COMPLETE WEIGHT GAIN GUIDE FOR WOMEN

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The concept of being a healthy weight doesn’t just involve losing weight to minimize disease risk. If you are underweight, putting on pounds can help improve immune function, fertility and your body’s ability to heal and repair itself. To put on weight, you need to increase calories in a healthy way and work to build muscle. It sounds easy enough, but putting on weight is difficult for some women. It can take the same amount of determination and commitment that weight loss can.

THE ROLE OF CALORIES

If you want to gain weight, you need to increase your daily caloric intake. First, find out how many calories you need in a day to avoid losing weight by using the American Cancer Society’s calorie counter. Add calories to that total slowly — 100 to 200 at a time — until you notice weight gain. If you consistently eat below the number of calories you need in a day, you’ll lose weight in the long run.

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WHAT TO EAT

It’s a common misconception that people who need to gain weight should eat high-calorie foods and drink weight-gain shakes. Often, just a few hundred extra calories can get the job done, and you can easily accomplish this with healthy, nutritious foods. If you add a lot of high-saturated fat foods to your diet, you can increase your risk of heart disease. Try adding low-fat cheese to your sandwiches, eating extra servings of fruits and vegetables at your meals and adding an extra healthy snack or two in between meals. Choose healthy high-calorie foods like nuts, avocados and peanut butter. Carry snacks with you throughout the day.

WEIGHT TRAINING

Weight training helps you gain a different type of weight — lean muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, and the more you build, the more weight you’ll gain. Strong muscles may benefit you by supporting and protecting your bones, joints and internal organs. Lift weights or do strength-training at least two to three times per week. Work a different set of muscles each day so that the group you worked out the previous day can rest and repair. Aim for eight to 10 exercises during each workout; each should contain eight to 12 reps.

EXERCISE

Even though it seems like exercising would contribute to weight loss, exercise is important for everyone. Participate in aerobic exercise at least 30 minutes per day, three days per week to keep your heart and body healthy. If you are seriously underweight, consult your doctor about if and how often you should exercise.

To offset the weight-loss effects of aerobic exercise, estimate the number of calories you burn through exercise. Use a chart like the one at the Harvard Medical School website, or by getting a readout of your fitness equipment. Eat that may calories to fill in the deficit you created through exercise.

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COMPLETE WEIGHT GAIN GUIDE FOR WOMEN