Increase your caloric intake

The most important thing you can do to gain weight is to create a calorie surplus, meaning you eat more calories than your body needs. You can determine your calorie needs using this calorie calculator. If you want to gain weight slowly and steadily, try aiming for 300–500 calories more than you burn each day according to the calculator. If you want to gain weight fast, try aiming for around 700–1,000 calories above your maintenance level. Keep in mind that calorie calculators only provide estimates. Your needs may vary by several hundred calories per day, give or take. You don’t need to count calories forever, but it can help to do it for the first few days or weeks to get a feel for how many calories you’re eating. There are many great tools out there to help you.

Eat more protein

Eating enough high quality proteins is essentialTrusted Source for optimal growth, development, and general health. A 2020 study of 23 individualsTrusted Source demonstrated that increasing protein can help increase lean muscle mass. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends adults eat 50 grams (g) of protein daily. However, this can vary for each individual and depends on factors such as age, sex, and medical history. High protein foods include: meats fish eggs dairy products legumes nuts Protein supplements like whey protein can also be helpful if you find it difficult to get enough protein in your diet. However, protein may also significantly reduce hunger and appetiteTrusted Source, making it harder to get enough calories. Consider speaking with a doctor to see if increasing your protein intake would help you achieve your goal of gaining weight safely.

Increase your intake of carbs

Carbohydrates (carbs) alone will not lead to an increase in weight, but they can provideTrusted Source a great way to consume more calories. Examples of foods high in healthy carbs include: oats quinoa fruits, like oranges, bananas, and blueberries sweet potato buckwheat Carbs are a vital part of a balanced diet. The amount you should aim to eat each day can depend on several factors, such as your age, sex, and overall health. However, in general, experts recommend that 45% to 65% of your daily calories should come from carbs.

Tracking Your Diet and Exercise

If someone wants to lose weight, they should be aware of what they eat and drink each day. One way to do this is to log these items in either a journal or an online food tracker. Research Trusted Source suggests that tracking diet and exercise may be helpful for weight loss because it promotes behavior changes and increases motivation. One Study Trusted Source found that consistent tracking of physical activity helped with weight loss. Even a device as simple as a pedometer can be a useful weight-loss.

Eating Mindfully

Mindful eating is a practice where people pay attention to how and where they eat food. This practice can enable people to enjoy the food they eat and enjoy it. As most people lead busy lives, they often tend to eat quickly on the run, in the car, working at their desks, and watching TV. As a result, many people are barely aware of the food they are eating. Techniques for mindful eating include:

• Sitting down to eat, preferably at a table: Pay attention to the food and enjoy the experience.
• Avoiding distractions while eating: Do not turn on the TV, or a laptop or phone.
• Eating slowly: Take time to chew and savor the food. This technique helps with weight loss, as it gives a person’s brain enough time to recognize the signals that they are full, which can help to prevent over-eating.
• Making considered food choices: Choose foods that are full of nourishing nutrients and those that will satisfy for hours rather than minutes.

Cutting back on sugar and refined carbohydrates

The Western diet is increasingly high in added sugars, which has definite links to an obesity Trusted Source, even when the sugar occurs in beveragesTrusted Source rather than food. Refined grains undergo processing to remove the bran and the germ, which contain most of the grain’s fiber and nutrients. These include white rice, white bread, and regular pasta. These foods are quick to digest, and they convert to glucose rapidly. Excess glucose enters the blood and provokes the hormone insulin, which promotes fat storage in the adipose tissue. This contributes to weight gain.