Being skinny is also a complex thing and we don’t talk about it enough.
Most of us complain about having extra pounds. But conversely, some very thin people would like to gain weight. They may eat fatty and sugary foods, but they don’t gain an ounce. Thinness is then said to be “constitutional”. In other cases, thinness can be linked to an illness or an eating disorder. So, how can you gain weight when thinness becomes a source of complexes? Alexandra Murcier, dietician-nutritionist, reveals which foods to put on the menu to gain weight without putting your health at risk.
First of all, let’s remember that excess of certain foods is harmful to health, regardless of our weight. Therefore, the consumption of pastries, chocolate, burgers, cold cuts, sodas and other fatty and sugary foods must be limited even if we want to gain weight. “Some people are physiologically thin or lean so it is difficult for them to gain weight. There is no point in eating anything to try to gain weight because it can have harmful consequences on health.”warns Alexandra Murcier. So what to eat? “When you want to gain weight in a healthy way, you should look for foods with a high energy density.”answers the dietician-nutritionist. Concretely:
► Eat more fat: “To gain weight, you can enrich your diet with butter, crème fraîche, but especially with vegetable oils which are more nutritionally interesting than butter or cream and which are less rich in saturated fatty acids, the harmful effects of which on the cardiovascular system are well known.”
► Increase your consumption of starchy foods, rice, pasta, bread, which have a high energy density and can provide a certain number of calories in order to promote weight gain.
►Increase your protein intake, especially if you want to gain muscle mass. “Be careful, however, not to fall into a high-protein diet which would have the opposite effect”warns Alexandra Murcier. In practice, the specialist advises making sure to have plenty of plant proteins in your diet (lentils, chickpeas, split peas, red beans) which are better for your health and are rich in carbohydrates, which will promote weight gain.
As a reminder, according to the National Nutrition Health Program, you should eat bread or starchy foods at each meal, proteins (meat, fish, eggs, legumes) once or twice a day, a dairy product at each meal, 5 fruits and vegetables per day, as well as 1 to 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (rapeseed, olive, walnut, etc.) per day.