Being underweight same as being overweight, causes several health issues. But the big question is, who is underweight?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adults with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 are underweight.
Being too thin also causes problems such as fatigue, weakness, weakened immune system, destruction of muscle tissue, including heart muscle, learning and memory power reduction, and many other issues.
There are many reasons, including emotional factors, environmental factors, diet, etc., causing you to be underweight.
Digestive disorders, metabolic diseases, anemia, deficiency of vitamins and minerals, and hormonal disorders are other reasons that can contribute to being underweight.
Nutritional reasons for being underweight include a poor diet, irregular meals, inadequate food intake, eating unhealthy foods, or bad eating habits.
However, if you are looking to gain weight, join us in the rest of this article to explain how to gain weight.
First of all, you have to realize that just overeating does not make you gain weight. In the first step, the cause of being underweight must be determined, and the leading cause must be eliminated.
If the patient has a non-nutritional problem or a specific disorder that has caused her/him to be underweight, no matter how much we change her diet without considering her/his problem, there will be no result.
By treating illnesses or considering them in the diet and overcoming mental health problems such as anxiety and stress, we can start our job as dietitians by providing a weight gain diet plan.
A healthy diet plan for weight gain is made up mainly of nutrient-dense foods, whole grains, dairy products, protein, vitamins, and minerals. But an unhealthy weight gain diet plan is high in saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and added sugars. Also, it contains a lot of processed or fast foods that are high in calories without nutrients like vitamins and minerals.
A healthy weight gain diet is customized according to your weight, body size, age, gender, race, and medical conditions. In contrast, an unhealthy weight gain diet may be based on a one-size-fits-all approach.
In a healthy diet plan for weight gain, you consult with a dietitian during your journey, watch your portion sizes, and consider the quality and quantity of your food. While in an unhealthy weight gain diet, you may not include nutrient-rich foods in your meal.
Your dietitian plans your day through a timetable to eat accordingly in a healthy diet plan for weight gain. Still, you don't have a daily diet plan for unhealthy eating, and you may experience an eating disorder through overeating or going hungry.
In a healthy weight gain diet, calorie counting matters. Your dietitian helps you with this, and after a while, you will learn about calorie counting and reading the nutrition facts labels. In an unhealthy diet, the quantity may not be watched beside the food quality.
In a healthy diet plan for weight gain, your dietitian considers your overall health and energy requirements, not to put you in danger of lack of nutrients, health problems, and metabolism disorders, which you can't control yourself in an unhealthy weight gain diet.
Celebrities sometimes need to transform their physique dramatically—and on short notice—to ace jobs, whether slimming down to portray a fastidious ballerina or bulking up to play a gladiator-like height (or meet the expectations of a critical public). So, what is the issue? Dieting like this might be harmful to your health. Crash diets can compromise your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness and harming your heart. Rapid weight gain can be harmful to the body and the heart and joints.
Eating a variety of meals with the proper amount of carbs, proteins, and fat, as well as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and water, is essential for gaining weight in a healthy way.
Each food group's amount you consume is determined by the number of calories you need, which depends on your sex, age, size, and activity level. Your registered dietitian helps you have the perfect balance between your food, physical activity, and any medications you're taking to add weight and size.
After solving the underlying problems mentioned above, we get to an essential factor for gaining weight; getting more calories. Energy is the most important nutritional factor for weight gain or weight loss. Just as we need to reduce our diet's energy to lose weight, we need to add calories to our diet to gain weight.
Depending on the person's tolerance, we can add about 500 to 1000 calories to the weight gain diet plan.
This increase in calorie eating should be provided by various food groups such as cereals, dairy, protein, fruit, and healthy fats. Eating dried fruits, nuts and seeds, and calorie-dense foods is an excellent choice to increase the weight gain diet's energy. Using 100% juices and Greek yogurt are also good options to increase your calorie intake.
Healthy fats that you can use in diet to increase weight, include olives, avocados, coconut, olive oil, and avocado oil. You can add these high-calorie items to your salads or various foods and enjoy eating them.
One of the most important things to consider in a diet to increase weight is avoiding high-calorie, low-nutrients such as chips, candy, etc. Although these foods are high in calories, they are low in nutrients. They can cause a lack of beneficial nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and damage your body in the long term. Besides, these substances cause abdominal obesity and increase visceral fat in you, which increases the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, etc.
Another important point to consider in the weight gain diet plan is that you should avoid overeating at meals. It is better not to eat too many calories in one meal. Still, you should add the number of meals and snacks so that energy is appropriately available to your body during the day. Having more energy available throughout the day is far more critical than the number of calories you eat each day.
Balancing the number of calories received and the number of calories burned helps maintain a healthy weight.
As we have said, in a diet plan for weight gain, you should not overeat in one meal, but you should increase the number of meals to provide the body with proper energy during the day.
The weight gain diet should include at least three main meals and three snacks. Meals should be divided so that there is no pressure on the stomach to receive food, and you can easily consume the amount of food in your diet. Of course, the main meals' calories should be in proportion to the body's condition to meet the body's need for weight gain.
Using calorie-dense foods helps a lot to solve the problem of reluctance to eat in overweight people.
High-calorie foods include banana milkshakes, honey milkshakes, a mixture of nuts and milk and honey, dried fruits, etc. You can use calorie-dense foods as a snack, especially late-night snacks, to gain weight. If there is no personal health condition, you can eat heavy meals at night since the metabolism is not so active.
Increasing the number of meals in a diet to increase weight to 6 or more meals will result in a balanced caloric intake throughout the day. This proper distribution of calories during the day will increase the energy efficiency of food and fats distribution in all parts of the body.
One of the most important parts of a weight gain diet is protein. Underweight people need protein to build muscle, so the amount of protein in their diet should be sufficient to build muscle. The amount of protein in the weight gain diet should be about 15 to 20% of the total calories received during the day. Suppose the amount of protein intake is less than this amount. In that case, it can increase fat accumulation in body tissues.
Of course, keep in mind that protein intake alone can not increase muscle mass or build muscle. Still, we must have physical activity, strength training, and a weight gain diet to build muscle.
Pay attention to the fact that protein can act as a double-edged sword. High protein intake causes a person to feel full, and eventually consumes less food and does not receive enough calories to gain weight in some persons.
Because there is no local protein to store in the body, consuming too much protein is useless, and excess protein is eliminated from the body.
The protein needed by the body in the weight gain diet can be provided from quality protein foods such as meat, eggs, milk and dairy products, fish, etc., or plant proteins such as legumes, soybeans, etc. Protein supplements are also suitable for people who can not get enough protein foods.
Fats have the most energy among macronutrients, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Every gram of fat has about 2.5 times as much energy as carbohydrates or proteins. Therefore, it is natural that consuming fat sources increases our calorie intake through diet.
Of course, this does not mean that we can use as much fat in our weight gain diet, but the amount should be balanced.
About 30-35% of our daily calorie intake should come from fats. This amount of fat should be provided from healthy sources of fats such as seeds and nuts or fatty fruits such as olive.
Besides providing the energy your body needs, fats play other vital roles in the body, including participation in cell membranes or producing steroid hormones and fat-soluble vitamin absorption.
In a weight gain diet plan, the best fats to use are unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats include vegetable oils, mainly olive and canola, and omega-3 sources such as fatty fish or nuts and seeds.
With a balanced consumption of healthy fats, you can enjoy its benefits, including weight gain.
One of the main principles of a diet plan for weight gain is diversifying the foods you eat. Variety in the diet means using different food groups such as cereals, vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts and seeds, healthy fats, etc.
Since a lack of vitamins and minerals is one of the leading causes of loss of appetite in underweight people, different food groups will help compensate for this deficiency and increase appetite in the long run.
Try to use various foods in any food group; for example, eat all kinds of themes in the fruit group, including citrus fruits, berries, apples, bananas, etc.
Also, dietary diversity increases the tendency to consume food. For example, when you eat your favorite food for several days in a row, you will eventually hate it.
Many people think that exercising is only helpful in losing weight. Although exercise with a proper diet causes weight loss, it would help slightly different for people who suffer from being underweight. Exercising in skinny people regulates the body's hormones and ultimately increases their weight. Of course, you should keep in mind that exercising can burn many calories, so you should get the energy you need through your diet.
On the other hand, you need to exercise to build muscle and not store all the energy received in your fatty tissue. Exercising builds your muscles and keeps your body in shape, not flabby after weight gain.
Also, exercising causes the secretion of particular hormones in your body that increase your appetite. Finally, it will increase your weight.
The combination of aerobic exercise and strength training has excellent results in weight gain. Working out 2 to 4 times a week and gradually increasing the intensity and duration of the exercise would be helpful.
Gaining weight can be very difficult for some people. Contrary to most people who say "eat and gain weight," weight gain is not so easy.
The body reaches a metabolic balance in these people and resists any weight gain or loss.
When you increase your calorie intake through your diet, your body tries to cope with weight gain by reducing appetite and increasing metabolism, which the brain does through hormones such as leptin or ghrelin.
Anyway, gaining weight can be even more challenging than losing weight and not just eating more. You have to keep in mind that gaining weight is almost a long way, and consulting a good dietitian can help you a lot.
As a final point, gaining weight is like a marathon, and you should not expect a miracle in the short term. To gain weight and stay at your gained weight, you have to go through a process that takes several months to reach a stable weight.
The combination of a weight gain diet plan and strength training are two crucial points in weight gain. Below is a list of things you need to do to gain weight:
♦ Do not drink water for half an hour before a meal; water consumption will fill your stomach and cause you to eat less food, receive fewer calories, and not gain weight.
♦ Increase the number of your snacks; use calorie-dense snacks such as dried fruits, nuts, chickpeas, etc., to boost your total calorie intake.
♦ When you are thirsty, drink milk instead of water. Consuming whole milk when you are thirsty to quench your thirst will increase your calorie intake and weight.
♦ If your stomach can not accommodate more food and can not eat more than this amount, use gainer supplements. Gainers are generally a combination of carbohydrates and proteins that you can dissolve in juice or milk.
♦ Use a larger plate to eat. Using a larger plate inadvertently encourages you to consume more food and ultimately causes gaining weight.
♦ A simple way to increase your calorie intake is to add cream to your coffee. Adding cream to coffee increases its calories and improves its taste.
♦ Eat salads and vegetables at the end of your meal, try to eat high-calorie foods first, and eat low-calorie foods like salads and vegetables at the end of your meal.
♦ Get enough sleep; with enough sleep, you allow your body to use its energy to build muscle cells and gain weight.
♦ Finally, do not forget to exercise.
Red meat is a perfect source of creatine, the muscle-building supplement widely used in athletes. For better and quick results for weight gain, choose fattier cuts in your weight gain diet; they have more calories than leaner cuts, which help you gain weight fast.
Poultry contains essential vitamins and minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium, B vitamins, etc. You can combine chicken with many starchy foods like rice, potatoes, and bread and make a high-calorie meal.
For gaining weight, you should eat poultry with the skin; the skin has more calories as it has natural fats.
Oily fishes are protein-rich foods with many healthy fats like omega-3 that are good for your health. Omega-3 fatty acids are suitable for protection from diseases such as CVD, diabetes, etc. Moreover, eating fatty fish in a weight gain diet can assist you in gaining weight and building muscles.
Cheese is a tasty and high-calorie food that has been eaten in many foods culture and by most people around the world. Cheese is rich in protein and calories, especially in a full-fat type. Moreover, you can add nuts to cheese and make it tastier and calorie-dense, which helps you gain weight.
Milk is an excellent source of protein, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals. And for decades, people have drank milk in a weight gain diet also to gain muscle. Moreover, milk provides casein and whey protein. Studies show that the combination of casein and why protein leads to more significant mass growth than any other protein. Try whole milk to gain weight.
Yogurt is a healthful snack with high protein, including casein and whey, and carbs and fats. You can add other ingredients like fruits, nuts, seeds, granola, cream, etc., to make a calorie-dense snack and eat in a weight gain diet plan.
Nuts and seeds are calorie-dense snacks and a good choice for gain weight. Nuts and seeds can be added to food or snacks like milk, cheese, smoothies, yogurts, etc., to increase the calories and gain weight. Besides, nuts and seeds are excellent sources of minerals like magnesium, zinc, iron, etc.
Eating legumes with grains as a meal helps satisfy your body's protein needs and gives you extra calories. Therefore, mixing your rice with beans is another way of enriching the diet with calories and nutrients and helps you to gain weight.
Whole grains are rich in starch, and eating them in a weight gain diet can help in increasing weight. To improve your diet quality, mix whole grains with protein sources like eggs, meat, cheese, etc. Besides, whole grains are one of the dietary fibers and help your gut to work better.
If you are looking for a way to gain weight, do not forget whole grains.
Dried fruits are a package of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants with high calories and fiber. Dried fruits have higher amounts of sugar than fresh fruits, making them one of the best foods to snack on in a weight gain diet. Fruits keep their nutrients intact through their drying process, and they are a great source of micronutrients and fibers. Dried fruits are commonly eaten with nuts and natural yogurt to provide protein, healthy fats, and other nutrients.
If you are looking for a way to gain weight, do not forget whole grains.
Starchy foods like potato, rice, corn, quinoa, oat, etc., are good choices as they are generally easily accessible, high in calories, and cost-effective. Also, eating starchy foods increases your muscle glycogen stores which enhances weight gain. Moreover, eating starchy foods will help nourish your gut bacteria as these foods are rich in resistant starch and can support gut health because of the high fiber content.
Avocados are among the healthiest foods on the planet. They are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are a good choice for your health and prevent some diseases like CVD, diabetes, etc. For someone aiming to gain fat, eating avocados is an excellent option due to their richness in nutrients. Moreover, avocados are high in calories, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients.
Eating avocados will help you gain healthy fat and gain weight in a healthy way. You can add avocados to other meals like an omelet. Add avocados to your weight gain diet and enjoy your food because of its delicious taste and greasy structure while gaining weight.
Olives are another excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and are packed with vitamins and antioxidants that are a perfect addition to a healthy diet. Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils for cooking and adding to salads and other foods. You can enjoy olives and olive oil in your weight gain diet plan.
Bodybuilders and athletes have used protein and carbohydrates supplements to gain weight and build muscle for many years. Protein and carbs supplements come as whey protein, made from dairy and gain up made from starches, and they are easily accessible and cost-effective. Whey protein works better with strength training.
Weight gain supplements have an important role in gaining weight by adding lean mass to your body. However, using food supplements alone cannot cause weight gain. You should use gain weight supplements with a proper weight gain diet to get maximum results.
Below is the list of the best supplement to use for gaining weight.
Proteins are essential nutrients for the body, and they are used as the building blocks of muscle tissue. To gain a couple of pounds of weight, you need to eat enough protein in your daily diet plan. A high-quality protein powder ensures weight gain by supplying your body with the building blocks required to grow. Whey protein is one of the most using proteins worldwide, which you can use to gain weight and gain muscle. According to a scientific finding, whey and casein have the best result in gaining weight and gaining lean body mass if combined together.
Creatine is another weight gain supplement that supplies your body with a high-energy precursor, which helps in creating ATP during intense physical activity and exercise. The empowering muscle contractions play a vital role in facilitating a high rate of muscle growth and gaining weight.
Note that creatine should be used under the guidance of a dietitian if you do strength training exercises.
If we're honest, nobody can eat eight to nine cups of rice or potatoes a day when trying to gain weight, because it's a lot of food! Carbohydrates are one of the three main macronutrients in your diet plan. Each 1 gram of carbohydrate provides four calories for you. One of the healthiest ways to gain weight would be using excess calories in your diet. Carbohydrates provide these excessive calories for you. If you try to gain muscle by exercise instead of fat, your weight gain will be far healthier and better.
Leucine is an important amino acid that helps accelerate the process of muscle repair and recovery. Leucine is a branched-chain amino acid and can be found in many BCAAs supplements. BCAAs should be used for gaining weight and gaining muscle at a faster pace.
Waxy maize is another weight gain supplement that facilitates the quick digestion of carbohydrates to spike your insulin levels and saturate your muscle glycogen storage. These fast-digesting carbs help transfer the proteins and amino acids to your muscle tissue. One of the advantages of waxy maize is that it is light on the stomach. You can switch to waxy maize if you feel nauseous after your workout because it can be mixed easily with any post-workout shake.
B vitamins, especially Vitamin B12, play a massive role in your metabolism and appetite, where a deficiency of them can make you lose appetite and desire to eat. B 12 vitamin deficiency can also result in digestive disorders and pernicious anemia.
Add more vitamin B12 sources like eggs, poultry, dairy, seafood, and turkey to your weight gain diet plan to ensure that you are getting enough. If you're a vegetarian, you might not get enough vitamin B12 from food sources to increase weight, so you will need to take it through supplements.
Weight gainers are supplements with large amounts of carbs and proteins.
Many gainer supplements contain over 1,000 calories per serving, and eating more calories helps you add more weight. It would be hard to eat 1,000 calories through a meal, so gainer supplements come to help you. Weight gainers are perfect for people who have trouble eating enough calories. Gainer supplements allow you to get a ton of calories in one easy step.
Your gender plays a role in the number of nutrients and your weight gain diet.
Consuming the proper nutrients in the right quantities will help you maintain a healthy weight and support your body's functioning.
In most cases, men and women require similar amounts of nutrients, with a few significant exceptions.
Because women are generally smaller in size and carry less muscle mass than men, their calorie needs are lower.
There are also differences in calorie distributions. Adults get 45 to 65 percent of their calories from carbs, 10 to 35 percent from protein, and 20 to 35 percent from fat.
Men and women require similar amounts of vitamins, with slight differences in body size.
With a few exceptions, both genders' mineral requirements are similar. Women should get 18 milligrams of iron each day, while males should consume 8 milligrams.
If you’re looking to gain weight, build muscle and burn fat, or any other goal, dieting like a bodybuilder can improve your results.
Gain weight diet for a bodybuilder isn’t mean cutting edge science and fancy techniques; all it takes is mastery of the basics.
A weight gain diet starts with your calorie intake; you need to eat more than you’re burning to gain weight. Beyond that, you need a diet plan that balances the macronutrients (Carbs, Protein, and Fats) to build muscles.
Since muscles are made of protein, protein is the most important in a weight gain diet for muscle gain. Proteins are the basic muscle unit, and you can find them in lean meats, poultry, fish, dairy, beans, and protein powder. So you can easily eat enough protein in your gain weight diet for muscle gain.
Some athletes forget or avoid eating enough carbs but remember carbs are the body’s primary fuel source, and you need to eat them in your weight gain diet.
Eat healthy fats in your weight gain diet to build muscles. Fats don’t make you fat. Fats provide the basic building blocks of hormones, which are crucial to muscle growth and long-term health. So use healthy fats source in your weight gain diet plan.
You need all 3 of these nutrients in your weight gain diet. The quality matters just as much as the quantity for health and muscle growth.
We will provide a great balance of each in your online weight gain diet plan and ensure that you’re getting the very best for muscle growth.
Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset. Typically, you must lose weight in Ramadan because you avoid eating during the day. So what should we do to prevent losing weight and gaining weight?
As we said, the most important part of a weight gain diet is the calorie, so if you have a positive calorie balance in Ramadan diet plan for weight gain, you will gain weight in Ramadan.
In the gain weight diet in Ramadan, you should use calorie-dense foods because you eat just 2 meals and 1 or 2 snacks. So it's important to put enough calories in your weight gain diet.
Some tips for eating more calorie in smaller volume in your Ramadan diet plan for weight gain is:
• Eat dried fruits instead of fresh fruits.
• Drink milk or natural juice instead of water.
• Add some olive oil to your foods.
• Use legumes sprouts in your weight gain diet.
• Don't forget to eat nuts and seeds.
• Wake up early in the dawn to have enough time to eat more calories.
• Eat the whole yogurt with nuts powder beside your dinner.
• Add honey or syrup to your milk.
According to the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type Diet" :
• People with type O blood should eat high-protein foods and eat lots of meat, vegetables, fish, and fruit in their blood type diet to gain weight but limit grains, beans, and legumes. In other words, seafood, kelp, red meat, broccoli, spinach, and olive oil are best; wheat, corn, and dairy are bad.
• People with type A blood group should choose fruit, vegetables, tofu, seafood, turkey, and whole grains but avoid meat in the blood type diet to gain weight. Seafood, vegetables, pineapple, olive oil, and soy are good; you should avoid dairy, wheat, corn, and kidney beans in your weight gain diet.
• People with type B blood group should pick a diverse diet including meat, fruit, dairy, seafood, and grains in the blood type diet to gain weight. In a type B diet to gain weight, individuals should choose green vegetables, eggs, liver, and licorice tea but avoid chicken, corn, peanuts, and wheat.
• People with type AB blood should eat dairy, tofu, lamb, fish, grains, fruit, and vegetables in the blood type diet to gain weight. Tofu, seafood, green vegetables, and kelp are best, but chicken, corn, buckwheat, and kidney beans are bad.
BUT Diets based on the ABO blood group system have been promoted over the past decade and claim to improve health and decrease disease risk.
No evidence currently exists to validate the purported health benefits of blood type diets. To validate these claims, studies are required that compare the health outcomes between participants adhering to a particular blood type diet to gain weight and participants continuing a standard diet within a particular blood type population. (1) Also, most studies did not observe any significant association between the ABO blood type and being over/underweight, and there is not any significant difference between groups A and O in terms of body weight and BMI. (2, 3)
If you have diabetes, you need to keep strong and have a healthy body weight as you get older.
If you've been diagnosed with diabetes and are underweight, you should watch some important dietary tips in your weight gain diet to gain weight in a healthy way and prevent blood sugar spikes.
• Track your calorie and boost your energy intake. As you know, the calorie is the most important part of a weight gain diet, so if you want to gain weight, you need to boost your calorie intake. Some foods like proteins and fats can increase your weight gain calories without causing a big rise in your blood sugar.
• Eat small, frequent, and regular meals and snacks. So if you're currently eating three meals a day, you should go to six smaller meals approximately every 2 to 3 hours in your diabetes diet plan for weight gain. A weight gain diet with small and more frequent meals is a great way to avoid high and low blood sugar levels.
• Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates in your weight gain diet. If you have diabetes type 1, so you can eat more carbs in your weight gain diet and use Insulin to control your blood sugar, but in type 2 diabetes, you should talk to your dietitian to modify the exact amount of carbs you can eat on your diabetes diet plan for weight gain.
• Try high protein and high-fat snacks to gain weight. Do not fill up your weight gain diet with foods and drinks that don't give you lots of energy. Instead, add protein and fats to your foods, like boosting your milk by adding milk or protein powder, adding cream to your soup, adding the nuts powder to your salad, spreading avocado on toast, or trying smoothies with nuts and seeds and protein supplements.
• Make sure to talk with your dietitian before changing your diabetes diet plan for weight gain.
The significant role of what you eat and its amounts in many sports, such as endurance, strength, and speed sports, is obvious. Athletes generally have a high metabolism, and sometimes putting on pounds can be a great challenge for them. So, as an underweight athlete, to gain weight healthily and increase lean muscle mass to perform better, you must take more calories than you burn while following a proper exercise routine. It's specifically essential for younger athletes who are not only participating in sports but are growing and developing their bodies, all of which need a lot of calories. By the way, avoid overeating and let your dietitian count the amounts of fat, carbohydrate, and protein you need each day. Remember that increasing weight slowly is recommended to prevent gaining too much body fat.
Here are some effective strategies for gaining weight in an athlete's diet:
• You need more healthy calories in addition to your estimated caloric requirements.
• Include snacks, juice, fruit, dried fruit, milk, chocolate milk, smoothie, or sports drinks between meals in your weight gain diet.
• Consult your dietitian for your food exchange list and get more nutritional help.
• Increase portion sizes mainly from energy-dense foods.
• Include one extra meal or two extra snacks every day, and do not skip meals.
• If you can't eat enough foods in your diet, use supplements to increase your calorie intake.
Gaining weight can be challenging for some who choose a vegan diet. Among the difficulties vegetarians have is eliminating protein-dense foods like animal products from their diet. However, many healthful vegan foods might help increase your weight by adding extra calories to your diet.
The good news is that you can still eat a lot of high-calorie foods on a veg diet for weight gain.
Nuts, seeds, oily fruits, whole grains, dried fruits, healthy oils, starchy vegetables, legumes, and smoothies are high-calorie and nutrient-dense vegan foods. Supplements will be added if necessary to ensure you are getting everything your body needs.
So your vegan diet can be high in protein and healthy fats to help you gain weight while supporting your overall health. All you need to know about veg diet for weight gain is that your high-calorie vegan meals need strategic choices, and your dietitian helps you in this way. These foods can be in your balanced and well-planned vegetarian weight gain diet and make your gaining weight easy and fast.
As most vegan choices are from plant-based foods and are high in fiber and water, they may cause you to feel full and have problems taking all the needed amount of calories. Your dietitian considers foods' caloric density and energy-dense and your current and expected calorie intake, metabolism, and age, to make it easy for you to understand how to gain weight on a vegan diet.
As your baby grows, calories and nutrients will become increasingly important. For this purpose, you'll need to raise your weight gradually regardless of whether you were overweight before pregnancy or not. Some women find it difficult to gain weight during pregnancy. It may be because they're underweight when they get pregnant or have health conditions that prevent them from gaining weight. Also, some women may be unable to keep food down due to nausea and vomiting.
Being underweight may cause health issues for the mother and the baby, who can not get all the nutrients and vitamins she needs to grow. Despite the fact that weight growth is necessary for a healthy pregnancy and after you've had your baby, you will lose additional weight, remember that gaining too much weight can result in a too-big baby or other health problems. A good pregnancy begins with a well-balanced, nutrient-rich diet and moderate exercise. A good diet and regular exercise will aid in having a healthy pregnancy and baby.
If you have problems with low or no weight gain during pregnancy, and it makes you nervous, try not to stress. See a dietitian or nutritionist for help with your diet. After reviewing your tests, medication, and obstetrician diagnosis, your dietitian suggests the best diet for gaining weight during pregnancy.
If you are wondering how much weight you should gain during pregnancy, generally, it's recommended to gain between 25 to 35 pounds. It should be a bit more if you were underweight, to begin with.
There are some tips you can use to gain weight during pregnancy:
• Eat small frequent meals in your weight gain diet.
• Eat fruit smoothies or blend foods.
• Avoid eating high fiber foods or sweeteners before main meals.
• Eat whole milk and yogurt instead of skimmed ones.
• Use natural appetizers like pickles, apple cider vinegar, spices, etc., in your weight gain diet during pregnancy.
• Eat before you get hungry.
• Keep quick, easy snacks on hand, such as nuts, dried fruits, crackers, ice cream, etc.
• Add butter, olive oil, cream, peanut butter, etc., to your foods in the weight gain diet in pregnancy.
• Do moderate exercise to increase your appetite.
As a parent, definitely you’re trying to keep your child healthy. But as they get older, they start making their own decisions about a lot of things that matter most to them. So you should educate them to make healthy decisions about what they eat and drink and how active they should be.
As a teenager, you should know that you are at growing age, so what you eat and drink directly affects your health. Then you should know that calories are not the only thing you should care about in a weight gain diet. You also should care about micronutrients and essential fatty acids that need to develop your health and growth.
You should have a proper weight gain diet plan to ensure you get everything your body needs.
A teenage weight gain diet should consist of:
• Enough diary provides important minerals like calcium, which is needed to strengthen your bone and teeth, prevent osteoporosis in elder age, and help you grow taller. To add more calories and gain weight, add some add-ons like milk powder, coconut powder, nuts, seeds, cream, etc., to your dairy.
• Enough fruits and vegetables to give you many vitamins, which are essential for your health and growth. Since fruit and vegs are fiber-rich, you can use 100% juice in your weight gain diet plan. You can also make tasty smoothies with fruits and vegs.
• Proteins are one of the most important blocks of muscles, bones, and other tissues. So eating enough protein in a teenage weight gain diet is vital to growth and development. Protein sources are usually rich in minerals needed to grow taller, like Zinc, Magnesium, etc.
• Whole grains, in addition to providing a huge number of calories in a weight gain diet, consisting a lot of minerals and vitamins which help you be healthy.
• Since you are growing and your brain is developing, you should eat essential fatty acids in your teenage weight gain diet. You can receive them by eating olives, avocado, fatty fish, nuts, and seeds in your weight gain diet.
• And finally, avoid junk foods, although they cause gain weight, but have adverse effects on your health.
It's hard for skinny guys to eat many foods and can't eat enough calories. In the skinny guys, even a small amount of food cause feeling full. So we can't adjust a traditional weight gain diet plan for them.
In a weight gain diet plan for skinny guys, we should use just nutrient and calorie-dense foods and take supplements and appetizer medicines.
Liquid calories are among the best energy sources in the weight gain diet plan for skinny guys, so do not forget them.
Doing regular exercise will be very helpful for skinny guys to balance their hormones, increase appetite, and finally gain weight.
Keep on your hands some small and tasty snacks like nuts, seeds, dried fruits, etc., to eat whenever you get hungry, every time, and everywhere.
When you get thirsty, don't drink just water; try whole milk, fruit juice, or energy drinks.
You can also try tasty and healthy snacks like ice cream, fruit yogurt, plain yogurt, etc., in your weight gain diet plan for skinny guys.
And don't forget to keep a reminder to eat a snack every 1.5 - 2 hours in a diet to gain weight for skinny guys.
If you had surgery or for some other reasons that cause trouble chewing or swallowing, your dietitian may recommend using a liquid diet. A liquid diet helps you get carbs, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, and everything your body needs.
Your liquid diet for weight gain should be liquefied, thinned, or blended with a blender and strained. The consistency of the liquid diet for weight gain should be thin enough to be sucked through a straw (even if you don't use a straw). There are many items you can liquify, blend and strain, so don't worry about food items.
In a liquid diet for weight gain, you should use ingredients that help you to increase calorie intake. These ingredients include whole milk, cream, fruit juice, honey, nutrition supplements, etc.
To increase your weight gain diet calories, make the below points:
• Use fruit juices or milk instead of water.
• Fortify milk with extra protein by adding dry milk powder.
• Use whole milk instead of skimmed milk in the liquid diet for weight gain.
• Add cream to soup, pudding, milkshake, etc.
• Try adding nut butter, ice cream, honey, or syrup to ready-made supplements such as Ensure, Boost, etc.
• Add healthy oils, butter, or mayonnaise to savory liquids and get extra calories.
• Add protein powder, nut butter, dry milk powder, chocolate, caramel, honey, syrup, ice cream, etc., to your smoothies, drinks, juices, or shakes.
• Use Greek yogurt because of the higher amount of protein and calories.
• Get more calories by adding rice, corn, mashed potato, and other starches.
• Using fortified foods can enrich your liquid diet for weight gain.
Eating fruit provides health benefits; fruits provide nutrients vital for the health and maintenance of your body. The amount of fruit you need to eat depends on your age, sex, height, weight, and level of physical activity. Generally, we recommend eating at least 2-3 portions of fruits for weight gain in your diet plan.
Almost every portion of fruits contain 15 gram of carbs and give you 60 calories. Eating more fruits means more calorie and nutrients intake and more weight gain.
So what are the best fruits for weight gain? Below is the list of fruits for weight gain you can use in your weight gain diet:
• Raisins contain 296 calories/100 g
• Dates contain 280 calories/100 g
• Dried figs contain 249 calories/100 g
• Dried apricots contain 241 calories/100 g
• Dried peach contains 239 calories/100 g
• Avocado contains 160 calories/100 g
• Persimmon contains 127 calories/100 g
• Plantain contains 122 calories/100 g
• Passion Fruit contains 97 calories/100 g
• Banana contains 89 calories/100 g
• Pomegranate contains 83 calories/100 g
• Figs contain 75 calories/100 g
• Grape contains 69 calories/100 g
• Sweet Cherries contain 70 calories/100 g
• Pear contains 60 calories/100 g
• Kiwifruits contain 60 calories/100 g
• Apple contains 55 calories/100 g
• Orange contains 52 calories/100 g
As you see, dried fruits contain a lot more calories than fresh fruits, so try to eat dried fruits for weight gain instead of fresh or frozen ones.
Protein is an important part of a healthy weight gain diet. Your body uses proteins to build and repair muscles and bones and make hormones and enzymes. So, if you want a weight gain diet to build muscles, you must eat protein rich food for weight gain in your diet.
Below is a list of high protein foods for weight gain and the amount of protein and calories per 100 grams:
• Walnuts, 654 calories, 15.2 g protein
• Hazelnut, 628 calories, 15 g protein
• Almond, 579 calories, 21.2 g protein
• Peanut, 567 calories, 25.6 g protein
• Pistachio, 560 calories, 20 g protein
• Pumpkin seed, 545 calories, 30.3 g protein
• Chia seed, 534 calories, 18.3 g protein
• Flax seed, 534 calories, 18.3 g protein
• Dry and roasted soybean, 499 calories, 43.3 g protein
• High-fat Greek yogurt, 476 calories, 9 g protein
• Parmesan cheese, 454 calories, 41.5 g protein
• Lentil, 352 calories, 24.6 g protein
• Kidney beans, 337 calories, 22.5 g protein
• White beans, 313 calories, 23.4 g protein
• Spirulina, 299 calories, 57.5 g protein
• Lamb, shoulder, and arm, 280 calories, 35.5 g protein
• Beef, 15% fat, 250 calories, 25.9 g protein
• Salmon, 232 calories, 26.5 g protein
• Tempeh, 192 calories, 20 g protein
• Hard-boiled egg, 155 calories, 12.6 g protein
• Chicken Breast, 144 calories, 24.1 g protein
• Turkey, 144 calories, 19.5 g protein
• Lean pork, 109 calories, 21 g protein
• Tuna, 109 calories, 24.4 g protein
If you are looking for a high-calorie, portal, and healthy snack for weight gain, you are on the damn right way to gaining weight.
You can add many calories to your weight gain diet plan by choosing the right snacks for bulking.
As we mentioned above, fruits, nuts, and seeds are among the high-calorie foods in a weight gain diet. Also, you can use whole milk, Greek yogurt, cream, or a mixture of them in your diet.
Here are some healthy snacks for weight gain which are among the calorie dense foods for weight gain:
• Apple slice + peanut butter
• Roasted chickpea + raisins
• Almond + dried apricot
• Plain Greek yogurt + frozen fruits
• Avocado + toast
• Scrambled egg + sesame seed + toast
• Sweetened yogurt + chia or flax seed
• Whole milk + honey + banana
• Cheese + chopped nuts
• Trail mix
• Dates + walnut
• Soybean + peanut
• Ice cream + chopped nuts + chopped banana
One of the most frequently asked questions from us is: " Eating fatty foods to gain weight is healthy or not?"
The answer to this question depends on your condition, but generally, eating healthy fat and fatty foods can help you gain weight.
Healthy or good fats: Good unsaturated fats lower disease risk. Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish.
Unhealthy or bad fats: Bad fats increase disease risk, even when eaten in small quantities. Foods containing trans fats are primarily in processed foods made with trans fat from partially hydrogenated oil, fried foods, and fast foods.
Saturated fats: While not as harmful as trans fats by comparison with unsaturated fats negatively impact health and are best consumed in moderation. Foods containing large amounts of saturated fat include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream. Some of the plant-based fats like coconut oil and palm oil are also rich in saturated fat.
In a weight gain diet, when you limit foods like red meat and butter, replace them with fish, beans, nuts, and healthy oils to gain weight.
So if you like to eat fatty foods to gain weight, note that you should use healthy fats to make your foods fatty.
Most underweight people like to gain weight by gaining muscles, not fat. But is that possible?
We will explain to you how to lose fat and gain muscles with a diet.
• First, you must increase your calorie intake to lose fat and gain muscle. Building muscles need calories so take a weight gain diet to prepare enough calories for your body. An easy way to estimate how many calories you should be consuming in your weight gain diet plan is to multiply your body weight by 16 and add 500-1000 extra calories to that.
• Second, eat the right macros; proteins are the building blocks of muscles, so eating enough protein to gain muscles is necessary. Eat about 20-30% of your calorie intake from proteins.
• Third, reduce your fat intake; if you want to lose fat and gain muscles, at the same time you eat more calories, you must reduce the fat contents of your weight gain diet, max eat 30% of your diet from fats.
• Forth, spread protein throughout the day. Getting protein in 4 to 8 servings in your weight gain diet can be very helpful for losing fat and building muscles.
• Fifth, avoid junk and processed foods in your lose fat gain muscle diet; they almost contain free sugar and are high in fat, so they cause you to gain more fat.
• Sixth, do exercise and combine strength and endurance to lose fat and gain muscle. Be sure to talk with your coach to select the best workout plan.
And finally, you should know that you will gain some fat in any kind of weight gain diet because your body needs fat to work properly, but by making the above points, you can gain more muscles than fat and have a fit body.
Basically, there is no difference between weight gain diets for men and women. Since women have less muscle than men, they can gain weight faster and easier. In the same condition, women's need for calories is 95% of men's.
We should consider physiological differences when choosing foods in the weight gain diet for men and women, just like any other diet.
For example, you should put more iron sources in the weight gain diet for women because women are at risk of anemia more than men. Or men shouldn't overeat soybean in their weight gain diet because of the estrogen content of soy.
Anyway, you should know that in each person, man or woman, we should create a personalized diet plan that is just fit for him/her. Such as an athlete woman who needs more calories than an inactive man.
I heard gaining weight is harder than losing weigh, is that true? or not?
It's different from person to person; I think both weight gain and weight loss are easy and need just one thing, never give up.
Hi, I'm quite skinny and looking to gain weight. I Have lost some gains (9kg) the past year. Niw I want to try to regain it and more. The problem is, say I need 2300-2400 calories (170cm, 53kg) how do I go about it. Even when eating healthy unsaturated fats, I have read that it's not good too over eat. "Stay under 95g..." So if I can't eat too much fat I guess I have to eat mkre carbs. But I also read that over eating carbs raises the blood sugar. And for a guy at 19 years old and at 53kg, 110-120g of protein should be enough. But only eating 110g of protein (440 calories) and a maximum of 95g of fat (855 cal) leaves me with no other choice than to eat like 260g of carbs to be able to reach 2300-2400 calories. Is that okay? Can I eat these amounts of carbs and fats in the long run without risking high colesterol, heart problems and raised blood presure and all of that stuff?
Any reply would be highly appreciated.
Hi Alex,
At first, you need 2150 calories per day just to feed all your cells, so if you want to gain weight, you should eat more calories and at least 2500 calories per day to save some energy and gain weight.
But about fat, eating unsaturated and healthy fats like nuts, seeds, avocado, olive, and olive oil is ok, and you can use them up to 110 grams per day in your weight gain diet.
What you say about carbs is true, but for a young person like you, eating up to 350-400 grams of carbs in the daily diet is ok and doesn't make any trouble. But note that you should eat complex carbohydrates in your diet plan such as whole-grain cereals, dried fruits, starchy vegetables, etc., and limit simple carbs like sugar, soda, candy, sweets, etc.
And finally, eat 125 grams of protein per day to build muscle and keep your body healthy.
These amounts are totally safe in the short and long term and don't have any kind of risks like TG, Chol, CVD, DM, etc.
How often should I weight my self?
Try to weight yourself at the same time of the day one time a week.
I'm 16 years old girl, 5'4" and 85 lb. How can I gain weight around 10 lb?
Literally, you need a weight gain diet plan that you can order here. But also you can do the below tips to gain weight.
• Eat 6-8 smaller meals instead of 3 large meals throughout the day
• Nuts and seeds are high in calories; eat lots of them for snacks
• Use weight gainer supplement or make your weight gain shakes
• Drinking calories is easier than eating them; smoothies and shakes are a good choice for gain weight
• Take a shot of olive oil or add it to your food or salad once or twice a day to add lots of calories
• Keep a food log because you might forget your meal or not be eating as much as you think you do
Can I gain weight with a low carb diet plan? like keto diet?
Hi Masha,
Yes of course you can gain weight, every thing is about calorie.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Which is more important for gaining weight? Calorie intake? Or exercise?
Hey Mary,
Both of them are important, and each performs a different function. You are required to eat more calories than you burn to gain weight, and exercise affects the rate of muscle growth.
Do I need Supplements in gain weight diet?
Hello Rock,
Supplements are exactly what they sound like, supplemental to your diet plan. Supplements can help to fill the gaps that you struggle to reach with a balanced diet. For example, a whey supplement can be used to reach your protein goal. So, if you can not get enough nutrients your body needs with food, use supplements.
Would I be able to gain weight by diet plan without gaining fat?
Hi,
You can’t build a significant amount of muscle without fat, just with diet alone. It would help if you also lifted weights properly to bulk up fast. Anyway, you will gain some fat.
What is the best exercise to gain weight?
Hi Samuel,
Substantial compound practices like Squats, Deadlifts, etc., are the best exercises to gain muscle and gain weight. Stress body and muscles with overwhelming weights expands your testosterone levels and makes you build muscle.