How to gain weight?
It seems to some that the tendency to thinness is luck, but believe me, there are people for whom such a physique is a serious problem. We are talking about those who are unlikely to get fat, but who will have to work hard for the sake of beautiful curves of the body or relief muscles. And this is half the trouble. Scientific studies show that being underweight is just as dangerous to health as obesity. It increases the risk of premature death in men, impairs fertility in women, leads to age-related muscle atrophy, and increases the likelihood of senile dementia. Is it time to despair? Not!
Causes of underweight
Want to get better? First, identify the causes of your thinness and get rid of them.
These may be health problems:
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract,
- disorders of the endocrine system (diseases of the thyroid gland or adrenal glands, diabetes mellitus),
- stress, anorexia nervosa.
If everything is in order with your health, then the reason for low weight is in your diet.
Even if you like fatty foods and only eat fast foods, you can stay lean. When you eat an unbalanced and irregular diet, your body lacks the nutrients it needs to function and grow properly. If you don’t eat enough protein, your body tissues break down. If there is little calcium, the bones become light and brittle. Iron deficiency leads to anemia and starvation of all body cells.
What to do to get better?
1. Create a calorie surplus
To gain weight, you need to eat more calories daily than your body uses. If your weight is worth it, then there is no surplus, even if it seems to you that you are eating a lot.
How do you know how many calories you need to eat to gain weight? Eat more every day than yesterday. Weigh yourself on an empty stomach once a week. If the weight has increased, you have reached the goal. Calculate how many calories per day it took. In the future, eat the same amount or more.
It is not necessary to eat very, very much in order to consume more calories. Just add high-energy foods to your diet: nuts, dried fruits, full-fat dairy products, vegetable oil dishes, cereals, potatoes, fatty meats, dark chocolate, nut butters, drink coffee with cream.
2. Maintain the balance of BJU
- Proteins are the building blocks of all body systems. To gain mass, you need to eat from 1.8 g of protein per kg of body weight per day. Sources should be different: meat, dairy products, vegetable proteins (soy, legumes). The best food for muscle growth is fish. It is high in protein and healthy fats. Eat oily fish at least twice a week.
If you can’t get enough protein from regular foods, add protein to your diet .
- Fats are essential for weight gain. However, in order not to harm your health, make sure that the diet contains no more than 1 g of fat per 1 kg of body weight per day. Do not eat fatty foods immediately after a workout: they slow down digestion and prevent nutrients from reaching the muscle fibers in time. If the muscles starve for the first half hour or hour after exercise, they will begin to break down.
- Carbohydrates. Eat potatoes, cereals, pasta, grain breads, fruits, berries, and other foods with complex carbohydrates. Flour and sweet are best avoided. The fact is that simple carbohydrates reduce appetite, which will make it difficult for you to maintain a calorie surplus and eat a lot of protein and complex carbohydrates. The exception is nutrition during training. Fast carbs are the best option for restoring energy during exercise.
Sports supplements such as gainers allow you to increase the amount of carbohydrates in your diet .
3. Drink water
It is the main element for metabolism and anabolism. To gain weight, you need to drink 2-3 liters of water a day. Teas, juices, sodas and other drinks do not count. Water drunk during a workout is also, as it is immediately excreted in the form of sweat.
4. Eat fruits and vegetables
They contain fiber, necessary for tissue growth, as well as minerals and vitamins, without which no process in the body is possible.
5. Exercise
Firstly, physical activity has a good effect on appetite. Secondly, without sports, all the kilograms gained will go to the stomach and sides. Is this what you dream of?
For a set of muscle mass, get acquainted with strength training. These are exercises with maximum weight and a small number of approaches and repetitions.
Follow a few training rules:
- constantly change the training program and increase the load for muscle growth;
- exercise 3 times a week for 40-60 minutes;
- work with different muscle groups to increase in size harmoniously;
- do not abuse cardio training, they contribute to fat burning (run or do other aerobic exercises for no longer than 30 minutes);
- do not exercise on an empty stomach: you will lose weight;
- do not load muscles that have not yet recovered from the previous workout. This can provoke their destruction;
- sleep at least 8 hours a day (growth hormone is produced during deep sleep).