How to gain weight quickly and safely

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

I have a friend - a reference pimple. Once in my presence, he ate two big tasties. At a time. He sincerely wants to get better. He walks on horizontal bars, works out at home with a barbell, shoves food into himself almost to the point of nausea. There is a result, but minimal. There are some of those you know, too, right? They are envied. They eat what they want and how much they want, but here we choke on carrots and count calories. In fact, there is nothing to envy.

What does "too thin" really mean?

From the point of view of science, being unnecessarily thin means being underweight. This corresponds to a body mass index () below 18.5.

BMI is equal to a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. For example, my height is 1.84 meters, and my weight is 107 kilograms. BMI is 31, which means I have first degree obesity.

As you understand, the BMI is the lower, the greater the mass of the person. The formula is extremely primitive and does not take into account the qualitative composition of these very kilograms. If you are not friends with sports and weigh a centner with a penny, then everything is sad. If, with the same mass, you press one and a half of your weight from the chest, this is a completely different story.

In the case of low mass, BMI is more indicative. It doesn't matter if it's fat or muscle. You have neither the one nor the other.

According to American studies, only 1% of men are underweight. Among women, this figure is 2.4%. However, gender in this case does not matter, because health problems due to lack of body weight can occur in everyone.

Impact of underweight on health

The problems of fat people are obvious, everyone knows about them. Thin people, except in cases of outright morbidity in appearance, seem healthy, but scientific research shows a different picture.

Underweight, the risk of premature death is 140% in men and 100% in women. Against this backdrop, obesity, with its 50 percent increased risk of premature death, seems like a simple malaise.

Hard to believe, but underweight is more dangerous than obesity.

Different study methods yield different data. Another study did not show an increase in the risk of premature death due to underweight in women, but clearly it is in men. In any case, men do not need excessive thinness.

"The risk of premature death" is a rather abstract term. For more specificity, it is worth mentioning that a lack of body weight provokes a deterioration in the immune system, fractures, increases the risk of infections entering the body, promotes the development of osteoporosis, age-related muscle atrophy, dementia, and also causes fertility problems (studies,,,,).

What Can Cause Underweight

Not just genes and heredity. Sometimes this is a very specific disease that a person is not aware of.

• Eating disorders. This includes anorexia nervosa, a person's intentional desire to lose weight as much as possible.
• Thyroid problems. Hyperthyroidism - an overactive thyroid gland - can lead to unhealthy weight loss.
• Celiac disease, also known as celiac disease, is an acute form of gluten intolerance.
• Type 1 diabetes.
• Cancer.
• Infections.

The problems listed above will not go away by themselves, and self-medication will harm even more. Therefore, the first and main advice for a person suffering from underweight is a visit to the doctor, especially if signs of weight loss have appeared from a certain point in time and have not bothered before.

The right approach to food

Probably there is more? This is the surest way, but thoughtlessly filling yourself with sweet drinks, absorbing kilograms of cakes with pasties, is a guaranteed undermining of health. Outwardly healthy people, without deviations in weight, receive terrible diagnoses, which are usually companions of severe forms of obesity. It's all because of the bad food.

The thesis "there is more" needs to be concretized."There are more healthy foods." That's better.

However, even eating exceptionally healthy food, you need to think about the end result. It is unlikely that you want to become just fat. And the very concept of "healthy fat" somehow does not fit well in the head.

Gaining mass in one way or another means building up both adipose and muscle tissue, and therefore the problem cannot be solved by food alone. You still have to make friends with sports, but more on that later.

Calorie surplus

The fundamental law of mass gain is calorie surplus. Get more calories than you burn. If you ignore this basis, then all other efforts will be in vain.

It is very easy to find the point that you step over to reach a calorie surplus. At first, you don't need anything other than food, weights, and patience.

You need to eat more every day than you did yesterday.

Don't overclock too much. After a while, you will notice that the graph of body weight slowly but surely went up. This means you have achieved a calorie surplus.

Now you need to turn to the calorie calculator and find out the numerical value of the daily calorie value at which your body began to gain weight. Just add up the calorie content of everything you eat per day. Based on this data, you can freely change your diet, focusing on the total calorie content.

If the growth of mass has not stopped, then there is no point in continuing to greatly increase the calorie content. A surplus of 300-500 kcal is enough for a steady and slow weight gain. With an excess of 700-1,000 kcal, you will recover much faster.

At this stage, it is much more important to convince yourself that this approach to nutrition will become the norm for you in the future. Basically, you will have to change your attitude towards food for the rest of your life. This is psychologically difficult, but without making a new approach to eating a habit, all that has been achieved will inevitably be lost.

Protein

Protein is the most important nutrient. Building material for your body and in particular. No matter how you experiment with the menu, it is important to adhere to the protein norm. Unfortunately, protein is not only the most needed, but also very. As your diet increases in protein, you will meet your calorie needs, but there is no alternative way to achieve the desired result.

When gaining weight, your daily protein intake will be that of athletes - from 1.5 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Protein-rich foods are always the most expensive, but delicious. Meat, fish, eggs, milk, legumes, nuts. Here are your best friends. There is one hack to make it easier to get your daily protein intake to the desired level. This is quality sports nutrition. It is also expensive, but whey or multicomponent protein between meals and casein before bed will give you a very nice bonus. In any case, you will come to sports nutrition when you start playing sports, but you can get to know this interesting world a little earlier.

Carbohydrates, fats, the number of meals

Do not limit yourself to anything. A nice feature of weight gain is complete freedom in choosing food, as long as it is healthy. Don't listen to crazy people talking about the dangers of animal fat. We are omnivores, we need all fats - both animal and vegetable. And complex carbohydrates. Lots of complex carbohydrates.

Try increasing your diet to 4 grams of complex carbohydrates per pound of body weight per day. Difficult, but real. Plus, deliciously cooked porridge is very cool.

You should make friends with cereals, pasta, potatoes and bread.

And here, too, there is a sports nutrition hack - gainers. Much has been written about them on specialized sites.

Meals are very simple. The more often the better. A minimum of three full meals a day, with high-calorie snacks in between.

High-calorie foods and supplements

If you don't have enough appetite, you will start looking for the most high-calorie foods. There is a risk of dropping to fast food. In fact, there are alternatives. Much more high-calorie and very healthy.

High-calorie food is food with the maximum ratio of energy value to weight / volume. Such food takes up little space in the stomach and is easier to eat.

• Nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts).
• Dried fruits.
• Fatty dairy products.
• Vegetable oil (olive and avocado oil).
• Cereals.
• Fat meat.
• Potato.
• Dark chocolate.
• Avocado.
• Peanut butter.

Unfortunately, the desire to maximize the calorie content of the diet will force you to limit yourself in vegetables, but in no case do not give them up completely.

When choosing fruits, try to pay attention to those that need to be chewed less.

A little more about food

• Eating more is easier if you eat more often.
• Do not drink before meals, leave room for food.
• Thirsty? Try milk instead of water.
• The larger the plate, the less food appears on it.
• Coffee tastes better with cream.

Strength sports

A surplus of calories allows you to gain mass. The only question is where do you want to see these kilograms. In the sides or in the muscles? If you like the latter, then welcome to the world of sports for the thin.

Sport, no matter how you feel about it, is an equally important factor in gaining weight correctly. Suffice it to say that sports greatly increase your appetite, and you really want to learn how to eat more.

First, we go to the doctor and make sure that there are no serious hindrances to sports. Nobody forces you to break records at once. Strength sports are measured progress.

You will be doing fewer sets and reps, but with more weights.

Naturally, cardio should not be forgotten, but in your case the emphasis will be on strength training. The emphasis on cardio is all about burning calories, and you don't need to waste energy.

If funds allow, then first it is better to contact a professional trainer. He will explain and show the basics, and over time you yourself will begin to understand everything.