Gain Weight Fast Guide

A healthy weight gain diet is the foundation of any muscle building or bodybuilding plan, but with all the different factors to consider and different ways to calculate them, it’s no wonder so many people put off creating meal plans. If you’re just getting started, this rough guide to planning a healthy weight gain diet will help you figure out what you need in just a few minutes.

How many calories do I need?

For obvious reasons, this is usually the first question most people working on a plan to build muscle start with. There are more accurate ways to calculate your calorie needs that take into account things like gender, height, and body type, but I’ll give you a quick and dirty method that will still provide a fairly accurate estimate.

As a rough guide for an adult who’s moderately active (defined as 3 or 4 workouts a week), multiply body weight in pounds by 17. That means a 150 pound person will need at least 2550 to gain weight. If you’re already eating at this level and not gaining, up you daily intake by 300 to 500 calories.

How much protein do I need to build muscle?

Another popular questions is “How much protein do I need?” but for some reason you rarely hear anyone ask how many carbs or how much fat they need. The truth is you need all of those macronutrients in healthy amounts. For a weight gain diet, you’ll want to plan to get between 30% to 40% of your calories from protein, 35-40% from carbs and 25-30% from fats.

For starters, though, you can figure out your protein needs and as long as you eat healthy, the others will fall into place.

So let’s say you want 35% of your calories from protein and consider that one gram of protein provides four calories. That means if you need 2500 calories, you can find out how many grams of protein you need like this:

2500 x .35 = 875 (35% of 2500)
1000 / 4 = 218 (protein grams that provide 1000 calories)

When should I eat?

If you browse some of the hardcore bodybuilding sites, you see a lot of them recommend eating up to eight meals a day. Who has time for that? Fortunately, if you plan it right, you’ll be able to get enough nutrition in three meals and a hearty snack or two. When to eat is also important when you’re trying to build muscle. You’ll want a high protein breakfast, the right foods before and after a workout, and a light bedtime meal with a moderate amount of protein and unsaturated fats.

Get a No-Hassle Healthy Weight Gain Diet Plan

If you’re looking for a proven-effective healthy weight gain diet plan designed especially for hard gainers, check out Vince DelMonte’s site. As a bonus with his book No Nonsense Muscle Building, he offers muscle building meal plans ranging from 2000 to 6000 calories that give you suggestions for what to eat and when to eat it.

Every meal is laid out for you so you don’t have to hassle with counting calories and grams of protein. These meal plans aren’t about stuffing yourself six times a day, but about eating efficiently–choosing the right kinds of food at the right times of day. These healthy weight gain diet plans are just a small part what Vince offers.

You have to admit, choosing healthy weight gain foods is a lot more fun than going on weight loss diet where you have to cut out half the foods you like. Sure, sometimes you feel like you practically have to force feed yourself to get in enough calories, put if you choose high-calorie, protein-rich foods that you like, eating enough won’t be a problem most of the time.

Healthy Carbohydrates

The majority of your healthy weight gain foods are going to be carbs. Here you’re looking for complex carbohydrates that will break down slowly instead of simple carbs that will shock your system by quickly turning to sugar. Whole, minimally processed grains are one of the best sources. That might be whole grain bread, whole wheat or spinach pasta, or a bowl of oatmeal or buckwheat kasha. Fresh fruit and vegetables are not only a good source of healthy carbs, but of fiber, too.

Healthy Fats

Fat is not only a healthy weight gain food, it’s critical for overall health. It’s one of our main sources of vitamins A, E, and K. Unfortunately, the wrong kinds of fats have side effects like clogged arteries. What you want are monounsaturated fats (plant fats) and minimal saturated fats (animal fats). Healthy fats are found in plant oils like olive, peanut, and flax seed oil. Fruits like avocados and olives along with nuts and oily seeds (sunflower, pumpkin) are also great sources. Oily fish like salmon, trout, and herring are another good source, but you need to be careful where you buy to avoid fish contaminated with heavy metals.

Healthy Protein Choices

When most people think protein, they think meat. While it’s true meats contain a healthy does of protein—especially turkey, duck, chicken and tuna—there are also plenty of plant sources, too.
Beans and legumes are the biggest sources. Some of highest in protein are garbanzo beans (chickpeas), black beans, kidney beans, lima beans and lentils. Nuts like cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and hazelnuts (filberts) are second only to legumes in their protein content. Grains also provide some protein, especially buckwheat, millet, wheat germ, brown rice, barley, oats and rye. That’s another reason choosing whole grain bread is important.

The Challenge of Getting Enough Calories

While it generally is a good idea to choose healthy foods over junk food, understand that for most bodybuilders or even those just trying to get in shape, getting enough calories purely out or “healthy” or “clean burning” foods is next to impossible. High-cal foods aren’t always the healthiest, since they may also be relatively high in saturated fats or sugars, but sometimes they’re necessary for you to meet your calorie requirements. Otherwise you’re going to be stuffing yourself with fillet of salmon and buckwheat kasha all day and wondering why you’re not getting any bigger.

Diet plays a huge role in building muscle. Large amounts of healthy weight gain foods are what you need to gain weight fast. No matter how perfect your workout routine, it will only leave you weak and exhausted if you’re not eating right. Before you really start trying to put on weight, plan a weekly or bi-weekly menu that will help you stay on track with healthy eating.