Muscle-Building for Skinny Guys

Animation of a skinny guy bulking up, building muscle, and becoming muscular.

Illustration of a skinny ectomorph building muscle

We Help Hardgainers, Skinny & Skinny-Fat Guys Bulk Up

For the past 12 years, we've specialized in helping skinny guys build muscle, get strong, and gain weight. People say it's a small niche, but if this bulk goes according to plan, we'll soon be the biggest community on the internet.

I'm Shane Duquette, and I gained 55 pounds in a little over two years. I was lucky. I had the help of my business partner, Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS, PN, a naturally thin strength coach who'd already gained 60 pounds. We also helped our other business partner, Jared Polowick, gain 50 pounds.

Before and after photos showing Shane Duquette's ectomorph muscle-building transformation

Before and after photos showing Marco Walker-Ng building muscle as a skinny ectomorph.

Before and after photo of a skinny guy bulking up and gaining muscle

We're the founders of Bony to Beastly (for skinny men), Bony to Bombshell (for skinny women), and Outlift. We've helped over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, with clients ranging from college students to senior citizens, MDs to PhDs, and office workers all way the way up to college, professional, and Olympic athletes.

Before and after photos showing a skinny fat transformation.

Before and after photos showing the results from doing the Bony to Beastly Program

Before and after photo of a skinny guy leanly building muscle and bulking up in one year

Before and after photo of a skinny guy bulking up his shoulders and becoming muscular

The proof is in the smoothie, too. We consistently get the best bulking transformations on the internet. Check out these muscle-building transformations from guys doing the Bony to Beastly Program.

Bigger, Stronger, & Fitter

Bony guys are defined by their scaffolding. We're here to help you fill out that frame with muscle, reaping all the long-term health and fitness benefits as you bulk up.

Maybe you're a "hardgainer," where no matter how much you eat, you can't gain weight. You aren't crazy. There's genetic variation in stomach size, appetite, and metabolism. Many of us are genetically predisposed to thinness. We need to find a diet that suits us.
Maybe you're an "ectomorph," with thinner wrists and narrower shoulders, worried your frame can't support muscle growth. We had that same fear. It isn't true. Thin guys tend to be able to build muscle faster than other body types.
Maybe you're skinny-fat, getting bigger and smaller without ever getting leaner or stronger. That's frustrating. You're one of the rare few who eats the right amount of food, yet it's being stored as fat instead of muscle. We need to reverse that, and we can.

We're the Costco of muscle. You can find anything you want, but everything is in bulk. We write about how to eat a healthy weight-gain diet, how to train for muscle size, and how to live a lifestyle that supports muscle, strength, and overall fitness.

If you want us to walk you through the entire process of bulking up, check out our Bony to Beastly Program. We'll teach you everything you need to know, including diet, training, and lifestyle. We'll answer all your questions, give you feedback along the way, and support you through every step of the process.

We've also written hundreds of free articles about how to build muscle, eat a good diet, and live a healthy lifestyle. Feel free to drop a comment. I answer all of them.

Thin Genetics

Thin guys often have different genetics, giving us different struggles and goals and influencing how we eat, lift, and live.

The Art of Bulking

The only way to get bigger is to gain weight. The best way to gain weight is to prioritize muscle growth—to bulk. Nobody knows bulking better than we do.

How to Train Your Muscles

One of the best ways to improve your results is to improve your training. The more muscle growth you can stimulate, the more calories your muscles will gobble up, leaving fewer to store as body fat. We'll show you how to stimulate more growth.

Plus, you may want to develop a certain muscle. Perhaps you're tired of having a thin neck, lanky arms, or a small chest. The best way to develop a specific muscle is to train it. We'll show you how.

How to Eat a Good Diet

It isn't hard to learn about how to eat a nutritious diet. However, most of that advice is for overweight people struggling to lose weight. We have the opposite problem. We need an abundant diet that's rich in calories and nutrients, supporting our health and muscle growth.

How to Build Muscle at Home

Gyms are great, but you can build just as much muscle at home. I've bulked with adjustable dumbbells in my small apartment. Now I lift weights in my barbell home gym. In a pinch, you can even bulk with bodyweight workouts. You can use whatever you have, but be smart about it.

How to Improve Your Appearance

I know, I know. We're supposed to work out to develop our inner beauty and fortitude. But it doesn't hurt to look great while we do it. Most of the advice on the internet is either politically correct or distorted by the manosphere. That's why we've consulted with the top attractiveness researchers and conducted our own surveys.

How to Get Leaner, Fitter & Healthier

All of our articles consider health and fitness. We're not in the bodybuilding or powerlifting scene. We're part of the fitness industry. We're natural lifters who want to be strong, fit, and healthy. Still, there are two things naturally thin guys need to know:

Muscle-Building Supplements

Supplements are overrated but helpful. We don't sell supplements or use any affiliate links, keeping our supplement recommendations as unbiased as possible.

Calculators

Ideal Weight & Muscle Measurements Calculator: This calculator asks for your height, wrist circumference, and goal body fat percentage, then it tells you your ideal body weight and muscle measurements.
Natural Muscular Potential Calculator: This calculator uses your height, wrist circumference, and ankle circumference to estimate how big you can build your muscles.
Bulking Calorie Calculator: This calculator lets you pick how leanly or aggressively you want to bulk, includes macronutrient recommendations, and has an option for hardgainers (who have especially hellish metabolisms).
Cutting Calorie Calculator: This calculator lets you pick how quickly you want to lose weight, includes macronutrient recommendations, and is optimized for gaining/maintaining muscle.
Body Recomposition Calorie Calculator: This calculator gives you recommendations that will help you build muscle and burn fat at the same time.
At-Home Body Fat Percentage Calculator (Navy Method): This method accounts for muscle growth, making it the easiest and best way to monitor your body fat percentage if you lift weights. All you need is a measuring tape.
FFMI calculator: FFMI is like BMI except that it measures lean mass. It's how bodybuilders compare their muscularity with one another. An "athletic" FFMI is good enough for most people, though.

Kick back, relax, and enjoy some moderately heavy reading. We'll teach you everything you need to know to go from lean to mean, from stick to thick, from Bony to Beastly.

Our Recent Articles

lllustration of a man with exceptionally broad shoulders and big side delts, giving him an exaggerated v-taper.

The V-Taper Physique Myth

By Shane Duquette | May 8, 2025

When most guys think of the most attractive male physique, they think of a V-taper body shape with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. That isn’t wrong. There’s quite a bit of research showing that men with broader shoulders and narrower waists are more attractive. The V-taper physique isn’t a…

The best bulking books, courses, and programs for skinny guys trying to build muscle.

The Best Bulking Programs for Skinny Beginners in 2025 (Reviewed)

By Shane Duquette | May 3, 2025

To find the five best bulking programs for skinny beginners, we surveyed our 26,000 naturally thin newsletter subscribers. Most of them have tried several different bulking programs, some of which worked, and many of which didn’t. We’ve also bulked up ourselves. Marco is naturally skinny, he has a degree in…

Illustration of a man doing a bulking workout routine to maximize his rate of muscle growth.

Bulking Workout Routine: How to Maximize Muscle Growth

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | Mar 11, 2025

Whether you’re trying to build muscle, burn fat, or do both at the same time, you should be training for hypertrophy—for muscle growth. That’s why bulking, cutting, and body recomposition workouts are usually fairly similar. Still, bulking workouts are special in three ways: Plus, it’s even more important to maximize…

Illustration of a bodybuilder using turkesterone to build muscle.

Does Turkesterone Improve Muscle Growth? (Explaining the Scam)

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | Jan 12, 2025

Turkesterone is one of the most popular (and infamous) muscle-building supplements on the market. Joe Rogan, More Plates More Dates, and Vitruvian Physique have all discussed its benefits. Most famously of all, Greg Doucette touts the benefits of his turkesterone supplement (Turk Builder) several times per week to hundreds of…

Illustration of a skinny guy holding a tub of protein powder while bulking.

The Best Protein Powder for Bulking (2025)

By Shane Duquette and Cassandra Duquette | Jan 12, 2025

I’ll tell you the best protein powder for bulking, but you might be asking the wrong question. Protein is an important part of a balanced bulking diet, and protein powder is an easy way to get that protein, but you might be thinking of a weight gainer. Weight gainers are…

Illustration of a thin man devouring the universe to bulk up.

How to Eat More Calories, Increase Your Appetite & Gain Weight

By Shane Duquette and Cassandra Duquette | Oct 13, 2024

Most naturally thin people struggle to eat enough calories to gain weight. Usually, that’s a good thing. Our genetics help us avoid the obesity that plagues almost everyone else. But if you’re skinny, underweight, or trying to bulk up, then the same genetic advantages that keep you healthfully lean can…

Illustration showing a skinny ectomorph flexing his lanky arms.

What’s an Ectomorph? Are Body Types Even Real?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | Oct 4, 2024

An ectomorph is someone who is naturally slim. We tend to have thinner bone structures, fewer fat cells, and faster metabolisms. We’re often taller than average, with longer spines and limbs and proportionally smaller stomachs. I’m an ectomorph. I’ve also spent the past fifteen years helping other ectomorphs gain weight,…

Illustration showing a 16:8 intermittent fasting meal schedule (with no breakfast).

Is Intermittent Fasting Good for Bulking & Building Muscle?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | Oct 1, 2024

Intermittent fasting is popular for weight loss. But what if you’re a skinny guy trying to bulk up? Can you use intermittent fasting to build muscle faster or more leanly? After all, intermittent fasting raises growth hormone production, which purportedly helps with muscle growth; it increases insulin sensitivity, which could…

Illustration of a skinny guy building muscle on keto.

Can You Build Muscle On Keto? Most Research Says You Can’t

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | Oct 1, 2024

People have been using keto to lose weight for the past 200 years. For example, in the 1970s, it saw a surge in popularity because of the Atkins Diet, which started with a strict ketogenic phase. During that same time period, bodybuilders have leaned towards higher-carb diets. Conventional bulking diets get…

If none of these articles tickle your fancy, we've got dozens more.

Or if you're ready to start building muscle, check out our bulking program.