Healthy Weight Gain

In order to gain weight, you need to take in more calories than you burn. A Daily Needs Calculator will give you an estimate of how many calories you require every day. For every 3,500 excess Calories (kcal) you consume, you will gain more or less one pound (about half a kg). 

Fat contains more than twice as many calories per gram as protein and carbohydrate; therefore, by adding high-fat foods to your diet this would be an efficient way to add calories. However, I assume that you are interested in healthy weight gain. In that case, you don't want just any calories; you want to add high-quality calories to your diet.

Fortunately, Nutrition Data has several tools that will help you do just that!  On every food and recipe analysis page, you'll see Nutrition Data's Nutritional Target Map. Foods that appear in the lower right quadrant of the map are ideal for healthy weight gain, because they have a high nutrient density (more nutrients per calorie) and a high energy density (more calories per gram).

Right below the Nutritional Target Map, you'll see the Better Choices tool.  Use the pull down menu to select "better choices for weight gain" and click "show me!" for a list of similar foods with a higher nutrient and calorie densities. Or, go to theFood Category Explorer, select any category, and use the pull down menu to select "Better Choices for Weight Gain."

Remember that muscle tissue weighs more than body fat. A weight training program, supported by a nutritious high-calorie diet, can help you gain weight as lean muscle mass instead of body fat. If exercise, particularly strength training, is part of your weight gain program, be sure to eat plenty of protein, which speeds recovery and enhances lean muscle gain.

The Nutrition Data community includes a lot of elite athletes and body-builders who track their nutrition very closely as part of their training regimens. Any Nutrition Datanauts with experience on healthy weight gain? I'd be interested in your input.

The Research Behind Women's Low-Carb Diets and Type 2 Diabetes

    The lure of rapid weight loss through low-carbohydrate diets has been put to the long-term health effects test. Clinical researchers recently ran a prospective trial to determine weather low-carbohydrate diets used for weight loss increased or decreased the risk for type 2 diabetes in women over time. The researchers used data from the ongoing Nurses' Health Study to examine the association between a low-carbohydrate diet score (based on the percentage of energy found in carbohydrates, fat, and protein) and the risk of type-2 diabetes in more than 85,000 women over a 20-year time frame. It was recognized amongst the researchers that females who ate more carbohydrates had a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes compared with those who ate fewer carbohydrates during the study period. The conclusion here is that the data suggest diets lower in carbohydrates and higher in fat and protein do not increase the risk of type-2 diabetes in women. The researchers published this conclusion in the February 2008 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The research further concluded that, “In fact, diets rich in vegetable sources of fat and protein may modestly reduce the risk of diabetes.”

   Please keep in mind that not all carbohydrates are created equal. If you decide to reduce your carbohydrate intake to lose weight, make sure you retain the healthy “complex” carbs, such as fruits and veggies. Instead, toss out the “simple” carbs, like those found in processed foods.