Dear XXXXXXX

Thanks for posting the query.

The data provided by you indicated that your BMI (Body Mass Index) is 18.3 kg/m2, indicating that your weight for the given height and age is lesser than the normal healthy weight.

Lower body weight and tiredness is mostly associated with lack of muscles and in some cases the deficiency of certain important nutrients. The most common reasons of low body weight are inadequate eating habits, prolonged meal timings, poor food selection, and sudden increase in physical activity. Sometimes, it is also associated with conditions like insomnia, depression and eating disorders like anorexia. 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 achieving your weight gain goal:

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 oilseeds in your daily diet. Nuts alone are good muscle building snacks. They are high 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 for a tasty treat. Don’t overlook flax seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, pistachios, and other nuts and seeds.
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. If you are a non vegetarian, try having the fat free meats and prefer the non-fried preparations.
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.

Exercises are also very important for you. With regular and correct exercises you would be able to convert the proteins into muscles and hence gain healthy weight. Brisk walk and light weight training is helpful. Take help from a professional fitness trainer to formulate the exercise pattern best suited to you.

Hope this helps.
Meenakshi

---

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for the feedback.

The suggestions regarding the diet as suggested earlier are the key points for a healthy weight gain. If these changes have not helped you in the past, then its recommended that you consider getting a medical checkup done to rule out the other probable reasons, like hyperthyroid function etc.

To gain weight it is important to eat right and balanced food. Appetite stimulants would make you feel hungry and you may end up taking more calories than the required protein. This would result in weight gain while increasing the fat mass. Which, in long run may cause weight related problems.

Including the protein XXXXXXX foods like beans, lentils, milk and its products, soy and soy products, mushroom and non vegetarian protein sources like egg white and chicken would help in muscle building when combined with proper resistance exercises.

A range of dietary protein supplements are available in the market, you may consider these as a part of your diet, to help you built muscles. These can easily be procured from the nearby pharmacy.

Try high protein diet with small and frequent meal pattern. This should help you in achieving a good body weight.

Remember that to gain weight, a regular activity pattern is of equal importance.


Hope this helps you.

Meenakshi

---