The Ultimate Hardgainer Breakfast

“Once eating breakfast becomes a habit, things will go faster, lifting will be easier, and gains will come.”

The ultimate breakfast for hardgainers is bacon, eggs, and toast. Just kidding! Obviously, the “best” breakfast is going to depend on that individual, their needs, and their goals. In this article, we won’t state a specific recipe that is guaranteed to triple your gains- because that doesn’t exist. Instead, we’ll teach you how to manually design a custom meal catered to your specific hardgainer needs. You’ll wake up each morning excited to start your day with your own ultimate hardgainer breakfast.

Why breakfast is important for hardgainers

Everyone has heard the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, but is it? If so, why? 

Breakfast is quite literally when your break your fast. You already know that when we eat food, our body stores those nutrients to use when needed. After fasting for 8+ hours, our bodies have used a lot of those nutrients. Specifically, glycogen. As we sleep, our liver breaks down glycogen to become glucose and is used to keep our blood sugar levels stable overnight. 

If you don’t replenish your glycogen stores, you’ll start to feel sluggish and tired. This is because our brains rely mostly on glucose for energy. Restricting glucose can make you inattentive and less likely to chase after your daily goals. 

Eating breakfast gives you control over your diet. As hardgainers, this is something we lack most of the time. I constantly preach the importance of front-loading calories, because it is one of the most effective strategies for a hardgainer to put on weight. Front-loading calories is when you consume large amounts of calories early in the day, effectively making the second half of the day much easier on you mentally and physically. To some of us, eating enough calories is an honest challenge, and eating a large breakfast can help a lot. 

What the ultimate breakfast should consist of

If you’re a skinny guy trying to build muscle and lose fat, you should have a general understanding of a proper diet. Things like fat, protein, portion size, and food quality are all factors to consider. When you think of breakfast, your mind might conjure images of bacon and eggs, or perhaps cereal. This isn’t wrong, but these meals can be optimized for hardgainers. 

The checklist:

The correct amount of calories

Enough protein

A healthy blend of fat and carbohydrates 

Some form of liquid calories

Convenience 

Palatable 

Think of the breakfast you had this morning (you did have breakfast, right?) and ask yourself if it met everything on the list. 

In the next section, we’ll meet up with our client, Joe, and break down every component and explain how and why each one will be included in his first meal of the day. 

How to design the ultimate breakfast

By now, you should have your caloric maintenance figured out, or perhaps you know how many calories you need to bulk. If you don’t know how to find your caloric maintenance, go here for a quick tutorial.

Our friend Joe is a 20-year-old male, who is 5’9” and weighs 110lbs. Joe is a skinny guy who is looking to bulk up. He’s already calculated his caloric maintenance, which is 2700 calories. He is going to start his bulk by adding 300 calories, for a total of 3,000 per day. For breakfast, Joe usually has a bagel or sometimes nothing at all. 

The correct amount of calories

For example, let’s say that you’re like Joe and you’re bulking at 3,000 calories per day. I would recommend 25%- 35% of those calories come from your breakfast. This can be a lot, but we’ve already laid out the importance of front-loading. This range would be 750- 1,050. A 750 calorie breakfast should be manageable for most, but 1,050 calories may be difficult. If it is too much, cut it back and work your way up until you can eat it without feeling sick or bloated.

To start creating his perfect breakfast, Joe is going to look for recipes or ideas that will add up to the 750-1,050 calorie range.

Enough protein

Joe weighs 110lbs, which means he is going to eat 110g of protein per day. The recommendation is 0.8-1.0g per lb of body weight per day, but Joe wants to stay at the high end and consume 1g per lb.

In theory, Joe could eat the whole 110g of protein with breakfast, then he wouldn’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day. However, this would work against him for a few reasons. Protein is very satiating. Satiety is how full you feel and protein tends to make people feel full. By limiting his protein intake, Joe can comfortably eat more in the morning. 

Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the mechanism by which our bodies build new muscle using protein. Research shows that MPS spikes after consuming protein. Therefore, it is better to consume protein throughout the day, keeping MPS high.

So instead, Joe is going to consume at least ¼ of his daily protein intake during breakfast. For Joe, this is 27.5g. 

A healthy blend of fat and carbohydrates

Carbs are simply sugar, starch, or fiber. Glucose is a sugar and, as previously mentioned, is highly beneficial when included in your breakfast. 

Fats are more energetically dense than carbs or protein and are important to include in the human diet. As a general rule, saturated fats and trans fats are unhealthy, but all other fats are good. 

As a hardgainer, you will consume a lot of carbs and fats. Carbs provide energy faster than fats do, and typically you’ll be consuming more carbs. 

Joe is a little overwhelmed when it comes to macronutrients, and just wants to know how much fat and carbs he needs to include in his hardgainer breakfast. Luckily for Joe, it doesn’t really matter. Unhealthy fats are normally found in processed food, and Joe wants to make healthy choices, eating lots of fruits and vegetables. The most important thing to remember is to avoid an imbalance. Creating a meal that is all carbs or all fats won’t harm Joe, but also doesn’t align with his goals very well. 

Some form of liquid calories

The quickest and most convenient way to consume a lot of calories is to drink them. This could be a number of things, like a protein shake, smoothie, mass gainer shake, or a glass of orange juice. 

Joe likes to use his fancy blender so he’s going to be blending up some frozen berries. He has a number of options like adding orange juice or even a scoop of protein powder. 

If time is a factor, it will be easier to consume a blend and consume a large shake rather than prepare an equal amount of food. Another benefit is that liquid calories digest quicker, which means you’ll get hungrier quicker.

Convenience

The ultimate breakfast for a hardgainer must be convenient. 

Joe likes to go to bed and wake up early, but for some reason, it never happens. Instead, he wakes up late, falls behind, and often skips breakfast altogether or eats his bagel in the car.

If it’s possible, Joe would like to prepare some or all of the breakfast the night before, when he has more energy and time.

Palatable 

Food is easier to eat when it tastes good. Oatmeal has long been a staple in the hardgainers diet, but not a lot of us can eat oats day after day. 

Palatability is just one reason why junk food is so easy to over-consume while vegetables are not. Joe strongly dislikes strawberries, therefore, a breakfast including strawberries would be difficult for Joe to consume every morning. 

This sounds obvious, but some people may push themselves to eat something they don’t really like if it means that they will gain weight or muscle. The trick is to stick to foods you find tasty. The process will be easier and you’re more likely to reach your goals. 

Joe’s breakfast

Joe now has a checklist to make his ultimate breakfast. 

750 Calories or more

27.5g of protein or more

Something liquid

Easy to make or prep the night before

Tasty

The parameters are quite simple, and Joe has a lot of creative freedom for recipes. In fact, bacon and eggs just might work- if he adds a protein shake! 

Joe has decided that he’s going to design two breakfasts, and switch between them when he wants a change. The first breakfast he’s planning is a bowl of granola cereal topped with fruit and a glass of orange juice. 

Joe’s first breakfast ticks all the boxes except convenience. Yes, this breakfast is pretty easy but Joe tends to sleep in and needs a Plan B for when he is running late. Since Joe likes bagels so much, we’ll be using them!

The second breakfast will be a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a protein shake. 

This one can be easily modified based on how much cream cheese Joe wants to put on. It’s also higher protein at 44g this time. 

It’s simple but consistency is key

Consistency is key. Perhaps the truest sentence I’ll ever write when it comes to fitness. If you commit to a big breakfast, you’ll gain weight. It’s an amazing secret for hardgainers, but not practiced enough. 

These are just guidelines for designing your perfect breakfast. Joe is hypothetical but the struggles he has are real for most people. Once eating breakfast becomes a habit, things will go faster, lifting will be easier, and gains will come. 

Feel free to step outside the box and experiment for yourself. Every individual is different and everyone’s daily routines are different too. You can try high protein, more calories, or make one giant shake if you want. The important part is that you commit to a certain amount of calories every single morning. 

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