By Ollie Cooper, live news reporter
Welcome to the next part of my series on fitness supplements – where I aim to discover whether they are helping you get ripped, or you’re getting ripped off.
I’ve enlisted the help of performance nutritionist Andrew Petts and Arj Thiruchelvam, personal trainer and head coach at Performance Physique, to analyse 12 different supplements every lunchtime over the next two weeks – and today we’re looking at mass gainers.
Mass gainers
These products are targeted at people, particularly young men, who are looking to put on size.
You may want to gain weight to get bigger muscles, get stronger or just as a challenge.
The process, known as “bulking” in the gym community, requires a lot of eating to stay in a considerable calorie surplus.
For example, I need around 2,700 calories a day to maintain my weight, known as “maintenance” calories.
When looking to bulk, I need to consume at least 3,300 calories a day if I want to gain 0.5kg a week, or nearly 4,000 if I want to put on 1kg every seven days.
You can calculate your maintenance calories here in just a few seconds.
These may just sound like numbers – but anything over 3,000 calories is surprisingly difficult to eat every day, especially if you’ve got an eye on what you’re putting into your body.
Anyone who has “bulked” before knows the pain of waking up full, bloated and queasy, and needing to get three crumpets and a bowl of protein oats…
