In this age of glamour, looks are really important for everyone. Having a great figure is very appealing to women, and men continue their endeavors to increase muscle mass to look strong and muscular. In this light, being naturally thin and not being able to gain weight can really be a problem.
If you are naturally thin, then a proper diet that will help you put on weight is a must, to help you in your endeavor to gain healthy, lean muscle mass. A good weight gain diet can certainly be of help, maybe even more than a weight training program.
The simplest way to increase body mass is to consume more than you expend. Therefore consuming more calories will help you gain muscle mass. You might have a high metabolic rate and to combat tackle that, you will have to ingest high calorie food. However, high calorie food doesn’t mean that you can eat whatever you want to. It simply means that you should eat certain things more than others. If you start ingesting large quantities of fat, chances are you might take in a lot of saturated fat and get high level of cholesterol which is very damaging to your health.
Our muscle mass is usually protein. To gain lean muscle, increase your intake of proteins. For weight gain, ideally your diet should contain around 2 g of protein per kg of your body weight. This is much higher than the recommended dietary allowance; however, since you are trying to gain weight, increasing the protein in your diet is but necessary.
If you do not have adequate proteins in your diet, gaining muscle mass through amino acids will be impossible. Fresh or canned fish, lean cuts of poultry and meat, egg whites, soy products, milk, yoghurt and cottage cheese are all good sources of proteins. With that you can also try taking some protein powders which expedite the entire weight gain process.
A good diet aimed at gaining weight also contains a good amount of unrefined carbohydrates. Carbohydrate gets converted into glycogen in the body. Glycogen is an immediate source of energy and therefore the carbohydrate intake should not be limited in any way.
Take good amount of brown rice, rice pasta, dried fruit, whole wheat bread, potatoes and couscous in your diet to ensure a good supply of carbohydrates.
Along with including all essential muscle and mass building food in your diet, also pay attention to the frequency of your meals. Instead of eating three large sized meals in a day, increase the frequency and take about 4-5 moderate sized meals.