For some people, it can feel impossible to gain weight while eating a plant-based diet (or simply a healthy diet).
“I feel like I’m eating so much, but I still can’t gain weight.” I hear this all the time from “hard gainers” – people who have difficulty putting on weight.
After all, I used to be (and I guess I still am) a “hard gainer.” I truly thought I couldn’t gain weight.
If you’re stuck in this situation, I know it can seem impossible to put on weight. However, I myself struggled for years with this and ultimately went from 140lbs to 180 eating a plant-based diet.
So in this article, I’m going to give you my top strategies so you can avoid the mistakes I made and can start gaining weight immediately while also eating a plant-based diet (or just a healthy diet in general).
Let’s Start With The Basics
If you want to jump right into the 5 strategies, then you can skip this first half of this article. But I feel the need to cover the basics about what it means to gain weight because having the knowledge around the topic of weight gain creates a foundation off which you can work.
What does it mean to gain weight?
In order to gain weight, you need to be eating more calories than you burn on a daily basis. If you do this, put simply, you will gain weight. It doesn’t matter if you’re eating healthy or not, or how much protein/carbs/fats you’re eating, you simply need to eat more calories than your body burns.
For example, if you burn 2,500 calories per day (this is known as your maintenance calories – aka how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain your weight), you need to eat 2,500 to maintain your weight, meaning eating more than that will put you in a caloric surplus and you will gain weight.
So when it comes to gaining weight, you have two options.
- Try to increase your caloric intake by increasing the amount of food you eat (and not tracking it)
- Calculate your maintenance calories, track your food intake, and ensure you are eating more than your maintenance calories
While option 1 is easier, option 2 is more precise. So choose whichever one you prefer. The steps below will discuss option 2, but even if you choose option 1, it might be helpful to review.
How many calories do I burn per day?
While there is no simple solution to perfectly and easily determine this number, follow this simple formula:
Maintenance calories for someone who has trouble gaining weight = Current weight x 15-16
*this is an estimate of the number of calories you burn per day
For example, if you weight 140 pounds:
Maintenance calories = 140*15 = 2,100. 140*16=2250.
This means that theoretically, this person would need to eat roughly 2,100-2250 calories per day to maintain their weight.
So eating more than 2100-2250 calories will lead to weight gain.
While I will not get into more detail in this article, I recommend eating about 250 calories above your maintenance, which will allow you to gain around 1/2 a pound per week.
That’s it???
You are probably thinking “that seems like nothing” – that it will take so long to gain weight, but what matters is consistency. You are not going to gain 5 pounds each week, but if you were to just gain .5 pounds per week, that would be +26 pounds in one year!
Believe me, if you’re trying to gain weight, you’re probably thinking to yourself “I already eat so much already.” I said the exact same thing. So if you try to go overboard from the start, it will not be sustainable because you will be eating all day.
Practical steps
The formula above to calculate maintenance calories (how many calories you burn each day or how many calories you need to each per day to maintain your weight) is not an exact science. As a result, it might take some trial and error. Follow these steps to ensure success: (Note: As I mentioned above, these steps are optional. Feel free to skip over to the 5 strategies to put on weight section. These are just some steps that I found helpful).
- Weigh yourself now
- Calculate your maintenance calories
- Track how many calories you eat and eat in a 250+ calorie surplus each day
- Weigh yourself after 1 month
At this point, if you were truly eating in a caloric surplus, you would have gained weight (the amount of weight depends on the surplus you are in).
If you have not gained any weight, then do not get discouraged! You simply need need to increase the number of calories you are eating. I recommend increasing your total calories by 200 and re-evaluating after another month.
It is possible that the equation to calculate your maintenance calories underestimated the number of calories you actually burn each day, meaning you need to eat more than you anticipated.
If you are gaining too much weight, you can dial down the number of calories you are eating by 100-200.
If you are gaining the amount of weight that you want, then keep eating the same number of calories.
How do I know how many calories I’m eating?
While there are many ways you can track the number of calories you eat per day, I suggest using a simple free app like Cronometer or My Fitness Pal. These are easy to use apps where you input the foods you eat and it tracks your daily caloric intake for you.
Do I need to track my calories?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is it depends. While you do not need to track your calories, how are you supposed to know how much you are actually eating? If you struggle to gain weight, I recommend tracking your caloric intake for at least 3 days. That being said, the more you do it (1-4 weeks), the more you understand how much you are actually eating, in addition to which foods are calorically dense and which are not.
Most people who struggle to gain weight 1. aren’t actually eating as much as they think they are and 2. are exercising quite a bit/have a “fast metabolism.” This is exactly what happened to me.
It wasn’t until I tracked my calories that I realized I wasn’t eating NEARLY as much as I thought I was for how much I was exercising.
Now that we have covered the practical information in order to gain weight, here are my top 5 strategies for gaining weight while eating a plant-based diet (or a healthy diet in general).
Strategy 1: Drink your calories
Note: if you take one of these five strategies away from this article, do this!
Incorporating daily smoothies into your diet can be one of the most effective strategies to gain weight. However, not all smoothies are the same – a smoothie can either be low in calories, or high in calories.
Let’s take a look at an example of the high calorie smoothie I like to make when trying to gain weight.
- 3 bananas (300 cal)
- 2 TBLS peanut butter (200 cal)
- .5 cups oats (Optional if you don’t mind the texture!) (150 cal)
- 1 TBLS flax seeds (37 cal)
- 1 cup frozen berries (75 cal)
- Plant milk (oat, soy, rice, etc.) (100 cal) – almond milk is low in calories
- Protein powder (120 cal)
Total calories: +900
As you can see, this smoothie is pretty big! It contains over 900 calories and I drink it after dinner. I find this the best time to drink a smoothie because it does not hinder my ability to eat more food throughout the day.
If that large of a smoothie doesn’t work for you, try this one:
- 2 bananas (200 cal)
- 2 TBLS nut butter (200 cal)
- .5 cups oats (Optional if you don’t mind the texture!) (150 cal)
- 1 TBLS flax seeds (37 cal)
- .75 cup frozen berries (75 cal)
- Plant milk variation (100 cal)
- Protein powder – optional (120 cal)
Total calories: 700-900
Although this smoothie will not be as large, it is still 700-800 calories. Drinking this in addition to the food you eat throughout the day will make gaining weight MUCH easier.
Note: If you are trying to gain weight, I would not recommend drinking a smoothie over the course of a couple hours between meals because this will keep you full longer and less wanting to eat more food. Instead, I recommend either having it with one of your meals or after you’re about done eating for the day.
Strategy 2: Make each meal more calorically dense
You might be thinking that this is obvious, but it is crucial in order to start consuming more food throughout the day. Let’s take the following two bowls of oatmeal as an example:
Oatmeal bowl 1: 536 calories
Oatmeal bowl 2: 1106 calories
As you can see, a few simple additions and a 500 calorie bowl of oatmeal more than doubles to above 1100 calories. Adding some fruit, seeds, raisins and nuts makes all the difference.
Note that while every additional food adds up, specifically including calorically dense foods like raisins and nuts drastically increases the number of calories.
If you can do little additions like this with every meal, you will start gaining weight in no time!
Strategy 3: Eat higher calorie foods
Again, this seems pretty straightforward, but many people fail to do this. You cannot live off lettuce and expect to gain weight.
Instead, incorporating foods that are high in calories will help you get in a caloric surplus. That being said, many high calorie foods are not optimal for health, so while it is fine to incorporate those types of foods into your diet, see the list below for some healthy options:
- Nuts/nut butters
- Seeds
- Avocado
- Dried fruit
- Bread
- Pasta
- Cereal
- Granola
- Dark chocolate
- Olive oil (not “healthy,” but calorically dense)
- Tahini
While these are simply a few options, the list goes on. Look at the nutrition label on the back of the foods you buy to find out how many calories are in certain foods and opt for foods higher in calories. For example, almond milk is very low in calories whereas oat milk is significantly higher.
Strategy 4: Eat more frequently
While one strategy to gain weight is to eat larger meals, another strategy that works well for some people is to eat more frequently.
For example, if you are currently eating two meals each day, try to eat a third meal. If you currently eat three meals each day, try to eat a fourth meal. If this is your current schedule:
Breakfast: 9am
Lunch: 1pm
Dinner: 6pm
Try this:
Breakfast: 9am
Lunch: 12pm
Dinner: 5pm
Meal 4 and/or smoothie: 8-9pm
This will allow you to eat more food throughout the day, helping you to gain weight.
Strategy 5: Don’t eat too slowly
With so many people multitasking in today’s day, we often find ourselves eating while also being on your phone or doing work on your computer.
When you sit down to eat, focus on eating your food in a timely manner and not over the course of 1-2 hours. This is not to say you should eat fast; but rather, don’t drag on the meal for 1-2 hours. If you do this, you will not eat as much and you will feel full longer.
There are multiple benefits of not dragging on each meal:
For one, it allows you to eat more each meal. The faster you eat, the more food you can eat because it takes time for your body to signal that you are full.
Don’t believe me?
Experiment yourself!
Try eating a few meals over a longer period of time.
Then eat those same meals at a regular pace and you will likely notice that you can eat significantly more food when you eat it over a shorter period of time.
The other benefit to eating in a timely manner is that it will make you hungrier sooner. If you eat finish lunch at 3pm and eat dinner at 5, you will be less hungry for dinner compared to if you finish lunch at 1:30 and eat dinner at 5.
Bottom line: While you should not eat extremely fast, do not eat each meal over the course of 1-2 hours.
One more important thought
While these five strategies are important to implement in order to gain weight, it’s important to be consistent. Consistently being in a caloric surplus of 250-500 each day is the best way to gain weight because it is sustainable.
Don’t freak out if you go one day without eating as much as you’d like. But being consistent is important.
After all, not to scare you, but even a couple days per week of being in a significant caloric deficit can offset the gains from being in a caloric surplus the rest of the week.
Take the following example:
5 days per week eating caloric surplus of 250 calories = 1250 surplus calories.
2 days per week eating caloric deficit of 500 calories = 1000 calorie deficit.
If you were to do this, your weekly calorie surplus would be 250. At that rate, you would gain about 1 pound in 14 weeks.
This demonstrates the importance of consistency. Limiting the number of days you are in a caloric deficit, and instead, consistently eating 250-500 calories surplus of your maintenance where you’ll find the most success.
Conclusion:
Gaining weight while eating a plant-based (or a healthy diet in general) can be a real struggle for some people. It can seem tiring to eat so much food and not make the progress you are looking for.
However, by
- Calculating your maintenance calories
- Counting how many calories you eat per day
- Eating in a caloric surplus
- Weigh yourself after 1 month and adjust your caloric intake accordingly
- Following the 5 strategies listed above
You will certainly have an easier time gaining weight.
Again, these steps are optional. Feel free to just start with some of the 5 strategies I listed above (such as adding a smoothie into your routine) and see if your weight increases after a month or so, you’ll know you’re on the right track.
After all, there are many strategies to gain weight and what matters most is finding what works for YOU and sticking to a consistent plan.
If you are still struggling to gain weight and would like some help, or you just have some thoughts or questions, please leave a comment below! I read all the comments. Additionally, make sure to follow me on facebook with this link (https://www.facebook.com/devin.mcnamara.77) as I post daily fitness and nutrition information.