Gain Weight

Gaining weight is a challenge for many people. This might be because of a metabolic disorder, an abnormally fast metabolism, or just problems associated with gaining muscle mass weight. Thankfully, gaining weight is a relatively simple thing to figure out and comes down to consuming more calories than you burn daily. Ultimately, after calculating your resting metabolic rate (RMR), deciding what to eat, and focusing on your health, you’ll be able to gain weight in a healthy fashion.

Steps

Focusing on Your Health

1. Decide why you want to gain weight. There are many reasons why you might be looking to gain weight. It is important to understand your reasons so that you can gain weight in a healthy manner.
   • If you are looking to gain weight to build muscle mass, you may want to focus on eating a diet high in protein and healthy fats. You may also choose to use supplements like creatine.
   • If you have lost weight suddenly or unexpectedly, you should talk to your doctor to rule out any other health problems. A doctor or registered dietitian can identify what your normal or ideal weight is, and they can help you create a program designed for your nutritional and health needs.
2. Learn about healthy weight. While you may need to gain some weight for a reason, you should know that not all weight is healthy weight. When gaining weight, the best type to gain is:
   • Subcutaneous fat, which is located directly under the skin. This is opposed to visceral fat, which is fat that accumulates around your organs. Note that you cannot control where fat will accumulate.
   • Muscle mass.
   • Weight that is appropriate for your body type and height. View: https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/quick-guides/what-is-a-healthy-weight for a chart that indicates weight targets according to height.
3. Consult your physician. Your physician will be able to evaluate your overall health and give you a good idea of whether – or how much – you need to gain. Your physician will evaluate:
   • Whether you have a medical condition that has resulted in low weight or may present a problem when trying to gain weight. Your doctor may want to evaluate you for thyroid problems, diabetes, or cancer.
   • If you have lost weight unexpectedly, tell your doctor, especially if you are over the age of 65. Unintended weight loss can be detrimental to your health and should be reported.
   • If there are any dangers to you trying to gain weight.
   • Whether you need to be put on a special diet or take dietary supplements when trying to gain weight.
   • If your attempts to gain weight should be paired with an exercise routine – and if so, what type.
4. Set a realistic goal. Perhaps one of the biggest problems with people who want to lose or gain weight is the problem of setting realistic goals. This is because many people want instant results. However, your metabolic rate may make it hard for you to gain weight fast. In addition, quick weight gain is not healthy.
   • Set your weight gain goal in cooperation with your physician or personal trainer.
   • You can realistically gain 1 to 2 pounds of muscle weight alone per month, if you are committed to your weight gain and work out regiment.
   • If you’re not a weight lifter, you can realistically and safely gain about 2-4 pounds of both muscle and fat weight a month.
   • Know the difference between muscle weight and fat weight. Muscle weighs a lot more, but takes a lot more time and energy to build. Thus, muscle weight may take a substantial amount of time – weeks and months – to accumulate.
5. Avoid junk food. While gaining weight requires you to increase your caloric intake, you should avoid junk food. Although junk food may help you bulk up, you’ll be hurting your overall health. Stay away from:
   • Fast food
   • Refined sugars
   • Fried food

Calculating Your Resting Metabolic Rate

1. Gather your raw data needed for your calculations. There are a few pieces of information you’ll need to gather before calculating your RMR. The best way to gather this data is to visit a registered dietitian or to do it at home.
   • Weigh yourself. Make sure you take an accurate reading of your weight.
   • Measure your height.
2. Convert your data. Depending on where you live, you’ll need to convert your data into metrics – as mainstream calculations for RMR are based on the metric system. In addition, you may have to convert inches to centimeters. This won’t take much work.
   • 1 inch is equal to 2.54 centimeters. For example, if you are 72 inches tall, you’ll multiply 72 by 2.54 which is 182.88 centimeters.
   • 1 pound is equal to .454 kilograms. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you’ll multiply 150 by .454, which is 68.01 kilograms.
3. Calculate your RMR. Calculation of resting metabolic rate is sex specific. Thus, calculations for men will differ from calculations for women. To calculate your RMR, do the following:
   • Multiple your weight in kilograms times ten.
   • Add the result of the first calculation to 6.25 times your height in centimeters.
   • For women: subtract 5 times your age minus 161 from the result of your second calculation.
   • For men: subtract 5 times your age plus 5 to the result of the second calculation.
   • Your result is the number of calories you burn while resting.
   • Use a website to calculate your RMR. Consider: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calrmr.htm
4. Factor in things that might increase or decrease your caloric needs. While you may see gaining weight as a simple numbers game where you need to consume more calories than you burn, there may be other factors affecting your metabolism. Think about:
   • Your activity level. In order to gain weight, you need to offset any exercise you do with calories you consume.
   • Your age. Your metabolism decreases as you age.
   • Genetic predisposition for a high or low metabolism.
   • Your muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn to maintain it.
   • Pregnancy often increases your RMR.
   • Supplements you may be taking. Certain supplements may raise your RMR.
5. Eat more than you burn. Your resting metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns calories or energy in a resting state. As a result, by eating more than your RMR (and adjusting it for factors that change how you burn calories), you'll be able to gain weight.
   • To gain weight, eat more calories than your RMR.
   • Typically, you’ll have to consume 3,500 calories plus your RMR to gain a pound of weight. This might vary based on whether your goal is to gain muscle weight or fat weight. Try breaking this down into daily goals. For example, to consume an extra 3,500 a week, eat an extra 500 calories a day. Do not try to eat an extra 3,500 calories in a single day.
   • When trying to gain weight, always eat an appropriate amount of food to offset any calories lost by exercising. For example, if you burn 400 calories running, make sure to eat at least 400 calories (or more) worth of food to make up for what you burned.
   • Even if you are trying to gain weight, you should still exercise regularly for overall physical and mental health.
6. Consume food regularly. Spread your food consumption out over the course of the day. By eating regularly, you’ll maintain blood sugar levels, metabolic rate, and save your gastrointestinal tract from potential problems.
   • Eat five or six small meals over the course of the day. Space these meals out regularly – every three or four hours.
   • Avoid large, carb heavy meals at the end of the day.
   • Never skip a meal.

Deciding What to Eat

1. Include whole grains and some starchy foods. Grains and certain starch-rich foods are high in calories, rich in fiber, and are generally nutritious. You'll likely find that eating a lot of whole grains and starch-rich foods will help you gain weight quickly. Eat:
   • Whole-wheat bread or pasta
   • Quinoa
   • Brown rice
   • Potatoes and sweet potatoes
2. Eat high calorie and nutritious vegetables. While many vegetables are relatively low in calories, there are some that are both high calorie and nutritious. By focusing on these specific vegetables, you'll move forward in your goal to gain weight. Focus on:
   • Butternut squash
   • Beets
   • Lentils
   • Carrots
   • Peas
   • Parsnips
   • Avocados
   • Corn
3. Consume fresh fruits. Fruit is another healthy way to eat to gain weight. By focusing on fruits, you'll add fiber and other important vitamins to your diet. Try eating:
   • Bananas
   • Mangoes
   • Blueberries
   • Grapefruit
   • Grapes
4. Focus on lean red meat. Lean red meat is packed full of calories but low in unhealthy fat. As a result, you'll get a lot of calories with little of the downside of eating meat. Try to eat:
   • Venison
   • Bison
   • Grass-fed beef cuts that include eye of round, top sirloin, and bottom round.
5. Consume good fats. By eating healthy fats, like polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat, you'll add a lot of calories to your diet. In addition, healthy fats will also give you a lot of energy. Foods that include good fats are:
   • Tree nuts like almonds.
   • Legumes like peanuts.
   • Seeds like sunflower seeds.
   • Oils like olive oil and fish oil.
   • Avocados.
6. Drink your calories. In addition to eating more, you might consider drinking whole fat dairy, smoothies, and shakes. These can help you increase how many calories you eat a day.
   • If you have a blender, you can make your own smoothies at home. Just cut up some fruit, and add it to the blender with some yogurt. You can add whey protein or creatine powder if you are looking to build muscle mass.
   • Prepackaged shakes such as Boost or Ensure can also be used 1-2 times per day for gradual weight gain.
7. Fortify your meals. Fortified meals and snacks are those that use higher calorie ingredients or which add ingredients to increase the number of calories in the meal. Using high fat, high calorie, and high protein ingredients can add more calories to your food.
   • Add butter or margarine to your casseroles, vegetables, potatoes, and noodles.
   • You can add mayonnaise to your sandwiches, or you can use fillings that contain mayonnaise, such as tuna or chicken salad.
   • Spread peanut butter on apple slices, celery, pretzels, and toast.
   • Instead of skim milk, use half-and-half or cream in your shakes, hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and other drinks.
   • Stir cheese sauce into casseroles, or top vegetables with it.
8. Take creatine, if you want to gain muscle mass. Studies have shown that creatine can lead to muscle mass growth and weight gain. As a result, creatine is an excellent tool for those seeking certain weight gain outcomes.
   • Follow the instructions on your creatine product when using.
   • Use of creatine must be accompanied with a healthy and well-balanced diet.
   • Avoid creatine if you have a heart condition or other cardiovascular problems.
   • Consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before taking creatine.

Tips

• Drink a lot of water. Being hydrated is very important for your body, especially as your body is undergoing changes.
• If it helps you, keep a diary of what you eat and over each week look through it and see what you need to stop eating or need to eat more of. You can use an app like MyFitnessPal to help you keep track of your progress.

Warnings

• Rapid weight gain may cause stretch marks and other skin damage.
• Avoid binge eating.
• If you are experiencing decreased appetite, shortness of breath, or decreased motor control, contact a doctor. You may have an underlying health issue, and diet alone may not help.
• If you aren't exercising while trying to gain weight, you will be gaining mostly fat. Be very careful not to go overboard. Doing so can lead to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and various other conditions, which in turn can lead to a shorter life.

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