When it comes to gaining weight, there is a certain group of people that tends to struggle no matter what method they use. They consume a decent amount of calories per day, have a good workout routine, and follow everything by the book, yet they don’t seem to gain even a single kilo in months. Since I grew up as a skinny kid, I struggled with this problem during my entire teenage years until I managed to find what works for me the most and I’m here to share all my knowledge with you. And if you’re just starting out your weight gain journey, setting realistic goals is the best way to approach it. With that being said, how can you gain 1 kg in a month?
1 kg of weight gain in a single month is a realistic goal that can be achieved easily by following a healthy diet that provides enough calories and all the essential nutrients, having a workout plan that’s adapted to your goal, and giving your body enough rest.
In this article, we’ll talk about if it’s possible to gain 1 kg of weight in a single month and the methods that you need to follow in order to do so.
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Is It Possible to Gain 1 Kg Per Month?
Although the possibility of gaining a certain amount of weight per month heavily depends on your age, weight, height, as well as your body type, 1 kg per month is definitely possible for most people and it can be considered a realistic goal.
If you’re trying to achieve it, there are two paths that you can take, one that involves gaining only fat and the other gaining pure muscles:
Gaining 1 Kg of Fat
This path is the easiest out of the two since gaining fat only requires a change in diet and daily habits which we’ll learn more about in the next section. And there are also two methods that you can follow in order to pursue this path.
The first one which I don’t recommend but could be useful during the first couple of days involves eating junk food. Although it’s an unhealthy way of gaining weight, using it at first to make yourself and your body used to high-calorie food is a good idea (and a fun one too, who doesn’t enjoy eating delicious junk food?). Starting with a healthy diet which not everyone might enjoy right off the bat might put you off from this whole weight gain transformation thingy.
The second method, as you may have guessed already based on my last point, is maintaining a healthy diet. This is the most rewarding way to gain weight naturally but it’s the most challenging since it involves eating some types of meals that you probably might not enjoy.
Gaining 1 Kg of Muscles
This is considered the best way to gain weight, especially if you’re struggling with being skinny, but If you decide to take on this path, be sure that it’s not gonna be easy since building pure muscles is much harder than gaining fat but 1 kg in 1 month is definitely doable if you follow the correct methods and the right workout plan.
Why is it the best way you ask? Well first of all, who doesn’t like muscles? Having them on your body will not only look good and impress everybody around you, but it’ll also make you a lot stronger and give you the ability to do daily activities with much more ease.
In addition to that, learning the methods of gaining muscles is the best investment that you can for your body since you’ll start developing a better lifestyle and build up healthy habits that will benefit you in the long term.
How to Gain 1 Kg of Fat in 1 Month
We’ll start off with the first and easiest path that you can follow in order to gain 1 kg weight in 1 month. As I mentioned in the beginning, there are two methods that will allow you to achieve this goal. In this section, I’ll talk about the second one which involves eating healthy. And here is what you need to do:
Reach a Calorie Surplus
There isn’t a single person living on this earth that has the ability to gain weight without eating enough calories (maybe there is, who knows? But you get my point). It may be the one reason why you’re not able to gain weight and why you decided to read this blog post in the first place, but there simply isn’t another way around it.
You have to eat enough calories in order to fuel your body. The best way to do that is by reaching a calorie surplus every single day during this entire month. What I mean by that is essentially eating more than your body needs during a day so that excess is stored as fat which results in gaining weight.
But how do I know the number of calories that my body needs? That depends on how much you currently weigh, your gender, height, age, the amount of activity that you do during the day, your target weight, and so on. But people tend to generalize the number of calories that skinny people need in order to gain weight to something close to 3000-4000 calories per day. If you want a custom number based on your own characteristics, you can use a calorie calculator. I know it sounds a lot, but you can get used to it pretty quickly, especially if you split it into 4 or 5 different meals per day or if you start slow and slowly build your way up to 4000 calories day after day.
Follow the Right Diet
As I mentioned in the beginning, we’re talking about the healthy way, so reaching 4000 calories isn’t only possible by stuffing junk food into your stomach, this goal is also achievable if you follow the right healthy diet. I’d even say that reaching that number is much easier with a healthy diet.
Here are the main criteria that this diet needs to follow:
- High-calorie meals
- Provides all the essential nutrients that your body needs in order to gain weight (protein, carbs, and healthy fats)
- Doesn’t have junk food
There are literally thousands of diets that follow these criteria all over the internet, and trust me, all of them work but that’s not the problem. The main problem here is maintaining them since giving up will be so tempting, especially during the first couple of days.
Avoid Unnecessary Activity
If you truly want to gain 1 kg in a month, you want to avoid any sort of activity that might drain your calories without any benefit and mess up the surplus that is considered a key element in your weight gain journey.
Cut down on any form of cardio like running, jogging, or hiking (you can do them from time to time but not more than 2 times per week). This allows your body to preserve as many calories as it can and store them as fat.
How to Gain 1 Kg of Muscles in 1 Month
We can now move on to the more challenging path that you can follow which is gaining 1 kg of pure muscle in a single month.
You pretty much have to follow the same tips for gaining fat but add to it these:
Start Some Form of Resistance Training
And when I say “resistance training”, I mean weight-lifting, calisthenics, plyometrics, and so on. In other words, anything that provides some form of resistance to your muscles which then promotes their growth.
Based on my own experience and what worked for me, the best way to achieve this goal is through weight-lifting. Not only is it the most efficient way to add an extra 1 kg of muscle per month, but it’ll also make you a lot stronger, improve your health, and force you to live a healthy lifestyle.
Lift Heavy
Lifting heavy is the best and most efficient way to increase your muscle mass in a short period of time. However, If you’ve never weight-lifted before, make sure to start light (during the first week) in order to get your body used to this new activity.
As soon as you feel comfortable with weights, you can move on to heavier ones. As a general rule of thumb, a weight is considered “heavy” when you’re unable to do more than 8 repetitions with it on a certain exercise. Let’s take the example of bicep curls, if you can do more than 8 repetitions with ease, you can consider that weight “light” which means that it’s time to increase it.
Spend No More Than 1 Hour in The Gym
Since you’re trying to gain weight, spending too much time in the gym can affect the number of calories that your body will burn which will then mess up the surplus that you’re trying to reach.
Always make sure that you’re spending no more than 1 hour in the gym which is more than enough to stimulate your muscles to make them grow.
If you want to get the most out of that 1 hour, focus on compound movements and full-body workouts that train different muscle groups at the same time to be as efficient as possible. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at my own workout plan to get a general idea of how you should train (and maybe use it if you like it).
Give Your Body Enough Recovery Time
Even if you follow every single tip that’s mentioned in this post, you’re not gonna gain any muscles if you don’t give your body enough recovery time. That’s the period where your muscles heal and grow.
During the entirety of this month, make sure that you’re sleeping for about 7 to 8 hours per night since that’s the optimal time needed for recovery. Sleeping improves protein synthesis and human growth hormone release which are crucial factors in order to gain that 1 kg per month.
Conclusion:
As you can see, there are two paths that you can follow in order to gain 1 kg in a single month. If you’re not sure which one to take, I highly recommend the second one which involves gaining pure muscle instead of just fat. Although it’s the hardest, it’s the most rewarding in the long term.