How to Gain Healthy Weight!
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Who wants to gain weight anyway?
In today's blog, I'm chatting about something often overlooked (even mocked at times) - exercise and nutrition for those who want to gain weight. Not only have I been one of those people, but I've had clients who've come to #fitnesstoatee specifically to gain weight.
I think our social media/digital world has also made it harder for smaller sized people, with images shown of curvy and/or full and muscular, being "goals". Also, in my African culture - it is more common (until more recent times where people are becoming more open-minded) that women who are curvier and fuller are seen as "more attractive."
Although weight loss is more of a common topic and goal worldwide, there are varying reasons for why some people want to gain weight.
Here are a few examples:
health reasons/medical advice e.g. being too underweight to conceive, periods stopped during to a low weight, recovering from an illness/condition;
having been "skinny shamed" since childhood and wanting to gain confidence by getting some healthier curves;
wanting to shape the body a certain way, using healthy means e.g. popular body areas that women I train want to grow are the glutes/butt.
Skinny shaming is real
"Skinny shaming" is real and just as hurtful as shaming someone for being overweight. Both are not ok. Again, social media can be unhelpful for the younger generations when they are bombarded by images which suggest that a certain type of body e.g. one which is curvy or fuller, is the "better" type of body. Think teenagers wanting those "Kim K curves".
No one's type of body shape is better than the other - it's about having a shape which suits you and embracing what you've been gifted with. This is certainly something we can encourage our teens and younger people around us with, too.
Some of the hurtful comments which people who are seen as "too skinny" or underweight hear are e.g.:
"you're just skin + bone!
you need a burger!
do you even eat? (and 9 times out of 10, that's directed to the ones who eat a huge amount lol)
men/women want something they can grab onto"...etc. Not cool.
My story
As you can see from the image above - I was much lighter (minus 13kg) in 2019 (left pic) at age 39.
As a teen, I was teased for being "too thin". I would hear "are you sick??"; "men don't want skin and bones!" etc. I hid it but it crushed me inside.
In my 20's, I tried weight gain the fastest way ie by eating a lot of junk food, but I ended up with a potbelly + definitely not feeling healthy at all.
It wasn't until my 30's that I chose to pack on weight the healthy way. But the rug got pulled under under my feet when life got feisty due to going through grief, separation/divorce from 2017, which saw me at my lowest emotionally/mentally and weighing only 45-48 kg. Believe me, I was a hot greasy mess inside.
See below for how I've gained weight over the last 2 years and also some tips I use with my weight gain clients.
Top tips to gain healthy weight
Holistic
Just like how weight loss needs a holistic approach, so does weight gain. Know your bigger why and let it drive you. Mine was to be at a healthier weight for my age and build my inner strength after some "hard knocks" including grief of losing my dad in 2017; separation then divorce.
The more I did things that brought joy; made me embrace who I was and the body I'd been given to work with - the more the body responded. I used e.g. prayer, meditation, conscious stretching to connect with the body, better sleep etc. The more positive your inner world, the more this reflects in the outer. Our bodies hear all we say and think about them.
I also then fused the holistic with nutrition and exercise.
2. Nutrition - top foods
As with any health goal, nutrition is the largest part of the equation. Foods who are great for muscle building; adding healthy weight which will make you glow, along with piling on heaps of other essential nutrients such as fibre for a well-functioning digestion are for example:
Sweet potatoes
Pumpkin
Brown rice
Protein sources such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, lean meat eg fish, chicken breast, eggs etc
Healthy fats e.g. avocado and oils such as olive etc.
Click here for a video of me showing you these healthy foods.
3. Types of exercise
Although most exercises are great for building muscle, the training method is what's key. So for example, you can do squats but stay in the low position of the squat for up to eg 5 seconds so that the muscle stays under tension for longer.
I also love dropsets which involve doing reps to failure using 3 different weights. You do failure reps from the heaviest to the lowest weight without stopping. For an example of these methods, watch me showing you here.
Also be mindful that you will get faster and sustainable results by having meal and exercise plans catered specifically for you, as opposed to guess work. See below!
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