How to Gain Weight?

It may feel pretty lonely out there when everyone you know is trying to shed pounds and you are trying to put some on. However, your goals are exactly the same as those trying to lose some weight: To eat a healthy diet, and reach a normal body weight. It's just as much of a challenge for the overweight person to lose pounds, as it is for you to gain them.

The cause or reasons for being underweight are chronic diseases, eating disorders and lack of physical activity. Elderly people, male & female who do not eat properly may become underweight. You may be underweight due to hereditary reasons too. Risks associated with being too skinny include complications in surgery and slow recovery after illnesses. However it can be recovered by having proper diet that puts on weight. The energy density of foods is important factor to gain weight. Energy density refers to the amount of energy or calories compared to the weight of the food.

If you are thin and want to get bigger and gain weight, here's is how to do it:

• Count your calories: Calculate how many calories you need to consume per day to gain weight. Add at least 500 calories per day to your daily requirement. If you need 2300 calories a day to maintain your current weight, strive to consume 2800 calories daily. If you engage in any physical activity, add more calories to account for the calories burned through physical activity.

• Eat more: The most important rule of gaining weight is to eat more calories than you burn. Eat five or more meals a day. Avoid skipping meals. Knowing how to gain weight involves consistent eating. Increase your normal portion size. Take a second scoop of pasta, or add two bananas to your oatmeal.

• Choose calorie-dense foods: That means eating potatoes, corn or peas instead of carrot sticks. Choose a banana or cranberry juice instead of an apple or orange juice. Granola cereal is more calorie-dense than puffed rice. Read food labels for the serving size and the calories, and make it a habit to routinely choose foods that are higher in calories.

• Good habits: To gain weight, eat food with extremely high caloric value. Try to increase your food intake without consuming too much fat and sugar. Regular meals, especially breakfast, are important if you find it difficult to gain weight. Taking your time with meals and making sure you are relaxed is also important to ensure that your digestive system functions properly. Have some fixed timings and avoid eating in between so as to increase the hunger for food.

• Drink more: Drink more water or juice. If you do not like to drink water, choose some healthy drinks like apple juice, orange juice etc. When you have to work late at night, these liquid materials will help you maintain your basic needs.

• Avoid Caffeine and Nicotine: Caffeine and nicotine are good stimulants and help to increase the metabolism of our body. Avoid having these stimulants in excess quantity to help your body retain maximum nutritional value from what you eat.

• Avoid Junk food: Avoid unhealthy, high-calorie foods. Most important is to avoid trans fats, which increase your risk for disease. Foods that are high in trans fats are: pastry products, cakes, cookies, processed meats, margarine, shortening, and packaged snack foods.

• Weight training: This will not only help convert the additional calories into muscle rather than fat, but it will also stimulate your appetite. The added muscle will increase your metabolism, so you'll need to consume more calories per day to maintain that weight.

• Sleep more: Take a nap after lunch, at around 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Besides, sleep before 12 a.m every night. It will be more effective if you have tea time after taking a nap in the afternoon.

Inborn factors can play a large role in physique. If our parents are thin means we have less chance to put on weight. Many non-nutritional factors can also contribute to low body weight, such as stress or nervous tension. Good nutrition, rest, relaxation and regular exercise help in increasing body mass. So be happy and eat healthy food, after all "Health is wealth".