Tips for a healthy gain weight?

In order to gain weight, you have to eat more calories than you burn. You will add fat - there's no avoiding it. The key to minimizing fat gain is to do weight training and eat at just a small calorie surplus.

Note that weight training will NOT make you bulky (some women are scared of that) - there are people who intentionally TRY to build a lot of muscle and still struggle, so it's definitely not gonna happen by accident. There are a lot of different weight routines you could try, and I could post some here if you want, but I'd recommend asking or reading around to see what your options are, and also researching how to perform the exercises safely. I'd stay away from something like crossfit, and go with something that has you lifting moderate weight (weight that you can do about 3 sets of 10 reps with 2-3 minutes of rest between sets).

In order to help minimize fat gain, you can also add in some cardio. I really like sprints and stairs, as I think jogging is boring.

To get the target number of calories, go through the MFP or some other calculator and select an activity level that mirrors how often you plan to work out. Just say that you want to stay at the same weight. This will give you approximately how many calories you burn on average per day through your workouts and just being alive. Then add 250 to this number - this will gain you about half a pound per week, which is a nice slow gain. A higher surplus will give you faster weight gain, but at the cost of more fat. Weigh yourself at the same time each day and see how you progress each week (daily weight fluctuations can be 1-2 pounds or more so don't worry about that). If you are gaining too fast or too slow, adjust your intake accordingly. Do NOT log your workouts in MFP and eat back those calories - your workouts are already incorporated in the daily activity level.

I tried to be brief and this is already getting long to I'll stop it there, but post back if you have more questions. Good luck!

merv243 wrote: »

In order to gain weight, you have to eat more calories than you burn. You will add fat - there's no avoiding it. The key to minimizing fat gain is to do weight training and eat at just a small calorie surplus.

Note that weight training will NOT make you bulky (some women are scared of that) - there are people who intentionally TRY to build a lot of muscle and still struggle, so it's definitely not gonna happen by accident. There are a lot of different weight routines you could try, and I could post some here if you want, but I'd recommend asking or reading around to see what your options are, and also researching how to perform the exercises safely. I'd stay away from something like crossfit, and go with something that has you lifting moderate weight (weight that you can do about 3 sets of 10 reps with 2-3 minutes of rest between sets).

In order to help minimize fat gain, you can also add in some cardio. I really like sprints and stairs, as I think jogging is boring.

To get the target number of calories, go through the MFP or some other calculator and select an activity level that mirrors how often you plan to work out. Just say that you want to stay at the same weight. This will give you approximately how many calories you burn on average per day through your workouts and just being alive. Then add 250 to this number - this will gain you about half a pound per week, which is a nice slow gain. A higher surplus will give you faster weight gain, but at the cost of more fat. Weigh yourself at the same time each day and see how you progress each week (daily weight fluctuations can be 1-2 pounds or more so don't worry about that). If you are gaining too fast or too slow, adjust your intake accordingly. Do NOT log your workouts in MFP and eat back those calories - your workouts are already incorporated in the daily activity level.

I tried to be brief and this is already getting long to I'll stop it there, but post back if you have more questions. Good luck!

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