How to gain healthy weight SLOWLY but SAFELY!

 Healthy weight gain tips and foods

Weight gain or Muscle gain is neither easy nor simple. There is many more weight loss tips but there are also many tips and foods are present for healthy weight gain . To gain muscle or healthy weight, we have to choose right diet and foods with hard dedication because it's a long process . For weight gain, we should maintain high calorie rich and protein intake diet as well as balanced fats and fibers. 

A balanced and proper diet will help ones to build muscles with the help of optimum nutritions. For weight gain any diet plan is to provide you with more calories than what you burn in a day. The diet should contain all of macro nutrients such as carbohydrates, healthy fats, fibers and most importantly proteins . So you have to choose perfectly planned diet plan so that you get necessary nutritions from your diet.

What healthy weight value and how it calculate?

Your Body Mass Index (BMI) determines your healthy weight range. To calculate your BMI, divide your body weight by your height in meter square.

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 falls under the healthy weight range. If your BMI is 18.5 or less, it means that you are underweight. There are many sites and apps where you can easily find your BMI using height and weight.

If you are struggling to find the perfect diet plan to gain weight, then here, this article covers all points for good diet plan to gain weight.

Reasons behind underweight:

Being underweight cause some health changes such as fatigue,low immunity, pale skin, loss of hair etc. There are some factors as well as health issues present behind underweight. These are:

• High metabolism: Every people has a different body type. People with a high metabolic rate remain lean and fail to gain weight, no matter how much they eat in a day. 

• Family History: Our genes play a vital role in deciding our body structure and weight. If you have a low BMI and lean body genetically, it will affect your body weight.

• Eating Disorders :Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa also make someone underweight.

• Medical Conditions: Medical conditions like diabetes, hyperthyroidism, infections, Digestive issues,cancers, etc., can also cause poor body weight. If you have any physical and mental illness then first find the illness , solve it and then proceed weight gain diet plans. 

•Mental Illness: Mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders can also cause loss of appetite and lead to weight loss.

Tips to gain healthy weight:

1. High calorie rich food: To gain weight healthily, eat foods like banana, avocados, full-fat milk, meats , chickpeas, tofu, that are high in calories and nutrients.

A calorie-rich diet is very important part to gain the necessary body weight. Therefore, besides high-calorie food, one needs to know when and how to consume the right high-calorie foods.

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2.Protein Rich Food: Proteins make up our body muscles. The low intake or absence of  protein can make you lean .

Protein can turn calories directly into fat and helps in maintaining a healthy weight. You should take protein per kg of your body weight to gain weight to get body muscle.

Chicken breast, turkey, nuts, legumes, beans, fish, eggs, milk are excellent foods of proteins.

3. Add healthy carbohydrates: Like Protein, carbohydrates are also important to gain weight and plays a vital role in weight gain process . It don't cause overweight . Weight gain depends on the number of calories you intake. So, you should add healthy carbs in all meals like bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, red or brown rice, whole grains, and fruits will help you gain weight healthily and safely.

4. Reduce Stress: Stress causes loss of appetite which drastically lowers your bidy weight and in some, it increases their appetite. In both cases, stress is extremely harmful to your mental and physical health. 

Avoid stress as much as you can. Meditate, breathe deep, listen to music, relax, and be active to reduce stress .

5. Strength Training: In weight gain process, one need to know that they should have to focus on gain muscle not fats . Therefore, it is advised you to work out and do strength training at least 3-4 times a week. There are many work outs you can search . Some of them are pushups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, benched press, 

6. Get Good Sleep: A good sleep very beneficial for your health as well as weight gain process. You should sleep approximately 8 hours helps to strengthen muscle mass and keeps your body fit. Lack of sleep is a contributing factor to hormonal imbalance and physical issues such as fatigue ,resulting not able to perform any physical activity for a healthy lifestyle. 

7. Eat more frequently: When you're underweight, you may feel full faster. Eat five to six smaller meals during the day rather than two or three large meals

How to calculate calorie:

To find out your caloric needs for weight gain, you'll first need to know your resting metabolic rate (RMR). To calculate your resting metabolic rate, multiply your current weight by 12.

Let's take an example, if you have 150 pounds weight then calorie will be 150×12 =1800 calorie per day. This is how many calories you burn throughout the day, not including exercise. 

If you do exercise then there will changes in calories as follows-

1. Lightly active (light exercise with 1 to 3 days/week): × 1.2

2. Moderately active (moderate exercise with 3 to 5 days/week): × 1.4

3.Very active (hard exercise with 6 to 7 days/week): × 1.6

4. Extra active (extra-hard exercise with 6 to 7 days/week): × 1.8

5. Super active (extra-hard exercise with 6 to 7 days/week and a physical job): × 1.9

For example:

1,800 calories/day × 1.2 (moderately active) = 2,160 calories/day

Calorie count apps for weight gain  journey:

1. HealthifyMe: Healtifyme best calorie counter app which have features like tracking the eating habits of users and planning their meals. So, depending on your goal, you can decide upon your food intake and track your calorie count.

HealthifyMe includes not only weight loss but also weight gain tracker and sleep tracker. It consists of no-equipment workout videos for both genders, that can be easily done at home. There is an account of your health data, a nutrition calendar, and an immunity checker as well.

2. Carb manager: Carb Manager is the best calorie counter app that enables you to keep a check on the number of nutrients and calories you take every day.It has 3 calculators – a nutrient calculator that tracks proteins and fats, a keto calculator that tracks carbs, and a calorie calculator that gives the total number of calories you consume at the end of each day.

3. My net diary: MyNetDiary is the best for choosing a specific type of eating style because it allows you to focus on things like calorie coutning, vegan, vegetarian, low-carb, and Keto types of eating plans. It also includes barcode scanner.

4. My fitness pal: It has a recipe calculator that takes into account the number of calories you consume in one single meal. This helps you in searching the nutritional value home-cooked food provides. MyFitnessPal also has a fitness tracker that offers you 350 exercises that can be done by both beginners and expert trainers. It includes strength training and cardio, so no more excuses as to why you do not wish to stretch your limbs.

5. Calorie counter+ : It is the best calorie counting app as it has vast food database.

You can set your daily targets, for example, the amount of water, vegetables, and fruits you would like to consume in a day. This will help you stick to your fitness goals. You also get barcode scanner feature

Calorie Counter + has some fantastic pre-set nutrient guides. These give you valuable information about what nutrients are essential for your body.

Weight gain foods you should include in diet : 

Animal protein

Fish

Dark leafy vegetables

Avocados

Legumes

Nuts and seeds

Carbohydrates

Nut butter

Full-fat dairy products

Whole grains

Fruits

Chickpeas

Pork

Cheese

Homemade protein smoothies

Rice 

Red meats

Potato 

Protein supplements

Healthy cereals

Dark chocolate

Whole eggs

Healthy fats and oils

Foods to avoid:

Fried food

Refined carbs

Sugar rich food

Carbonated drinks

Candies

Usually a typical diet plan for weight gain recommends at least three big meals in a day with large portions. However, if you do not like or can't eating at once, you can divide your diet plan into five to six smaller meals.  

There is no restriction in diet plans for weight gain. However, according to nutritionists, it is better to include healthy whole foods minimal use of processed and sugary foods in your weight gain diet. Apart from a good diet plan for weight gain, other factors like exercise, sleep, active lifestyle also play a significant role in weight gain process. Therefore, choose a diet plan that suits your body and fits your lifestyle. Remember, gaining or losing weight is a journey and so it requires constant motivation. Therefore you have to keep yourself motivated, eat healthily, exercise regularly, live stress-free and make yourself fit and healthy.