The Best Muscle-Building Supplements for Women
There are only a few supplements that are good for helping women build muscle. They’re well-researched, affordable, healthy, and safe, too. But good luck finding them amongst the thousands of ineffective supplements lining the shelves. Especially since most of those supplements are marketed toward men trying to get jacked or women trying to get thinner.
In this article, we’ll go over the best muscle-building supplements for women eager to get bigger and stronger. We only recommend a few supplements, and most have whole-food alternatives. None are mandatory.
We haven’t covered every single muscle-building supplement here, but we’ve got over a decade of experience helping thousands of women bulk up, and we keep up with the research published every month. Feel free to ask us questions in the comments.
Introduction
This supplement guide has one type of person in mind: naturally skinny women trying to build muscle and gain weight as quickly and healthfully as possible. If that’s you, you’ll soon need to go shopping for bigger clothes.
There are no affiliate links. We don’t sell supplements.
Weight-Gainers for Women?
In this 8-week weight training study, people who added weight-gainers into their diets gained 7.5 more pounds of muscle than the control group while simultaneously losing fat. Those results come from lifting weights and eating more calories, not from anything magical about the supplement. Still, weight gainers are an easy way to add extra calories to your diet.
A more nutritious way to add calories to your diet is to make a weight-gain smoothie. We’ve got a full article on that here.
Protein Powder for Building Muscle
Our muscles are made out of the protein we eat. If we don’t eat enough protein, it can severely limit the amount of muscle we build.
Eating roughly 0.7–1 gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day is enough to maximize your rate of muscle growth. Most women don’t eat quite that much, giving them an opportunity to build muscle faster by adding a bit of protein to their diets (study, study). Whether you eat more chicken, greek yogurt, whey protein, plant-based protein powder, or pumpkin seeds is up to you, though. All will work.
Having whey protein after working out stimulates extra muscle growth. You’ve got up to 2 hours after training to have the protein (study, study), but I’d recommend having it right away. That will get you into the habit of working out and having protein. It will also allow you to get back to eating your regular meals more quickly.
As for how much to take, a scoop of protein powder usually contains 24–27 grams of protein, which is ideal for many people. However, when you train your entire body every workout, as we recommend, we’re stimulating an unusually large number of muscles all at once, so we benefit from a slightly higher protein intake after training.
More muscles stimulated at once = quicker muscle growth = higher protein needs.
So we recommend having 40 grams of whey protein powder after working out. This has the added benefit of giving you extra calories as well, and as with maltodextrin, it’s very difficult for your body to store these extra calories as fat. This should help you make leaner gains.
Of all the protein powders, whey protein isolate is the best default option. Whey protein is a byproduct formed during the creation of milk. Farmers used to throw it away, now they sell it to weightlifters. The processing of whey is fairly minimal, allowing it to retain many vitamins and minerals. Many nutritionists (like me!) consider it whole food, similar to cheese and yogurt.
If you don’t handle whey protein well (allergies) or you’re avoiding it for moral reasons (e.g. you’re a vegan), then you can go with plant-based protein powder. Here’s our article on plant-based protein options.
Creatine for Boosting Muscle Growth
Creatine is an extremely popular bulking supplement for men. It’s much less popular with women. I think that’s because fewer women are actively trying to gain weight and build muscle. Creatine works just as well for women as for men. Most studies show that it’s by far the most effective muscle-building supplement (study, study, study, study, study).
Some studies show as much as a 50% improvement in how much muscle you can build. But let’s look at the overall body of research, especially the studies focusing on women between the ages of 18–40. I think it would be more reasonable to expect a 25% improvement. This still puts it ahead of the other similar muscle-building supplements on the market (such as beta-alanine).
- Creatine is safe. It has no major side effects even after several decades of research (study, study, study). In fact, it’s being investigated as a way to prevent depression and Alzheimer’s.
- You’ll gain less fat. Creatine improves insulin sensitivity in your muscle cells, and more insulin sensitivity in your muscle cells means that more of the calories you eat are used for muscle growth instead of fat storage.
- It’s cheap. It’s been around for so long that the price has plummeted. You can buy the highest quality creatine monohydrate for cents per serving.
Overall, creatine is the most powerful muscle-building supplement; it’s good for our health, affordable, and there’s no reason not to take it. Just keep in mind that it hasn’t been well-studied in women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
*Creatine supplements aren’t made from animal products, making it great for vegetarians and vegans. If you’re bulking on a vegan diet, you’ll be more likely to have a deficiency in creatine, making supplementation even more beneficial (study).
Pre-Workouts or Caffeine for Energy
A good pre-workout supplement won’t directly build more muscle. But it can improve energy and motivation and make training feel less painful, indirectly helping you build more muscle.
Most pre-workout supplements combine a bunch of different ingredients of varying effectiveness instead of using just a single effective ingredient. With muscle-building supplements, the key ingredient is always creatine. With pre-workout supplements, the key ingredient is always caffeine. Caffeine allows you to squeeze out more reps and do more sets before becoming fatigued, increasing your lifting volume and thus allowing you to build more muscle more quickly.
There’s a plus side to the addictive nature of caffeine, too. If you build a ritual out of your pre-workout caffeine, you can become addicted to your gym habit. You’ll crave the coffee, the coffee will make you think of going to the gym, and your healthy exercise habit will be that much easier to stick to.
The problem is, to get the performance-enhancing benefits of caffeine, you’d need to consume a lot of caffeine. Something like 300mg. That’s at least 3–4 coffees. And you may not wish to be taking that much caffeine that often, especially if it makes you jittery or anxious.
What we recommend is having a coffee before working out, especially if you’re lacking motivation, feel tired, or don’t feel like grinding through tough sets of heavy exercises. It might give you that extra kick in the glutes you need to get going.
Summary
Whey protein and creatine are the two best supplements for building muscle. If you want more energy while lifting, you could have coffee (or a pre-workout) before working out.
Once you have the supplements in your hands, here’s how to take them:
- Creatine: Take 3–5 grams of creatine every day. Mix it into a tall glass of water every morning. If it hurts your stomach, split it into two smaller doses: half in the morning and half in the afternoon.
- Protein powder: use as much protein powder as you need to reach your daily protein goals. You could also get into the habit of a post-workout protein shake right after training.
- Caffeine (or a pre-workout supplement) 30 minutes before working out.
Shane Duquette is the co-founder of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and has a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He's gained sixty pounds at 11% body fat and has over ten years of experience helping over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, get stronger, and gain weight.
Cassandra González Duquette is a certified nutritionist (CNP) who studied at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition in Toronto, Canada. She's personally gained 22 pounds, going from 97 up to 119 pounds.
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What do you think of IsoPure protein powder for skinny girls? I recently purchased that to help with muscle mass building.
I always try to get supplements that are vetted by a third party. You’ve got some small companies that are good at that, like Citadel Nutrition, and also some big ones, like AllMax. I can’t verify that the company you chose is a great one. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, though.
What I can say is that what you’re looking for is JUST whey protein. The extra stuff they have listed on the label, like glutamine and vitamins and minerals and whatnot—you can get those benefits with a supplement that only contains whey. You’d do just as well with something like unflavoured IsoNatural by AllMax, which has 1/10th of the ingredient list.
Buuuut, there’s nothing wrong with that stuff either. That supplement should work great. Just make sure you aren’t paying an arm and a leg for it unless you love it 🙂
This was a really good article, guys! Especially your review of creatine. I was told 20 something years ago that all it does is pump water into your muscle tissue, and once you stop using it, you’ll lose the “swelling,” or size, that you thought you put on. Your review makes me wanna give it a go!
Another whey product I found out about is the New Zealand whey. Evidently, the product process is minimal and produces a FANTASTIC whey protein product!
Also, have you read anything about the need for taking Vitamin D3 accompanied with Vitamin K2? Supposedly, taking it without the K2 (MK7) can cause your body to escort calcium to soft tissues, hardening them, and not taking it to your bones, where it is needed for bone growth, density, and bone cell health. This astounded me! Here is the article for that.
Your articles are very much helping me piece the whole weight gain and overall bodily health picture together for myself! Thank you for your guidance and research, guys! Keep them coming! ❤
I’m really glad you liked it, Shoshannah! There’s a hint of truth to that, in that creatine does make your muscles inflate a little bit with water, but that’s not the purpose of it. The purpose is to help you build more muscle more quickly, and any muscle you build while taking it will stick around even after you stop 🙂
I’ve heard really good things about New Zealand whey, although the processing for most whey products is fairly minimal, so I’m not sure how much of an advantage it offers. I think that’d be a good choice, though 🙂
You can absolutely take vitamin D and vitamin K together, and they do indeed work synergistically. To quote Examine: “Vitamin K is often supplemented alongside vitamin D, since vitamin D also supports bone health. In fact, taking both together will improve the effects of each, since they are known to work synergistically. Excessive vitamin D can lead to arterial calcification, but vitamin K reduces this buildup.” My understanding is that you would need to take a lot of vitamin D to run into issues like that—it looks like around 5x the recommended daily dose—but vitamin K is also a good supplement, so I don’t see any downside in taking them together.
You know what, I’m going to update that section with a recommendation for a supplement that contains a couple vitamins that work well together for someone trying to build muscle (vitamin D, vitamin K, calcium, magnesium and zinc). Citadel Nutrition’s Athlete’s Vitamin is good for that.
Thank you for this comment!
Creatine: any suggestions for brands that come in capsules or pills? It’s easier that way gor me since I pop a multivitamin everyday anyway.
Hey Laura, Optimum Nutrition makes a good creatine supplement that comes in tablet form. The trick is to look for “CreaPure” creatine monohydrate in the ingredients, and this one has it. You’d take 2 tablets every morning 🙂
Thanks guys!!! Just ordered the creatine and athlete vitamin mix, and I used the links you provided! You all are awesome, thanks for existing 🙂 🙂
No problem, Anna! And thank you! So glad we could help 🙂
Thank you for breaking it all down in a way I can finally understand! However, I am a 53 year-old Ectomorph and have been working with a trainer for almost a year, but the gains are quite slow. I recently started using Whey Isolate first thing in the morning, in the afternoon, after workouts and Casein before bed. Would I benefit from Creatine, considering my age?
Hey Cecilia, sounds like you’ve got a great routine going!
Regarding the slow gains, an extra 250 calories per day should get you around 0.5 more pounds gained per week. So if you can find food that makes it easier or more enjoyable to get into a calorie surplus, you should be able to speed those gains up. Some common ones are milk, nuts, dried fruits, bananas, rice, smoothies and trail mix 🙂
Yep! Young and old will benefit from creatine as far as building muscle goes. It’s even being investigated as a way to maintain brain health and prevent Alzheimer’s into old age, so there’s actually a fair bit of research into people 20–30 years older than you who are having success taking it 🙂
Thanks for your response and helpful suggestions. I upped my calorie intake about that much a month ago and am definitely feeling heavier, but I won’t know how much muscle and /or fat I’ve gained until my trained does my weigh-in. I am also a ling distance runner and only recently cut way back on my mileage, hoping this will help too. Thanks again, I am so excited to have found you guys!
Good luck Cecilia! 😀
I drink a cup of milk with 1 tea spoon of coca powder and 3 tea spoons of sugar in it as a pre-workout drink. What do you think of it? I heard that coca powder has caffeine int it.
Oh I also start with stretching then do 5 tracks of zumba dance workout for cardio and to burn the fat (I”m skinny fat) then my normal weight training workout which consists 2 sets of 6 different exercises then cool down with stretch again. Do you think that this drink is enough for this workout?
Hey Tina. Cocoa does contain some caffeine, but in rather small amounts. With a large latte (milk + coffee) you’d be getting 150 grams of caffeine, whereas with a large hot chocolate (milk + cocoa) you’d be getting about 25 grams of caffeine.
150 mg of caffeine is at the low end of what’s effective as a pre-workout supplement. If you go much lower, you can’t expect much of a performance benefit. With that said, if your pre-workout hot chocolate is giving you the energy to have a great workout, then perfect. Sounds like it contains protein and carbs, with most of them coming from nutritious sources. In fact, chocolate milk performs quite well as a post-workout shake even when compared with fancy post-workout shake supplement blends. That will have a good impact on your muscle growth, even if the caffeine doesn’t 🙂
Is the drink enough for your workout? Yes, but in situations like this, more is often better. I would have the same drink again afterwards.
Would you recommend the Tier 1 or Tier 1+? Your Amazon link goes to the Tier1+ with 300mg of caffeine not the regular one with 200mg.
With most things in life, you always want the lowest dose that still give you results. As you get used to it, you can dial it up a bit. So you’ll probably want to start with the Tier 1. If you feel like it’s not enough caffiene after you finish the tub, you could try the Tier 1+ moving forward.
I have a few questions. Could you take other vitamins with this and what is recommended for a 21 year old female so you’re not over doing it? And also can you mix your protein powder with peanut butter, almond milk, and bananas or is just water recommended?
The Athlete’s Vitamin we linked to covers the most common deficiencies that someone who’s active and exercising might come across. If you’re talking just about general health, you may want to investigate something like a “green” supplement where they freeze dry veggies, berries, and greens that you can mix into water. It’d be sort of like a multi-vitamin in whole form. In the USA that might be something like Athletic Greens. In Canada we’ve been enjoying Genuine Health’s Greens +.
As for your smoothie question, absolutely. Peanut butter, banana’s, and almond milk, on top of making the protein powder more delicious, would be adding extra calories to your day as well. If you’re hoping to gain weight, that sounds like a great start. Personally I’d add a small handful of fresh baby spinach and some frozen strawberries for some extra veggies/berries in there.
I hope that helps!
Hi, I just found you guys.
I am 32, 5’6″ and 90lbs.
I don’t have any health conditions but do have a very high metabolism. I have struggled to gain weight all my life and maintain it.
I have started this weight gainer (link below). Casein shake before I sleep is said to help gain weight. I gained 5lbs (I started at 85lbs). But the weight gaining has stopped. I upped it to 8 scoops (4 was recommended on the nutrition table) and still nothing. So I have started weight lifting at my local gym with a trainer.
https://www.amazon.com/NAKED-MASS-Artificial-Ingredients-Calories/dp/B00UIAEOO0
What else can I do? Do I need to add creatine? Would I add it and stop once I gain the weight or take it for life?
Thanks!
Weight gain is 100% controlled by a calorie (energy) surplus. The casein shake is protein and would mainly be to help with muscle protein synthesis while you’re sleeping.
The weight lifting will tell your body where that weight should go. So without lifting, that extra calories mainly go to fat. With weight lifting, it highly encourages your body to build muscle.
If you’re not gaining weight even with taking a weight gainer… well, that’s what our program specializes in 🙂 A hint would be to look at your total calories not just daily, but weekly.
Hi I am a 49 yrs woman, I would like to gain muscles mines are not as It use too. I am starting weights but my stomach still the same size 35 inches. I would appreciate any recommendation please.
I am not totally sure about what you’re asking. But lifting weights put stress on your body to tell it to adapt and get stronger and build muscle (if allowed to with extra food/protein/sleep). So this helps with general strength, health, and fighting off sarcopenia (muscle loss as you age), etc.
But if you’ve got fat around your waist, that won’t go away unless you need to burn it off for extra energy. That means you’ll have to be eating less daily calories than you need every day. Then it would use up the extra energy from your fat stores to equalize. That means either eating less or moving more, or both. Things that normally help with this might be doing cardio in addition to lifting weights (moving more), or intermittent fasting (making it easier to eat less), etc. There are a lot of programs that focus on losing weight/burning body-fat.
Should I use the weight gainer shake with one of my meals a day and then the carbo and whey protein you recommend after working out or is that too much?
You’ll want 80% of your calories to be coming from real whole and minimally processed foods. Having a weight gainer (highly processed) and carbo gain (highly processed) sounds like it might make up more than 20% of your daily calories… not to mention leave no room for anything else processed in your diet.
One last thing, the carbo and whey is a “homemade” gainer. So you wouldn’t need both that and a weight gainer shake.
Why were you going to have a weight gainer for one meal? Likely too much work, yeah? So just make a smoothie. Then it’s all real and minimally processed foods that are good for your body with vitamins, fibre, phytonutrients, etc.
I am a little confused on which order i should take the products in. I am a 21 year old female i am 5’1 and weigh 104lbs
Hey Cheech,
You would take 5 grams of creatine every day, along with any vitamins you decide to take. I’d work that into your morning routine, so perhaps along with breakfast.
You would have some caffeine before your workouts.
You’d have 40 grams of protein powder after finishing your workouts, and then take as much as you need on days when you aren’t getting enough protein in your meals.
Based on this feedback, I’m going to update this article to be a little more clear, and also to include some advice for women who really struggle to hit their calorie goals.
Hi, I am a 21 year old female, 5’7″, weighing 110 lbs. I haven’t been very successful in trying to gain weight so I am going to start taking it seriously. Do you have any lactose-free whey protein recommendations? I am lactose sensitive and it would be awesome to find something that won’t upset my stomach but will still help me with my weight gain goals!
Hey Lauren,
Whey protein is naturally low in lactose. Lactose is the sugar found in dairy, and with whey protein powders, the manufacturers do their best to isolate just the protein. Most of the lactose is removed by default.
However, whey protein concentrate will still include a little bit of lactose. Whey protein isolate will include almost none, and is suitable for many people with an intolerance. Whey protein hydrolysate has no lactose whatsoever.
I would start with an isolate, and if that gives you trouble, switch to a hydrolysate. I don’t expect the isolate will give you trouble, though.
Try this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QSNYGI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QSNYGI&linkCode=as2&tag=foxhound0d-20&th=1
I really hope this helps you finally gain weight! Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help 🙂
Great read! I will share this to my girl she will surely love reading it.
Thanks, Jeff 🙂
Great article! I’m not sure how to ask this question, but will your muscles deflate if you stop taking the creatine? Is this inflation in the muscles only temporary? And about how many weeks of taking creatine daily will a woman notice this inflation in her muscles? Thank you!
Ahaha that’s a great way to ask the question!
Yes and no.
When you begin taking creatine, your muscles will inflate with water, yes. And so when you stop taking it, that inflation will go away. That can mean slowly deflating a couple pounds over the course of a couple months.
However, taking creatine will also accelerate your muscle growth. By the time most people stop taking it, the creatine has caused at least a few pounds of extra growth, and the deflation no longer really takes place. The inflation has become permanent.
How long does it take to notice the inflation? If you take 5 grams of creatine per day, you’ll inflate slowly over the course of a month. The amount of extra water you hold can vary, but assuming you inflate up by 2 pounds, that would be 0.5 pounds gained per week.
As mentioned above, though, if you integrate this with a good muscle-building program, that inflation won’t ever really go away. It will slowly become permanent as you keep progressing forwards. So you can count that as real progress.
Love this! If I were to join your essentials program – are we allowed to ask questions along the way?
Of course! That’s what we’re here for 🙂
You can ask us questions via email, and all of the program packages also come with community access, which is designed specifically for that purpose 🙂
Of course! That’s what we’re here for 🙂
You can ask us questions via email, and all of the program packages also come with community access, which is designed specifically for that purpose.
I hope you decide to join us, Nicole. We’ve love to have you 🙂
I’ve read through the articles and I’m impressed with how simple you make things. It all seems to make sense. However, this may be a silly question, but here goes.
For someone who is practically skin and bones (5.8. 120lbs. Female) wouldn’t you want to gain a nice layer of fat, as well as muscle? And not solely muscle? Or does a calorie surplus and weightlifting disperse the calories where need be in your body? If that makes sense.
Hey Chantal, that’s a great question!
If you have a low body-fat percentage and don’t mind gaining a little fat, that’s actually the ideal situation. You can go into a higher calorie surplus, allowing you to build muscle more quickly. The “downside” is that you risk gaining fat… but since that’s what you want anyway, it works out perfectly 🙂
Building muscle is slower than gaining fat, though, so there will inevitably come a time when you want to slow down the fat gain. So we still recommend trying to gain muscle as leanly as possible, just erring on the side of doing it “too” quickly.
Does that make sense?
That does make sense!
I guess Im in an ideal situation, like you said. If I eat a calorie surplus and weight lift at a reasonable pace, I’ll pack on the fat pounds, as well as muscle! And when I reach my desired muscle fitness, I can ease off on the calories. Right?
Well, if you eat a good muscle-building diet, follow a good lifting program, and gain weight at a reasonable pace, you won’t gain much fat. Not a noticeable amount, anyway.
(Although it would be enough to make your face look better and such. If you’re at 18% body fat when you start, you gain 20 pounds, and you’re still at 18%, that means that 18% of your gains were fat, so around 4 pounds. That tends to mean that you’ll have better muscle definition in muscular areas like your arms, shoulders, back, abs, butt, legs… but also a less bony appearance in areas without a lot of muscle, like your face.)
Anyway, I was saying that you should eat a good muscle-building diet, follow a good lifting plan, and maybe try gaining weight at an unreasonable pace. Drive your weight up a little too fast. You’ll gain more fat and more muscle that way 🙂
Oh ok, that cleared things up! Thank you 🙂
I’m VERY interested in your program. There’s something (many things) about it that resonates with me on a level that sparks my motivation. I feel like I actually might be able to so this for once!
Will I be able to ask questions along the way? I can think of a handful already, lol, so I’m sure I’ll have some more when I get started!
Of course! That’s the whole purpose of the community, and that’s the best way to reach us 🙂
I’m not a dairy person but I have done beef protein in the past. Do you feel it’s as sufficient as whey protein?
Beef protein powder is a strange source of protein, to be sure, but it’s effective, yep! Is it as effective as whey protein? Not completely—nothing is as effective as whey protein—but it’s very, very close.
If you prefer beef protein, go for it. The results you get will be virtually identical 🙂
what brand you recommend for maltodextrin?
We like these big 12-pound bags that NOW makes: http://amzn.to/2DE9sT5 🙂
Hi!
Thank you so much for the great information!
I’m quite thin and experiencing low energy and being tired easily in everyday life. It is quite frustrating, so naturally, I was going to start work-out focusing on muscle mass. Then I had a back disk problem -also due to lack of muscles on my back! UGH- so have to postpone the plan. But honestly, even without the back problem, I’m not sure if I’m in a right state to start the exercise as I feel weak in general. So I’m thinking to earn some energy first by gaining more weight in general, to maintain my life better. Then maybe I can try to work-out gradually. But it’s just my idea, and I’m wondering if it’s okay to try these supplements first without specific exercise. Your advice will be a big help- and thank you so much again!
Hey Nuri,
This supplement guide is developed with the assumption that you’d be lifting weights while trying to gain weight. If you have a more sedentary lifestyle, your recommended minimum daily protein intake would be more like 0.5 grams per pound—so about half. With an intake that low, protein supplements aren’t really needed. Maltodextrin we only recommend taking within a couple hours of lifting weights, when your muscle fibres are the most insulin sensitive. And creatine’s greatest benefit is improved performance in the gym.
If you start gaining weight without working out, most of that weight gain will be fat, and that will actually make it harder to gain muscle later, as you’ll be reducing insulin sensitivity in your muscle cells as you get fatter. Gaining fat while building muscle is okay, but at the very least we want to be putting SOME emphasis on building muscle, i.e., lifting weights, to make sure that you’re getting upwards of 67% of your weight gain coming from muscle. (Unless your doctor is advising otherwise.)
So I’d actually flip your plan around on its head. Start with the workouts, even if that’s just bodyweight workouts at home. Then, when you can manage it, start eating enough to gain weight. THEN bring in supplements. Supplements are the icing on the cake. They’ll generally just collapse into nothing if you aren’t resting them on top of a solid foundation.
Does that help / make sense?
Maybe an iron supplement would help the weakness ? I know when I’m low on energy I feel better ! my Dr told me to take Hemaplex its a veggie based iron and doesnt make my stomach clench up in pain.
What do you think about hemp protein (raw)? Could I use that instead of whey protein and is it effective? Thank you =)
I’m confused. You say “You need a weight gainer that’s higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates” but then suggest an after workout supplement of 50 grams malodextrin and 40 grams whey protein.
Is that not conflicting?
Hi Melanie,
Shane is pointing out that weight-gainers work well in men, but that women would need one with less carbs. So it’s a bit confusing to right after recommend 50g of carbs, for sure. But his comment is comparing it to the normal weight-gainers for men.
For example, the Allmax QuickMass Gainer serving size is 175g of carbs with 60g of protein. If you matched the protein with 40g (what Shane suggested), that would still only bring the carbs down to 117g. That’s over 200% more carbs that he’s recommending.
So while 50g of carbs might sound like a lot, it’s still not a lot compared to most weight-gainers. So making it yourself would allow you to choose every ingredient quality, the flavour, and choose exactly how many carbs you want.
great article
if i may ask, i have to live far from my home in a deserted area for 3 months and its difficult for me to get full amount of healthy meals , so if i only took creatine and worked 3 times a week on my lower body will i see results?
my intakes of protein is really low and i wold love to see progress on my lower body
To be truly, perusing your articles is extremely incredible fun. It makes get familiar with a ton. I really trust there are much more posts like this one your blog; we have to post the specialists out there.
Nice Post!
I am hypoglycemic. My Dr recommended protein with all my carbs so this makes sense! I am 5′-8.5″ and 122 lbs . I am a meat eater and whole food eater. I can’t eat any dairy products or they make me sick to my stomach and as a result of my allergy I lost weight from my healthy 130lbs. I literally was in the fetal position on the sofa for a week after eating a plate of alfredo. I have the same problem with caffeine it hurts my stomach. Any dairy free /caffeine alternatives ? I have 2 kids under the age of 4 and I can’t afford to be curled up on the sofa hurting … .
Thanks for sharing your article. I really enjoyed it!
Hi I am 45 yrs and 50 kg.been this weight for most of my life without gaining a kilo.i am also diabetic and take half mg amaryl before breakfast.which I mostly don’t need if I work out as it stabilizes my sugar .Will taking the whey protein ,creatinine etc cause any spike in my sugars .
If it has any carbohydrates on the back of the container then yes, it possibly could make blood sugar fluctuate says my type one diabetic husband anything over 8-15 grams of carbohydrates especially not ballenced with proteins can be an issue for me ,I am hypoglycemic.
Thanks for sharing your article. I really enjoyed it!
Thank you for this amazing list of weight gain supplements, Shane!
I’ve been a hard-gainer all through my life, and maintaining a calorie surplus has been a difficult part of my schedule. Using a home-made protein powder definitely helped, and so did taking the right amount of creatine monohydrate.
I’ve recently written a similar article on this topic, check it out here: Best Weight Gain Supplements
It’d be great if you could have a look. Thanks!
Thank you so much for putting together useful information for us underweight gals. I have a sensitive stomach but no specific food restrictions or allergies (that I know of). My regular blood pressure is lower than avg & I have a history of hyperthyroidism (under supervision).
1) I finally chose MyProtein Whey+ (made from milk and soy) hoping it being vegetarian would give my stomach less trouble. Are there any companies you recommend for sensitive stomachs? or any tips on when and how to take shakes?
2) Regarding carbs what are some deciding factors between Maltodextrin, Dextrose, and Cyclic Dextrin?
3) Given my sensitive stomach, I wonder if Maltodextrin is a good idea given its effect on gut bacteria? Also wouldn’t it result in a sugar crash? (Not diabetic) Wouldn’t more “natural” carb substitutes e.g. dates or honey be as effective with building muscle?
Many thanks in advance!
Hey Yoda, glad you dug it!
1) Yes, hydrolyzed whey is the go-to for people with sensitive stomachs. It’s essentially predigested, making it go down much easier. The downside is that it can be a bit more expensive and can taste a bit worse.
2) Most of those simple carb powders are going to be digested into glucose very quickly anyway (which is perfectly fine for our purposes) so there really isn’t very much difference. I think maltodextrin (a starch) makes a better default than dextrose (a sugar). For one, it’s not sweet, which makes it much more enjoyable to consume, and I suspect it’ll be easier on our teeth, too. But it really doesn’t matter very much. I’ve bulked with both.
3) So with fruits and honey, the downside is that they’re sucrose—a mix of both glucose and fructose. What we’re mainly after is glucose. That’s what goes into our muscles as muscle glycogen, and there’s also no risk of giving our livers too much fructose to digest. That’s why we default to pure glucose sources: maltodextrin, dextrose, rice, pasta, etc.
However, in the quantities we consume carbs in, it shouldn’t matter that much. Plus, if you’re having fruit, you’d get all the other benefits of having fruit: more fibre, better for the gut, more vitamins, etc.x
So yeah, in your case I think fruit might be the way to go for longterm gut health. Bananas and prunes are both pretty popular for loading up on carbs before a workout. I think dates would also work great, but we don’t normally hear of people using them for that.
Now, if you’re having the carbs either right before or during training (to give you energy), then you might want to choose more easily digested carb sources, such as maltodextrin. But I think you’re right that it’s better to think longterm and go with the foods that are ultimately going to help you build a stronger gut (such as bananas).
Hey ya’ll! I’ve been looking into extra vitamins and supplements to help me gain a little weight. I noticed that CB-1 isn’t listed here. Do you all recommend it? Or are there any reasons I shouldn’t take it?
Hello! I’m a 21-year-old female who has a moderately active lifestyle without lifting weights, running everyday, etc. I have struggled to gain healthy weight all my life, but after reaching about 135 lbs I have had my first major weight drop over the last 6 months. I am currently just above 100 lbs, and concerned that if I don’t do something now I will keep on losing weight and make myself sick. I am looking for good protein supplements to add to my smoothies in the morning (which I have recently started making to get in a healthy dose of probiotics, fruit, and dairy daily) but there’s so much out there—and it’s mostly designed to accommodate the lifestyle of a (male) body builder or serious athlete. I don’t know what will be a good, balanced, healthy fit for me to add as a supplement to my daily life. I found this one product called “Signature Mass Gainer Vanilla protein powder with 50 g of mass-building per serving” that I am considering buying, but wanted to ask for an informed opinion on it. Would you say this a good fit based on what you know from above, or would you recommend another product that seems to align better with my goals?
Hey Dana, that’s a good question.
So, there are some small differences between men and women when it comes to weight gainer supplements. A weight gainer designed for women might have slightly smaller servings, maybe a lower ratio of carbs to protein, but these are minor differences. You can absolutely get a regular, generic weight gainer. Just size the serving to suit your calorie needs. Maybe that means using 3/4 of a scoop instead of a full scoop, you know? (And you’ll be grateful for that because weight gainers have enormous serving sizes!)
Also keep in mind that you could just as easily blend up some smoothies. Some whey protein, a banana, a bit of peanut butter, maybe some milk (or alternative), some ice cubes to make it cold. You could add some spinach, too, maybe some oats. Blend that up and you’ve got a homemade weight gainer that’s packed full of micronutrients and fibre.
But it’s totally up to you. Nothing wrong with trying a weight gainer 🙂
Hello, I’m a 30-year-old woman. I weigh 65kg but have very thin legs. I have low self-esteem, too, especially when I wear skirts. Can you please suggest some whey protein and creatine supplements that will help me gain weight? I only want to gain weight in my lower body.
Hey Stella,
Whey protein will help you by giving you the protein you need to build more muscle. It works best when used in combination with resistance training. Plus, you still need to make sure that you’re eating enough calories to gain weight.
Creatine increases the rate you can build muscle. It doesn’t contain calories and won’t help you gain weight unless it’s taken in conjunction with a good muscle-building diet.
To gain more weight in your lower body, you could do a workout routine that trains your lower body with more fervous than your upper body. For example, a program that emphasizes heavy squats and Romanian deadlifts.
The specific supplement brands you take won’t have a big impact on your results. I like AllMax creatine and IsoNatural whey protein, though.