With 65% of American's clinically obese, it is not surprising to see multitudes on diets, trying to lose weight. There are however, some people who have struggled to put weight on. Typically, these people have a higher than average metabolism or expend a lot of calories in their day to day life. A few years ago I had a young lady in her early 20's come into my office with a couple of health challenges. The first and most important was her low body weight. She had always been thin but seemed to have lost even more weight after a bout with the flu and could not put it the weight back on. At 5''5' she weighed in at well under 100 pounds. After visiting her doctor who told her to eat a lot of McDonald's fast food to put on weight, she was recommended by a friend to my office. We went right to work and after some specific testing to locate causative factors to her weight problem I was able to determine a few key weaknesses.

Like so many American's, this young lady suffered from tired adrenal glands which were interfering with her metabolism. As a result of the adrenal fatigue, her body was not able to produce normal digestive enzymes to help in the break down, absorption, and utilization of her food. This deficiency also contributed to her weak immune system and subsequent chronic infections. Once we started her on some specific nutrient formulas to help her adrenal glands, digestive system, as well as her immune system, we saw a huge turn around. She no longer suffers from chronic colds and was able to break the 100 pound mark for the first time in her life in a relatively short period of time! I use this young lady as an example of some of us who can not seem to put on healthy muscle mass.

About a year ago I went through some major life changes. I actually moved 1,300 miles from the area I grew up in. I started a new business venture and was away from most of my family and friends. This put a large amount of stress on me which started to take a toll on my physical body, as well as my mental health. During times of mental and physical stress your metabolism speeds up. I have always had a fast metabolism and if I am not working out regularly and eating calorie dense foods, that fast metabolism tends to lead to a catabolization of my muscle mass. I lost close to 15 pounds and was getting very frustrated. I want to share with you some tips I used to put on 17 pounds of muscle mass in just 60 days! If you are struggling to put on weight, especially muscle mass, then you will want to pay close attention to the following tips.

1) From the moment you are born your body begins to go through stress which affects your metabolism, so make sure you get on a good adrenal gland supplement to bring your adrenals and metabolism back to optimum function.

2) If you are not taking a digestive enzyme, you will NEVER make the muscle mass gains you are looking for. If you can't break down the food, how do you expect to utilize the protein and other nutrients needed for building muscle?

3) You must eat small meals every 3 hours that you are awake. In order to keep your metabolism from eating away at your muscle, or catabolising muscle to produce energy, you need to feed your metabolism enough calories. This is the most important part of the program!

4) Your diet should be 30% protein, 40% carbohydrate, and 30% non-hydrogenated fat.

5) You should eat a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

6) Use a quality protein powder. It is often hard to take in the necessary amount of protein calories unless you are adding protein powder to your diet. There are only a few good whey protein powders on the market that are not overly heat processed, which destroys their biochemical integrity.

7) Eat a high protein meal as soon as you wake up. During sleep, your cortisol level raises which causes muscle catabolism. Protein will stop that catabolism!

8) Eat a protein at every meal. Protein intake will also ensure low insulin levels during the day and help avoid the storage of fat.

9) You can not build muscle if you are not pushing the muscles you have! In the gym, you should focus on heavy weights at low repetitions. Without breaking down muscle tissue through weight training, it will not be rebuilt with more mass.

10) Rest! Physical and mental stress need to be kept to a minimum. Your muscles can not grow if you don't rest them after work outs. Make sure you never work the same muscle group 2 days in a row and always try to get 8 hours of sleep. Remember, it is the recovery time that allows the muscle to grow.

These tips will help you achieve your muscle gaining goals, but it will take dedication and hard work! Until next time, keep seeking and applying the truth!

In health,

Thomas Von Ohlen, MS