Hi,

Thanks for getting in touch with your queries.

The most important thing for gaining weight is that you are eating more calories than your body needs. But in order to gain weight healthily it's important to not only eat calorie rich foods, but also nutrient rich - not just concentrating on foods that are high in fat, sugar and often empty calories. Opting to takeaways or crisps and chocolate for example will help to up your calories, but it will also significantly increase your saturated fat and sugar intake - so is not the best choice in terms of overall health. Gaining weight should be done in the same way as losing weight - sensibly and gradually.

Eating extra calories can seem a bit daunting if you're used to small portions or your appetite isn't great. So here are a few tips:

• Start off by adding in some extra snacks, and then gradually increase the total amount of food you eat over the course of the day.
• Start with a healthy and nutritious base, and then wherever you can, enrich the foods with additional ingredients such as yogurt, fruit, nuts and healthy fats.
• Continue eating a wide range of foods from all the food groups increasing portion sizes realistically wherever possible.
• The frequency of meal occasions is also a good way to increase calorie and nutrient intake. Try to eat 6 times per day (3-4 small meals and at least 2 snacks per day).
• At least 3 meal occasions during the day should include protein, complex carbohydrates, vegetables or salad and a source of fat.
• If you're looking to gain muscle mass, rather than just gain weight, calorie and protein levels will need to be increased in the diet but muscle mass will only grow with strength training. High protein foods such as protein bars, protein shakes or milk should be included as a post-training snack to ensure maximum recovery.

Good food choices when you're looking to gain weight are: Lean meat, poultry, eggs, nuts, pulses, oily fish, olive oil, avocado, nuts, full fat dairy foods e.g. milk, yogurt, cheese.

Regarding your fat intake, it really depends where the fat is coming from. If it's saturated fat from things like cakes, full fat dairy, takeaways or fried foods for example, then eating over your allowance regularly would not be the healthiest choice. You would continue to gain weight if you were eating up to your calorie allowance, but this type of fat is not a healthy choice for anyone. Whereas if it was unsaturated fat from things like nuts, oily fish and avocado for example, then it's no problem to go a little over your allowance.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you need anything further.

Best wishes

Emma

Nutracheck Nutritionist