In this guide, you’ll learn how to gain weight the healthy way on a low-carb or keto diet .

However, low-carb foods are very nutrient dense, and may potentially help people who are underweight gain lean mass. Eating low carb, and eating when hungry, can be considered a weight-normalizing lifestyle.

Although most people see low carb as a weight-loss diet, this isn’t necessarily true. Low carb tends to lead to weight loss in people with excess weight because it helps them feel full and they end up eating less.

The usual advice for weight gain is to eat a higher amount of carbohydrates to “bulk up.” Unfortunately, this may lead to gaining mainly fat mass.

Do you want to gain weight? Since most nutrition articles focus on fat loss, you may feel as though you’re in the minority.

Many people who want to gain weight are likely still within the lower to middle range of a normal BMI (18.5 to 25). While this isn’t a dangerous or unhealthy weight, some people within this range may want to gain some lean mass.

Being underweight due to an eating disorder like anorexia nervosa is dangerous, as well as the cause of much suffering. It’s extremely important to seek professional help in such a situation.

Yet it’s generally very hard to determine if this is due to underlying disease or if being underweight in itself is potentially dangerous. One possible reason for the latter could be that people who are underweight have fewer reserves in case of severe illness. In addition, lower weight could signify lower muscle mass and a higher risk of frailty.

Being underweight (having a BMI below 18.5) is associated with a somewhat shorter life, especially in older adults.

Several medical conditions, especially cancer and gastrointestinal diseases, can lead to weight loss. Also, some medications are associated with loss of weight either directly or through appetite suppression.

Whether being underweight is unhealthy depends on the reason a person is underweight.

We certainly do not recommend taking steroids or questionable weight-gain supplements to add pounds. Fortunately, there are healthier, more sustainable ways to gain weight.

Generally speaking, women seem more willing to take products to lose weight. On the other hand, men may potentially be more likely to take a rapid weight-gain product without concern for safety.

In one study, 7.6% of teens and young men reported taking weight-gain products deemed “potentially unhealthy” — including creatine supplements and anabolic steroids — in order to gain weight.

Unfortunately, this desire for weight gain often causes problems. This is especially true for younger men.

So, what are the reasons people want to gain weight? Here are a few of the more common ones:

While some people may just want to add a few extra pounds to a lean frame, others may wish to build muscle and increase their overall size.

2. How to gain weight the healthy way

How and what you eat aren’t the only factors involved in weight gain. Exercise, sleep, and stress can also play important roles, and should be emphasized for healthy weight gain.

However, in the following section, we’ll focus first on the non-exercise strategies to gain in a healthy manner.

What is the fastest way to gain weight?

Wanting to gain weight fast is completely understandable. However, it’s unlikely to be sustainable or healthy. Slow and steady wins the race.

Ultra-high-calorie bulking diets can work very well for quick weight gain in some people. But typically these individuals are extremely active bodybuilders or athletes who don’t mind gaining fat in addition to muscle.

With this kind of diet, people tend to load up on hundreds of extra calories and carbohydrates per day in addition to dramatically increasing their protein intake. It works, but it usually comes with some fat gain.

There’s an even worse fast way: Eat ice cream and cookies constantly between meals, and wash it down with soda. While you’ll probably gain weight fairly rapidly, you’ll likely gain fat mainly around your abdomen and liver, increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and other health problems.

There’s a difference between gaining weight in the fastest way and increasing in size in the healthiest way possible.

Optimal nutrition to support lean weight gain

To gain lean weight in a healthy way, you need to emphasize food quality.

Nutrient density refers to how nutritious your foods are and the amount of beneficial protein, vitamins, and minerals present in them. There’s far too much focus on calorie counting and not enough focus on maximizing nutrient intake.

As an example, 500 calories from white rice and 500 calories from an avocado and three eggs are entirely different. Yes, they have the same amount of energy, but avocado and eggs are far superior in nutritional value.

While rice provides lots of rapidly digested carbohydrates and not much else, eggs contain high-quality protein and other nutrients needed to build lean body mass, while avocados are rich in healthy fats, potassium, and fiber.

Eat often

To lose weight, one of the most effective ways is to eat less often – also called intermittent fasting.

Not surprisingly, if you’re finding it hard to gain weight, you should not do intermittent fasting. In fact, you should likely aim to do the opposite: Eat often.

If you are going to increase your snacking to increase your food frequency, make sure you are choosing healthy snack options.

Do sleep and stress affect weight gain?

Since your muscles recover and grow during sleep, it’s essential to make sure you spend enough time asleep. In fact, sleep and stress share an intrinsic connection; if you are sleep-deprived, you are much more likely to be stressed.

It’s well-known that lack of sleep and stress raises cortisol levels. Unfortunately, higher cortisol levels have a negative impact on gaining weight in a healthy way. They may lead to putting on fat rather than lean mass.

Higher cortisol levels both directly and indirectly influence fat gain, through overeating and the tendency to crave junk food.

To be in optimal condition and promote healthy gains in lean mass, aim to: