What to eat to gain weight

First and foremost - eat more often during the day.

Are you one of the few who are always slim thanks to genes and metabolism? Or maybe you lost weight due to a problem - surgery, stress, thyroid disease, indigestion? You would like to gain weight, but it is difficult to gain weight?

While your family and friends envy you because you don't have to give up your favorite foods, you wonder if it's possible to gain weight in a healthy way. Yes, and you as possible. Healthy natural foods will help you there. At the same time, you should be guided by the well-known saying "You are what you eat", and ignore the one "I eat to live".

Increase your intake of valuable nutrients

To gain weight, you first need to increase your calorie intake. The nutrients from the food you eat are the material from which your body builds new cells. So always choose high-calorie foods that are both nutritionally valuable. Be sure to avoid empty calories without nutritional values, as well as harmful fats. With such foods, you can gain weight, but also endanger your health, which is certainly not your goal. The key words for you are whole carbs, quality proteins and healthy fats.

Increase your intake of foods rich in these ingredients and you are on the right path to healthy weight gain. Gradually increase your calorie intake so that your body has enough time to get used to the change.

We have prepared 5 practical tips for you that help you gain weight in a healthy way.

1. Eat more often

First and foremost - eat more often during the day. Complete the three main meals with a few snacks, and the last snack should be after dinner. Experts recommend that it would be best to distribute food in 6 meals of 500 calories every day.

2. Choose healthy foods

Always choose foods rich in nutrients such as fruits (figs, grapes, bananas, avocados) and vegetables. Prefer vegetables such as potatoes, pumpkin, peas, beans. Fruits and vegetables are indispensable on the menu due to the abundance of vitamins and minerals, dietary fiber and antioxidants, which preserve health and at the same time help restore balance in the body.

With each meal, consume wholemeal bread with several types of seeds - sunflower, flax. Enrich your menu with more healthy seeds and a superfood that contains plenty of omega-3 fatty acids that protect your heart and blood vessels.

Carbohydrates such as cereals in combination with seeds, honey, nuts and dried fruits are good choices for breakfast. You can make granola or energy bars - press the mixture of dried fruit, seeds and nuts into the mold and put it in the refrigerator to harden. Then cut into tiles, which you will always have with you. In addition to being delicious and high in calories, these bars will provide you with plenty of energy needed for daily activities - which is why they are often consumed by athletes.

Your menu should also include peanut butter (1 tablespoon contains 100 kcal) and homemade dairy products, such as yogurt and cheese. Drink a glass of natural fruit juice or whole homemade milk with breakfast - it will bring you an additional 120 to 150 kcal.

3. Use healthy fats

Always enrich your meals with healthy fats, such as coconut or olive oil, which you can add to smoothies, vegetables, pasta or a salad with some full-fat cheese. Coconut oil is an excellent choice for frying because its composition does not change at high temperatures.

4. Treat yourself to healthy treats and fruit

More often, treat yourself to healthy homemade treats such as fruit pie and pumpkin pie, fruit ice cream, chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa, cakes with nuts and dried fruit, muffins with bran and biscuits with oatmeal. For snacks, choose nuts and dried fruits (hazelnuts, almonds, nuts, walnuts, peanuts, raisins, dried cranberries). In addition to being high in calories, it also contains healthy proteins, dietary fiber and useful fats. You can enrich salads with nuts or add them to yogurt and milk. When buying dried fruit, make sure that it does not contain added sugar or preservatives.

Eat banana chips as well (it contains 441 kcal per 85 gram portion).

Give preference to exotic fruits (avocado, mango, papaya, bananas) that can saturate you, and in addition are rich in natural sugar and healthy fats. Add avocado, which can contain more than 300 kcal, to a salad or mix it in a smoothie with other fruits and seeds. In summer, eat figs and grapes as often as possible, because in addition to calories, they are also rich in useful vitamins and minerals.

5. Try the smoothies

In addition to standard meals, consume liquid ones, such as fruit smoothies and shakes, and enrich them, for example, with flax seeds (they are rich in soluble fiber and contain the important antioxidant lignin).

Additional tips for gaining weight:

Gradually increase your calorie intake by at least 500 kcal - this way you will gain about 0.5 kg on a daily basis. Calorie intake should definitely exceed their consumption.

Practice strength exercises to build muscle and gain extra weight (exercise at least three times a week).

If you are a smoker, be sure to get rid of those bad habits. You will have multiple benefits. Namely, it is known that people quit their food intake after quitting smoking and thus gain a few kilograms.

Always have a bag of nuts and dried fruit with you, which you can use as healthy snacks between meals.