Increasing your caloric intake is the key to gaining healthy weight. Of course, eating more junk food will cause weight gain, but it will also increase your risk for developing diabetes, heart disease and other chronic disorders. Thus, you should eat high calorie foods that are nutrient-rich to gain weight. In addition, you should begin a resistance training program to help you build muscle mass that will result in weight gain.
Determine Your Calorie Baseline
Before deciding your caloric needs to gain weight, you need to determine how many calories you are eating on a daily basis. It may be challenging, but write down all of the foods and beverages that you consume for one week. Look at the nutrition labels on the beverages or perform an Internet search to see how many calories are in each food or beverage. Keep a food journal for one week. At the end of the seven-day period, add up the total amount of calories you consume. Divide your total number of calories for the week by seven to determine your average daily caloric intake. This is your calorie baseline.
Increase Daily Caloric Intake
You must consume an additional 3,500 calories to gain 1 pound. Thus, consuming an additional 500 calories per day will cause you to gain an additional 1 pound per week if there are no changes in your level of physical activity. Thus, you should identify additional foods you can eat on a daily basis to help you gain weight. Be aware that if you are increasing your physical activity you may need to consume more than 500 additional calories because additional physical activity will burn calories. You should not gain more than 1 to 2 pounds per week for healthy weight gain.
Types of Foods for Weight Gain
Choosing healthy, high calorie foods is important for weight gain. According to MayoClinic.com you should increase your consumption of nuts, peanut butter, dried fruits, cheese and avocados. You may eat an additional peanut butter sandwich mid-morning to increase your calorie intake. Try to add cheese to sandwiches, pasta or other meals. Snack on nuts and dried fruits throughout the day to increase your calorie intake.
Benefits of Exercise to Gain Weight
Beginning an exercise program may stimulate your appetite to help you increase your caloric intake. Try to eat a sandwich or pasta immediately after exercise to replace calories used during exercise and to help your body build muscle, which leads to weight gain. Do not let your post-exercise meal replace breakfast, lunch or dinner. Perform resistance training exercises to build muscle as opposed to aerobic exercises, which primarily result in weight loss.
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