Weight Gain Tips for Women to Gain Healthy Weight

The concept of weight gain for women is really not much different then men. Women have different shapes and hormones then men but they build muscle in much the same way. They just don’t bulk up like men because they have less “male” hormones. When it comes to building lean muscle or sculpting your physique, there are only three golden rules that will guarantee your success: nutrition, progressive resistance training and rest. Without one or the other then all your sweat and hard work will be a waste.

So if you are planning on gaining weight fast, it would be wise to follow these weight gain tips for women, which should form the foundation of your diet and training program.

Eating right. A personalized weight gain diet for women is recommended since you are trying to build muscle – your body demands the nutrients for recovery and growth. A diet which includes frequent meals and lots of protein is really the optimal way to be eating especially if you are lifting weights to gain mass – which you need to be if you expect to gain healthy weight.

If you count the number of calories you eat on a normal day for a week, you can determine with a good amount of accuracy the number of extra calories you will need to consume to gain healthy weight. Most women normally consume about 2,000 calories/day so on a weight gain diet you would be looking at eating 2,500/2,700 calories per day as a rough estimate. The additional calories will put your body in a calorie surplus which is required for weight gain, but this doesn’t mean you can eat everything you see in the pantry. You don’t want to add weight around the waist or love handle, the weight you gain you want to be in the form of lean muscle mass and not fat, so you need to subscribe to a low-fat, high protein diet if you are underweight. Cut out the bad fat in your diet. This will mean cooking your own meals and eating less fast food.

Think about the amount of carbohydrate, protein, and fat in every meal. Every meal should have carbohydrates, protein and fat in the correct ratios: 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20 % good fats. The 40-40-20 diet is good for gaining weight and building muscle, it includes the perfect ratio of carbs, protein and fats. It’s important to include some protein in every meal because protein is the building block of muscle. If you only eat one big protein meal in the day, your body will have a hard time digesting the protein and it will go to waste.

Lifting weights. Weight lifting is a given, but did you know that you can do more by subscribing to an intense progressive weight training program working out for one hour three times per week? It’s a common misconception that you need to be training 5 times per week to build lean muscle because that’s what the muscle experts tell us in the muscle mags. Over training will be detrimental to your gains and will not give your body and muscle the necessary time to recover and build new tissue. Weight training on fewer days will not only speed up the progress you make, but lessens the possibility of injury occurring (e.g. muscle strain, ligament breaks) from happening.

Resting sufficiently. 8 to 10 hours of quality resting time per day helps keep your body in top fighting form. So get as much sleep as possible.