Brief Answer:
Dietary Guidelines For Healthy weight Gain

Detailed Answer:
Your BMI, indicating that your weight for the given height and age is low. Ideally your body weight should be between 78-82 Kg.

The natural way to gain weight is actually a blend of balanced diet and regular physical exercises. Most people think that a weight gain diet allows you to have anything and everything that would please the taste buds. But that’s not really how diet works.

Gain in weight is considered healthy when a person develops Muscle mass and not the fat. This means you are required to take a diet rich in protein and moderate to high in calories. The increased calorie intake can be justified by including weight training routine in your existing fitness plan. Light weights and other exercises require energy which is supplied by the calories that you get from diet. Thus, additional calories of the diet would result in a “Protein Sparing Action”. It means that the added calories would allow the protein to perform its intended function of muscle development.

Take smaller but frequent meals and add nutrient dense foods like fresh cream, nuts and dry fruits and whole grains etc. to your daily diet. Do not eat or drink around the main meal timings to save the appetite for main meals.

You may include potato, yam, brown rice and whole bread in the diet for required calories. Fruits and vegetable are also important as they provide means for better digestion and assimilation of the food being consumed.

Always keep the handy snacks with you, for e.g. Peanut Chikki, roasted nuts, dry fruits, sprouts and roasted channa, and take plenty of water and other hydrating liquids. Avoid bakery and commercially prepared foods as they contain additives and preservatives.

A starchy fruit like XXXXXXX banana, Sapota etc. are excellent sources of fiber you may combine them with milk and its products for improving their overall nutritive quotient. Fruit milk shakes and fruit yogurt smoothies are refreshingly good and at the same point provide a blend of nutritious foods.

Choose the fats wisely, and maintain the intake of healthy fats like avocado, nuts, whole grains, dairy products, olive oil etc.

The most important nutrient here is protein mature legumes, milk and its products, peas, beans, pulses and soy are good protein sources. If you take non veg then consider adding egg whites in the daily diet. In addition to egg whites, chicken and fish are also good. If you wish to take red meats then make sure that these are not fried and contained less spices for better digestion.

Include sprouts, natural peanut butter, sugar free yogurt, boiled channa and soy chaat, dry and roasted pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds and soaked nuts and plenty dry fruits in the daily diet.

You may consider the following changes in your diet for healthy weight gain:

o     Divide your meals into smaller and frequent portions; this would enable the body to consume an adequate amount of calories and use them judiciously.
o     Include nuts and oil seeds in your daily diet. Nuts alone are good muscle building snacks. Rich in mono saturated fats, and even contain a healthy combination of protein and calories. For a better weight gain strategy, you can use peanut butter in different dishes.
o     Experiment with flax seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, pistachios, and other nuts and seeds. These are rich in protein and calcium and are good snacking options.
o     Include protein sources like whole beans, legumes, vegetables like mushroom, soy and milk in daily diet, for building muscles, which is a healthy way for gaining weight.
o     Include starchy foods like potato, tapioca, sweet potato etc., as these would provide the additional calories, which are free and easily available. This helps in the protein sparing action, i.e. these foods support the proteins to do their primary work of building body muscles rather than providing the calories.
o     Drink plenty of water and other fluids like tender coconut water, fresh juices, fresh soups, lemon juice etc. but avoid taking the fluids immediately before or in between the meals, as this reduces the calorie intake.
o     Avoid the carbonated drinks like coke, Pepsi etc.
o     Avoid taking snacks immediately before or around the meal timings, as it affects the appetite hence the intake of food, resulting in unbalanced food intake.
o     Be Consistent as it takes time for the body to adjust and show the desired results.
Keep away from junk foods, as these often contain bad oils and very less nutrition

Remember that weight gain is a slow process, follow your diet, eating routine and timings, never skip meals and also avoid eating more than the intended quantities.

Being persistent and focused would help you achieve your ideal weight faster. Also, as mentioned earlier, a weight gain diet works best with proper exercises to help the body utilize protein for muscle development. Simple exercises like push-ups, dumbbell lifts, plank, squats etc. helps in conversion of protein units into muscles and also help in toning the body parts.

You can try the protein supplements like Resource High Protein (nestle), ProteinX and B- protein. These are available in most of the pharmacies. Make sure that you take these as per the printed instructions.

Stay fit, All the best.
Neethu.

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