If you are underweight for any reason, you might struggle to healthfully put on weight while sticking to a nutritious diet. Although eating fast food every day and downing a few extra slices of cake or pie may help you get heavier, it's safer and healthier to gain weight by consuming nutrient-rich items such as protein shakes.
Healthy Weight Gain
To steadily gain weight, you must eat more calories than you burn over an extended period of time. A healthy weight gain diet includes daily servings from all major food groups, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and dairy products in addition to lean proteins. Thus, you don't have to rely on protein shakes as a sole strategy to help you gain weight; instead, you can increase portions at all meals and snacks to add calories in several different areas of your diet.
Benefits
Protein shakes do offer a few specific advantages. Namely, they are nutrient-dense, which means they contain a high number of calories, vitamins and minerals per serving without a lot of saturated fat, cholesterol or sodium. When your goal is to gain muscle mass in addition to a small amount of body fat, drinking protein shakes is especially useful because meeting daily protein recommendations can help your body successfully build and repair muscle tissue. Shakes may also provide an advantage for weight gain because they're in liquid form. According to 2008 research conducted by AJ Stull and colleagues at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, adults who drank liquid meal replacements had greater appetites following the meal than those who consumed solid foods.
Nutrition Information
Not every protein shake is healthy or balanced. If you're buying a commercial shake, bypass products that are intended for weight loss and choose a shake that features natural, nutritious ingredients and does not have a lot of added sugar or saturated fat. A better idea may be making your own shakes at home. MayoClinic.com suggests using 1 cup of vanilla yogurt, 1 cup of low-fat milk, one medium banana, 2 tbsp. of wheat germ, 2 tbsp. of protein powder and 1 tbsp. of flaxseed oil or ground flaxseed per shake. A single serving shake has about 650 calories, 32 g o fprotein, 82 g of carbohydrates, 25 g of fat and no cholesterol or sodium.
Considerations
Protein is an especially filling nutrient, so drinking protein shakes may actually end up curbing your appetite instead of facilitating healthy weight gain. To avoid that issue, drink shakes between meals and as snacks instead of meal replacements or meal accompaniments. Before you begin any weight gain diet plan, talk with your doctor for personalized health advice.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Underweight? See How to Add Pounds Healthfully; Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.; August 2009
- "Journal of the American Dietetic Association"; Liquid and Solid Meal Replacement Products Diferentially Affect Postprandial Appetite and Food Intake in Older Adults; AJ Stull, et al.; July 2008
- MayoClinic.com; High-Calorie, High-Protein Smoothie; September 2005
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