Usually everyone complains about their excess weight. However, it should not be forgotten that there are those who want to gain weight at a considerable rate. According to a study by the National Center for Health Statistics, about two-thirds of people are overweight or obese.
2% of people over the age of 20 complain of being too thin and unable to gain weight. Being underweight is defined in the literature as having a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5. This index is reported to be below the body mass required to maintain an optimal level of health.
What is not generally known is that being underweight is as serious a health problem as obesity. People who are underweight are at risk of osteoporosis, infections, fertility problems and premature death.
People who need to gain weight are divided into two groups: those who are clinically underweight and those who are of normal weight but want to increase their muscle mass.
The basic principles for weight gain are the same for someone who is clinically underweight and for someone who wants to increase muscle mass.
What is Healthy Weight Gain?
The most important thing you can do for healthy weight gain is to create a calorie surplus in the body. In other words, you need to consume more calories than your body needs.
If your goal is to gain weight slowly and healthily, you should aim to take in 300-500 calories more than you burn each day. Although it is not a healthy choice, if you want to gain weight fast, you should try to take in 700-1,000 calories more than you burn.
In short, you need to consume more calories to gain weight. This is a fundamental mathematical rule.
The first rule for weight gain is to keep your calorie intake higher than your calorie burn. In fact, this is the only equation for weight gain. Your difference from everyone who knows this should be that you do this job in a healthy way.
Tips for Healthy Weight Gain
- If you want to gain weight in a healthy way, the first thing you should do is increase the number of meals you eat. However, if you increase the number of meals but don’t pay attention to the calories you eat, this can cause you to lose even more weight.
- Always have healthy high-calorie nuts on hand during the day, when you work, when you watch TV, when you wake up, before and after exercise.
- Fruits such as bananas, melons and figs are higher in calories than other fruits. You can therefore focus more on these fruits
- You can choose to drink delicious smoothies instead of tea and coffee during the day. This in itself can add up to the extra calories you need for the day. By blending bananas, milk, honey and nuts in a food processor, you can make a delicious drink and get closer to your goal of healthy weight gain.
- Dried fruits are high-calorie snacks containing antioxidants and micronutrients. With this nutritious snack, you can protect your health and increase your daily calorie intake in a healthy way.
- Nuts are known as oilseeds and are very high in calories. Consuming more amounts of nuts, which help to keep you full and slimming when consumed in small amounts, will help you gain weight easily.
- If you prefer red meat with fat, it helps a lot to gain weight. The nutrients, protein and calories, especially if they are fatty, will be very useful.
- Full-fat feta cheeses and fat-free yogurts are a healthy choice for increasing your daily calorie intake.
- Among macronutrients, fat has the highest calorie content. It is therefore difficult to keep calories high in diets low in fat. So what you need to do is to increase your fat intake by using healthy sources of fat as much as possible.
How to Exercise for Weight Gain?
When we talk about healthy weight gain, we are talking about muscle gain. Unless your body fat percentage is really low, the last thing you want is to get fat. Apart from that, you should do weight training to build muscle while keeping fat intake to a minimum. In weight training, you need to emphasize compound exercises.
Compound exercises are those that work more muscle groups at the same time. Examples include squats. This type of exercise allows more muscles to work with less time and energy expenditure and will therefore promote muscle development more than isolated exercises.
To make sure that excess calorie intake goes to the muscles instead of just the fat cells, it is absolutely essential that you lift weights. Go to the gym and lift weights 2-4 times a week. Also try to increase your weight capacity and volume over time.
Before you start lifting weights, it may be necessary to consult a doctor if you have skeletal problems or any medical conditions.
And don’t forget to do cardio as well as lifting weights. Doing cardio increases your fitness and has positive effects on your health. However, in order not to burn too many calories, you should be careful not to overdo it, especially with cardio.