A Critical Look At Weight-Gainers

Weight gainers are nothing new. They have been on the market for a very long time, probably one of the very first to be considered a "Bodybuilding' supplement. However, many people take that fact and make the assumption that because they have been around for a very long time that they must 'work'. Well,, they answer is, yes they do work but that depends on what you mean by, 'work'.

Weight gainers are meant for those who are looking to put on mass and put it on quickly. Usually for those who would consider themselves to be "Hard Gainers".In this sense, weight gainers serve their purpose. But the problem arises when you ask just wnat kind of mass will one put on? Will it be mostly muscle mass, or mostly fat mass? When trying to determine how a particular food item will effect your body composition, the first thing you should do is breakdown the composition of the food product. This may not be a stead-fast rule, but it will point you in the right direction.

Popular Weight Gainer Products:

Champion Nutrition's Heavyweight Gainer 900: One of the more calorically dense products onthe market, Champion's heavyweight gainer 900 packes 630 calories in to a 154g serving. This sounds all fine and good, but at a closer look, over 100g of that is purely carbohydrate, 42g of which are sugar.

The primary carbohydrate of choice for most weight gainers is maltodextrin, mainly because it is cheap and can technically be called a complex carbhydrate. However, with a Glycemic Index of 105, I think it is saft to throw the 'complex carbohydrate notion out the window.

EAS Mass Factor: This product includes creatine into its formulation. A solid addition, but this doesn't garuntee gains in muscle mass as its advertisment would have you beleive. Creatine's effect on muscle mass has been proven, but it is not a direct result. In other words, you still have to put in the hard work for creatine to exert any positive effects on muscle mass.

Another interesting aspect of this product is that they use whey protein for all 52 grams of protein in a single serving. While that sounds like a good thing when trying to add muscle mass, 35g of such a highly glucogenic( oxidized to glucose easily) protein like whey, is never a good idea. Becuase of this small fact, much of this product will end up being flushed down the toiled. Litterally! possible better suited as a pre/post workout drink if in smaller amounts.

ISS Research Gainer Matrix: ISS has tried to take advantage where other companies have faultered. By brining in different types of protein and reducing the sugar content, this is a step in the right direction. However, this product is very much a high calorie version of a meal replacement.

They have increased their protein content to 60g and this is not so much of a bad thing due to the slower digestion rate of milk protein. Hwever ,once again, the carbohydrate count tips the charts at over 100g per serving.

ProLab's N-Large II: Pro Lab's Answer to the weight gainer scene is their revamped nLarge II. This version brings a higher protein content and a lower overall carbhydrate content with only 86g per serving. Another step in the right direction, but with almost 30g of sugar per serving, it would be difficult to recommend this product.

Pro Lab would have you believe that thier product is beter than every other product on the market, but the again, what company wouldn't. Pro lab goes as far as to say as this product contains the highest grade protein ( whey protein concentrate )in any other product. When in fact, all of the previous products contain this type of protein. They could very well be refering to some other aspect of the protein, but WPC is WPC.

The composition of this product, once again would strike me as more of a pre/post workout type of a drink. But with such a high calorie count, it would almost be counter productive as high calorie foods will cause the empting of the contents from the stomach in to the small intestine ( where the nutreints are actually absorbed) to be delayed. Not what you would want after a workout.

Conclusions

These products will add a lot of calories to your diet very quickly. And in many cases these calories are primarily carbohydratess with a high percenage coming from sugar.When trying to add muscle mass, carbohydrates are pretty easy to come by in the first place. The critical peice to the puzzle is getting down small, frequent feedings of high quality protein that will really make the difference.

While maintaining a fairly high calorie count is a part of the overall picture, one does not need to be consuming excess amounts of them. The type and quality of those calories is going to make a bigger impact than just playing the numbers game. So in closing, do weight gainers help you put on weight? Yes, but chanes are much of it will be from additional body fat rather than the high sought after quality muscle mass.