How to Put on Weight Part 1 | Healthy Eating

Yes, believe it or not I often work with people who need to gain weight. I dedicate this article to one of my very special and loyal clients who would love to gain a few pounds or as she says kgs!

When our body is either over weight or underweight it struggles on some level as our body is only truly happy when it is at its optimum weight and that is specific to each individual. When the body is underweight after some accident or serious illness perhaps or long term stress the body is not thriving. It is merely surviving.

To help gain weight you really need to become aware of how you are feeling and what you are doing, take time to tune in and listen to what it wants as more often than not your body reached this underweight stage over a period of time where you may have been too hard on yourself in one way or another. It may have been weeks, months or years in a stressed out state.

It takes about 3500 calories to gain a pound in weight once you are not immediately expending it.  Aim to gain weight slowly in a natural healthy way, perhaps about 1 pound per week. You could of course decide to eat foodless foods and fizzy drinks and sweets and cakes and biscuits for a month or two and you would quickly see the weight piling on over a short time, but of course this most certainly is not what your body needs, to be laden with processed artificial foods which make you sick!

It is more difficult to gain weight while eating healthy foods which the body needs from mother-nature as they are naturally lean in nature, however this is where diet only plays part of the role. Sleep is vitally important for your body to heal, repair and thrive. Rest is vitally important for you to heal, repair and thrive. If you are on the go non-stop or feel guilty over what you have to do and you do not sit down and rest when needed, you end up burning up all your energy reserves and fuel so you end up with nothing to refuel you, the tank runs empty. The biggest problem I have in treating underweight people is getting them to SLOW down a little, to take a rest for 10, 15 or 20 minutes during the day so the body can take a little pit stop and recharge.

Add more complex dense carbs to your diet, such as potatoes, starchy root veg like carrots, yams, squash, beets, turnip etc in balance with other foods. Roasting these is a good way to bring the starches out more and cook in a generous amount of organic rapeseed or coconut oil.

For snacks a few times per week have a thick slice of spelt grain bread, rye bread, oat breads with a generous spread of some nut butter such as almond butter, cashew nut butter etc or tahini (sesame seed spread), guacamole, hummus etc This week focus on rest, relaxation and being good to yourself, see you next week for part two!