Gain Weight Quickly And Healthy With These 24 Foods

Anyone who is underweight would do a lot to gain a few extra pounds on their ribs. The same goes for you. We explain what you should pay attention to and show you 24 foods with which you can gain weight in a healthy way.

Reasons for being underweight

People who have a slim figures are often envied. But a thin silhouette is not always wanted. Maybe you’re wondering why you’re so thin in the first place? It’s possible that it just runs in the family and you have a high energy turnover. So it can be that very slim people have a higher basal metabolic rate due to their genes and thus burn significantly more calories than those who are normal or overweight. In addition to various diseases, mental and physical stress can also be possible reasons for being underweight.

This article is purely informative and does not replace any medical diagnosis, treatment, or therapy!

Determination of underweight

When is it underweight? The BMI is used in medicine for simplified determination. To calculate this, divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared:

If the BMI is below 18, then you are definitely underweight. A BMI of less than 14.5 is even life-threatening. The BMI can be classified according to age in the table:

Age in years – Underweight – Normal weight – Slightly overweight – Overweight

• 18-24 <18 19-24 25-28 >29
• 25-34 <19 20-25 26-29 >30
• 35-44 <20 21-26 27-30 >31
• 45-54 <21 22-27 28-31 >32
• 55-64 <22 23-28 29-32 >33
• 65-90 <23 24-29 30-33 >34

Caution: The result is used for rough classification and is not 100% meaningful! Body composition (percentage of fat mass, muscle mass, etc.) and age are not taken into account.

Symptoms of malnutrition

Being underweight is often accompanied by malnutrition. Real malnutrition occurs when the energy and nutrient requirements cannot be met with food: either because there is not enough food available or because of health problems such as swallowing or digestive problems, loss of appetite, depression, or another serious illness.

By the way, a selection of foods with “empty” calories and a low micronutrient density also leads to malnutrition. These include fast food, microwave meals, and highly processed foods. They provide energy, but no micronutrients that are important for our health. In our list you can see which symptoms constitute malnutrition:

• Fatigue, weakness, paleness
• increased susceptibility to colds and other infections
• severe drop in performance
• delayed wound healing
• breakdown of muscle mass
• Menstrual cycle disorders (in women)

Anyone who is underweight and shows symptoms of malnutrition should act urgently. Otherwise, there is a risk of health consequences such as a greatly increased susceptibility to infections, muscle atrophy, osteoporosis, infertility, or damage to the organs. In the worst case, being too underweight can lead to death

Healthy & gaining weight fast

Gaining a healthy weight is a process. This goes a little faster in relation to a decrease, but still requires patience! We’ll show you what to look out for.

Adequate nutrient supply

It’s actually quite easy to gain weight, isn’t it? Just eat more than you use up. However, the foods that come to mind when trying to gain weight aren’t necessarily the healthiest. With pizza, burgers, and the like, you eat high-calorie foods. However, due to their nutrient composition, they are anything but suitable for healthy weight gain! If you want to gain weight in a healthy way, you shouldn’t just stuff yourself with high-calorie foods! Make sure that the high energy density, as well as minerals and vitamins, are in the right proportion. It is important that you choose foods that

• high-quality fats (particularly important for a balanced hormone balance in women!)
• complex carbohydrates
• valuable proteins
• sufficient minerals, vitamins, and trace elements as well
• fiber

contain. This guarantees a healthy diet. In order to increase the weight, about 300-500 additional kilocalories are recommended as a rule of thumb for daily calorie consumption. Healthy weight gain doesn’t happen overnight. It is advisable to slowly get used to the extra calories. Changing your diet too quickly can otherwise promote digestive problems. An increase should therefore be made gradually! The aim is to gradually get the body used to the new amount of calories. Once the desired weight is reached, small experiments in quantity are then necessary to maintain the weight. An increase can look like this:

Week – calorie increase

• Week 1 + 100 kcal
• Week 2 + 150 kcal
• Week 3 + 200 kcal
• Week 4 + 250 kcal
• Week 5-8 + 300 kcal
• Week 8-12 + 400 kcal

Note: The daily calorie consumption is always individual and is influenced by several factors such as height, weight, body fat percentage, job, everyday exercise, sports workload, etc. You can have your approximate calorie consumption calculated by a nutritionist, or fitness trainer or with the help of an online calculator.

List: gaining weight with these foods

In order to increase the calorie content of your meals, you don’t have to eat tons more! Choosing the right foods will help you achieve your weight gain goal. The following foods are particularly good for increasing the calorie balance of your meals while guaranteeing an adequate supply of nutrients:

1. avocado
2. banana
3. dried fruit
4. Bread & rolls (whole grain)
5. pasta
6. rice
7. oatmeal
8. Legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, beans
9. cheese (full fat)
10. Yogurt (whole milk or Greek yogurt)
11. cream
12. creme fraiche Cheese
13. butter
14. coconut milk
15. vegetable oils
16. eggs
17. Nuts (walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, etc.)
18. Seeds & kernels (linseed, pumpkin seeds, etc.)
19. Salmon
20. herring
21. tuna in oil

If you want to gain weight healthy and fast, you should try to find out which foods your body reacts to. The large macronutrients carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are utilized differently from person to person. Some people achieve their goals by eating more carbohydrates. For others, however, fat helps a little more. Keep a journal to see what your body responds to best. Don’t forget the time here either! Because it usually takes 10-14 days before your body adjusts to more energy or new foods.

Tip: You can safely walk past light products! Not only do full-fat versions taste better, but their higher energy content will also get you closer to your goal.

Increase calorie content: tips

Do you now know which foods your body reacts particularly well to? Great! With a few tips, you can easily and almost unnoticed increase the energy density of your meals with carbohydrates, fats, or proteins:

• Do you like it sweet? Then pimp your breakfast muesli with a large dollop of honey. It has a lot of calories but is significantly healthier than conventional household sugar.
• Salads that are actually low in calories become a great meal with vegetable oil, pickled tomatoes, or a piece of fatty fish! Walnuts as a topping then put the crown on the whole thing!
• Do you love cheese bread? Then it can also be a particularly thick slice of full-fat cheese because this is significantly healthier than fatty sausage!
• Soup fans refine their vegetable soups with a dollop of cream or creme fraiche.

Make it smooth: Liquid food in the form of homemade smoothies is also recommended. Big plus point: They also taste really good. Put them together according to your taste. So they can be easily integrated into everyday life. Our suggestion: 2 bananas, 1 tbsp oatmeal, and 1 handful of sprouted walnuts – into the blender and the power smoothie is ready!

Gain weight quickly and healthily with sport

In addition to the right diet, sufficient exercise is also part of healthy weight gain. Best in the form of weight training. Building muscle mass has a positive effect on weight. In particular, basic exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, which use large muscle groups, should be performed regularly.