Top 11 Tips to Gain Weight for Skinny Women

Mixi November 24, 2020 | 22:30

While most women all over the world are struggling with overweight, gaining weight is also a challenging task for skinny women. Here are some tips that KnowInsider wants to share with you. Check them out right below.

Eat more meals, more carbs. Photo: Shutterstock

If you have a skinny body & you are looking for ways to build muscles & gain weight, then you’re not alone in this. There are many factors behind a skinny body, such as poor diet, genetics, and active metabolism, etc. Being skinny can often be disheartening as you might not be able to wear your favorite dresses. But you don’t have to worry as you can easily gain weight & get your desired body figure with a healthy & nutritious diet. So, let's check out some tips to gain weight of KnowInsider now!

Eat more meals – more carbs

Women who need to gain weight must eat more meals, aiming for 4-6 meals a day that consist of fresh fruits, warm nourishing foods that are whole wheat (so lots of breads, but ONLY whole grain), and cooked vegetables. Good carbohydrate like potatoes and whole grain pasta's should be eaten at least 4 times a week to see a weight gain progress. Fruit smoothies, which can be easily made at home, should be consumed every day with healthy fresh fruits like banana's, strawberries, and your other favorite fruits along with yogurt. Add in wheat germ for fiber, a tablespoon of flaxseed/fish oil, and 1/3 cup of all egg whites to get a huge nutritional boost.

Stay away from junk foods

Fast foods are loaded with calories, but you are not aiming for obesity. You want to put on weight in a healthy and safe way.

Junks foods are high in unhealthy fats, excessive sodium, seasonings, and chemical additives. Instead of helping you put on weight, they can bring a whole lot of complications including cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Having junk food every now and then is fine, but don’t try to eat junk all day every day, if you do, you might actually gain weight, but not the type of weight you were going for.

Get enough sleep

Enough sleep is important. Photo: BBC

Yes, this is one activity you must have plenty of. Your body undergoes repair and rejuvenation while you are sleeping. Insufficient sleep can disturb your hormones, which can result in more difficulty putting on weight.

Health experts recommend sleeping 7 to 8 hours every night. For quality sleep, reduce blue light exposure throughout the day and do not drink caffeine in the afternoon.

Manage your hormones

These chemical fluids inside the body play a significant role in your efforts to gain weight. Although we agree that hormonal activities are generally out of our control, there are some which are directly affected by our diet and lifestyle.

When you don’t sleep enough, eat refined foods, and do not manage your stress, hormones such as insulin and cortisol get overly produced. When this happens, you will not be successful in putting on weight.

Therefore, get enough sleep, avoid foods that spike insulin and manage your stress through activities such as meditation.

Stay away from alcohol

Stay away from alcohol. Photo: Family Doctor

Alcohol is known to inhibit fat cells and delay their development. The presence of a compound called polyphenol as well as the low-calorie count promotes weight loss. And this is not what you want when you are a skinny female trying to gain weight.

Drinking alcohol also triggers increased production of digestive acids in the stomach, which makes your body thinks it is full even when it is not.

Try meditation.

As we briefly highlighted above about the benefits of meditation for a night of sound sleep, it has a multitude of benefits. Meditation is not something that we are propagating, its benefits are scientifically proven, and we are confident you can benefit from it too.

You can manage stress better, reduce anxiety, and it also increases self-awareness. You can manage emotional health more effectively, and you sleep better. It can even increase the life span of the practitioner.

When you sleep better, and stress is under control, you are happier and more stable. All these factors will contribute to your overall health.

Exercise

Photo: Shape Magazine

There are hundreds of exercises that will help you gain mass and curves, and fitness books and magazines like Self, Her's, and Fitness Magazine offer great weight lifting exercises that you can do without having a membership at the gym or hire a personal trainer. Just commit to working out 3-4 times a week for at least 30 minutes and you will see results. Get into working out and make it fun by doing fitness activities that you enjoy. Minimal cardio is required to build up an healthy appetite. After workouts, make sure that you eat a good meal that is rich in protein and good carbs. Rest in between days of working out to give your muscles sufficient time to rest and grow!

Putting on weight is much harder than losing weight. But if you have a good meal plan and workout plan, it is not impossible. So start now, feed your body with lots of good foods, good carbs, good protein, good fats and have a good quality strength training at least 3 to 4 times a week.

Diet with high healthy fats

Ectomorph women especially need to eat foods high in mono saturated fats, cooking with good oils that are good for your heart & cardiovascular structures, like extra virgin olive oil, peanut oil, almond oil, and canola oil. You, can successfully add in more calories to your meals if you creatively incorporate these healthy oils into your breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners.

Add Omega 3

2307 plant based omega 3 sources whitney erd

Omega 3 based plants. Photo: Whitney - E. RD

Ectomorph women need to pay particular attention to their omega 3 fatty acid intake, an essential fat that is responsible for many health benefits including a healthy heart, brain and mood development, and a healthy body. Omega 3 fatty acids, which can be found in fish, beans, and leafy green foods, have had positive reviews and can be especially helpful to women who need to reset their body chemistry, helping them to gain weight quicker.

Drink Milk – full fat

Drinking milk, preferably 2% or vitamin D milk 2-4 times a day will definitely help you gain weight faster and easier. The casein in milk has been said to identify when a person is underweight and go in and fix the problem. This is why people who are trying to lose weight have to decrease their milk intake OR drink skim.

Add on Supplements

Protein shakes (best ones are whey isolate), Ensure, and Booste are excellent sources to help add healthy calories to your diet. But remember, they are supplements and should not act as meal replacements.

The Bottom Line

So above are the top 11 diet and nutrition tips for skinny girls to gain weight that KnowInsider wants to share with you. By combining these diet tips with exercise, you can easily put on weight. Most of the fitness experts around the world recommend these diet tips to girls who want to gain weight. Also, you can always get in touch with a licensed diet nutritionist to get a personalized diet plan created for you. If you like this article, don't forget to like, share it with your friends and follow KnowInsider for more interesting news.

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