How to gain weight

How to gain weight

Gain Weight Fast (for Women)

Gain Weight Fast (for Men)

Gain Fat on the Arms

Safely Gain 10 Pounds in a Month

Gain an Inch on Your Hips

Gain Weight While on ADHD Medication

Gain Weight if You Are Underweight

Gain Weight if You Have Lactose Intolerance

How To Gain Weight

Table of Contents

Whether you’re underweight or just looking to put on some muscle, it’s important to know how to gain weight—particularly lean body mass—in a healthy way.

Reasons to Gain Weight

Medical reasons for being underweight include long-term illnesses like cancer and recovering from eating disorders and thyroid or hormonal disruption, says Adam Atkinson, an International Sports Science Association (ISSA)-certified personal trainer and founder of See You Later Leaner in Columbus, Ohio.

“In my practice, I work with females with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea [the loss of a menstrual cycle due to a hormone imbalance] who want to get their hormones functioning optimally again,” he says. “I also get women going through pregnancy who need to have a controllable weight gain as well.”

Before beginning a weight gaining regime, consult a licensed professional, adds Colleen Chiariello, a registered dietitian at Syosset Hospital in New York. “Some of the concerns associated with underweight status may be related to underlying medical issues,” she adds. “It’s recommended to get a physical with bloodwork and any additional testing to ensure the person is otherwise healthy.”

In addition to learning how to gain a healthy amount of weight for medical reasons, some people may be interested in “bulking up” or adding muscle, which also requires weight gain, according to Chiariello. Experts note that when you gain weight, you should aim to gain lean body mass specifically.

How to Gain Weight in a Healthy Way

When it comes to gaining weight, don’t rush it, experts say. Like weight loss, weight gain (particularly lean body mass) should be done gradually to allow the cardiovascular system to adjust, says Spencer Kroll, M.D., a board-certified internal medicine specialist at the Kroll Medical Group in Marlboro, New Jersey.

“Typically, one to two pounds per week is the maximum amount of weight gain that is indicated,” says Dr. Kroll. “Rapid weight gain can cause excessive stress on the cardiovascular system, leading to cardiac output problems.”

“This can cause blood pressure problems, fluid accumulation in the lungs and lower extremities and can also be toxic to the liver,” he adds. “Additionally, rapid weight gain can cause increases in adipose tissue.”

Before gaining weight, it’s best to seek your doctor’s advice, adds Mary Wirtz, a registered dietitian, board-certified specialist in sports dietetics and consultant for Fit Healthy Momma.

“Each individual is truly very different in terms of appropriate weight gain goals, and weight gain recommendations are contingent on a variety of factors including age, physical activity level, medical history, medications and more,” says Wirtz.

Atkinson adds that if it’s hard for you to gain weight, you may want to “consider staying slightly above a healthy body fat percentage [the percent of total body weight that is composed of body fat in proportion to lean mass, organs, tissues and water], because when you go back to maintenance mode, you’re probably going to drop some body fat naturally.”

You May Also Be Interested In Blood Pressure Monitors Available On Amazon

iHealth Track Connected Blood Pressure Monitor

The Complete Guide: How to Gain Muscle Weight

For many people, exercise and fitness are forever linked to weight loss. But there’s a time and a place to gain weight, as well—and it can be just as tough! Athletes and everyday people need or want to gain muscular weight for aesthetic goals, sports, or health reasons. And their first impulse is often simply to «eat a lot more,» without much strategy beyond that.

So let’s set the record straight. Just like with weight loss, it’s important to gain weight in a healthy way. This is sometimes known as a «clean bulk.» Doing a clean bulk means combining strength training and eating nutrient and calorie-dense foods to gain as much «quality» weight, or lean muscle mass, as possible. The nutrients in whole, unprocessed foods will help you build it, and support the rest of your body’s systems along the way. Processed foods and empty calories, on the other hand, are more likely to add fat than muscle.

«Gaining quality weight—in other words, mostly lean muscle mass and relatively little fat—is harder than it gets credit for,» explains registered dietician Doug Kalman, Ph.D. in Bodybuilding.com’s Foundations of Fitness Nutrition course. «How you train is just one part of the formula. You can gain muscle with full-body training, a bodybuilding split, doing CrossFit, or something else entirely. How you eat will make the most difference.»

For a full education in quality weight gain and solid eating in general, watch the full «How to Gain Weight» video in the Foundations of Fitness Nutrition course. For tons of tips you can put into action today to see the scale move up, read on!

How to Gain Weight: The Fast Version

Here’s a simple formula for gaining quality muscular weight.

Do the work and be patient, adjusting as necessary. «If you’re not gaining half a pound a week… eat even more,» Doug Kalman, Ph.D., RD, advises. «If you’re gaining 1 pound a week, keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re gaining much more than that, dial it back just a bit.»

But don’t try to keep gaining forever. «Give this approach 6-8 solid weeks, and then dial back a bit and see what has changed,» Kalman says. «Doing it for months and months at a time will probably just wear you out, and increase the possibility that you’re adding fat, not muscle.»

Basics of Gaining Weight

What to Eat to Gain Weight

When you’re struggling to gain weight, eating enough food to see the scale go up can be overwhelming. It’s tempting to simply grab junk food or fast food to boost your calories, but you have better options. Before you resort to the drive-thru, make a concerted effort to eat more of these specific muscle-building foods, all of which are nutrient-dense and calorie-rich.

Take the list below to the store. Then plug each item into the eating schedule below and see if it helps the scale move in the right direction. Sure, you could get plenty of the same nutrients simply by drinking a gallon of milk a day, but mixing up your diet will give you a wider range of nutrients—and be a lot less boring over the course of weeks or months!

The Best Weight-Gain Foods

Proteins

Carbs

Here’s a sample daily meal schedule from registered dietitian Douglas Kalman, Ph.D.

Weight-Gain Meal Plan

Weight-Gain Shakes

At some point, cooking and eating all that food can start to feel like a chore. This is where shakes come in.

Weight-gainer shakes are high-calorie drinks or smoothies that let you rapidly ingest a ton of calories along with protein and other macros. Use them as a quick but substantial meal replacement when you’re on the go, drink them with meals for extra calories, or snack on them before bed.

There are two basic ways to do gainers: You can buy a mass-gainer supplement, or make your own. There are benefits to both. Making your own with real foods provides more micronutrients, but the muscle-gainer powders are definitely convenient. Even if you plan to mostly DIY it, having a powder is great for those times it isn’t practical to break out the blender. Keep one of our best muscle-building protein powders on hand for these situations.

How to Make Your Own Weight-Gain Shakes

Start with protein powder and add extra calories any way you can. Get creative! Pick at least one ingredient from each category and blend until smooth.

6 Monster Weight-Gain Shake Recipes

To get you started, here are six monster shakes to power your massive gains, from registered nutritionist and competitive powerlifter Paul Salter, MS, RD. Three of them are perfect to drink any time you need some calories, and the other three are ideal for that post-workout period when your muscles are screaming for fuel.

How Much Protein, Fat, and Carbs Should You Eat to Gain Weight?

Protein

Protein is an important part of your weight-gain diet, but there’s a point after which more protein isn’t necessarily better—it’s just more. You can find weight-gain diets that suggest you eat 2-3 grams of protein per pound of body weight, or even more, but registered dietician Doug Kalman, Ph.D., says beyond a certain point, all that extra protein may not do much to increase muscle mass. Instead, it could just empty your wallet and upset your stomach.

«As long as you’re in the protein sweet spot of 0.8-1 gram per pound [of body weight], consider yourself covered. For most people, this breaks down to about 20-30 percent of total calories.»

According to Kalman, the best plan is to space your protein out in 20-40-gram doses throughout the day.

Carbohydrates

Shoot for 50 percent of total calories from carbs to support strength, size, and performance. Here are a couple carb tips from Kalman’s video in Bodybuilding.com’s Foundations of Fitness Nutrition course.

Fats are an important part of the human diet. They help you digest certain types of vitamins and maintain optimum hormones and brain function, among many other crucial functions. But they are also the easiest way to add extra calories. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories, more than twice the number of calories per gram as protein and carbs, which both contain 4 calories per gram.

Along with all this energy, fatty foods also usually taste really good. But this doesn’t mean you should stock up on donuts. Prioritize fats from quality sources including nuts, seeds, avocado, meat, and olive oil and you’ll get all the benefits, without the empty calories.

Fats also have the lowest thermic effect of food compared to carbs and protein. That means that your body burns anywhere from 5-30 percent fewer calories digesting fats than it does the other two macronutrients.[1,2] The fewer calories your body expends to digest the food, the more weight you can retain.

An easy way to up your diet’s fat content is to cook your meat and vegetables in olive, coconut, or other calorie-rich oil. You can also add a little oil to your protein shakes—don’t worry, you won’t taste it. You can also sneak in some extra fat with your selection of protein. Instead of going for super-lean meat, choose 80/20 ground beef, chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, and look for a little more marbling in your steaks. Good options include rib-eye and T-bone.

How Many Calories Do You Need to Gain Weight?

You may think of calorie counting as something people only do for weight loss, but it can be just as important for helping with weight gain, especially if you’re not seeing a lot of change in your physique. Sometimes you’re just not eating as much as you think you are.

The formula for gaining weight is really pretty simple: The amount of calories you take in has to be larger than the amount of calories you burn. To get a feeling for how many calories you’ll need to put on weight, start by using this calculator to determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

When you use the calculator, it will ask you to choose an activity level that best represents your lifestyle. Be honest! If you say you’re very active and you’re not, it’s not going to help you gain quality muscular weight.

Once you get your TDEE number, add at least 500 calories to it. Continue eating at least 500 over your TDEE for a couple weeks to see what happens. If you don’t notice any change in your weight, increase it to 750 or even 1000 calories above your TDEE.

For those who are new to counting calories, registered dietitian Doug Kalman, Ph.D., explains how to do it in Bodybuilding.com’s Foundations of Fitness Nutrition course.

«Create a food diary. Record both what you eat, and how much. Then, take that information, and plug it into any of the many free nutrition database websites, and get your baseline calorie and macronutrient breakdown. With a cheap food scale, this is actually a lot easier than it was just a few years ago.»

If you start gaining weight too quickly—like more than 2 pounds a week for several weeks straight—drop it back down to 200-300 extra per day. With the right calorie intake and the right workout, you can expect an increase of 0.5-1.5 pounds in body weight each week. If you’re nowhere near that range, adjust your calorie intake.

How to Train for Weight Gain

Strength training is essential when weight gain is the goal. On a hormonal and muscular level, there’s nothing better to give your body an unmistakable message to grow. Plus, it just makes you hungry!!

When you’re working on gaining weight, the most important thing is to make sure you’re doing some kind of strength training at least 3-4 days a week without exception. What style you do matters less than doing it consistently. You can gain weight doing bodyweight workouts in your living room if they’re sufficiently difficult and you’re eating right! But weights and a gym can also be a great tool for weight gain if you have access to them.

If you really want to optimize your gains, here are some guidelines:

Some of the most popular muscle-gaining programs in Bodybuilding.com BodyFit Elite include:

Weight-Gain Tips: 16 Little Ways to See Better Results

Eat more food, lift more often, gain more weight. Sounds easy, right?В News flash: It’s not.

Luckily there are tricks and habits that can help you gain weight a little faster and easier. They aren’t huge, groundbreaking solutions, but they’ll allow you to fine-tune your plan and maybe stick with it a little longer—and that can definitely pay off big over the long term.

1. Never train while hungry. Going into a workout without fueling your body beforehand will limit the intensity you bring to a workout. It can also force your body to get energy by tapping into muscle tissue. You won’t gain much weight when that’s going on.

2. If you train in the morning, make the biggest meal of your day the one you have immediately after your morning workout. When you finish a workout, your body is in a state where it will suck up any calories you supply it with. If there is one time of day you want to slam back a higher calorie shake, this is it.

3. Ideally, eat every 3-4 hours. No, you don’t have to go full bro eating eight or more meals a day, but never go more than 5 hours without eating. Spread your calories throughout the day, especially protein.

4. Don’t leave the house unprepared. Keep wholesome snacks on hand, like trail mix and peanut butter sandwiches—seriously! This old classic is a weight-gain miracle. Always carry a shaker bottle (maybe even a big one) with protein or weight-gain powder in it in case you’re caught without food.

5. Remember that you don’t have to follow the usual no-salt, no-butter, no-flavor rules. They can all have a place, within reason. You need to eat more, and if your food doesn’t taste good, it’s simply not going to happen.

6. Consider a post-workout protein shake to be a requirement. Why? It digests quickly and takes up little space in your stomach, so you can eat soon after.

7. Resist the urge to follow any popular diet like intermittent fasting, keto, or paleo. These all have their place, but they are all better suited to weight loss than weight gain. Focus on your goal now—you can always come back to them later!

8. At home, eat from bigger dishes than usual so you serve yourself larger portions without even realizing it. Same with your glassware: Put away those 8-ounce glasses and pull out those 16-ounce tumblers and fill ’em up with milk and protein shakes!

9. Gain with someone! If a friend is training and gaining alongside you, it becomes sort of a competition and a group project. It also puts «eating a lot» intoВ perspective when you can see how much other people eat in comparison.

10. Follow a workout program designed to increase muscle or strength gains. A little light lifting and cardio isn’t going to cut it. To build muscle, you need to give your muscles the signal to grow. If you don’t, all those extra calories are just extra calories—not fuel for growth.

11. Make sleep a high priority—almost as high as eating and training. Your muscles don’t grow when you’re in the gym, they grow when you’re resting! Old-school bodybuilders were famous for napping—because it worked. If your sleep sucks, you won’t gain the way you would otherwise.

Sleep is restorative, allows you to train harder, and helps your anabolic hormones stay at high levels. Lack of sleep over time can also increase your cortisol levels.[5] Cortisol is a stress hormone produced by your adrenal glands that can stimulate muscle breakdown, which leads to loss of muscle mass—and weight.

12. Pay attention to details in a way that you think is better suited for someone who is losing weight, not gaining it. That means log your food, track your workouts, measure your weight, note the changes you see in the mirror, and keep track of how you feel. You might not be into counting calories, but that may be why you haven’t been able to gain so far. During a dedicated gaining phase, it’s worth the hassle to make sure you’re on track.

13. Find your motivation. Why are you going down this path? Is there a specific strength goal that you need more muscle mass to achieve? Did a loved one or health professional tell you you’re underweight? Do you want to feel stronger and be more active and need more bulk to add more muscle? Maybe you just want to look bigger—or less skinny. Whatever your reason, think about what your ideal weight should be for you to meet your goals. Having a specific weight goal will make it easier for you to track your progress and stay motivated.

14. Keep in mind that increasing the calories you eat to add muscle will also bring along some extra fat mass. Don’t panic! As long as you’re lifting regularly and keeping a little cardio in the mix, your fat gain can be minimal. And the more muscle you put on, the easier it will be to lean out and look defined later! Remember, if you’ve been struggling to gain weight, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll put on 20 pure pounds of unwanted fat as long as you’re training hard a few times a week.

15. Be patient. Healthy weight gain takes time. If you understand that going in, you’ll be much less likely to get frustrated and quit before your body has time to respond to your new way of eating and training.

16. Last but not least, use this as a way to build a positive relationship with food. Learn to cook your own meals, enjoy your food, and eat meals with others as often as possible. Far too often, people get so caught up in what their food means that they forget to savor the food before them. Enjoy the whole process of nourishing yourself! Eat with friends and family when you can. And be sure to invite those friends who aren’t afraid to say yes to second—or even third—helpings!

What Are the Best Weight-Gain Supplements?

The real drivers of quality weight gain are food and strength training. But adding some of these simple supplements to your diet can make gaining weight a little easier. Some of them boost recovery or help you bring more intensity to workouts, while others simply help you get enough calories to keep growing!

Protein

If you’re planning to gain muscular weight on a diet plan that doesn’t include an occasional shake, well, good luck. Time and time again, protein supplements have been shown in research to combine with strength training and produce increases in lean mass—i.e., muscle. You can definitely reach the science-backed benchmark of between 0.8 and 1 gram per pound of body weight per day with food alone, but you can reach it more easily with a scoop or two to help you along the way.

«Consider powders and drinks to be supplements of convenience—and use them that way,» Douglas Kalman, Ph.D., recommends. «If a shake after training is the only way you’re going to get protein at that time, have the shake. If you’re trying to gain weight and you’re in a position where you’d either have a shake or miss a meal entirely, have the shake.»

To learn more about what protein does for your body and how it can make training more effective, read «The Complete Guide to Protein.»

Weight Gainer

Weight-gainer supplements often come loaded with protein, carbs, and even fats, so you can quickly increase your calories. Some products enable you to consume more than 1,000 calories in a single serving! They’re also called mass gainers, gainer shakes, or weight-gain proteins. To learn more about how protein-rich supplements like this help translate to results, check out «The Complete Guide to Protein.»

Creatine

Creatine helps increase your performance in the gym, and over time has been shown again and again in research to lead to increases in strength and muscle.[6] Creatine also draws water into your cells to make your muscles a little bigger and heavier. Aim for 5-10 grams per day, taken anytime during the day. To learn more about this bona fide muscle-builder, read «Your Complete Guide to Creatine Monohydrate.»

Supplemental Carbs

The more calories you can get into your diet right now, the better. If you’re already drinking a pre- and post-workout shake, or drinking BCAAs during your workouts, add some fast-digesting carbs like dextrose to the mix. This can actually help you train harder, since your body preferentially uses carbs as fuel during intense workouts, as registered dietician Paul Salter explains in the article «Your Guide to Intra-Workout Carbs.»

If you want your muscles to grow, you need to give them time to recover from workouts. ZMA is one of the leading supplements for overnight muscle repair and recovery. A combination of zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B-6, ZMA is best taken before you go to bed to enhance muscle recovery.[7,8]

Testosterone Boosters

Testosterone boosters aren’t the same thing as testosterone replacement therapy. Instead, they’re usually blends of ingredients that athletes are often deficient in—like zinc—or that have been connected in research to higher testosterone levels. They can run the gamut in both ingredients and dosages, though. For a deep dive, check out «The Complete Guide to Testosterone Boosters.»

Pre-workout Supplements

Pre-workout supplements are good for one thing: helping you get the most out of your training sessions. They usually contain ingredients like vasodilators, which can help you maximize muscular pump—which, let’s remember, is one of the primary drivers of muscle growth—and also help you maintain energy and intensity during training. For more information, read «The Complete Guide to Pre-Workout Supplements.»

How to Gain Weight Fast: 7 Secrets for Skinny Guys

Here’s your no-nonsense, go-to guide for how to gain weight as fast as possible.

Are You Underweight? How to Tell.

Being skinny is one thing, being underweight is another. Just as being overweight can increase your risk of chronic disease and poor health outcomes, being underweight is often associated with malnutrition, poor bone health, and fertility issues (1,2,3,4).

The easiest way to tell if you are under a normal body weight for your height and age is by checking your body mass index (BMI). A BMI below the normal range could mean you are underweight, but ultimately you’ll want to check in with your doctor or a registered dietitian for more guidance.

Get your BMI in less than a minute using this free BMI calculator.

The Reason Why You’re Underweight or Not Gaining Weight

So you’re strength training, eating massive amounts of protein and not seeing progress, what gives? The bottom line is: you’re not eating enough food.

At the most basic level, weight gain and weight loss are a calories game. If you aren’t eating enough calories to gain weight, it does not matter what you eat or how many times you hit the weights, it’s just not going to happen for you.

How Many Calories Do You Need to Gain Weight?

You’ll need to start by figuring out how many calories you burn each day and then look at increasing your intake from there. This might take a bit of trial and error.

Let’s do this!

Track your progress with the Trifecta App!

Keep up this great momentum and crush all your nutrition goals with our app. Download the Trifecta App!

Get your results!

Enter your email address to see your results. We’ll also send you a follow-up email for your records.

The amount of calories you should add to your estimated daily intake to gain weight can depend on your starting fitness level and body composition. If you are underweight and struggle with putting on pounds, you’ll likely need more calories than someone looking to add some additional muscle mass to an already healthy frame.

For some, increasing calories by 5 to 10% (or roughly 100 to 300 calories a day) is enough to support additional lean muscle growth. While others may need to increase their calories as much as 20% or more to gain weight.

Professional bodybuilders, those looking to add some serious mass, or those maintaining a heavier weight, could easily need to eat a very high-calorie diet. But even at 300 pounds, many will top out around 6,000 calories per day. And their additional calorie needs for lean gains is still relatively small comparatively. Keep in mind that even pregnant women only need to eat an additional 300 to 500 calories a day and they are growing a tiny human being.

For beginner lifters or skinny people, a higher increase, eating an extra 300 to 500 calories a day might be more appropriate. And this additional increase would lead to 0.5 to 1 pound of weight gain per week.

But, of course, all of this can still depend on individual differences. If it is particularly hard for you to gain weight or you aren’t gaining any weight after 3 to 4 weeks using a moderate calorie increase, you can up this amount. An additional 1,000 calories a day would put you at a rapid weight gain of 2 pounds per week, but this isn’t recommended for everyone.

What Eating 300 Calories of Healthy Food Looks Like:

Using Trifecta A La Carte options, the following options will grab you an extra 300 calories of nutrient-dense foods and help you gain weight the healthy way:

The Best Types of Food to Eat for Weight Gain

The amount of food you eat is going to be the most important factor in helping you gain weight, but the quality of your choices is also worth paying attention to.

Eating a crappy diet is not only going to make you feel a little run down but can also affect your workouts, promote more fat gain than muscle, and cause potential health problems down the road.

Instead of eating whatever you want, aim to eat clean by opting for more healthy foods made with simple ingredients you recognize and cut down on heavily processed foods. Whole foods tend to be rich in the nutrients you need to thrive (aka vitamins and minerals).

They can also help you recover from workouts faster, build muscle, and promote a better mood, energy level, and overall health in general.

Not to mention, when calorie needs are high, it can be challenging to stick to only filling, whole foods. In this case, adding more refined carbs and quick sources of energy can help. This is also where high-fat and energy-dense foods come into play.

7 Eating Strategies for Skinny Guys to Gain Healthy Weight

Here are the top nutrition strategies for putting on healthy weight quickly.

1. Eat More Often to Gain Weight

One of the easiest ways to increase your calorie intake is to eat more at each meal and to eat more often. Whether this means more than three meals a day or multiple snacks, every eating occasion is an opportunity to support your weight gain goals. And when you do sit down for food, eat until you’re full or even to the point of feeling stuffed.

If you’re finding you’re not hungry or just forgetting to eat, make yourself a schedule. Then add it to your calendar or set an alarm on your phone so you don’t forget.

2. Choose Low Volume Foods to Gain Weight

Low-volume foods are options that pack a lot of calories in a smaller portion, meaning you can consume a lot more energy without having to eat large amounts.

Getting more energy in a smaller package is going to be much easier than trying to live off salads, but this also doesn’t mean you have to live off junk foods. There are plenty of healthy foods that can support your increased needs.

Extracting different components from foods, like oils, proteins, and sugars from whole foods, is an easy way to get concentrated macros that can provide a significant source of calories without taking up too much space.

It also allows you to fine-tune your nutrition by choosing the type of bulking macros that work best for your health and your needs.

Healthy high-calorie foods to eat more of include:

Carbs

Proteins

3. Get Protein At Every Meal to Gain Weight

Look for opportunities to add protein at every meal and snack with protein rich foods and supplements.

Pro Tips

4. Cook With Healthy Fats to Gain Weight

One of the simplest ways to add extra calories to your meals is to cook with healthy fats. Fat is the most calorie-dense macro (providing nine calories per gram) and most foods will absorb the oil in the cooking process. Plus, certain oils, like olive, avocado, and flaxseed oil are associated with positive heart health benefits (6).

Find a plant-based cooking oil you enjoy and use it to coat cooking pots and pans, and season your ingredients. You can even add a drizzle of oil after plating for a bit more flavor and fat.

5. Use Toppings, Sauces, and Add Ons to Gain Weight

Similar to oil and butter, a lot of toppings and add-on ingredients can help you hit your goals. This is where many of the low-volume foods mentioned above can help. The more add-ons, the more opportunities to add extra calories.

Pro Tips

6. Track Your Intake to Gain Weight

It’s basically impossible to know if you are eating enough food if you aren’t measuring your progress. You can easily do this by logging everything you eat and drink using a food tracking app.

Be as precise as possible by avoiding estimating whenever possible. Here are some easy tips you can use to get the most out of your calorie counting app:

7. Be Consistent to Gain Weight

Lastly, there is no such thing as progress, growth, or change without consistency. Results don’t just happen overnight and gaining healthy weight isn’t something you can just put a few weeks of worth into and expect lasting results from.

Staying consistent is probably the most important and yet the hardest part of sticking to any nutrition plan. No surprise that research continues to suggest that consistency is one of the most important factors for success (7). That’s why it is key to choose a diet that you know you can stick to!

Build your foundation, keep training regularly, focus on getting your diet right most of the time. Then try to be patient, your results will come!

Spend less time meal prepping to gain weight and more time in the gym getting gains, by having our team of nutrition experts take care of your diet.

We’ll do the planning, cooking, and shipping so you can have high-protein, clean meals delivered to your door each week.

12 healthy ways to gain weight safely and build muscle fast, according to dietitians

Email Twitter icon A stylized bird with an open mouth, tweeting.

Snapchat Fliboard icon A stylized letter F.

Flipboard Pinterest icon The letter «P» styled to look like a thumbtack pin.

Pinterest Link icon An image of a chain link. It symobilizes a website link url.

Being overweight is a more common issue for Americans — but being underweight can be just as unhealthy.

In fact, being underweight — a BMI of 18.5 or lower — can lead to health complications like a weakened immune system or fragile bones.

Many different factors can contribute to being underweight, like genetics, taking certain medications, not eating enough, or recovering from a serious illness.

If you need to gain weight or want to for aesthetic purposes, it’s important to do so in a way that ensures you’re getting proper nutrition. Here are 12 tips for gaining weight in a healthy way.

1. Eat more calories

To gain weight, you’ll need to eat more calories than you burn. On average, you’ll need an additional 3,550 calories to safely gain one pound of body weight. If you’re looking to put on a pound a week, that’s about 500 additional calories a day.

Weight gain goals will differ by person and should be discussed with your doctor or a registered dietitian, but in general, a weight gain of about half to one pound a week is considered safe, says Jaime Gnau, RDN a biomedical sciences clinical instructor at Missouri State University’s dietetics program.

Weight gain per week

Additional calories needed per day

Your metabolism also plays a role. If you have a fast metabolism, your body burns more calories at rest, which can make gaining weight difficult. People with a fast metabolism will need to eat more calories than the average person to gain weight.

2. Choose high-calorie fruits and vegetables

Whether you’re trying to gain, lose, or maintain your weight, eating a well-rounded diet of fruits, vegetables, protein, and grains is key to getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals.

An easy way to meet your daily fruit and vegetable requirements is to opt for high calorie produce like:

3. Eat energy-dense foods

One way to consume more calories without feeling overly full is to eat energy-dense foods, Gnau says, which have more calories per gram.

Energy-dense foods include:

Important: Even if you’re trying to gain weight, it’s important to consume mostly nutritious foods. Baked goods, like pie, cake, and cookies are also high in calories and fine to consume in moderation, Gnau says. But these foods contain added sugars, which can increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes, so it’s best to limit your intake.

4. Drink your calories

Beverages like smoothies or protein-packed shakes can also help add calories to your daily intake. Some examples of high-calorie beverages include:

5. Add extras like condiments, sauces, and toppings

Adding sauces and toppings to foods can help bump up your calorie intake, Gnau says. Some condiments and toppings to add to meals include:

Important: Adding extras can help boost calorie intake, but be aware of added sugars, sodium, and saturated fat in sauces and condiments.

6. Increase protein intake

As you gain weight, you’ll add both fat and muscle.

Muscles are made of protein, so eating more protein while strength training ensures the extra calories go more toward building muscle and less toward fat.

A small 2012 study examined the effects of low, moderate, and high protein diets on weight gain. Participants ate a caloric surplus for eight weeks, with one group receiving a 5% protein diet, another a 15% protein diet, and another a 25% protein diet.

Individuals in the highest protein diet group gained about 14 pounds, while those in the lowest group gained about seven pounds. Body fat composition was the same across all groups.

Quick tip: In general, 0.5 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight has been shown to help with weight gain.

Excess protein can increase the chance of dehydration so be sure you’re drinking plenty of water when increasing protein intake. Gnau recommends limiting your protein intake to no more than 35% of your daily calories. It’s also a good idea to talk with your doctor or a registered dietitian to develop an individualized plan.

7. Start lifting weights

Strength training can help you gain weight by building muscle, says Jenna Coker-Jones, a health and fitness coach with her own private practice.

Quick tip: Jones recommends weight training at least three to four days a week and lifting heavy enough weights that you can only do six to eight reps at a time.

Try to avoid intense cardio, like running, because it could burn the additional calories you’re eating and prohibit weight gain. Instead, opt for low-impact cardio like walking.

«Walking is such an important resource that many don’t use it for training,» Jones says. «You get the benefits of being outside and it’s a great addition to strength work if you want to do less cardio and more gaining.»

8. Go for full-fat dairy

Reach for whole milk, as well as full-fat cream, yogurt, and cheeses. These higher-fat versions are a good way to consume more calories while also getting essential nutrients like protein.

One cup of whole milk contains about eight grams of protein and close to 150 calories. A cup of skim milk also has around eight grams of protein, but only about 90 calories.

If you’re doing strength training, it can aid in both recovery and building muscle. In a small 2013 study, researchers found that men who consumed milk beverages after resistance training had a greater protein accretion in their muscles than those who consumed a soy beverage. This protein accretion and synthesis is essential for increasing muscle mass.

Also, a small 2010 study of young women found that drinking fat-free milk after heavy resistance exercise led to greater muscle mass and strength gains than drinking a carbohydrate beverage.

In fact, a 2019 analysis found that dairy consumption led to a decrease in fat mass and an increase in lean body mass. That means it can help you gain muscle weight, rather than fat.

Note: Cheeses like cheddar and parmesan are lower in lactose than other dairy products, making them a good option for people who are lactose intolerant.

9. Don’t be afraid of carbs and starches

Healthy carbs and starches can increase your caloric intake while providing beneficial nutrients.

For example, grains like buckwheat and quinoa are rich sources of protein and minerals like potassium and magnesium.

Getting more complex carbohydrates can also fuel strength workouts and may help with the process of protein turnover, which helps you build and maintain muscle.

Bulk up your meals with the addition of healthy carbs and starches like:

10. Make some mealtime swaps

If you want to eat more during your meals, you might try eating off a bigger plate. Some research has suggested that larger plates and tableware can cause people to eat larger portions. However, a small 2019 study found no connection between plate size and consumption.

While the research goes both ways, eating from a bigger plate might be useful if you’re intentionally trying to consume more calories.

You can also try eating your food in a strategic order. Rather than filling up on low-calorie veggies first, get your dense proteins out of the way. This will help you meet your caloric needs before you get too full.

11. Eat and snack frequently

Eating more frequently can help you consume more calories and maintain your body’s energy levels.

Having more, smaller meals throughout the day can also be helpful if you find it hard to consume large meals in one sitting.

A large 2017 study found that eating more than three meals per day was associated with an increase in body mass index (BMI), while people who only ate one to two meals a day had a decrease in BMI.

12. Try weight gainer products

If other diet and lifestyle changes aren’t helping you gain weight, there are also weight gainer products and supplements that can help. They include products like Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass weight gainer protein powder and Naked Mass weight gainer protein powder.

However, supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA, so you might want to talk to your doctor or dietician about finding a product that is right for you.