Which foods are best for gaining weight?

Do you want to gain weight in a healthy way and build muscle mass? An appropriate diet, rich in high-quality proteins, complex carbohydrates and lipids, is essential to achieving your goals. Indeed, to promote muscle protein synthesis and optimize recovery after exercise, it' s crucial to provide your body with all the nutrients it needs.

But what are the best foods to include in your diet for effective mass gain? Sources of lean protein such as white meats, fish, eggs and dairy products? Low-glycemic index carbohydrates such as legumes, whole grains and tubers? Or unsaturated fats such as oilseeds, avocado or olive oil?

In this article, we'll take a look at the different categories of food to be favored in a high-calorie diet, based on the latest scientific recommendations.

Finally, we'll look at the benefits of dietary supplements such as whey for boosting performance and recovery.

What are the principles of good nutrition for healthy weight gain?

Gaining weight in a healthy, balanced way is a goal for many people wishing to regain a healthy weight, improve their physical performance or simply feel better about themselves. To achieve this, it's essential to adopt a suitable diet, rich in essential nutrients, while respecting certain key principles. Here are the basics of a balanced diet for gradual, sustainable weight gain.

Increase calorie intake gradually

The first principle of healthy weight gain is to increase your calorie intake in a gradual, controlled manner. In fact, to promote muscle mass gain, it is necessary to create a caloric surplus, i.e. to consume more calories than the body expends on a daily basis.

However, this additional intake should be introduced gradually, adding around 500 calories per week. This approach allows the body to adapt smoothly to increased food intake, limiting the risk of digestive overload and excessive fat gain.

To achieve this goal, you can increase the number of meals in the day to spread your calorie intake as evenly as possible.

Choose foods rich in essential nutrients

While increasing calorie intake is essential for weight gain, the quality of the food you eat is just as crucial. Not all calories are nutritionally equal. So it's essential to choose foods that are dense in essential nutrients, such as :

• Proteins: lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes... Optimal protein intake is between 1.8 and 2.2 g/kg⁽¹⁾ of body weight per day. This value corresponds to the quantity of protein required for weight gain.
• Complex carbohydrates: wholegrain cereals, legumes, tubers, etc. They provide long-lasting energy and fiber. Carbohydrates should represent 45 to 65% of total calorie intake. These nutrients are very important, despite the bad press they get, but it is often necessary toincrease the daily amount of carbohydrates when you are building mass.
• Good-quality lipids: vegetable oils (olive, rapeseed, walnut), oilseeds, avocado... Rich in essential fatty acids and calories (9 kcal/g versus 4 for proteins and carbohydrates), they are precious allies in weight gain, provided they are consumed with care(25 to 35% of calorie intake).
• Fruits and vegetables: sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber, they are essential for a balanced diet and healthy body function.

Adapting your diet to your physical activity

Another essential principle for successful weight gain is to adapt your diet to your level of physical activity. In fact, energy and nutritional requirements vary according to the expenditure involved in exercise, whether endurance or strength training.

So, to optimize muscle mass gains, it's crucial to synchronize your food intake with your training sessions:

• Before exercise: eat a meal or snack rich in complex carbohydrates and lean proteins 1 to 3 hours beforehand, to refuel and prevent muscle catabolism. For example: oatmeal + yoghurt + dried fruit or wholemeal bread + chicken breast.
• During exercise: keep sufficiently hydrated and, if necessary, consume an energy drink for long, intense sessions.
• After exercise: choose protein-rich foods with a moderate to high glycemic index within 30 minutes to 2 hours of exercise, to promote recovery and muscle protein synthesis. A good example: take a whey shaker or gainer, i.e. proteins but also carbohydrates.

Outside sessions, it's important to spread your intake throughout the day, dividing your diet into 3 main meals and 2 or 3 snacks. This maintains a constant supply of nutrients for the muscles and facilitates digestion.

Monitor your progress and adjust your diet

Finally, to ensure progressive, healthy weight gain, it's vital to regularly monitor your progress and adjust your diet accordingly. Several parameters can be monitored:

• Changes in weight and body composition (fat mass, lean mass), using an impedance meter for example.
• Sensations of hunger and satiety, which can guide calorie adjustments.
• Sports performance: strength, endurance, recovery...
• General health: digestion, sleep, energy...

Depending on these indicators, it may be necessary to modify calorie intake, macronutrient distribution or food choice. For example, if weight gain stagnates despite adequate caloric intake, consider increasing lipids slightly or adding more energy-dense foods such as dried fruit, cheese or wholegrain cereals.

Conversely, if weight gain is accompanied by a significant increase in body fat, it may be a good idea to reduce the proportion of carbohydrate and fat foods, in favor of lean protein sources and complex carbohydrates.

What are the best foods for gaining weight?

As we saw above, for healthy and effective weight gain, it's crucial to choose foods with high nutritional and energy density. Here's a list of the best foods to include in your diet to promote muscle mass gain:

• Avocados: rich in unsaturated fatty acids and calories, they promote healthy weight gain. Their high energy density makes it easy to increase calorie intake.
• Nuts and peanut butter: provide healthy fats, proteins and essential minerals. A handful of nuts or a tablespoon of peanut butter are excellent appetite-boosting snacks.
• Salmon and oily fish: rich in high-quality proteins and omega-3s, they support muscle mass gain while preserving cardiovascular health. Salmon can be eaten for lunch or dinner.
• Whole eggs: with 6g of protein per egg and beneficial lipids, they make a great breakfast or protein snack. The yolks also contain many nutrients, such as choline.
• Whole milk products: milk, yoghurts and cheeses are excellent sources of protein, calcium and calories. They can be easily incorporated into a variety of meals and snacks. A large glass of whole milk or a ramekin of fromage frais provides high-quality protein.
• Pasta and potatoes: these starchy foods with a moderate glycemic index (depending on cooking) provide lasting energy and the carbohydrates needed to build mass. Opt for wholegrain pasta for better fiber intake.
• Bananas: with around 100 kcal per fruit, they are an ideal snack, rich in carbohydrates, potassium and vitamins. They're also easy to carry around when you're feeling peckish.
• Lean red meat: beef remains an excellent source of protein, iron and zinc, key nutrients for mass gain. Choose low-fat cuts such as fillet or rump steak if you wish to limit calorie intake in this area. Be careful not to eat too much of it, and choose local meats if possible, produced with respect for animal welfare (the organic label is one way of achieving this quality).
• Pulses: lentils, chickpeas and beans provide plant proteins, complex carbohydrates, fiber and minerals. They are ideal for vegetarian diets and are easy to incorporate into dishes.

To further optimize your mass gain, it may be worth considering the use of dietary supplements, particularly whey protein. That's what we'll be looking at in the rest of this article.

How can whey help you gain weight?

Whey protein is a dietary supplement much appreciated by sportsmen and women for its many benefits, particularly when it comes tobuilding muscle mass. Whey provides a concentrated source of high nutritional quality protein, essential for promoting protein synthesis and therefore muscle growth⁽²⁾.

First of all, whey is particularly rich in essential amino acids and BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids), notably leucine. These amino acids are used directly by the muscles to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and thus anabolism. Consuming whey therefore optimizes recovery after exercise and maximizes lean mass gains, especially when combined with weight training.

What's more, whey represents a simple and practical way of increasing your daily protein intake. This can be difficult to achieve through diet alone, especially for people with a fast metabolism or high expenditure through physical activity. Adding 1 to 2 whey shakers a day, as a snack in the morning or after training, makes it possible to reach your protein intake without too many constraints.

But whey isn't just a source of protein, it can also help increase overall calorie intake, which is essential for weight gain. A 30 g portion of whey already provides 110 to 130 kcal. For an even greater effect, whey can be mixed with other caloric ingredients such as whole milk, peanut butter, oats, dried fruit or even rapeseed oil. The result is a high-protein, high-energy, high-calorie snack.

With this in mind, gainers can represent an interesting "alternative" to whey. These supplements combine proteins, often whey, with a higher proportion of carbohydrates, resulting in high calorie intakes of between 300 and 1000 kcal per portion, depending on the brand. They are particularly suited to people with high energy requirements or difficulties in consuming sufficient calories, such as ectomorphs (who may have difficulty gaining mass). As a supplement to the basic diet, gainers make it easier to create the caloric surplus essential for mass gain, without having to ingest large quantities of food. They are also very convenient to consume in the form of shakers between meals.

In short, whey and/or gainers are ideal allies for successful weight gain, thanks to their high protein content and their contribution to increasing calorie intake. However, when choosing your whey, it's important to choose quality products, free from additives and derived from sustainable agriculture, for good health and interesting sporting results.

Here is a table to summarize the most important points of this article:

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