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Underweight is not initially a normal state of human health, but suggests that, due to certain factors, the human body does not receive or does not fully absorb the nutrients and energy it needs from the food it eats. It would seem that today the problem of obesity has become frighteningly relevant for humanity, but the number of people suffering from underweight is also steadily growing.
Common causes of underweight
Doctors note that weight loss can be a symptom of more serious diseases or a feature of the human body associated with the functioning of various systems in the body, for example, the gastrointestinal tract. That is why the first step in the struggle for the acquisition of kilograms should be a trip to the doctor and a health examination.
Genetic predisposition is a factor that is not easy to fight – if close relatives in two or three generations have an asthenic physique, there is a certain probability of a thin physique in the following generations. This rule does not always work and is not a guarantee of a slim figure in the case, for example, of diseases that cause the development of obesity. Under the condition of normal health and a good level of ability to work, if everyone in the family is slim and thin, it is hardly worth worrying about. If you still need to gain weight, in order to gain weight, changes in the diet and properly selected workouts will help.
If the weight was constantly at the same level, and at one moment abruptly “went” down, you need to pay attention to the endocrine system, and especially to the indicators of the functioning of the thyroid gland. The hyperfunction of this organ is a disease that an endocrinologist must deal with, and self-medication is unacceptable.
Weight loss can be a symptom of such serious health problems as HIV, hepatitis, cancer, diseases of the cardiovascular system.
A separate point of the causes of weight loss are disorders in the work of the stomach, pancreas, intestines, liver, kidneys. For example, pancreatitis is the cause of insufficient digestion of food, and, as a result, a lack of nutrients from food.
Nervous stress and anxiety can cause a decrease in appetite, which often leads to sudden weight loss. Eating disorders also cause weight fluctuations, from rapid weight gain to dramatic weight loss. Doctors work with these problems, because first of all it is necessary to eliminate the cause of underweight, otherwise no tricks to increase body weight will help.
Parasites and worms can also contribute to sustainable weight loss. No one is immune from infection with them, so it is necessary periodically, about once every half a year or a year, to take appropriate tests and take a preventive course of taking medications for parasites.
Who are weight loss diets for?
As already mentioned, for people who have a hereditary predisposition to an asthenic body type, weight gain is mainly interesting from the point of view of aesthetics. However, there are dietary options for skinny people with the appropriate amount of calories and the specific type of food on offer.
For those who, due to some mental disorders, cannot gain and fix a normal level of body weight, diets aimed at gaining weight will help normalize the general condition of the body and the emotional background associated with it. Also, nutrition systems of this type are relevant for people who have undergone major operations or serious illnesses, at the end of the primary rehabilitation period.
Separate diet plans are provided for athletes involved in intense strength exercises that help build muscle mass.
The nuances and features of dieting
Weight gain can occur in different ways: you can get fat most often due to a disproportionate increase in body fat, thereby worsening your health and ruining your figure, or you can approach the issue more reasonably. The right diet to get better should not be based on increasing the amount of food absorbed or increasing the calorie content of food at the expense of unhealthy foods like chips or sweets.
A full-fledged high-calorie breakfast is very important – coffee sandwiches alone will not work to increase body weight.
Many nutritionists talk about the need to include meat in the daily diet, although this does not mean that vegetarians do not have a chance to get better. Vegetable protein from soy, legumes, nuts, tofu will also cope with the task of weight gain, but in this case, weight gain will occur more slowly.
The optimal number of meals per day is at least 5-6 times, the last of which can be an hour before bedtime. It is undesirable to eat immediately before bedtime, so as not to create additional stress on the heart. It is best to eat at the same time, with equal intervals, which should not exceed 2,5-3 hours.
As for the calorie content of the daily menu, the advice of nutritionists is not particularly different from each other: to determine, you can use calculators to select calories per day. Their calculations are mainly based on data such as height, weight, age, level of physical activity.
Calorie content should be increased gradually so as not to create a stressful state for the body. Approximately 200-300 calories per day can be gradually added, and to calculate them, you will have to stock up on nutritional value tables for all products.
It is undesirable to drink during meals, but 30-40 minutes before meals, a glass of freshly squeezed fruit or vegetable juice will be useful.
Do not exercise immediately after eating.
A full eight-hour sleep every day – of course, in the harsh realities of working days, this rule is not so easy to follow, but it is a normal healthy rest that will help you gain weight.
For the duration of the diet, you can take vitamin complexes, and if necessary, enzyme preparations to support the organs of the gastrointestinal tract.
The most basic postulate of any diet is a preliminary consultation with a doctor. Only a specialist nutritionist will help you correctly determine the daily calorie intake, choose a diet, warn about contraindications and possible harm.
Diet: allowed foods, forbidden food
In order to get better, nutritionists advise adhering to the following proportions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins (as a percentage) in the daily diet: 45/30/35 or 40/25/35, respectively.
Products that are also prohibited in diets for weight loss are undesirable – usually they do not bring any benefit to the body as a whole. These are marinades, smoked products, pickles, pastries and white bread, fast food, snacks, chips, soda, packaged juices, margarine.
The body will benefit from proteins obtained from seafood, various types of meat, fish, poultry, milk. As for carbohydrates, you need to pay attention to all types of cereals, fruits and vegetables. Replenishing the diet with cereals and bran bread will benefit the body – these products not only add extra calories to the diet, but are also a source of fiber.
Among fats, preference should be given to vegetable oils – olive, sesame. Healthy fats are found in seeds, nuts, avocados, dairy products, fatty fish.
Menu examples for weight gain
Diet options for men and women differ mainly in the daily calorie intake, while the products and dishes offered are almost the same for both. However, for example, for athletes who engage in intense strength exercises to build muscle mass, there is a separate diet with the addition of protein shakes and sports mixtures with amino acids.
When it comes to the combination of diet and strength training for athletes, there are some special dietary rules. For example, a pre-workout meal should contain as few calories and carbohydrates as possible. After a hearty lunch, training can be carried out only after 3-4 hours, but a lighter breakfast will allow you to start exercising in an hour. Before short-term physical activity, you should not eat fast carbohydrates, which in this case will interfere with mass gain. But just before a long run or cycling workout, easily digestible carbohydrates will come in handy.
An example of a daily diet for building muscle mass in athletes:
- breakfast: scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs with cheese and ham, 200-250 g of cottage cheese, buckwheat or rice porridge, a glass of milk;
- second breakfast: beef chop (200 g) with a piece of bread with bran, a glass of kefir or milk;
- lunch: a piece of beef with boiled pasta or potatoes, fruit, a glass of milk;
- second lunch: 200 g of cottage cheese, fruits, raisins;
- dinner: chicken fillet, boiled potatoes or pasta, nuts, fruits, a glass of milk;
- an hour and a half before bedtime: 200 g of cheese, a glass of kefir.
As a second breakfast or snack before dinner, protein shakes, both made from protein concentrates and natural, are also suitable. As for the latter, they are prepared with a blender, with the addition of ordinary everyday products. For example:
- 50 g of homemade cottage cheese;
- one banana;
- a tablespoon of cream;
- a tablespoon of ice cream;
- a handful of oatmeal;
- one candy with a waffle layer;
- a glass of milk.
All ingredients are whipped in a blender until a homogeneous liquid mass, and it is better to use a cocktail chilled.
Delicious coffee recipe:
- half a glass of heavy cream;
- a teaspoon of instant coffee;
- two tablespoons of creamy ice cream;
- one raw egg yolk.
First, coffee is dissolved with cream, after which all components are whipped until smooth.
For those people who do not engage in heavy strength exercises, there are separate menu options for correcting body weight. Daily meal example:
- breakfast: milk oatmeal with raisins, honey, nuts, white bread with butter and cheese, coffee with milk;
- second breakfast: meatballs with boiled pasta, fruit juice;
- lunch: cabbage soup in meat broth, boiled potatoes with butter, fried or baked fish, vegetable salad and sour cream dressing, a glass of fruit juice;
- snack: cookies with milk;
- dinner: buckwheat with milk and dried fruits, bread and butter, tea with sugar.
For breakfast, cereals with milk with nuts, fruits or dried fruits, cottage cheese with croutons, cheesecakes, omelettes with salads are perfect. As for lunches, it can be borscht or soups, meat or fish with a side dish, salads, bakery products. Dinners are selected from combinations of meat or fish and vegetables – stews or salads. For snacks, protein shakes, fruits, vegetables, salads from them, crumbly cereals with butter will do.
Various reasons that cause the need to gain weight – sports, past illnesses or operations, health problems – pose the task of selecting the optimal diet that will work and give the desired result. At the same time, it is these reasons that you need to pay attention to: some of them will have to be eliminated first in order to start effectively gaining weight thanks to the diet. Diets for weight gain allow you to slowly and with benefit for the body correct the existing figure on the scales upwards, without harm to health and figure. Ideally, the weight increases evenly, by about 300-500 g per week – with such an intensity of gain, the body has time to get used to the new parameters.
Excessive thinness, disproportionate silhouette, lack of muscle mass or, which is important for the weaker sex, feminine and soft curves of the figure – these features are fixable due to a change in the nutrition system. A properly formulated diet, combined with an appropriate level of physical activity, is very likely to give a positive result in the form of new kilograms on the scale dial, which will not upset, but rather please.