Is it possible to get fatter without gaining weight

Whole, unprocessed foods boost your daily calorie intake and are less likely to make your stomach grow with visceral fat. White bread may be a no-no, but whole grains such as brown rice, dense cereal, percent whole-wheat bagels or bread and wheat germ are calorie-dense and full of quality nutrients and fiber. Eat dried fruit, such as raisins and dates, as snacks, or add extra fresh fruit to smoothies. Good choices include bananas, pineapple and avocado. Nuts are a calorie-dense snack food that you can also sprinkle over salads or cereal and, in the form of nut butter, spread on whole-grain toast or pancakes.

Fresh vegetables are often low in calories, but starchy versions such as fresh peas, corn and sweet potatoes offer substantially more energy and contribute to healthy weight gain. Drink low-fat milk with meals and use it to cook hot cereal or canned soup. Opt for hearty servings of hummus with a whole-wheat pita, trail mix, granola and guacamole with corn chips for high-calorie, but healthy, snacks.

Strength training and other exercise help you build lean tissue, rather than just pile on fat, when you gain weight. Aim to address all of the major muscle groups, including the legs, hips, back, chest, shoulders, arms and abdominals.

If weight training is new to you, use your body weight only at first for moves such as squats, lunges, pushups and pullups, and do just one set of eight to 12 repetitions. As you become stronger, add weight, vary the exercises and increase the number of sets you perform.

Work up to doing about three sets of eight repetitions of each exercise; increase the weight once performing eight repetitions seems easy.

The next chapter looks at several effective ways to gain weight fast, without ruining your health at the same time. The most important thing you can do to gain weight is to create a calorie surplus, meaning you eat more calories than your body needs. You can determine your calorie needs using this calorie calculator.

If you want to gain weight slowly and steadily, aim for — calories more than you burn each day according to the calculator.

Keep in mind that calorie calculators only provide estimates. Your needs may vary by several hundred calories per day, give or take. There are many great tools out there to help you. You need to eat more calories than your body burns to gain weight. Aim for — calories per day above your maintenance level for slow weight gain or —1, calories if you want to gain weight fast.

The single most important nutrient for gaining healthy weight is protein. Studies show that during periods of overfeeding, a high-protein diet causes many of the extra calories to be turned into muscle However, keep in mind that protein is a double-edged sword. You can even go above that if your calorie intake is very high.

High-protein foods include meats, fish, eggs, many dairy products, legumes, nuts and others. Protein supplements like whey protein can also be useful if you struggle to get enough protein in your diet. Protein forms the building blocks of your muscles. Eating sufficient protein is required to gain muscle weight instead of just fat. Many people try restricting either carbs or fat when trying to lose weight.

This is a bad idea if your goal is to gain weight, as it will make it harder to get in enough calories. Eat plenty of high-carb and high-fat foods if weight gain is a priority for you. It is best to eat plenty of protein, fat and carbs at each meal. It is also a bad idea to do intermittent fasting. This is useful for weight loss and health improvement but can make it much harder to eat enough calories to gain weight.

Make sure to eat at least three meals per day and try to add in energy-dense snacks whenever possible. To gain weight, eat at least three meals per day and make sure to include plenty of fat, carbs and protein. The problem is that these foods tend to be more filling than processed junk foods, making it harder to get in enough calories.

Using plenty of spices , sauces and condiments can help with this. The tastier your food is, the easier it is to eat a lot of it. Also, try to emphasize energy-dense foods as much as possible. These are foods that contain many calories relative to their weight. Many of these foods are very filling, and sometimes you may need to force yourself to keep eating even if you feel full.

It may be a good idea to avoid eating a ton of vegetables if gaining weight is a priority for you. It simply leaves less room for energy-dense foods.

If you need more suggestions, consider reading this article on 18 healthy foods to gain weight fast. You can add sauces, spices and condiments to your foods to make it easier to eat more. Base your diet on energy-dense foods as much as possible. Go to a gym and lift 2—4 times per week. Lift heavy and try to increase the weights and volume over time. This will help you gain muscle mass instead of just fat.

There are several other things you can do to gain weight even faster. These include drinking milk, using weight gainer shakes, adding cream to your coffee and eating more often. Whether you try to go under your setpoint lose weight or over it gain weight , your body resists changes by regulating your hunger levels and metabolic rate.

When you eat more calories and gain weight, you can expect your body to respond by reducing your appetite and boosting your metabolism. This is largely mediated by your brain, as well as weight-regulating hormones like leptin.

So you should expect a certain level of difficulty. In some cases, you may need to force yourself to eat despite feeling stuffed. At the end of the day, changing your weight is a marathon, not a sprint. It can take a long time, and you need to be consistent if you want to succeed in the long run.

User Info: SSj4Wingzero. Terra-enforcer posted And what does it mean to "feel" like you're getting fatter? I have no idea what that means. If your weight is lower and you don't see excess fat on your body SSj4Wingzero posted I did actually. I guess I didn't say every other day per say, but I did say I've been working out as opposed to my regular cardio. By "feeling fatter" I mean when I look at myself without a shirt, my upper body looks fine, but my belly looks a bit on the chubby side.

User Info: Dragoonend. If you're doing less cardio than previously then there's your answer. If you care so much maybe change your routine and focus on cardio if you dont want fat or do more abs exercises if you're gaining tummy User Info: akcsfreak.

You have have a lot of muscle have a lot of fat. Or nearly any professional weightlifter. The physical appearance of your muscle's has a lot to do with the diet you have, and the type of exercise you do.

Thing about cross country and track is, they specifically try to shape and structure your body to be lean. The type of muscles you build during it are meant to be as strong but thin as possible compared to say, football, where physical bulk to your advantage. Added to that, the highschool years are when your body's metabolism is near its optimum.

But as you get older, your body just has a harder time breaking things down, and it doesn't help that the average college student's diet consists of basically nothing but junk food and beer. Others find humanity by looking in their own hearts.