How to Gain Weight If You Are an Underweight Person

There are many people who fall into this category called "hard gainers." Evidenced by the title, they have a hard time gaining weight. The key way to gain weight is by following the right steps and doing the right thing at the right time. One thing not to do is stuff your face with tons of high calorie, unhealthy foods and beverages. This may cause some weight gain, but it will be in the form of fat and you will also open yourself up to risk factors such as high blood pressure, cancer and high cholesterol.

Things You'll Need

• Free weights
• Journal

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Instructions

• 1

  Keep a journal. Track your daily caloric intake for one week. Write down every bite and sip of food you consume that has calories in it. If you are unsure of what the calories are of particular foods, there is a website called calorieking.com that gives all the information you need. All you do is plug the food into a search engine and it gives you the calories and nutrient profile.

• 2

  Add it all up. After the week is up, find the total amount of calories you ate for each day, add them all together and then divide by seven. This will give you an average per day total. Now add 500 calories to this number. For example, if your average was 1900 calories a day, then your new total is 2400 calories.

• 3

  Eat multiple meals. Now take your new daily total, say 2400 for example, and divide it by six. This will give you six meals at 400 calories each. So you will now eat six, 400-calorie meals a day. Eat every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day starting as soon as you get up in the morning.

• 4

  Go to the gym and do compound exercises. You can also work out at your house if you have equipment. Compound exercises involve more than one joint range of motion, and they lead to a high amount of muscle recruitment, which leads to size. Some examples of exercises are bench presses, military press, deadlifts, back rows and squats.

• 5

  Cut out the cardio. There is a time and place for cardiovascular training, but bulking up is not it. Doing high amounts of cardio training will increase your caloric expenditure and cause you to lose weight. If you are going to do any, keep the time short and keep the intensity low.

• 6

  Reassess your caloric intake. Check your weight after four weeks. If you have gained weight, then keep everything the same. If you have not gained weight, then add 500 calories to your daily total again. Keep checking every four weeks and keep adjusting until you get to your desired weight.