Gaining

I looked at previous posts and they mention a thousand ways of using weight gain powder, but which ones are the best? Is there any side effects I should be aware of? I saw bottles of Ensure and gaining drinks for bulking at the supermarket, but they're really expensive. Idk about this gaining method so I'm a bit lost in all of this.

The basic aim is to consume more calories than the body uses.

Weight gain powder consists to a high proportion of proteins (approx. 70-80%). If you currently consume little protein and exercise, e.g. in the gym, it is likely that you will gain some muscle mass.

If you don't exercise and you have a calorie surplus, the proteins will be converted into fat. However, proteins are more satiating than other nutrients such as carbohydrates.

I would recommend that you simply try out recipes for shakes and see what you like. A simple shake would be: approx. 350ml milk, 30g peanut butter and or 30g Nutella and a banana. Then you already have a shake with approx. 500 calories. If you want, you can add 30g of weight gain powder and you will end up with around 600 calories.

If you drink it every day, for example, an hour before you go to sleep and this amount is extra, you would gain about 400-500g a week. Drinking it before bed was the easiest way for me to gain weight. I just ate my meals as usual and as a calorie surplus I drank the shake.

Then there are massive weight gainers, which consist of significantly more carbohydrates and have a lower protein content of around 15%. The aim here is for athletes to simply get more calories. For example, a shake would look like this: 400ml milk and 150g massive weight gainer. You end up with 800 calories.

Personally, I can't recommend this, as the powder consists mainly of flour and the shake will taste mostly of flour. But the powder can be easily added to other shakes in small quantities and is cheaper.

Finally, i want to emphasize that the best way to ensure that you drink the shakes is when they taste good. I tried drinking shakes with cream but I just couldn’t bring myself to drink it. But other people like that so experiment a bit and find out what you enjoy.

Weight gain powders work in the sense that they are a source of easy calories, but I wouldn't make them my main calorie source.

They can be very expensive, and most weight gain powder is high in protein. That's not bad, but if you consume too much protein, you can mess up your kidneys. So if you go this route, follow the instructions on the container.

the best forumula is more calories in than are being used and thats it, there's no magic. shakes are just a way to get in easy calories.