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Treatments for Being Underweight

Many people strive to be thin in modern society, but, actually, it's unhealthy to be underweight. People whose weight is too low are putting themselves at risk of fatigue, a depleted immune system, which causes you to pick up illnesses more quickly, and nutritional deficiencies. Women who are underweight are also at risk of upsetting their menstrual cycle, which can have a negative impact on their future fertility.

  1. Investigate

    • The first step to take is diagnosing if you are underweight and trying to work out why that might be. Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if your weight is healthy. If you are underweight, it could be just that you're not eating enough, which is easily treatable. But if you eat a lot but are still very underweight, or if you deliberately stop yourself from eating in a quest to become super-thin, a visit to your doctor is warranted -- you could have a digestive problem or an eating disorder.

    Don't Pig Out

    • It's easy to assume the best way to gain weight is to gorge on lots of chocolate, candy, and potato chips to up your calorie count. However this will only enable you to gain weight in an unhealthy way. Try to stick to a healthy diet. This includes making sure you eat across all the food groups, including lots of carbohydrates and protein as well as fats in your meals. Also aim to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

    Energy-Rich Foods

    • Eating foods packed with energy is one of the best ways to gain weight healthily. Aim to eat lots of complex carbohydrates throughout the day to keep your energy level up. Good foods include oatmeal, fruit smoothies, peanut butter on toast, boiled or baked potatoes, yogurt and handfuls of unsalted nuts. If you struggle to eat three big meals a day, then try to eat smaller meals but more often.

    Sneaking calories into food

    • There are many "cheats'" you can do to up your calorie intake throughout the day. Try adding milk powder to milky drinks to give you more protein and calories. You can sip on these throughout the day. Or you can try to up the nutrition in your drinks by adding protein powder, which can be bought in most health stores. These hidden powders will keep your protein levels high and supply you with more more energy.

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