How to Gain Weight From Exercising & Eating a Lot of Calories

Gaining weight involves consuming more calories than you burn each day. However, if you want to gain muscle mass instead of just body fat, adding regular exercise to your routine is a must. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recommends following a strength-training program, such as weightlifting, to effectively build muscle mass and add weight to your body.

Things You'll Need

• Dumbbell weights

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Instructions

Make Lifestyle Changes

• 1

  Increase your daily calorie intake by 250 to 500 calories to gain about ½ to 1 pound per week, as recommended by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If you're lifting weights to build muscle mass, increase your daily intake by 500 to 1,000 calories each day, suggests the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Eat often, or every few hours, throughout the day and add extra nutrient-dense foods to your meals and snacks. Examples include whole-grains, lean meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, legumes, eggs, dairy foods, nuts, nut butters, seeds, vegetable oils and other foods with healthy fats such as hummus, avocados and olives.

• 2

  Participate in a strength-training program that incorporates all of your major muscle groups, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Major muscle groups include your hips, thighs, legs, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders and arms, according to a 2009 review published in the “Ochsner Journal.” Perform at least three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions for each muscle group you exercise. Examples of muscle-building exercises include squats and lunges using dumbbell weights, shoulder press, chest press, biceps curls, triceps kickbacks or extensions, deadlifts, bent-over reverse flys, lateral raises, front raises, upright rows and abdominal exercises such as dumbbell crunches.

• 3

  Boost your protein intake to 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight per day, as recommended by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. This amount of protein is equivalent to about 0.64 to 0.91 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day, or about 102 to 146 grams of protein daily for a 160-pound adult. Protein-rich foods include lean meats, seafood, skinless poultry, dairy foods, eggs, soy products, seitan, legumes, nuts, seeds and nut butters.

• 4

  Get plenty of sleep and allow your body to rest at least one day each week. Resting your body allows your muscles to recover and grow in response to strength training, which is beneficial for weight gain. A study published in a 2009 edition of the journal “Sleep” reports that getting seven hours of sleep each night, but less than 10 hours per night, is ideal and associated with a decreased rate of mortality from chronic diseases.