Making dietary changes may help you gain weight healthily, such as increasing your intake of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. You can try consuming nuts, dried fruit, meat, and shakes.
Consuming soda, donuts, and other junk foods may help you gain weight initially, but it can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer .
A healthy approach to gaining weight involves gaining a balanced amount of muscle mass and subcutaneous fat rather than a lot of unhealthy belly fat
A recent animal study suggests that belly fat may be correlated with increased cancer risk.
A high percentage of body fat also increases your chances of developing type 2 diabetes and other health problems, even if you are not overweight
What does it mean to be ’underweight‘?
The clinical definition of underweight is having a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5. This is estimated to be less than the body mass needed to sustain optimal health.
Being underweight can be harmful to your health.
One study found that clinically underweight individuals have nearly two times the risk of death compared to individuals with obesity, suggesting that being underweight may be worse for your health than having obesity .
Being underweight can negatively affect your health. People who are underweight are at risk of osteoporosis, infections, fertility problems, and early death.
Different strategies for gaining weight
he most important thing you can do to gain weight is to create a calorie surplus, meaning you eat more calories than your body needs.
You can determine your calorie needs using this calorie calculator.
If you want to gain weight slowly and steadily, aim for 300–500 calories more than you burn each day according to the calculator. If you want to gain weight fast, aim for around 700–1,000 calories above your maintenance level.
Keep in mind that calorie calculators only provide estimates. Your needs may vary by several hundred calories per day, give or take.
Adequate consumption of high quality proteins from animal products is essential for optimal growth, development, and human health (
A 2020 study of 23 individuals demonstrated that increasing protein will increase lean muscle mass
To promote skeletal and muscle growth and physical strength in healthy adults with minimal to intense physical activity, the Recommended Dietary Allowance of protein is between 1 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day
High protein foods include meats, fish, eggs, some dairy products, legumes, nuts, and others. Protein supplements like whey protein can also be useful it is difficult for you to get enough protein in your diet.
Protein forms the building blocks of your muscles. Eating sufficient protein is required to gain muscle weight in addition to other nutrients.
It’s very important to eat mostly whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
However, these foods tend to be more filling than processed junk foods, making it harder to get in enough calories.
Using plenty of spices, sauces, and condiments can help with this. The tastier your food is, the easier it may be to eat a lot of it. Toppings may also add additional calories.
Also, try to emphasize energy-dense foods as much as possible. These are foods that contain many calories relative to their weight.
Here are some energy-dense foods that may help you gain weight:
It may be a good idea to avoid over-consuming vegetables and fruit if gaining weight is a priority for you. The fiber in fruits and vegetables can lead you to feeling full faster. This can leave less room for energy-dense foods.
Here are 10 additional tips for gaining weight:
To gain weight, you’ll likely need to consume additional calories.
You can avoid overeating too much and make sure that the excess calories go to your muscles instead of just your fat cells by starting a resistance training program.
Resistance training, or strength training, includes bodyweight exercises and free weights. Resistance training leads to muscle hypertrophy, which increases muscle mass (
Combining protein supplementation with resistance training can promote additional gains in lean body mass beyond those gained by resistance exercise alone.
How long will it take to gain weight?
By consuming 500 additional calories a day, a person might gain an average of about 15 pounds (6.8 kg) over 6 months
A more aggressive approach of consuming an additional 1,000 calories per day may allow a weight gain of about 25 pounds (11.4 kg) over 6 months. However, a large portion of this weight gain may be comprised of fat
It can be very difficult for some people to gain weight, and the amount of time it takes to gain weight will be different for everyone.
That may be because your body might have a certain weight, called a setpoint, where it feels comfortable. It’s theorized that whether you try to go under your setpoint (lose weight) or over it (gain weight), your body resists changes by regulating your hunger levels and metabolic rate