If you are underweight, it might be tempting to eat a lot of junky and sugary foods to boost calories and add pounds to your frame. You will most likely put on fat instead of healthy muscle with this strategy and will lose out on many essential nutrients that can help improve your energy and appearance. Instead, choose foods for weight gain that offer nutritional value along with calories.
Strategy
The best foods to help you gain weight are ones you enjoy and will eat. Instead of trying to add in foods that are unfamiliar, think about how you can increase the calories of healthy foods you already consume. Along with increasing portion sizes at meals and snack-time, enhance your foods with heart-healthy unsaturated fats to boost calories without adding tons of volume. It takes 500 calories over your daily calorie burn rate to gain one pound per week.
Plant Oils
Plant oils, specifically olive, safflower, flaxseed and soybean, contain about 120 calories per tablespoon. Although plant oils are a high in fat, it is their heart-healthy unsaturated fat that supports lower cholesterol levels. Easily add 360 calories per day by adding 1 Tbsp of flaxseed oil to a snack-time smoothie, dressing a lunchtime salad with 1 Tbsp safflower oil and other seasonings, and toss a dinner pasta dish with 1 Tbsp olive oil before adding sauce.
Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds make portable, high-calorie snacks. Nuts also provide protein, heart-healthy unsaturated fats, magnesium, vitamin E and trace minerals to support healthy weight gain. Choose 1 oz. of walnuts, about 14 halves, or 1 oz. of pecans, about 18 halves, between meals to take in 200 calories. Add 1 oz. chopped almonds to your cereal for an extra 160 calories. Spread peanut butter on your toast for 190 calories per 2-tbsp. serving. Sprinkle 1 oz. of sunflower seeds over your salad for a 160-calorie boost. Stir fry lean beef and vegetables and sprinkle with 1 oz. of sesame seeds for another 160-calorie addition.
Milk
Milk provides you with calcium and vitamin D. Milk is also a source of protein, which supports muscle growth. Choosing whole milk over low-fat provides you with approximately 150 calories, versus 100 calories, per 8 oz. Enhance the milk with non-fat dry milk powder to add another 60 calories per cup. Consume just two 8-oz. glasses of this enhanced whole milk daily to get more than 400 extra calories. If you do not like drinking milk, blend whole milk mixed with dry milk into smoothies, soups or mashed potatoes.
Member Comments