Weight Gaining Diet
A Simple Guide to your Weight Gaining Diet
While most people have weight to lose, there are some who need to gain weight. Being underweight can be just as unhealthy as being overweight. The only way to gain weight whether it’s fat or muscle is to devour more energy than you use up. The basis of any weight gaining diet should contain nutritious, high calorie foods. Hence this diet spins around consuming 500 extra calories a day, which experts agree is most advantageous for controlled weight gain. If eating an additional 500 calories a day doesn’t seem to be doing the trick after a couple of weeks, you can experiment with 700 extra calories.
Protein is essential in the weight gaining diet. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 56g of protein per day for the average male adult, for the typical inactive Westerner. Good sources of protein include fresh and canned fish, lean cuts of red meat, chicken, turkey, low fat milk and yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, egg whites, soy products and whey protein powder.
Plenty of crude carbohydrates are contained in any proficient weight gaining diet. Just because you’re increasing your protein consumption does not mean you should skip over or even reduce your carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrate is the only macronutrient that can provide your body with a direct source of energy - crucial for any type of trainings. Good sources of carbohydrate for a weight gaining diet include whole meal bread, potatoes, brown rice, pasta, couscous, fresh and tinned fruit and dried fruit.
Particular dietary fats are important to both your health and your ability to gain weight. One gram of fat contains more than twice the number of calories than 1g or protein or 1g of carbohydrate. A tablespoon of Flaxseed Oil contains as many calories as a banana for example so it makes sense to add in good fats into your weight gaining diet.
What is good fat? The fats you want to consume are monounsaturated fats found in olive oil and avocados, and polyunsaturated fats found in oily fish, flax, sunflower, safflower, and cod liver oil and some raw nuts.
Other than all those nutrition, it’s important to consume a variety of fruits and vegetables. They are the richest source of vitamins and minerals (particularly antioxidants) and have health implications and good for weight gaining diet.
Meal frequency also holds an important role in weight gaining diet. The best method to a successful weight gaining diet is to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. Separate them by 3 hours so your digestion system has time to process each meal completely. If your target is to consume 3300Kcals a day, I would consume 3 larger meals of about 700kcals and 3 smaller meals of about 400kcals.
Although the result may vary, people usually gain about 1 pound per week when they appropriately follow the right weight gaining diet.
