Gaining weight

Dear Wicked

I am enclosing an article on supplements and meal replacement products.  Hope this helps.

I’m a huge believer in always choosing whole foods over supplements whenever possible. However, it’s not easy to eat whole foods 5 or 6 times per day if you have a busy schedule. If you have a hard time getting enough calories from food, then you should consider using a weight gain or meal replacement product because drinking your calories is a lot easier than eating them.

Meal replacements are usually powdered products that you mix with water, milk or juice. You can also increase the calories further by adding peanut butter, flax oil, fruit or your other favorite ingredient and mixing up the whole concoction in a blender.

Don’t just blindly follow the instructions on the container. One thing that most people don’t realize is that you need to customize your supplement intake to your exact calorie needs. Just because the package says there are “1000 calories per serving” doesn’t mean that’s how many you need. Adjust the serving size to fit your own diet.

For example, if you need 3000 calories to gain weight, that breaks down into five 600-calorie meals or six 500-calorie meals. There’s no need to shovel down 1000 calories at a time just because the label says so – that’s only going to make you fat.

Some products were designed as meal replacements for fat loss programs. These usually come in individual serving packets, they have about 280-300 calories per serving and they contain more protein than carbohydrates; this way, they fit into the guidelines of a low carbohydrate, high protein, fat burning diet. These products are not as cost-effective when you’re trying to gain weight. 300 calories is not enough for mass-building meal. If you decide to use this type of product for weight gain, you’ll need to mix it with a calorie containing liquid like juice or skim milk to bring the calories up to 500-700 (or whatever your diet calls for).

When you want to gain muscle, you’d be better off choosing a product that was specifically designed for that purpose. These “weight gainers” are much more concentrated in calories and contain more carbohydrates.

Using mostly carbs (sugars) and skimping on the protein is a dirty trick that supplement companies use to make a product cheap to manufacture. Read the labels carefully and avoid any product that is mostly sugar with very little protein. A good product will have approximately one part protein for every two parts of carbohydrates and small amounts of fat. For example, a drink mix with 40 grams of protein, 80 grams of carbs, and 2 grams of fat would provide almost 500 calories. If you wanted even more calories, you could mix the powder in skim milk or juice instead of water.

So, let’s summarize your strategy for quickly and easily adding more calories to your diet:

1. Continue to eat the same healthy foods you always eat, but simply eat more of them.
2. Choose foods with a higher calorie density. You could eat broccoli and salad until your face hurts from chewing so much, but you still won’t get enough calories.
3. Eat plenty of starchy carbohydrates including whole grains & cereals, pasta, potatoes, yams, beans, rice and oatmeal.
4. Don’t be afraid of adding a little bit of fat. Keep your diet low in fat overall, but add in some of the healthy “good” fats (such as flax oil, olive oil, or a couple tablespoons of peanut butter) and you’ll gain weight more quickly.
5. Just because you’re trying to gain weight doesn’t mean you have a license to eat anything you want. Go for nutritional value as well as calorie density; avoid saturated fats, sugar and processed junk foods.
6. If you can’t seem to get enough calories from food, then a meal replacement or weight gainer supplement can make your life a lot easier. Adjust the serving size to fit your calorie needs and make sure the product has a good protein to carb ratio.
7. Don’t be afraid to drink a lot of your calories in the form of low fat/skim milk, juice or supplements/shakes.