- Introduction
- Tips for safe weight gain
- Best food options for weight gain
- Conclusion
For some people gaining weight is as essential and difficult as losing weight is for others. People actually struggle to gain weight and add muscle. Doctors specially recommend gaining weight to people who weigh too little consistently. Undoubtedly, an underweight person always stands at the risk of several health issues, including developmental delays, weak immune system, infertility, malnutrition and malnutrition. Even the bodybuilders and athletes desire to gain weight and build muscle.
Your body mass index or B.M.I is the measure of your body fat. B.M.I uses your age, height and weight to provide a healthy range for you. Generally speaking, a B.M.I of less than 18.5 is considered underweight. For best results, you can consult with your home physician and talk about your ideal weight and how you can achieve it in a healthy way.
There are various reasons that can result in low body weight. Some of the reasons are mental health condition, genetics, medication, illness and high level of physical activity. When you follow a proper diet, you will be able to gain weight in few days. The primary key to weight gain is to consume high calories than you burn every day. Today we are going to discuss about the food items that are high in calories.
Tips for safe Weight Gain
- Eat often: It is recommended to eat five to six small meals instead of going for three big one. This way, you would be able to consume more calories and it will help you to gain weight.
- Drink some calories: Cut off beverages like coffee, tea and diet soda. Instead, grab a glass of full-fat milk, smoothie or juice. All of these would provide nutritional and calories.
- Avoid junk food: Too many calories with added sugar, salt and unhealthy fats can take a toll on your body. You should always choose nutritious food like beans, dairy and meat for gaining weight in a healthy way.
- Choose the food correctly: If your aim is to gain weight, you should consume fruits and vegetables that are high in calories like mangoes, avocados, corn and potato. Fatty fish like salmon is also an amazing choice.
- Consume cheese: Cheese is rich in calories. It is loaded with vitamins and other nutrients required by your body. You can use cheese in a burger, sandwich or with potatoes. They will boost up the rate of your weight gain.
Best food options for Weight Gain
Red meat: Consumption of red meat will help to build muscle and gain weight. Steak contains both creatine and leucine along with other nutrients that boost up the muscle mass. Additionally, steak and other red meats contain both fat and protein that enhances weight gain. However, you need to limit its intake to a certain amount. Lean cuts of red meat are healthy for heart and thus, more preferred than the fattier cuts. It helps to increase strength and is essential for muscle building hormone. As per studies, women can gain weight of 18% when they had included lean meat in their diets.
Potatoes and starches: A cost-effective and easy way to add those extra calories in your meal. Some of the healthy sources of starchy carbohydrates are oats, corn quinoa, buckwheat, sweet potatoes, winter root vegetables, beans and legumes. Apart from weight gain, potatoes increase the muscle glycogen stores. Glycogen is major source of fuel for performing sports and other activities. Additionally, these provide fiber and other nutrient value to your body as well as help to nourish your gut bacteria. Quinoa has high content of protein, vitamin B and minerals.
Salmon and other oily fishes: An amazing source of protein and healthy fats, they are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and increase the intake of healthy fats. Additionally, they even help to fight variety of diseases and keep your good health. One ounce of salmon provides approximately 250 calories of healthy fats, which weighs 12 grams. Salmon and the oily fishes provide high quality protein and help you with weight gain and muscle building. There are various ways of preparing salmon, including sauté, smoke, grill, bake and steam. You can even try the raw salmon in sashimi and sushi. Salmon salad tastes great with leafy greens, plain yogurt and asparagus.
Protein supplements: Mostly used by bodybuilders and athletes who want to gain a good amount of weight. There are various types of protein power available, including whey, egg, pea protein and soy. Made from dairy, Whey protein supplements help to gain muscle and weight in a cost effective way, along with reducing the risk of diseases. If you are engaged in resistance training, your protein requirement will increase and therefore consumption protein supplements would be essential. Whey protein contains all amino acids that stimulate your muscle growth.
FINAL WORDS
For weight gain, it is mandatory to include high calorie food items to your daily diet plan. You can include some of the food items mentioned above. Firstly, make sure you consume all the three macro-nutrients like healthy fat, protein and carbohydrates on a regular basis. Secondly, you should understand that some food items are better than others in terms of nutrition are.
Additionally, it’s essential to consume nutrient dense food for weight gain. Indeed, junk and oily food can also help to increase your weight but, that would have an adverse effect on your body in the long run. The less nutritious high-calorie foods do not have antioxidants, fiber, minerals or vitamins. Thus, they are completely of no use to your body.
A weight gain diet plan consists of three meals every day with large portions. However, if you do not like eating much at one time, you can divide your meals into five or six small portions. Additionally, weight gain diets do not discards any particular food but healthy version of the diet chooses whole foods over the processed ones.
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