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How to Gradually Gain Weight

While most people are usually more concerned with watching their calories and losing weight, some people want to gain weight. The body type known as ectomorph refers to people who are naturally slender with small bones and little muscle mass. A small appetite often contributes to being underweight, but exercise stimulates your appetite. Get the bulk of your calories from healthy and fresh foods instead of turning to fat and sugar laden junk foods. Adding weight over time can improve appearance, strengthen bones and increase your ability to deal with illness.

Things You'll Need

  • Home gym or access to a gym
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Instructions

  1. Balanced Approach

    • 1

      Increase your daily caloric intake with a target of adding about 2 to 2.5 pounds a month. This can be accomplished with small increases in your portions at each of your three meals. For example, have a bigger bowl of cereal at breakfast and extra meat on your sandwich at lunch. If you have a small appetite you can experiment with eating four to six smaller meals each day. Most of the added calories should come from nutritious foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables and lean meats and poultry. Try adding snacks such as crackers with peanut butter and yogurt.

    • 2

      Increase your muscle mass with a strength training program. Build your program around basic exercises like squats, leg presses, bench presses and rows. You can use either dumbbells or free weights for 3 sets of 5-8 repetitions. Add a small amount of weight to an exercise once you can complete all the repetitions in each set fairly easily. Perform two workouts each week so your body has enough time to rest, repair itself and build the muscle that will add pounds.

    • 3

      Engage in moderate intensity aerobic exercise such as 20 minutes of walking or jogging. These forms of weight bearing exercise along with the weight training increases bone density and strength. Be careful not to do too much. You do not want to burn a lot of extra calories that would otherwise be used to put on weight.

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