What Foods Should I Eat to Gain Weight?

Choose a generous portion of meat, poultry, fish, seafood, legumes or tofu, and serve with a side of green and colorful vegetables. Add a serving of starchy foods such as potatoes, sweet corn, rice or pasta as energy-dense carbohydrate sources. Add a few more calories to plain potatoes with gravy, and top your vegetables and starches with butter, margarine (trans-fat free), olive oil, sauces or cheese.

If you prefer to snack on smaller meals throughout the day, choose energy-dense foods, such as trail mix made with dried fruit, granola, nuts and seeds. Eat sandwiches made with peanut or other nut butters, or use lean turkey or chicken breast slices and add calories with cheese or avocado. Creamed soups are generally higher in calories than clear broths, and you can add even calories to by adding a spoonful of dry milk powder.

You might be tempted to buy dietary supplements for bodybuilding that promise weight gain and bigger muscles. Some of these products may contain hidden ingredients that can be harmful or compounds that haven't been studied for efficacy or safety. The United States Food and Drug Administration maintains a list of tainted bodybuilding products that should be avoided.

If you feel you can't gain weight by simply increasing your caloric intake, you should see your health care provider before taking any protein or weight-gaining supplements. Resistance training exercises (weight lifting) may help to increase your muscle size, which will increase your body weight. Aerobic exercises, such as running and stationary bicycling, are better for fat loss and excessive aerobic training may cause you to lose more weight.

Resistance training can be done at a health club, gym, or at home with the proper equipment. Not sure what to eat to gain weight? Don't settle for high-calorie junk foods, eat these healthy foods instead: Foods To Gain Weight.

Find out how much weight you'll need to gain during your pregnancy: How Much Weight Should I Gain While I'm Pregnant? Understanding how energy-density works will help you gain weight by choosing foods that are higher in calories: What is Energy-Density? Have you filled out your frame with a few healthy pounds?

How did you do it? What Are Your Favorite Foods For Gaining Weight? Are you're frequently strapped for time?

I've got tips for Healthful Foods In a Hurry. "Appetite - Decreased." Woods NF, LaCroix AZ, Gray SL, Aragaki A, Cochrane BB, Brunner RL, Masaki K, Murray A, Newman AB; Women's Health Initiative.

If you are a skinny guy or girl and you want to gain weight you will no doubt of been told “just eat more food”. There is a lot of truth in this simple solution but for many of us it does not work as we do not know what are the foods to eat to gain weight. Many of us will just try to increase the number of calories in our diets by eating unhealthy junk food and this will normally just negatively affect our health and not help us gain weight.

There are however some healthy choices for us when looking at what foods to eat to gain weight and we will discuss some of them here. When you are trying to gain weight it is very important that you eat a healthy diet consisting of proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. If you give your body what it requires as muscle building fuel you will find it much easier to gain weight and build muscle.

So what foods are included in these food groups? Protein is what your body uses to build muscle so it is essential to you if you want to gain weight. Foods that are rich in protein include red meat (lean, organic beef is best), chicken and turkey (remove the skin to remove the fat), fish and nuts (almonds are packed with protein).

It may surprise you to find out that there are many vegetables that are also high in protein such as broccoli, spinach and cauliflower all have high protein levels so you do not have to eat a lot of meat to increase your intake of protein. Carbohydrate is what your body uses for its basic energy source. There are two type of carbohydrates being simple and complex.

Simple carbs are basic sugars and the intake of these should not be increased to gain weight. Complex carbs are chains of sugars that require some digestion to release the energy and these are the type of carbs that you should be focuses on when trying to gain weight. Fruits contain fructose which is a simple carb but you should still include them in your diet when trying to gain weight as fruit is also rich in vitamins and fiber that your body needs.

A great source of complex carbs are whole grains in the form of whole grain bread and pasta, it is best to avoid processed grain based foods like white bread and non whole grain pasta. Vegetables are also a great source of complex carbs and broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and tomatoes should be added to your diet. Like carbohydrates there are good fats and bad fats.

If you are wanting to gain weight in a healthy manner you need to add the healthy fats to your diet. There are some fats that are essential to your body for it to be healthy and these are called essential fatty acids. These essential fatty acids can be consumed by eating fatty fish such as salmon and are also found in some seeds such as sunflower seeds.

These fats can also be added to your diet by cooking with cold pressed oils like olive oil or taken in a supplement. Other foods that contain good fats are nuts such as almonds and walnuts and these can be eaten as delicious and health snacks. We define a super-food as a food that is in two or more of these categories.

Adding these foods to your diet will accelerate your weight gain efforts. These foods include salmon (high in protein and fatty acids), broccoli and spinach (high in protein and complex carbohydrates) and nuts like almonds that can be included in all three of the groups. Adding these super-foods to your diet will help you build muscle and gain weight.

A plan of action for you is to take stock of what you are eating now and reduce the amount of “bad” food you are eating and replace it with the suggestions above. As with any effort to gain weight you will need to take action and commit to the change for at least thirty days. If you do this you will be amazed by the results.