Brief Answer:
high calorie protein diet with resistance exercises

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thanks for posting the query.

Your BMI as per the indicating that your weight for the given height and age is low ( 17.62 kg/m2). Ideally your body weight should be between 64 - 68 Kg.

Lower body weight mostly associated with lack of muscles and in some cases the deficiency of certain important nutrients. The reasons of low body weight are many. However, it is also true that the factors like environment, health and social life plays a part in your weight management. It is therefore, very important for you to be careful, and eliminate all the possible reasons of lower body weight.

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.
o     Keep away from junk foods, as these often contain bad oils and very less nutrition.

Since your BMI, as calculated based on the height and weight provided by you is very low. Thus I would advise you to start taking the protein supplements regularly. The commercial protein supplements are concentrated and therefore to be safe, the dosage should be carefully followed as per the instructions. Consuming sufficient fluids is important while taking the supplements to facilitate the elimination of waste produced as a result of protein digestion. Consuming the supplements are safe as long as you maintain the activity levels.

Protein supplements are available in two forms, whey protein concentrates and whey protein isolates. if you are doing regular exercises you may take whey isolates after the workout. But if your activity levels are moderate than i would suggest that you take the whey concentrates early morning and late evening with water as per the instructions printed on the label.

As you would be adding extra calories and protein to the diet, it is very important that you do the exercises regularly. Regular exercising would ensure that protein is used for muscle development, instead of getting converted to fats. Simple resistant exercises like push ups, light weight etc would help. Avoid heavy cardio activities. You may take help from a professional fitness trainer to formulate the exercise pattern best suited to you.

Hope this helps.

Meenakshi

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Brief Answer:
Details below

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for the feedback.

As suggested earlier, protein supplements are to betaken depending upon the kind of activities that you do.

With heavy workouts including muscle development exercises like weight lifting and other resistance exercises, you may take a whey protein isolate. Many brands are available in the market, few amongst the most popular ones are 100 % Whey Gold standard, Dymatize Elite Whey Protein Isolate, Optimim 100% Whey Protein, VPX zero Carb SRO etc.

While with moderate workout that is a blend of light cardio and moderate resistance exercises like light weights you may take the Whey protein isolates that are available in the markets from companies like Charotar Casein, Symbiosis biotech, Numeta lifecare, Abbot nutrition, Nestle, Fresubin etc. These products are available in most pharmacies and super markets in different flavours. Follow the dosage instructions printed on the label before administering the supplement.

Hope this helps.

Meenakshi

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