Healthy Weight Gain

Q. I need to gain weight (at least 5 kgs) in a month's time. Please advise me how to go about it.

A. In order to gain weight, you simply need to take in more calories than you burn. The Daily Needs Calculator will give you an estimate of how many calories you require every day. For every 3,500 excess Calories (kcal) you consume, you will gain more or less one pound (2.2g). 

Because fat contains more than twice as many calories per gram as protein and carbohydrate, adding high-fat foods to your diet would be an efficient way to add calories.  But I assume that you are interested in healthy weight gain. In that case, you don't want just any calories; you want to add high-quality calories to your diet.

Fortunately, Nutrition Data has several tools that will help you do just that!  On every food and recipe analysis page, you'll see Nutrition Data's Nutritional Target Map. Foods that appear in the lower right quadrant of the map are ideal for healthy weight gain, because they have a high nutrient density (more nutrients per calorie) and a high energy density (more calories per gram).

Right below the Nutritional Target Map, you'll see the Better Choices tool.  Use the pull down menu to select "better choices for weight gain" and click "show me!" for a list of similar foods with a higher nutrient and calorie densities. Or, go to the Food Category Explorer, select any category, and use the pull down menu to select "Better Choices for Weight Gain."

Remember as well that muscle tissue weighs more than body fat. A weight training program, supported by a nutritious high-calorie diet, can help you gain weight as lean muscle mass instead of body fat. If exercise, particularly strength training, is part of your weight gain program, be sure to eat plenty of protein, which speeds recovery and enhances lean muscle gain.

The Nutrition Data community includes a lot of elite athletes and body-builders who track their nutrition very closely as part of their training regimens. Any Nutrition Datanauts with experience on healthy weight gain? I'd be interested in your input.