Diet to Gain Weight...
How Much of What to Eat

To design a successful diet to gain weight, we have to decide on how much of each of the calorie producing nutrients to include in our diet. From the pages on protein, carbohydrates, and fat we have a percentage range that each nutrient should have in the weight gain diet. These are the generally accepted ranges:

Protein 30-50%
Carbohydrates 20-50%
Fat 20-40%

The first step in designing a successful diet to gain weight is deciding on your nutrient ratio. Different bodybuilding gurus prescribe different ratios, some swearing a 40-40-20 diet is the best, others saying 40-30-30 diets are the only way to big gains. Again, the truth is that the best ratio will vary by person.

A note on diet terminology - Diets are commonly referred to by the ratio of percentages for each of the three calorie producing nutrients with the order being protein-carbohydrates-fat. For example, a 40-30-30 diet would be a diet consisting of 40 percent protein calories, 30 percent carbohydrate calories and 30 percent fat calories.

If you have tracked your diet in the past, you may have an idea of what makes your body gain. If not, there are some general guidelines to take into consideration when picking a ratio...
If you are highly active, start with a diet to gain weight high on carbohydrates to address your energy needs, perhaps a 30-40-30 diet or a 40-40-20 diet.

If you are very skinny and have problems gaining any kind of weight regardless of how much you may eat, start with higher amounts of protein and fat, maybe a 40-30-30 diet.

If you have significant body fat, more than 15 percent for men or 22 percent for women, start with a higher percentage of protein, 40 or 50 percent. Go to the Body Fat Percentages Page to learn how to figure your body fat percentage.

Remember, this is only a starting point. Don't waste a lot of time here. You will change your ratio if you aren't getting the results you desire. If you don't have a clue, start your diet to gain weight with something in the middle ranges. 40-30-30 and 30-40-30 diets are great starting points.

How Much to Eat?
It is generally thought that a daily caloric intake of about 15 times your bodyweight is your maintenance diet. So, if you weigh 140 pounds, your maintenance diet would be about 2,100 calories per day (140x15=2,100). To gain weight you must increase your calories from your maintenance intake. To start, increase your caloric intake to 18-20 times your weight.

(18-20)(Bodyweight in pounds) = Daily Caloric Intake

If you have significant body fat, start at 16 - 18 times your weight (or, first do a training program geared toward losing body fat). If not, you may want to start your diet to gain weight at a daily caloric intake of 19 or 20 times your weight in pounds for fast weight gain.

Obviously, these numbers do not take into account the variance of metabolisms and other factors and therefore will not represent a perfectly accurate number for you. They will serve as a good starting point though. As you track your diet to gain weight and the effects it produces in your body, you will develop a much more individually accurate number. For example, if you faithfully follow a diet of 20 times your weight (i.e. for a person weighing 150 pounds your daily caloric intake would be 3,000 calories -150x20=3,000) and do not make gains in a couple of weeks you will know that you have an especially fast metabolism and must therefore increase your caloric intake beyond twenty times to gain weight fast.

Remember, we are not committing to these numbers, only using them as a starting point.

Putting the Weight Gain Diet Together
You now have a starting point for the amount of calories to consume and the ratio those calories should be split between protein, carbohydrates and fat. To put your weight gain diet into action it will be necessary to do some simple calculations to determine how many calories and grams of each nutrient you will need to consume. First, to find the right amount of calories for each nutrient, you will need to multiply the decimal equivalent of each nutrient's ratio percentage by your daily caloric intake goal.

(Daily Caloric Intake Goal)(Nutrient ratio %)=Amount of caloric intake from nutrient.
For example, lets say you have decided to start with a daily caloric intake goal of 2,800 calories and a nutrient ratio percentage of 40-30-30. Your calculations would be:

Protein 2,800 x 40%(.40)= 1,120 calories
Carbohydrates 2,800 x 30%(.30)= 840 calories
Fat 2,800 x 30%(.30)= 840 calories

Now you know how many calories to consume from each nutrient. To find the grams necessary for each of these nutrients, refer to the nutrient pages where you learned how many calories were in each gram of each nutrient.

Protein 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates 4 calories per gram
Fat 9 calories per gram

Divide the number of calories needed for each nutrient by that nutrient's caloric content per gram.

(Calories for each nutrient) / (Nutrient's calories per gram) = Grams from nutrient daily.
For the previous example, perform the calculations as follows:

Protein 1,120 / 4 = 280 grams per day
Carbohydrates 840 / 4 = 210 grams per day
Fat 840 / 9 = 93.3 grams per day

Now, don't be intimidated by the math. With a calculator, these are very simple equations to perform. Even if you changed your diet to gain weight every week, which you won't, these calculations wouldn't take more than five minutes. So, relax and go back to the main weight gain diet page to learn more about planning your successful diet to gain weight.