High-Calorie Foods for Weight Gain for Women

High-Calorie Foods for Weight Gain for Women
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While many women struggle with finding ways to lose weight, there is also a definite need for others to gain weight. Along with high-calorie food choices for weight gain for women, there are strategies that can help, such as eating more frequently throughout the day, increasing your food intake slowly so you give your body a chance to adjust to the extra calories and eating foods you like so you can eat more of them.

Carbs

High-calorie foods will help you put on weight, although some food choices are not good for your overall health. High-calorie carbohydratess that will help you gain weight but not ruin your health include complex carb options such as a whole-wheat bagel with 277 calories, a baked potato with butter that contains about 200 calories and brown rice with 146 calories. You can increase your servings of healthy, high-fiber carbs such as 1/2 cup of broccoli with a pat of butter at 35 calories or 1/2 cup of baked beans at 118 calories, to help you gain weight.

Protein

You can increase protein calories in your diet by eating more eggs and other dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and butter that are also good calcium sources for women to consume daily. Meats, including steak at over 500 calories per serving, and poultry, such as a chicken cacciatore recipe with 382 calories per serving, are protein sources that will help you gain weight. To create high-calorie dishes, combine foods such as adding eggs, cottage cheese or cream cheese to casserole dishes made with beef, chicken or fish. Increase your portions at meals and eat frequent meals during the day.

Fats

High-fat foods are high in calories and can easily add weight to your body. Here is where you need to consider healthy fats that can add calories and help your weight gain objective but not put you at risk for disease. All oils are fat and have calories, so you can choose the healthier unsaturated options that are liquid at room temperature, such as canola oil, olive oil, macadamia nut oil or walnut oil, which have 40 calories in 1 tsp. Saturated fats that are solid at room temperature, such as butter, margarine and shortening have similar numbers of calories, but more unhealthy saturated or trans fat.

Drink Your Food

A good way to add calories to your diet is to drink more calories in the form of protein shakes or smoothies that can contain 400 to 600 calories per serving. When you add these liquid options to your meals for the day, you can target the number of calories you want to consume with the food items that you add to them before blending. Yogurt, milk, ice cream or juices can be used as ingredients for your shake and can add 100 to 300 extra calories. You can add flavorings such as peanut butter, fruits, flavored protein powder and even chocolate that will also increase calories and improve the taste.

References

Article reviewed by Elizabeth Ahders Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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