Are you having trouble gaining weight? It could be because of your metabolism, your genetics or that you have a very active life. If you find it difficult to gain weight, you should know that there are a series of changes that you can apply in your routine and that will help you gain weight in a healthy way and without risks to your health.
Keep in mind that it is not enough that you start eating fast food or sweets, since these foods could increase cholesterol levels in addition to causing cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and other health problems. In this article we are going to give you the keys to learn how to gain healthy weight so that you can enjoy a healthy and fit body.
Recommendations to gain healthy weight
Before I begin to tell you some tactics to gain weight in a healthy way, it is important that you find out why it costs you so much to gain weight. We have already told you that it may be that you have a fast metabolism, that you are a nervous person or that you do a lot of physical activity with which you burn calories.
But it may also be that you have some type of condition or metabolic disorder (such as hyperthyroidism) that needs to be treated individually by a doctor. If you don”t need any specialized treatment, you can follow these general recommendations to gain weight quickly and healthily:
- Add calorie-laden smoothies and juices to your diet. If you want to know recipes for homemade smoothies to get fat fast, just click on the link!
- Increase your servings for each meal and your calorie intake.
- Add mid-morning or afternoon snacks to your diet.
- Do exercises to increase muscle mass?
- Increase your intake of good fats (polyunsaturated or monounsaturated).
- Consume semi-skim or whole milk.
Do I need to get fat?
Before starting a diet to gain weight, it is important to specify what we want to gain weight for or if we really need it. Many athletes are looking for ways to increase muscle mass quickly to be more competitive in their sports disciplines. Other people want to gain weight to look healthier or to correct health problems.
If you are not sure if you are too thin or too thin, you can find out by calculating your body mass index (BMI). This formula is used to know if your weight is healthy for your height. You just have to divide your weight by your height squared and if the result is less than 18.5, you need to gain weight. In this article we will tell you, step by step, How to calculate the body mass index.
Food to gain weight
In order to gain weight, it is clear that you have to increase the calories you eat daily. But be careful with this: not everything goes, because you will need that the foods you add to your diet are healthy and do not harm your body. Therefore, do not uncontrollably eat foods high in fat or sugar and opt for ingredients with a high nutritional content. These will help you achieve your goal without increasing bad cholesterol, triglycerides, or the glycemic index.
In this sense, it is important that you know some of the best foods to gain weight healthily that will increase your mass but without the fats being stored in your body and ending up damaging your internal functioning:
- Beef: it is a food that provides us with healthy proteins, rich in iron and that provides the body with useful fats and calories. Also, let”s not forget that protein is perfect to increase muscle mass and, thus, show you more corpulent.
- Nuts: they are foods that are full of good fats and that raise the caloric level of your dishes in a healthy way. So, if you want to gain healthy weight, we recommend that you add them to your meals. For example, you can add a handful of nuts to salads or yogurt during a snack.
- Cheese or dairy: it is a product rich in fat but, in addition, it provides our body with essential nutrients such as calcium.
- Fruit smoothies with milk: with these drinks we manage to provide our body with vitamins from fruits and milk but, in addition, we add that extra contribution of fat and calories that whole milk gives us.
- Legumes: these are foods that are very rich in nutrients such as iron, protein and carbohydrates, but they also provide us with many calories. Therefore, you can add these recipes in your life and you will achieve healthy weight gain.
- Foods rich in good fats: increase the consumption of foods rich in good fats, such as olive oil, avocado, oily fish meat, coconut, etc.
We invite you to visit our article How to gain weight by eating healthy to learn more foods that you can incorporate into your diet to achieve your ideal weight.
Diet to gain healthy weight
Once you know the foods you need to gain weight quickly and healthily, all you need is to know how to incorporate them into your diet to see results in no time. The most important thing is that you consume more calories than your body burns daily. If you want to gain weight slowly, you can go on a diet 300-500 calories more than you burn, and if you want to do it fast, add 700 to 1000 calories more. Here are some ideas for adding more calories to your diet.
At breakfast
Never forget to eat breakfast: it is essential to gain weight by following a healthy and balanced diet. You can enjoy some of these nutrient and protein rich breakfasts:
- Yogurt with nuts and fruits.
- Fruit, milk and vegetable smoothies.
- Toast with peanut butter or nut butters.
- Scrambled eggs or ham omelette.
- Toast with avocado and seeds.
Snacks
If you want to gain weight quickly, it is a good idea to add snacks in the middle of the morning or afternoon to increase your calorie intake. Some of the snacks that you can include are:
- A glass of whole milk.
- Toast with ham and cheese.
- A handful of nuts.
At lunch
This is the perfect time to add protein and calorie-packed meats, grains, and vegetables. These are some of the ingredients that you can add to your lunches:
- Meatballs with rice or mashed potatoes.
- Stuffed eggs
- Chicken or oily fish stewed in sauces with rice and vegetables.
- Pasta with the homemade sauce of your choice.
- Lentil creams.
In the dinner
Dinners are usually the lightest meal of the day, but when we want to gain weight, it is convenient to add little more calories. Some dinner ideas you can use are:
- Salads with egg and cheese.
- Chicken or fish fillet with vegetables such as potatoes.
- Tostadas with tuna and avocado.
If you want more ideas of ingredients and foods that you can incorporate into your daily meals, do not miss our article How to get fat fast.
Foods to avoid
As you have seen, the trick to gain healthy weight is to incorporate into your diet foods that are high in calories but that, in addition to this, provide our body with nutrients and vitamins that are favourable for its proper functioning. It is precisely for this reason that you should avoid gorging yourself on other products that do provide us with a lot of calories but that, nevertheless, do not contain any nutrients.
These foods are known as “empty calories” and are all those that make us gain weight but without taking our health into account. Here we discover the foods you should avoid to gain weight with health:
- Sugary: in this group we include all chocolate products, pastries and packaged sweets. They are foods full of fat and calories but that, however, does not provide any nutrients to the body. You should also bear in mind that white sugar is not recommended either,since, being refined, it has lost any vitamin that it had in its natural composition; In this case, the best option is to opt for brown sugar since, in addition to sweetening, it is rich in minerals.
- Refined carbohydrates: with pasta, rice, bread and all products made from flour, we should also avoid taking them when they have been refined, that is, when they are white. Failing that, it is recommended to eat products made with whole wheat flourthat contain the same calories, but that provide fiber and minerals to our body.
- Alcoholic beverages: surely you have always heard that alcohol contains many calories but, as with others, it does not provide any nutrients to the body in addition to being detrimental to the proper functioning of our organs and blood flow. Therefore, do not make the mistake of drinking more alcohol and opt, against it, for caloric but nutritious drinks(such as, for example, the shakes that we have indicated before).
Exercises to gain healthy weight
But if you want to gain weight, not only do you have to make these changes in your diet but it is also essential that you start practicing exercises to increase the muscle mass of your body and, therefore, make you look bigger and wider. In addition, exercise is essential for the proper functioning of both the cardiovascular system and the muscles so do not make the mistake of having a sedentary life because you would be damaging your health.
Of all the exercises out there, you should choose those that strengthen the muscles and tone your body. In this sense, if you go to the gym, you should use the weight machines or attend directed classes that aim to increase muscles. In the case that you do sport at home, you can opt for exercises such as squats, abdominals and weights. In this article we show you some of the exercises to gain weight at home.
Of course: to increase the volume of your body you will have to do few repetitions with a high weight and repeat several series. For example, the ideal would be to do 6 series but of 8 or 10 repetitions each one to get your muscle to enlarge.
This article is merely informative, here we do not have the power to prescribe any medical treatment or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.