Healthy Weight Gain
There is so much importance given to weight loss in today’s culture that it is easy for people to overlook that many people are actually trying to gain weight and not lose it. There are many different reasons for why some people want to gain weight.
Many people may become underweight because of medical problems like digestive diseases or hormonal problems. Still there are other people who are naturally thin and possess a very fast metabolism because of which they may feel uncomfortable for their weight.
There are many athletes who are looking to pack on more pounds to look muscular. For gaining weight in a healthy manner requires careful attention on your diet. The key to healthy weight gain is to take more calories every day that you use. The amount of calories you burn during a day will rely on number of factors.
If you are an athlete, it is possible that you may burn more calories as compared to someone who leads comparatively a sedentary existence. A physically demanding job also requires more calories per day.
After taking into consideration your activity level, implement the following tips, which will be helpful to you in gaining weight in a healthy way.
- Eat foods which are high in good fat along with those that come from avocados, fish and nuts. Avoid sweets which contain high calories as they will only add fat and not muscle to your frame. You should also make sure that you are consuming sufficient amounts of proteins and whole grains.
- Take a mineral and multi-vitamin supplement every day.
- Start doing exercise and particularly strength training will be helpful to you in building muscle mass, which in turn will help to fill out your figure.
- Try eating 5-6 smaller meals daily. Keep your body full of high energy and high density foods which will keep you energized all through the day.
The most important that should always be remembered is that it is possible to gain weight in manner which is healthy. You should always stay away from foods that are highly-processed containing too much sugar and are full of saturated fats.
Even healthy weight is essential for pregnant women. Gaining weight at the time of pregnancy is something that all healthy women do. Diet is considered only one part of the best way to gain a healthy weight.
Doctors can recommend the best way to do workouts with specialized movements and stretches only for pregnant women. When they keep moving, their muscles will remain strong and will be able to go through laboring in a much easy way. Also, when a strong body and a healthy weight are maintained during pregnancy, recovery after delivery takes place faster.
The healthy weight suggested by doctors is generally 2.2 pounds i.e. 1 kg per month. This leads to total weight gain of 18-25 pounds i.e. 9-10 kg throughout the entire pregnancy period. But, before starting to munch food to add pounds to the body, it is best to discuss with the doctor because each woman has a different body build that decides how much excess weight on her body is good enough during the pregnancy period.
For healthy weight gain during pregnancy following eating habits should be adapted:
- Eat 5-6 frequent, small meals daily.
- Keep quick and easy snacks such as nuts, cheese and crackers, raisins, ice cream and dried fruit on hand.
- Spread peanut butter on crackers, toast, apples, celery or bananas. One tablespoon of creamy peanut butter will give around 100 calories and 7gms of protein.
- Add non-fat powdered milk to foods like scrambled eggs, hot cereals and mashed potatoes.
- Add condiments to your meal like margarine or butter, gravy, sour cream and cream cheese.
Thus, by the following above guidelines there will be no problems in getting a healthy average weight gain.
