How To Gain Weight The Healthy Way

Believe it or not I often get asked as a Nutritionist how to gain weight, maybe not as much as how to lose it, but it’s a very good question because it is as important to understand the dietary fundamentals of healthy weight gain as it is healthy weight loss.

You would assume that for somebody wanting to gain weight it would be as easy as throwing a few cream buns and tubs of lard down their throat……but in reality this would be as detrimental to an underweight person’s long term health, as it would to someone overweight, not to mention usually an ineffective means of achieving their goal of weight gain.   So let me explain why and how you should approach healthy ‘weight gain’ if this is your issue.

There are many reasons why a person may find it difficult to gain or maintain their weight and this is the first thing that needs to be established.

1. Poor Absorption

The common denominator for people who find it difficult to gain weight is mal-absorption of food within the gastrointestinal tract.  In fact there are not many people I have tested over the past 12 years in clinic, that don’t have an issue with this phenomena – better known as ‘leaky gut’, even if they are not suffering from an inability to gain weight.  So if you haven’t gathered after reading my previous posts, ‘leaky gut’ is the thing to address first and foremost when addressing ANY health issue. This can be successfully achieved through supplementing your diet with specific nutritional supplements

2. Genetics

Aside from a leaky gut, the reason why some people find it difficult to gain weight can stem from an inherent  genetic element.  I often find that an underweight patient usually has a parent that is in fact a bit of a ‘string bean’, better known as the ‘Ectomorph’ body type.  This body type typically has an inherently speedy metabolism and as a result will be prone to experiencing difficulty in gaining weight.

3. Illness or Infection

Previous chronic illness or infection, whether it be from a pathogen such as a bacteria, parasite or virus, can disrupt the body’s metabolic rate and absorption.  In this situation, the infection needs to be dealt with in the first instance as well as the potential damage caused to the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and nutrient deficiencies replenished eg: zinc, iron and B12.

4. Poor Nutrition

Nutritional deficiencies stemming from a poor diet  - high in processed ‘junk food’ and refined carbohydrates / sugar, can be another contributing factor to an inability to gain weight.  I mentioned earlier in this post that people with an inherently speedy metabolic rate, may feel they can escape the repercussions of eating high sugar junk foods, because they seemingly ‘burn’ it off quickly before the body can store it as fat. But for those of you that fall into this category, I want to point out a very important fact around the long term implications of consuming excessive amounts of high sugar foods. I’m talking about the process of chronic inflammation.  Inflammation is a type of immune reaction that occurs in response to specific triggers. One such ‘trigger’ is the excess consumption of sugar or high GI foods – those that have a high insulin producing factor.  Insulin is the hormone  produced by the pancreas in response to the consumption of carbohydrate foods – which break down into glucose in our blood stream.  Insulin is the transport mechanism to remove glucose from the blood stream to the cell for energy.    If we decide to wack a whole lot of high GI carbs into our gob, then our poor little pancreas will have to produce an excessive amount of insulin in order to cope with the sudden influx of glucose –  even if we have a metabolic rate that is able to burn energy more quickly.  So this is the instance where consuming high sugar foods, despite having a speedy metabolic rate, will still leave a foot print on your health and it ain’t a pretty one, as the associated health impacts of excess insulin production, aside from weight gain, can contribute to many other health issues and eventually disease.  These include diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, auto immune diseases, heart attack and stroke, just to name a few.

5. Stress

We hear so much about the stress connection to illness and disease and weight issues are no exception. Prolonged periods of stress can have a direct impact on appetite either through suppressing it or increasing it.  But it’s not just our appetite that can feel the brunt of prolonged periods of stress, our central nervous and endocrine ( hormonal) system’s  can also be thrown out of balance.  Measuring morning cortisol levels through a blood test is one way to assess if your body is stressed, but perhaps and even better place to start is to ask yourself this simple question and look around at your lifestyle, relationships and sleep habits and see if any of these areas of your life could be a source of chronic stress.

Last of all, if you are experiencing difficulty gaining and maintaining weight, then you could be suffering from a condition known as Graves disease.  You may recall I spoke about thyroid conditions and the associated auto immune diseases in a previous post Some Advice For Auto Immune Sufferer’s’.  Put simply Graves disease is a condition where the thyroid becomes OVER active in addition to an abnormal immune response producing antibodies against its own tissue – hence why it is classified as an auto immune condition.  Graves disease can be a complex and delicate to treat, requiring precise and thorough investigation by an experienced, qualified health practitioner.  Symptoms associated with Graves disease in addition to difficulty gaining weight include:

• Anxiety and nervousness

• Heat intolerance & increased sweating
• Increased appetite
• Insomnia
• Difficulty concentrating
• Double vision
• Protruding eyeballs
• Eye irritation and tearing
• Fatigue
• Frequent bowel movements
• Menstrual irregularities in women
• Muscle weakness
• Rapid or irregular heartbeat

If you feel you may be experiencing a combination of any of these symptoms regularly, then you should consult your GP for further testing.

So my advice for achieving healthy weight gain is:

1. Try to identify the underlying factors linked to your inability to gain weight easily – as listed above
2. Put your diet under the microscope and identify how much sugar or processed, nutrient deficient foods you eat each day.  Its important to look at how much quality protein you are eating in comparison to high sugar, fast burning carbohydrates as your body needs protein to build muscle and new cells. Ensure you include ‘grounding’ foods in your diet such as root vegetables – sweet potatoe and pumpkin, slow burning, high protein carbohydrates such as quinoa and brown rice and avoid caffeine as this is a stimulant
3. Fix your digestion – you may benefit from supplementing with digestive enzymes and/or supplemental hydrochloric acid (betaine HCl) for a period of time to assist with digestion of food for better absorption. (See me website for more details about this under my digestive rehab program)
4. Have your thyroid checked for Graves disease and or an over active thyroid
5. Reduce stress in your day to day life and consider taking up regular meditation, yoga, Qigong or Tai Chi  as an effective means to calm your nervous system
6. Correct any vitamin and mineral deficiencies – commonly these include B12, Zinc, iron, selenium and magnesium.
7. Ensure you get a enough sleep at night – I recommend 8 hrs and get to bed well before midnight.
8. Avoid eating on the run or when nervous or upset
9. Consult your nutritionist or naturopath about possible food allergies or intolerances, such as wheat, cow’s milk  - you may even be coeliac and not know it.

But remember if you are naturally thin and always have been, then learning to love and accept your body the way it is, is as important as addressing any other possible cause for weight problems. Best of all being a little naturally underweight has far fewer associated health complications than being overweight, so take  comfort in that.

To learn more about healthy eating check out my booklet Begin A Healthy Life In 28 Days

Til my next post , stay healthy and feel good everyday

Sally x

©All rights reserved Sally Joseph 2012