Tips for Weight Gain

Reasons For Being Underweight

Skinny guys usually think they can eat anything they want without gaining weight. They believe they can eat junk food all day because they have a fast metabolism. Some think they can’t gain weight because they don’t digest the food they eat, are stressed out, or “have worms”…

Here’s the truth: you can eat everything you want without gaining weight because you don’t eat a lot. I know you think you do, but you don’t – otherwise you wouldn’t be skinny. Really.

But every skinny guy, hardgainer and ectomorph who eats more calories than he burns gains weight. It doesn’t matter if you have a high metabolism, skinny build, or bad genetics. The only difference is that you’ll need to eat more food than the average person to put on weight and get bigger.

Anyone who is 15-20 percent below the normal weight, with respect to their age and height, is defined as underweight. For example, if you are a female aged between 25-50 years, and your height is 1.68 meters, your weight should ideally be 59kgs. However, when the body weight falls to 50 kg (15%) and 47 kg (20%), it is termed as underweight. A woman weighing 59 kgs should have a Body Mass Index of 20.90 kg/m. As the weight drops, the BMI comes down to 18.8 (-15%), which is still within the normal range or 17.7 (-20%), which is below normal.

WEIGHT GAIN TIPS

1. Include Calories In Your Diet

Everything we eat has some calorie content. So like we eat food with fewer calories to lose weight, we need to eat food that has more calories to gain weight. You need to take in more than 250 calories daily to add roughly half a kilo to your current weight.

What You Need

Eat foods that are rich in calories like pulses, cereals, meat, bread, rice, dry fruits, and nuts.

What You Have To Do

1. Add vegetables like French beans, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, carrots, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, pumpkins, and eggplants to your diet.
2. Add a healthy portion of red meat to your diet too. But keep in mind not to overdo it. The aim is to add weight, not cholesterol!
3. You can even add olive oil in generous quantities to your salads.
4. Another way to add calories to your diet is by increasing the consumption of dairy products. Don’t cut back on the fat content in your milk. Do not ask for low-fat curd at the store. Make sure you consume a full calorie dairy product.

2. Increase The Number Of Meals

Have six meals a day – three big meals and three small. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner should be heavy and calorie-rich. A heavy dinner adds weight to your body as your metabolism is not as active when you sleep as compared to when you are awake.

What You Have To Do

1. For breakfast, go for a full bowl of cereal, toasted bread with butter, and fruit. If you’re not a big fan of butter, you can always pick cheese or a yummy spread of peanut butter.
2. For snacks, have nuts and dry fruits, boiled veggies with a dollop of cream, or cheese sandwiches.
3. You can add some more items to your dessert tray.
4. And, once in a while, you can give in to your taste buds and indulge in cakes, pizzas, burgers and whatever else your heart fancies.

3. High Proteins Along With Calories

Only calories won’t add to your body weight; you need to include the right amount of proteins in your diet. Remember, if you want to put on weight and look fit, you need to build muscles, not flab.

What You Need

Eggs, lean meat, fish, skinless chicken, pulses, sprouts, and dairy products that rich sources of proteins. Fish such as tuna and mackerel are rich in oil and are one of the best ways to increase weight.

Why Does It Work

Proteins contain amino acids that are the building blocks of muscles. These food sources will give you enough protein necessary to build and tone muscles.

So, do you have to ignore fats completely? The answer is no. Consuming fats is not always a bad habit, provided you know the type of fats you are consuming.

4.Healthy Fats

Good fats are necessary for muscle growth and production of hormones like testosterone. This is essential for the growth and strength of muscles. This also helps to elevate the metabolic rate, which in turn helps the body lose bad fats and gain good fats. Fats are essential for many vital body functions. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are considered good fats that can be obtained from nuts, leafy veggies, salmon, flaxseed oil, avocados oil, and many seeds. Healthy fats are also a good source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

If you still can’t gain weight, or if you are always traveling and do not have a kitchen to cook your food, you may try some of the weight gain supplements mentioned below.

5. Eliminate Stress

Losing or gaining weight has always been a stressful event for the concerned person. Stress often becomes a major hurdle in your way when you try to gain or lose weight. Therefore, it is important to be stress-free while performing exercises to lose or gain weight. Have a relaxing bath to reduce the stress. Or, put on some good music and dance till you drop. Meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises also work well to reduce stress.

6. Get Enough Sleep

The next big step is to make sure you get enough sleep. Experts say that sleep is very essential for a person’s health and well-being. Sleep, like nutrition and physical activity, is an essential determinant of your health and well-being. A person needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep every day to stay fit and fine. This will give your body enough rest so that it can function properly.

If you do strength training, your body repairs itself and builds better muscles during sleep.

7. Carbs are your friend when you need to put on weight

Rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, etc. will help you put on weight. You can also eat a lot of it to get your calorie goals. You can get away with eating less healthy things like bread, pasta, and even snack food ON OCCASION, but try to avoid those things most days. Also, as previously stated,  every meal should have vegetables when possible so your body can properly manage all those calories as they move through your body.

In addition to carbs, eating lots of nuts (high calorie, high fat), as well as using healthy oils in your cooking and eating (coconut oil, olive oil) can easily help you reach your caloric goals too.