3 Tips for Healthy Weight Gain & Build Muscle.

Gaining healthy weight can help you tone up your biceps, improve your strength or just look that-much-better in your jeans. Follow these easy rules to put on the pounds painlessly. Before you begin, consider consulting a nutritionist to help you set realistic goals for your gain.

1. Track your calories :

The first step: figuring out how many calories you consume each day simply to maintain your weight.

Use a calorie-tracking tool, to figure out how much you consume normally. Then, by increasing calorie intake by 200 to 500 calories per day, you can achieve a healthy weight gain of a quarter pound to a pound each week, according to Politi.

2. Eat a Balanced Diet:

To ensure your are building muscle, not fat, you’ll need to eat well-rounded meals and snacks, stacked with healthy foods and low on empty calories.

Politi advises eating 50 to 60 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates, 15 to 20 percent from protein and 25 to 30 percent from healthy fats, such as avocado, healthy oils and nuts. While protein is often considered good for getting toned, it’s important not to go overboard when trying to gain weight, because it tends to be very filling and also requires a lot of energy to digest.

Instead, focus on “healthy complex carbs like rice, whole wheat or whole grain cereals and potatoes,”

3. Sneak  In Healthy Fats:

Heart-healthy olive oils, canola oils or a medium-chain triglyceride oil, like coconut oil, are your new best friends when trying to gain weight. Why? Adding them to a salad, smoothie or serving of grains can up the calories in your dish without making you feel more full.

“If you’re making rice, grains, couscous, or anything that will absorb liquid, add a generous amount of healthy fat to it, such as olive oil or canola oil, because the starch is going to absorb it,”

Additionally, you should stock up on a variety of nuts to snack on throughout the day. Just a handful of walnuts can pack more than 200 calories. “Nuts are great because nuts are very high-calorie, but they have a heart-healthy kind of fat.