When the rest of the world concern to lose weight, there are many people are looking for “how to gain weight”.
You may always hear that overweight is unhealthy but being underweight also unhealthy as well. Both causes health problems and comes with their own set of health problems.
Gaining muscle is the most healthy and sustainable way to gain weight. But most people end up gaining fat to gain weight.
Gaining fat is not a healthy way to gain weight. You should focus on gaining muscle. By gaining muscle you will have a muscular shape and a nice definition in your body. Which will be more attractive rather than gaining fat.
So, how to gain weight without gaining fat
Am I Really Underweight?
Before you jump into a diet plan to gain weight, first you need to know that, are you really underweight or not.
First, you need to know your Body Mass Index (BMI). If it is under 18.5 then you can say that you are underweight.
If your BMI is between 18.5-24.9 than you are in a healthy range. Over than 25 will be considered as overweight. And for people who have a BMI over 30 then they are called obese people.
Remember, In BMI scale it only looks at height and weight. It does not take muscle mass into account.
Many people are clinically not underweight, but they want to gain their body weight.
The Reason For Becoming Underweight
There might be several reasons for which you are underweight.
- Eating disorder: Eating disorder is the biggest reason for underweight. Some people (ectomorph) has a high metabolic rate. Those people need to eat more than their BMR. Which will lead to gain weight.
- Thyroid problems: Thyroid is an important hormone to control metabolism. Disorder in the thyroid can be a reason of being underweight.
- Diabetes: diabetes also can be a big reason for weight loss. Having uncontrolled can make you underweight.
How To Gain Weight In A Healthy Way
If you want to gain weight you need to do it in the right way.
Binging on artificial sweeteners, ice cream, soda, and junk foods may help you gain weight, but that will be the worst way to gain weight.
If you are underweight, you need to gain muscle mass and a little bit of subcutaneous fat. Try to avoid gaining lots of fat which are unhealthy.
Unless you may face the problem of overweight. So, focus on gaining muscle mass.
Eat more food than your body need
The first step to gain weight is to consume more calories than your body burns a day. That means you need to have a caloric surplus diet plan made for your body.
You need to know the current BMR of your body. Then make a diet plan to consume more than that.
What should be your macro balance
You can’t eat whatever you want. There is a proper macro balance for those who are underweight and want to gain some muscle. Otherwise, you may gain lots of fat, not muscle mass.
Carbohydrate:
what should be the number of carbs you should consume?
As far you are a skinny guy carbohydrate is like your friend. You need to have a lot of carbohydrates to gain strength and muscle.
Carbohydrate is not bad. You need to take 50%-60% carbohydrate from your caloric surplus diet plan.
You should intake complex carbs as much as possible. Brown rice, whole wheat, oats, whole-wheat pasta, cereals, whole wheat bread, sweet potato, quinoa, beans, and lentils, etc. These are the best source of complex carbs.
You may have some simple carbs like white rice, white potato as a post-workout meal when you need a quick refill of glycogen store, but don’t consume too much of simple carbs.
Protein:
High-quality protein is the most essential macro to build muscle. So, you need to consume plenty of good quality protein which has all the essential amino acids present.
In the gym during the workout when you torture your muscles to its end, there are lots of micro-tears occurs in your muscle.
You need much protein to recover that micro-tears to grow muscles stronger and bigger. so, you need to consume at least 25%-30% protein of your diet.
You need to focus on high-quality protein like chicken breast, lean beef, turkey breast, salmon, tuna, eggs, low-fat milk, whey protein, tofu, soy, cottage cheese (casein protein), ricotta cheese (whey protein), sprouts, etc. these are the great source of protein.
Fat:
fat is a very very important macronutrient to balance your hormone production and organ health. You should not neglect this and should have 15%-20% fat from your diet.
Add healthy fats in your diet. Olive oil, egg yolk, fish oil, nuts and seeds, peanut butter, etc. these can be a good example of healthy fats.
Do exercises with heavyweights
You may hear that 70% is your nutrition and 30% is exercise. It might be true but when you want to gain weight and build muscle, I think 50% is your nutrition and 50% is your exercise.
Because exercise is also as important as your nutrition. You may follow a good quality diet plan but if you don’t have a proper exercise plan or don’t know the proper form of exercises you may not get the result.
So, you also need to focus on your training protocol and details of exercises to build muscle fast.
You could not follow some kind of exercise routine for all time. So, you also need to change the training protocols to shock your muscles and grow faster.
You need to train with heavyweights. Your rep range should be 8-12 and choose a weight in which you get to the failure in every set with that rep range.
Do workouts at least three times a week and mostly focus on heavy compound movements. Compound movements will build most of the muscle mass and strength.
But before you jump into the heavy compound movements you need to know the correct form of all exercises, otherwise, you may injure yourself.
If you are very beginner to lift heavy weights, try to hire a trainer or get some advice with some experienced one.
Ignore cardio to gain weight
Cardio might be the best option for overweight people, but for underweight people, it is not a good idea to do lots of cardio.
You should avoid cardio in the beginning after two or three months incorporate cardio once or twice a week.
Focus on low-intensity cardio and do it for maximum 15-20min. don’t overdo it.
5 Important Tips To Gain Weight Naturally
Heavy exercise and high-calorie intake are the most important to build muscle and gain weight. Besides that, few things are also important you need to remember.
Here are 5 important tips to gain weight:
Sleep: Sleep is a crucial part of any kind of transformation that the majority of people ignore.
As you are doing heavy workouts is a major stress to your body. And your body needs proper rest to repair that micro-tears in your muscles. So, you need to do have enough sleep to recover muscles and give time to grow them.
Water: When you work hard and have lots of food your body get toxify much. So, you need to drink plenty of water to flush out toxins and detoxify your body.
You need also water to reach the nutrients in your muscle glycogen for energy. Drink at least 3-4 liter of water every day.
Vitamins & minerals: Vitamins and minerals are called micronutrients which is very important for everybody whether you do exercises or not.
Vitamins and minerals will boost your muscle recovery process. It will also help to reduce the stress which you create during the workout.
You can’t get enough vitamins and minerals through your daily meal. So, you need to take supplements of vitamins and minerals.
Omega 3 fatty acids: omega 3 fatty acid is a very important supplement for brain and heart. Omega 3fatty acid reduces the inflammation in your body which is really important when you are doing these kinds of heavy workouts.
Split your meals: rather than having a lot of foods at one sitting you should split it into 6-7 meals every day. And in every meal, it should contain goods amount of protein and carbs.
Conclusion
Building muscles and gaining weight is a slow process. You may gain 20 lbs in one month, but most of that will be the weight of fat.
If you want to gain lean muscle then you need to follow a proper diet plan which is made for your body type, proper workout plan, and patience.
For that hire a coach or take advice with someone experienced who has proper knowledge of exercises and nutrition.
Don’t ever intake external substance in your body for faster result. it may ruin your life.
So, don’t take pieces of advice from someone who will tell you to take any kind of external substance or pills about which you don’t know much. Rely on the natural food source and gain weight.
A lot of teenagers want fast results and start taking steroids, which is the worst thing ever. Don’t take any step for which you may regret in the future.