Calories In Food

Most healthcare professionals nowadays are focused on overweight and obese people. What many overlook, is that there is also a demand from those who are trying to do the opposite - to get fat, or more correctly, how to healthily increase their weight.

We tend to forget those people who have dilemmas when it comes to gaining weight. Being thin or underweight is evident in people with chronic illness, eating disorders, or even models and athletes.

The Need to Gain Weight

We seldom hear of people asking for advice on how to gain weight (since almost all of us want to have a slim and sexy body). The topic about how to gain weight is a neglected issue because many think it's as simple as eating lots and not doing any exercise.

Being underweight can have adverse affects on our health, such as:

• osteoporosis
• hip fractures
• erectile dysfunction
• heart failure
• cancer

The elderly often find it difficult to increase their weight due to their loss of taste and smell or inability to prepare meals.

Many athletes also desire to increase their weight to become more powerful and competitive in their sports.

High Calorie Foods

The Dumb Way

One of the causes of obesity is eating too much saturated fat in foods such as chips, hamburgers, hotdogs and deep fried foods. If you want to pack on pounds in a fast way, you can dose yourself with pounds of chocolate and drink one liter of soda. However doing so, will also lead to harmful effects on your body.

The Smart Way

Healthy omega-3 fats can help you gain pounds. These are foods like tuna, salmon, and walnuts. You can also increase your protein as well as your carbohydrate intake. Eat foods rich in protein and carbohydrates like lean meat, legumes, fruits, vegetables, as well as whole grains. You can also drink protein mix and multi-vitamins to add to the nutrients of the food you eat daily.

Wholemeal bread with a good spread of peanut butter on it works wonders for gaining weight. Eat three wholesome meals each day with plenty of exercise.

Eat during mid afternoons and midnight but don’t just eat junk food. You can drink milk and eat cookies.

These steps will help you gain some pounds straight from the start.

In order to gain weight, you need to concentrate on resistance training (strength training) as opposed to aerobic exercise, running and cycling. The latter will only cause you to lose weight.

Research has shown that regular resistance training will improve bone mass and strengthen and tone muscles. Resistance training involves the use of hydraulic and elastic resistance. That is, something being pushed, squeezed, bent or stretched.

To Summarise

Healthy weight gain will only depend on your metabolism, the food you eat, and the activities you do each day.