If you're underweight and want to gain weight, you have to do that in a correct manner. Consuming pizzas, doughnuts, burgers, soda and other junk food can help you increase your weight instantly, but it's not healthy. It will also increase the dangers of cancer, diabetes and even heart diseases.
That's why you must choose a healthy way to gain weight. It will let you achieve a perfect balance of subcutaneous fat and muscle mass. There are several ways to increase your body weight healthily. You will learn about them through this article.
Gaining Weight: The Best Ways to Do So
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If you have decided to increase your body weight, there are some effective and best ways to get that done. Let's check out what they are!
1. Eat More Frequently to Gain Weight
When you're underweight, you might feel full quickly. That's why you should eat 5 to 6 smaller meals instead of going for 2 or 3 larger meals. Apart from that, you can consume multiple snacks each day. Try to eat all kinds of food, as it is an excellent way to gain weight, so don't miss out on them. Click here to know how to get a goodnight sleep.
2. Choose Low Volume Foods to Increase the Weight
When it comes to weight gain foods, the low-volume ones are the best options because they are equipped with plenty of calories. This clearly shows that you can easily consume more energy without consuming larger amounts of food.
There are so many healthy food items that you can opt for to increase your body weight. Opting for sugars, proteins, and oils from whole foods is an excellent way to receive concentrated macro-nutrients.
This can also help fine-tune the nutrition by going for all those bulking macros that will work best for your needs and health.
3. Conduct Workouts to Gain Weight
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On certain occasions, too much cardio will make it difficult for you to gain proper weight when you burn up all the calories you have consumed. So, when you aim to increase your weight, you should go for weight gain exercise, such as strength training can surely help.
This workout will transform all the consumed protein and calories into lean mass rather than fat. Seek help from a licensed professional trainer when you are just starting. That way, you can prevent all the workout-related injuries and won't waste much time.
4. Go for Shakes and Smoothies
It will be much better not to fill up your diet with coffee, a sofa and other drinks with less nutritional value and few calories. That's why it will be much better to go for smoothies and healthy weight gain powder shakes. They will not just keep you full but are also delicious.
You can make smoothies with frozen or fresh fruit and milk and provide a bit of grounded flaxseed. You can also go for protein powders that are made to increase weight.
5. Include Protein in All Your Meals
One of the most effective weight gain tips experts give is to include protein in your meals. Consuming high levels of protein is important to increase weight.
Since protein is viewed as the building block of your body, especially the lean mass, increasing the intake of protein is necessary. Besides that, high-level of protein intake can also reduce fat gain during the calorie surplus.
6. Utilize Add Ons, Sauces and Toppings
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Just like butter and oil, using plenty of add-on ingredients and toppings will help you achieve your weight-gaining goals. This is where you can use all the low-volume food products and when you use many more add on, it's guaranteed that you get extra calories. Here are some helpful tips for using these toppings:
- When eating something, top it up with avocado, nuts, seeds, and cheese
- Go for mayo as dips and also in sandwiches
- Go for cream cheese-based sauces
- When eating pancakes or toast, try drizzling some honey or maple syrup on it.
7. Consume Some Snacks Occasionally
Even if you're underweight, try to be mindful of excess fat and sugar. Having a slice of pie with ice cream or whipped cream is completely "OKAY". But make sure that most of the treats that you occasionally eat should be healthy.
These treats must provide you with proper nutrients along with calories. Granola bars, fruit bars, bran muffins and yogurt are some of the best options for occasional snacks.
8. Keep Track of Your Weight Gain
Whether you take weight gain tablets or consume large amounts of food products, you need to keep track of all the things you are eating. If you don't measure your progress, it won't be easy to know what you're eating. You can easily do so by using a food tracking application.
You have to be precise by avoiding estimating whenever it's necessary. Take a look at these tips so that you can get the most out of the calorie counting application:
- Measure the amount which you're consuming with measuring spoons and cups
- Weigh your food products to receive proper accuracy
- You must include all the ingredients, such as seasonings, dressings, oils, toppings and sauces.
- Keep track of all the beverages and food you drink and eat, even the smallest sips and bites.
- Try to be specific when looking for brands in the app. Otherwise, you can utilize bar-code scanning.
9. Cook Food Products with Healthy Fats
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The best way you add calories to all your meals is by cooking them in healthy fats. Fat is viewed as a calorie-dense macro, which offers 9 calories/gm.
The majority of the food products will absorb the oil during the cooking process. Some oils like flaxseed, avocado and olive oil can offer health benefits.
It will be a good idea to look for plant-based cooking oil. You can use it for coating all the cooking pans and pots and also get to season the ingredients. You can also drizzle the oil after plating to add fat and flavor.
Last Note
The best way you can do so is by building up lean muscle and consuming nutritionally-dense food items. But remember gaining weight is a marathon, not a sprint. It can take some time, but you have to be pretty consistent if you want to gain success in the long run.
