As long as you continue reading, you’ll find out the various factors that determine how much weight you can gain from food in this IST Health weight-related article.
Summary
It Is Either Fat or Muscle Weight
Body weight gain is an ambiguous term as there are two kinds of body weight. The weight is either muscle or fat. For those hoping to gain weight, muscle weight should be the goal as it is the best as it is healthy. For instance, muscle weight ensures that you have the energy to engage in physically demanding tasks.
However, it will take more time and processes to gain muscle weight compared to fat weight. For example, the diet of a person who wants more muscle weight needs to be high in protein. Products such as milk and protein shakes may be required for this reason. Although foods that are high in sodium can support weight gain, those who want muscle weight don’t need too many sodium-rich meals.
Factors that Determine Gaining Weight from Food
Below are some of the factors:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
Everyone has a basal metabolic rate. You can think of it as fuel consumption for automobiles. Automobiles consume fuel but the rate at which they consume fuel is not the same. Some consume more and some less than others.
Calories are the fuel for the body and the rate at which people utilize calories for metabolic activities every day differs. Individuals with a fast BMR need to eat a lot more to gain weight than those with a slow BMR.
The Type of Weight Gain Goal
Just as some people have weight loss goals, those on the other end of the continuum need to have weight gain goals. This will help a lot as it is an important step towards gaining extra body pounds. In the spirit of having weight gain goals, one of the things to do is to decide if you want fat or muscle weight.
If you want the latter (which is the best), it takes a long while to gain weight from the foods you eat. By the way, keeping track of your weight gain progress is important. This is why you should check out what you weigh on the weight scale week-in-week-out.
Calorie Intake
Don’t mistake food intake for weight gain as it is possible to eat without gaining weight. The reverse might even be the case as a person may lose weight despite eating meals. This is what would happen when there is a deficit in the number of calories consumed every day.
So, it is not only about eating. It is also about ensuring an increase in the number of calories that you take in with every meal that you eat. You need a surplus intake of calories, instead of a deficit.
There are some weight gain tips to help in this regard. For instance, underweight people are advised to desist from drinking water close to the time that they eat their meals. Drinking water can affect their appetite and have such people not eating as much as they should.
Physical Activity Level
The rate at which you engage in exercise and other physically demanding activities also influences how long it would take to gain weight. Exercise and other physically demanding activities impact your basal metabolic rate. This is by making it faster.
So, those with a sedentary lifestyle are more likely to gain weight quickly. However, a lot of the extra pounds that they gain would be body fat and not muscle weight.
Sex
Women tend to gain weight faster than men. There are commonly known reasons for this. However, a recent university medical study revealed that differences in brain activities are also a reason for this.
We have other posts on our website that you’ll find helpful. For example, you can read this nutrition-related article that discusses how much water a person should drink every day.