How to Gain Weight Fast (for Women)

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How to Gain Weight Fast (for Women)

If you're a woman who needs to gain weight, odds are, you're used to people enviously telling you something along the lines of, “I wish I had your problem.” For many underweight women, though, gaining weight is just as difficult as losing weight proves for most others. If you need to gain weight fast, here are a few pieces of advice on how you can do so in the healthiest manner possible.

Part 1 of 3: Eating Habits

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   Consume an additional 500 calories per day. Adding another 500 calories to your diet everyday will lead to a weight gain of 0.5 kg, or a little over 1 lb, each week. This may not seem like a lot, but consuming too many additional calories per day could be bad for your body.^[1]

   • If you begin exercising more, you will need to consume more than 500 extra calories. In addition to the extra 500 calories you consume, add the amount of extra calories you are burning off through exercise to determine how many more calories you need to consume daily.
   • Talk with your doctor or a nutritionist to determine your ideal weight. You can also calculate your ideal weight with a BMI calculator.
   • Stick with nutritious foods. Even though you need to consume more calories, you should consume those extra calories from foods that are both high in calories and nutritious. If you eat too much junk food, you risk putting on weight in an unhealthy manner and causing additional health problems.
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   Eat and drink frequently.^[2] If you want to gain weight quickly, you should eat a total of six times a day. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and enjoy a snack after each meal.

   • As a general rule, do not let more than four waking hours pass without eating.
   • Your three main meals should be fairly substantial. Do not decrease your portion size during these meals.
   • Three or more of your meals and snacks should contain a protein, starch, vegetable, and fat.
   • As long as you do not decrease the amount you eat during your main meals, adding snacks in between meals is a good way to pack more calories into your day.
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   Increase your portion size. Another school of thought is to skip the snacking and simply increase your portion sizes at each meal. This can be done by adding another course to each meal or by going back for seconds even after you feel satisfied with the amount of food you have already eaten.

   • The idea here is that, by skipping out on snacks, you will build more of an appetite. As a result, you will be more inclined to scarf down more calories in the form of more food.
   • Both practices are valid ways to add calories and gain weight quickly. You may need to play around with both techniques to determine which is more effective for you.
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   Eat quick. When you eat slow, you give your body the chance to digest your food as you eat, which results in feeling fuller faster. If you eat quickly, you can eat more food before your body has the chance to feel full, making it easier to consume more.
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   Indulge in a midnight snack.^[3] If you were trying to lose weight, you would be advised to avoid eating past 7:00 pm. When you are trying to gain weight, though, the opposite is true. Eating a late dinner or having a snack immediately before you go to bed is a good way to give your body calories that it will not have the opportunity to readily burn off.

   • Additionally, the body builds more muscle and lean tissue during sleep. Eating a snack before bed supplies your body with the nutrients it needs to build more lean tissue as you sleep.
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   Whet your appetite. If you have a hard time feeling hungry, there are a few things you can do to increase your appetite before mealtime rolls around.

   • Take a walk before dinner. Exercise can make you feel hungry, so taking a 30 to 60 minute walk before a major meal can encourage you to consume more food naturally. You could also replace the walking with just about any exercise.
   • If you have a hard time encouraging yourself to eat more at first, prepare more of your favorite comfort foods to get your body used to eating more.
   • Enhance the flavor of food. Most people are more inclined to eat sweet foods than bland foods, but you could also add spices and herbs to create a more savory taste. Just avoid herbs that are conventionally considered to be appetite suppressants, like mint.
   • Consume liquids separately from food. Liquids can fill you up fast but do not keep you feeling full for long. Drinking them separately will cause you to feel less full during a meal.

Part 2 of 3: Choosing the Right Foods and Drinks

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   Research high-calorie and nutrient-dense foods. Within every food group, there are certain foods that are nutritionally healthy yet high in calories. Opt for these options rather than low-calorie foods from the same food group.^[4]

   • In the grains group, eat heavy breads like whole wheat and pumpernickel and dense cereals with granola. Bran muffins, bagels, and wheat germ are also good choices.
   • In the fruit group, consider eating more bananas, pineapples, raisins, dried fruit, and avocados. In general, starchy fruits are preferable to water-rich fruits.
   • For vegetables, try peas, corn, potatoes, and winter squash. As with fruit, starchy vegetables are better than water-rich vegetables.
   • Within the dairy group, consider cheese, ice cream, frozen yogurt, and whole milk.
   • For proteins, consider eating nut butters, nuts, seeds, and hummus.
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   Drink more of your food. Liquids can fill you up, but they are still less filling than solid foods. A good way to gain weight fast is to put on calories by drinking high-calorie drinks in between meals.

   • Smoothies and milkshakes are ideal, especially those made with 100% fruit juice and low-fat milk.
   • Juice and milk are also good options, as well as protein shakes.
   • You can enjoy soda, coffee, and sweet tea on a limited basis, but even though these options will allow you to pack away the calories, the calories are largely empty, making them less than ideal.
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   Make use of add-ins. You can stir high-calorie, nutritious foods into your favorite foods to add extra calories without making you feel much fuller.

   • Stir powdered milk into beverages, soups, stews, and sauces.
   • Sprinkle nuts over your salad or cereal.
   • Stir ground flaxseed into salads, cereals, and smoothies.
   • Sprinkle cheese over your casseroles, soups, scrambled eggs, salads, and sandwiches.
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   Consume more protein. Protein helps your body build muscle mass. Muscle mass is lean weight, so building more muscle will allow you to gain weight without gaining much fat. Protein is especially important if you plan to use weight/strength training to gain more muscle.

   • Good sources of protein-rich foods include lean meats, fish, grains, nuts and seeds, eggs, and peanut butter.
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   Cook with oil and butter. Cooking foods in oil and butter will increase a dish's total number of calories. Note that some fats are healthier than others, and you should still gravitate toward fats that are better for you rather than those that contain almost no nutritional benefit, like lard.

   • Good fats to cook with include:
     • Olive oil, which contains 119 calories per 1 Tbsp (15 ml).
     • Canola oil, which contains 120 calories per 1 Tbsp (15 ml).
     • Butter, which contains 102 calories per 1 Tbsp (15 ml).

Part 3 of 3: Exercise and Lifestyle Changes

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   Quit smoking. Aside from other health problems caused by smoking, smoking is bad for you if you need to gain weight because it suppresses your appetite.

   • If you cannot quit smoking or quit it "cold turkey," you should at least avoid smoking several hours before you eat a major meal.
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   Stay committed. As with losing weight, the healthiest ways to gain weight take a little time. You can gain 1 or 2 lbs (450 to 900 g) of weight each week safely, and using the tactics mentioned in this article will allow you to do so, but trying to gain weight any faster than this could pose a health risk.

   • Look at weight maintenance as a long-term commitment. Once you reach your ideal weight, you should continue with your efforts in order to maintain it.
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   Write a food journal. More accurately, you should keep a “weight gain” journal. Each day, log how many calories you consumed and how many you burned. Read through your journal entries at the end of each week to determine which tactics have proved most effective for you.

   • You should also mark down your weight every day or every week, depending on how quickly you want to gain weight. This will provide you with a more accurate picture of how things are working. Make sure to take your weight at the same time of day each day for the sake of consistency.
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   Take up strength training. Exercise in general is good because it stimulates the appetite. Strength training, in particular, is especially good because it allows you to gain weight by building your muscles.^[5]

   • Note that this tactic is, admittedly, not especially "fast" unless you are already used to exercising before you begin the process of gaining weight. If you are unaccustomed to exercise, you will need to ease yourself into exercising more, so it may take time to see results. If you already exercise, shift your emphasis to strength training, and you will see results quicker as a result.
   • Exercise each major muscle group: chest, back, abdominals, biceps, triceps shoulders, quadriceps, and hamstrings. If possible, increase the amount to two or three exercises per group once your body becomes used to the activity.
   • Eating extra protein is especially important if you plan to build muscle mass through exercise.
   • Good strength training exercises include squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, bench presses, barbell rows, dips, chin-ups, crunches, bicep curls, leg presses, and leg curls.
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   Rest well. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night, especially if you plan to eat more protein and do more strength training.^[6]

   • Your body builds muscle and lean tissue as you sleep. Getting a full night's sleep will provide your body with enough rest to build sufficient muscle mass.