Is It Harder to Look Muscular When You’re Tall?

I was skimming through the Kino Facebook group, and someone asked a solid question.

I started answering there…

But figured I’d turn this answer into an email.

Thanks for the question, AJ.

My guess is that AJ has a fast “spendthrift” metabolism.

There are two metabolism phenotypes.

  • Thrifty (common): This metabolism slows when calories are reduced and also stores more fat when overeating.
  • Spendthrift (rare): This metabolism slows down less when calories are cut and increases calories burned as more food is consumed. Less fat gets stored overall.

When he eats…

His metabolism kicks up a notch and he burns the extra calories.

He’s got solid lifts.

He’s progressing in strength but he’s only 175 at 6’2″.

To put that in perspective, I’m 175 at 5’10”.

His BMI is only 22.5 right now.

This is equivalent to me being 157 (if I were 6’2″ at my same BMI, I’d be 195).

So he needs to pack on 10-15 pounds of pounds to look very muscular.

He’s IS pretty darn strong.

Here’s what he wrote in the Kino Facebook Group.

He can bench press 225 X 10, uses 105-pound dumbells for incline dumbbell press for 9 reps, and can do 10 pullups with 55 pounds added to his body weight.

These are all super solid numbers.

He’s strong, so he just needs to eat WAY more.

He should force himself to eat and eat until he’s consistently gaining 2-3 lbs per month.

In fact, 10 lbs every 4 months is perfect.

  • By the end of January, he should be 185
  • Two months later, he should be at 190

If I were him, I’d get plenty of protein…

Eggs, Greek yogurt with collagen, steak, fish, etc.

I’d also load up on lots of easy-to-consume carbs like English muffins (so good) pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, etc.

I wouldn’t shy away from carbs.

Even if that means having a big load of carbs 1 hour before bed (it’s hard to burn off those extra calories if you’re going to bed in one hour).

I’d even have a BIG ASS bowl of French Toast Crunch cereal.

Damn, that was one of my favorites as a kid.

May even have a bowl tonight!

But our man here is gaining strength, and I’m sure is looking good.

His body just doesn’t have the raw ingredients to build.

He’s blessed with an easy time getting lean (spendthrift metabolism)… But needs to force himself to get enough calories to grow.

TBH, I’m low-key jealous of this.

This is like the ideal situation.

Most serious lifters have 10-20 lbs of fat to cut before they look great.

They need to cut calories to look awesome.

This guy looks lean and great easily but gets to EAT a lot more to fill up and look awesome.

He just needs to get stronger and eat.

All this talk about English muffins and eggs has me craving Eggs Benedict.

He could probably eat this daily and stay lean.

I have a hard time feeling sorry for him, LMAO.

I’ll talk more about metabolism phenotypes in a future email, but since his metabolism is “Sprendthrift”…

Increasing food intake is vital.

I also recommend two supplements for people with this rare spendthrift metabolism.

  1. Kino Gains – This is the most absorbable form of creatine (creatine HCL) combined with Betaine (helps people gain size as they gain strength). This typically results in a quick 5-8 pounds of muscle growth. Incredible stuff.
  2. Kino Mojo – The testosterone increase helps with nutrient partitioning. This means more of the nutrients from the food you eat will get shuttled into the muscle.

The coolest thing about this is that when he adds 10-15 more muscle, he will have more strength potential.

He’s already strong…

But should be able to get stronger and hit Elite levels with this added muscle.

I hope this helps others in this same situation.

Talk Soon,

Greg O’Gallagher

For a limited time…

Sign up for my email newsletter, and I’ll send you – “The Thor Workout Program” for FREE. A 3-day per week workout with an emphasis on building powerful shoulders and traps.

*Simply enter your email address, and I’ll send it right over.