When it comes to muscle building, ‘how to gain weight’ is the most often asked by men (especially for those who are being underweight). This case is pretty common in teenagers, and they are usually looking for weight gain supplements for the quickly option. And as well we know that there are a lot of supplements to choose from! The next question, what are best supplements to gain weight that you should choose? Before discussing several popular weight gain supplements that are currently available in these days, first you may also be interested to know some healthy ways to gain weight (even sometimes with these ways, you will not need any additional supplements)!
How to gain your weight with healthy ways?
For some people, being a little underweight is not a big problem while others this can be an uncomfortable condition especially for those who are getting started in bodybuilding.
How to increase appetite naturally?
When there is poor appetite, you will be difficult to gather adequate pounds for your weight. Therefore, it is so important for your body to have good appetite. This is not only important for your weight gain diet but also to make sure that your body gets adequate amounts of daily nutrient requirement.
And the following tips may help increase your appetite:
- Before eating, there are some helpful ideas to encourage your appetite; (a) before eating, you can try a little walk in order to boost up your appetite, and (b) you can also try drinking fruit juice or eating first a piece of fruit for about 60-40 minutes before your meal, because the naturally sugars of fruit can help manage your blood sugar which then will help fire up your appetite.
- Avoid drinking excessively when eating your meal, because excessively drinking of water will fill you up. But you need to keep hydrated! And when it comes to weight gain, you should drink more liquid separately -- this is helpful idea to provide more room for your nourishing foods!
- To rouse your appetite, you can choose your favorite healthy foods especially when you are not hungry!
- Another idea, you can consider adding ground cinnamon to your drinks (such as tea /coffee) or your foods (such as bagel /toast)! ‘1 tablespoon of cinnamon a day can help stimulate appetite naturally’ -- according to author of ‘Gaining Weight for Skinny People’ (James L. Benson)!
- And if you are healthy enough, don’t forget to have adequate physical activity per day! You need to have a regular exercise to increase & keep well the level of your appetite. But if there are some factors that restrict you to do your exercise, discus more with a doctor or professional trainer.
Pack more calories by eating your meals /your substantial snacks more often! And make sure your meals contain adequate fat, vegetables, and protein. You can try eating for about 4-5 times a day, and once again each your meal (at least 3 of them) should contain adequate fat, vegetable and protein.
Eating often doesn’t mean that you can eat unhealthy foods or junk foods excessively! However, your health is still priority, therefore much better to always prioritize eating healthy foods.
Note, weight gain is not only about eating high calories foods -- you still need to consider the nutrition from any food that you eat! Focus to foods that also have good nutrients, minerals, vitamins! So, each food that you eat is not only loaded with calories but also healthy nutrition.
Don’t forget also to enrich your daily menu with healthy additional ingredients (such as free-fat yogurt, fruit, and healthy fats)!
What are best foods for weight gain?
Weight gain supplements are the practical option to gain your weight. But the right choices of foods that you eat are still the best way! There are a lot of foods that you can explore to gain your weight. And below are some helpful checklists:
- Hummus, almond butter, seeds, nuts, avocados, peanut, and peanut butter are good foods with fat (plant fats) to gain weight. They contain both high calories and good nutrients.
- You may want to choose animal fats, but be careful they also contain saturated fats that can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Because animal fats can raise your LDL (bad cholesterol)! Therefore, to keep safe -- you should eat them in moderation, or you have to avoid them if you have some risk factors of heart disease or cardiovascular disease (discuss more with your doctor for more in-depth information)!
- Keep hydrated! Make sure your body gets adequate liquid per day, but as mentioned before you should not drink a lot of water when eating because it will fill you up quickly. Consider also other alternatives for your daily liquid requirement, like liquid from fruit or fruit juice so thus you will not only get more liquid but also more calories & good nutrient. Don’t forget also to consider high-calorie condiments (like Caesar salad dressings, ranch, and mayonnaise).
- Add nuts onto your desserts, casseroles, soups, or cereals! This idea is good to get adequate intake of calories, fiber, healthy fats, and also protein. Another choice is granola loaded with nuts, which also can be good idea for the source of your nutritious calories.
- You can also try with dried fruits for your good nutritious calories! They can be enjoyed alone or tossed on trail mixes, cereals, salads, desserts, etc.
- If you love eating fried foods, make sure you choose some that are fried with healthy oils in order to eliminate the trans-fat! But avoid eating fried foods excessively -- eating them on occasion is acceptable!
- And if you love sandwiches or pizza, it’s much better to choose some of them that are made with lean meat.
How to gain your weight after an illness?
In fact, many people who experience an illness usually have higher chance of getting weight loss. People with illness are also often associated with the lack of appetite. This is one of factors why they tend to experience poor diet in minerals, protein, vitamins, and calories.
After illness, you need the right transition foods in order to restore your appetite and gain your weight. These foods are usually simple to prepare, easy to digest, and also have good nutrition. For example, for this case -- doctors usually recommend mild foods and egg dishes. People after illness are usually also recommended to drink smoothies.
Furthermore, protein is usually the most essential nutrient that must be considered as well for better recovery after illness.
Best weight gain supplements for men
Choosing the best one of weight gain supplements is not easy, especially if you still don’t clearly understand what actually your body needs! The following are pieces of helpful information for you:
L-Glutamine
L-glutamine is the popular term used to call one of amino acids in the cells of muscles, which is usually released during weight training workouts. There are some important contributions of L-glutamine in weight-gain and bodybuilding;
- L-glutamine can help to promote good volume of muscle cells.
- It also can be useful to protect your muscles from the catabolic activities.
- It can speed up the synthesis of glycogen after training workouts.
- Regulate the synthesis of protein.
- And also can help speed up the recuperation after weight training workouts.
And a slight stomach discomfort is usually a common side effect when taking glutamine supplement, especially for the first weeks of use.
There are a lot of products and brands of glutamine supplements, some popular brands are Labrada, Met-Rx, EAS, Prolabe, and Beverly International.
Creatine
Another popular supplement when it comes to bodybuilding and weight gain is creatine. You can get it from foods, such as certain fish and red meats. But it’s not easy to get the high amounts of creatine from foods that you eat, and therefore your fitness trainer usually recommend the powder form of creatine.
What are the functions of creatine in weight-gain and bodybuilding?
- Helpful to enhance the mass of lean muscles.
- Increase the production of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). ATP is fuel for your muscles to contract and move. The high amounts of ATP that you have will be helpful to allow you to do your exercise longer (encourage your endurance).
- Some experts also believe that creatine may also help allow you to get better pumps during your workout. Furthermore, some studies also found that it may also help lower the level of triglyceride and LDL (bad cholesterol).
It is undeniable that protein is one of most essential properties that your body needs in weight gain and bodybuilding. That’s why, protein-rich foods are so recommended.
In essence, if you can get adequate intake of protein /day from food that you eat then protein supplements are not needed. But in fact, it’s not easy to get adequate protein from only foods that you eat especially in building the mass of your muscles. Therefore, sometimes you need to take protein supplements!
There are many brands of protein powder supplements! For better result, choose some that are not only high in protein but also low in sugar.
Other supplements
- For bodybuilders who have a plan to compete, testosterone boosting supplement is another common choice. But it is not recommended for young men, it should only be used for men who are older than the age of 25 (the age when the body usually begins to experience the declining hormone production).
- Flaxseed oil (a kind of polyunsaturated oil)! It contains some omega 3 -EFAs (essential fatty acids) which can help the production of hormone, improve the insulin sensitivity, improve the production of energy, and also improve your immune system. Generally, there is about 120 calories in 1 tbsp of flax oil and therefore flaxseed oil also can be great choice for your weight gain supplement.
You may also be interested to know best supplements for muscle growth!
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Image credit to ‘shutterstock’ for illustration
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