While it’s easy to assume that everyone wants to lose weight, the truth is there are many people out there who are looking to put on some weight. It is just as important to be healthy and dedicated when attempting to learn how to gain weight in one week as it is to try to lose it. The following will offer you some advice on gaining weight, but you’ll want to add specific exercises if you want a defined bulk.

How to Gain Weight in a Week

1. Take in More Than Your Body Is Burning

One of the best things you can do is to eat more calories than you will actually burn in a given day. Your surplus of calories will get stored. Without doing this, it will be impossible to gain weight, end of story. There are many calorie counters you can find free access to online. If you want to put weight on slow and natural, aim for about 300-500 calories additional each day. If you want to add it fast, shoot more for 700-1000 added calorie range.

It’s important to note that calorie calculators are estimates. They can range by several hundreds. You may not need to calorie count forever, but in the beginning, it will really help you achieve your goals.

2. Enjoy Lots of Protein

The best foods to add are those high in protein. You can’t make muscle without protein. Also note that non-protein calories are almost always stored as fat. There are studies that support if overeating is high in protein, the extra calories get made into muscle. Remember that this isn’t always good. With high protein, you’ll get full on fewer calories so it may be counterintuitive to your quest on how to gain weight in a week. You should shoot for around 0.7-1 grams of protein per pound of your weight. It can be even more if your calorie content is already high.

Some good foods are eggs, fish, meats, dairy, nuts, legumes, and other protein rich foods. Some people will even add whey protein to increase their intake.

3. Consider Energy-Dense Foods

Energy-dense foods are foods relatively high in calories. These are some foods to consider eating more of:

• Dried fruit: Dates, raisins, prunes and more
• Nuts: Walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans and more
• Full-fat dairy: Full-fat yogurt, cream, cheese, and whole milk
• Oils and Fats: Extra virgin olive oil, or avocado oil
• Meats: Beef, pork, chicken, lamb. Choose the fattier cuts for extra calories
• Grains: Oats, brown rice and other whole grains
• Tubers: Sweet potatoes, yams and potatoes
• Avocados, dark chocolate, coconut milk, peanut butters, trail mixes and granolas

4. Drink More

If you feel too heavy eating the large meals, try drinking your calories instead. Milk, pure fruit juice and homemade smoothies are excellent ways to get extra calories in. You can easily enjoy a smoothie with yogurt, milk, banana, juice, flax seed and nut butter; get all your nutrients and calories in one drink!

For an extra boost, add powdered protein powder or milk. Be careful of adding extra liquids at meals. You can get too full, and have little roof for solid, calorie-dense food.

5. Snack Often

Grazing regularly when you are at home is important in how to gain weight in a week. Eating many small meals spread throughout your day can get your extra calories in better than three large meals at times. Try different seeds, dried fruits, nut butter and cheese to get lots of nutrients along with your calories. Get 110 calories from ¼ cup of raisins, or 300 from a medium banana and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.

6. Gain Weight with Light Exercise

It may seem strange, but some light exercise will help you gain weight. You won’t see a huge difference in muscle in just one week, but with a program at home, you will see improvement. Use the initial week to practice what exercise works best for you and how best to fit it into your routine. If you aren’t active, your appetitive may suffer. The best way to help with this is to simply go for a walk; light bike riding isanother activity.

7. Eat Healthily

Though you may want to load up on fatty cookies, snack mixes or sugary items, it won’t do much for a healthy weight gain. Loading up on these foods for a week will only lead to metabolic problems, poor eating habits and even chronic disease. Skip the processed, and enjoy healthy snacks and meals made right in your kitchen.

8. Keep an Appetite

If you aren’t feeling all that hungry, here are a few things to try:

• Go for a short walk before you eat. Exercise is a great way to get your appetite revved up. Try a 30-60 minute walk or just about any exercise, right before a meal.
• If you aren’t into eating more at first, turn to your favorite comfort foods for dinner and other meals.
• Add extra flavor to your foods. Many people turn to sweets, when they simply don’t want something bland. Add extra herbs and spices to really make a dish savory.
• Avoid things like mint, as they are considered an appetitive suppressant.

9. Follow the Tips

• Use the big plates. The bigger the plate, the more food you can pile on and the more calories you’ll get.
• Lay off smoking. In addition to other well-known health problems, smoking can cause you to lose your appetite.
• Get enough sleep. Try to get at least 8 hours sleep each night. This is especially important if you are eating more protein.

10. Treat Any Underlying Problems

How to gain weight in a week? Unfortunately, there can be several reasons you are not gaining weight. Some are:

• Anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders
• Overactive thyroids
• Celiac disease
• Diabetes: Weight loss is often found in those who have uncontrolled type 1 diabetes.
• Cancer: Some cancerous tumors will burn a large amount of calories, causing the person to lose weight.
• Infections: Even a low grade infection, a parasite or HIV can cause a person to lose weight.

If you are underweight, please consider seeing a physician before starting on a diet plan to gain weight. This is particularly true if you lost a lot of weight suddenly.