else to it apart from that.
However it is not really as simple as that, eating that amount of calories that you need to reach your goals is extremely time-consuming and a very hard process to go through. It’s extremely expensive as well, it’s not just time-consuming creating those meals it can be expensive, and making sure you get the right level of nutrients from each of those meals to meet your mass gaining needs is getting harder than ever in busy modern life.
So this is where mass gaining shakes promise to make that extremely easy for you, they come fully loaded with everything you would ever need to put on that extra mass that you desire whilst being a simple as making your everyday protein shake. It can take away the mental element from trying to reach calorific needs each day which can be extremely tiring and mentally consuming.
You start to beat yourself up if you’re not reaching your goals every day in calorific needs, so mass can shakes are an easy fix.
What is in Mass Gainer Shakes?
So what exactly is in mass gainer shakes varies massively from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the essentials are generally quite easy to understand. They are always extremely high in calories, very high in protein content and equally as high in carbohydrate content.
This is generally where they differ from protein shakes which aimed to be a lot more just about protein. The higher carbohydrate content in mass gainer shakes is what generally helps you put on extra size they can vary greatly in calorie content depending on the brand but they are often over 1000 cal per shake easily. They don’t often contain a lot of fat content either, which a lot of people remark at as you would assume this would be the easy way to put on easy mass, however they are great in this respect because they allow you to meet your macronutrient needs without succumbing to high-fat diets.
Carbohydrates are perfect for extra energy and for putting on that extra bit of weight gain. Low-carb diets are generally seen as the perfect weight loss goal so it makes sense that high carb diets and be perfect for the opposite. The high-carbohydrate content of these mass gainer shakes helps massively when you’re working out to a much higher level, giving you the extra energy that you need to be able to recover a lot faster and progress in your work out.
How do they help you?
Most people remark that they are able to work out to a much higher degree when taking mass killer shakes them when they simply take protein shakes, and extra calories they take easily offsets the extra training that they are able to output. Mass gainer shakes almost always come with a lot of other built-in ingredients that you definitely don’t generally get from normal protein shakes.
They generally come with high levels of creatine, BCAA’s a lot of other extra ingredients which give you that extra push in the gym. However not every brand of mass gainer shakes include these is definitely worth checking the brand that you are looking to take.
Alot of people assume that by simply taking a mass gainer shake they are easily just gonna be gaining a lot of extra muscle, however this is not generally the case, due to the way that they are made up and the extra calories that they have is seen as a way of being able to gain weight but not muscle.
Of course muscle will come in this but generally seen they are a great way of just gaining weight overall and they are not to be used in conjunction with any sort of shred diet. They are just for the bulk.
What they are not!
A lot of people take mass gaining shakes thinking of them as a meal replacement shake, however this simply isn’t true either, they do not contain vitamins or other macronutrients that you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle so you are going to need to eat as well as take mass gaining shakes.
Mass gaining shakes in general are extremely heavy on the body, which is ultimately what they are designed for, however this can then mean that eating on top of this is quite hard work so it’s definitely something worth considering before you take a mass gaining shake or is it simply not as easy as it looks.
Should you be taking mass gainers?
Most people end up taking mass gaining shakes without really realising just how heavy on the body they will be and then not ending up taking them for a really long enough to be able to see the effects of the shake itself. This is why there are such mixed reviews on the Internet as to how mass gaining shakes work, people take them and then don’t really appreciate how hard they are to take and then stop taking them without really seeing the effects of them.
So this is where all the controversy comes from mass-gaining shakes be that as it may if you are aware of exactly how hard they are to take what they used for making sure that you are fully informed before you start Taking them you can definitely use them well to make a big big difference to your workout program. Mass gaining shakes can generally seen as an externally cheap way of getting in the calories that you need as well as super easy to do so which a lot of people just don’t consider as a factor in gym work however you really do need to consider this.
My Personal Opinion!
In my personal experience I found that they definitely were too much for me to take consistently and I find I put on extra weight quite easily compared to some and for me they simply did not work for me in the way that I wanted them to. I wanted them to be able to help me bulk up in a bit of a leaner way than I actually got from them. I also found that the mass gaining shake that I took was extremely high in sugar content as well which I actually found quite surprising as a lot of them do have this high sugar content level, I assume this is generally used the extra energy to push you through your workouts.
However I found that this was way too much for me to actually bear and I often found myself feeling quite dizzy after taking mass gaining shakes and quite sick alongside that as well. This is something that I’m not alone in feeling was taking these kinds of shakes and really overall I found that I had almost take half the dosage that the manufacturer recommended just to be able to stomach the mass gaining shakes on a regular basis.
That being said however, they did make me feel I did still continue to take them just to see the benefits of the shakes, and I did put on a lot of size whilst doing so however it wasn’t really lean size at all and for me that really wasn’t the kind of body composition I was looking for. Which is ultimately why I stopped taking them and move more towards taking more protein shakes and trying to get calories in through my food which are of a much cleaner quality, to be able to bulk up in a way that I felt more comfortable with.
My Final Thoughts
In conclusion I definitely think that mass gaining shakes have a great place in the market and a lot of people fear them but they needn’t.
Whilst it didn’t work for me I know a lot of people that have seen great gains from mass gaining shakes and have used them to great effect to be able to push their workouts to the next level and also their body composition has changed massively whilst using them.
If you are a hard gainer find putting on any sort of size to be a massive struggle and these are definitely something you should look to using on a more regular basis. However as predicted it’s not quite as simple as just taking a simple mass gaining shake, so there are pros and cons to this approach.
Dan Woods
I'm a healthy and fitness nut! Been in this game over 10 years. If it's fitness, i've done it! Name a sport, i've invested silly money into it! Let me share my knowledge with you!