10 Healthy Eating Plans for Weight Gain

The best way to gain weight without putting on fat is to eat foods that are both high in calories and nutrient-dense at the same time.

If you’re looking to gain weight, try out these ten healthy eating plans, and feel free to add or subtract any that seem like they’ll work best for you.

1) The Paleo Diet

The paleo diet focuses on what our ancestors ate before agriculture took over. It involves eating mostly plants and animals while cutting out processed foods (wheat, rice, dairy) and refined sugars.

There are plenty of delicious ways to make meals that satisfy those with a taste for meat and veggies. Not only is it healthy—it may help you lose weight in a way that’s easy to maintain over time.

That’s because cutting out certain foods is difficult to do, but once you learn what your body likes on paleo, it can be a healthier alternative to other popular diets like low-carb or vegetarian diets.

The Paleo Diet is also one of The World’s 50 Best Healthiest Diets Right Now by Health Magazine!

2) Atkins Diet

Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred energy source. The Atkins diet restricts carbs, causing a lower intake of glucose, which your body uses for fuel.

When you stop eating carbs, your body is forced to adjust; it turns to fat stores and adapts by lowering insulin levels and letting fat burning commence.

At first following a carb-restricted diet may cause rapid weight loss. However, this is only temporary – once your body adapts to burning fats instead of carbs, you’ll get used to it. a new (and healthy) weight zone.

This process may take several weeks so please be patient. And don’t worry about what you will eat when you go out with friends or have other social obligations: just focus on staying away from high-carb foods when possible and keep meals simple with lots of protein and veggies.

This plan also has plenty of other health benefits: your cholesterol will drop dramatically and blood pressure should improve as well. Overall, it’s one of the best diets for healthy weight gain!

3) Ketogenic Diet

The purpose of a ketogenic diet is to put your body into a state of ketosis, which happens when your body starts using fat as its primary energy source instead of carbohydrates.

People often turn to the ketogenic diet for quick and easy weight loss, but bodybuilders and athletes interested in gaining lean muscle mass also use the ketogenic diet.

The Keto Diet burns fat through two processes:

1) Stimulating gluconeogenesis and

2) By dropping insulin levels so low that you trigger your body’s starvation response (thereby burning fat stores).

4) Slow Carb Diet

The Slow Carb Diet is modeled after a diet prescribed by Dr. Atkins in 1972. The diet consists of eating proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats while limiting carbs and sugars.

To be successful on this diet, you must limit or eliminate all carbs such as loaves of bread, rice, pasta, and beans.

You can add small amounts of these foods back into your daily intake if you are struggling to stay on track with your weight loss goals.

This diet is designed to help you build muscle and lose fat while eating natural foods rather than processed ones.

It also teaches you how to determine which foods make you feel best so that you can continue eating them long after reaching your weight loss goal.

5) Primal Blueprint

The Primal Blueprint plan focuses on eating fresh, whole foods like vegetables, fruit, fish, and grass-fed meats.

It recommends avoiding processed food and beverages with high-fructose corn syrup. This plan is also based on exercising regularly but in a way that’s sustainable over a lifetime.

A Primal Blueprint lifestyle focuses on movement every day to achieve optimum health as well as a healthy weight.

Unlike most diets that restrict certain foods or require you to cut out entire food groups, all foods are allowed in moderation with one caveat:

The majority of your diet should be made up of unprocessed plant and animal products (aka real food). Doing so ensures that you get enough protein, fiber, and healthy fats.

6) Volumetrics

Volumetrics is a research-backed weight-loss plan that looks at food as energy (calories) rather than nutrients.

The idea is to choose foods that give you a lot of calories but few calories from fat and sugar. These tend to be foods that are high in water and fiber and low in saturated fat.

If you’re eating more of these, you may find yourself losing pounds faster than if you eat fewer calories but more fat and sugar.

7) Low Glycemic Index Diets

According to a 2012 study published in Cell Metabolism, participants who ate foods with low glycemic index were less hungry, ate fewer calories, and experienced lower insulin levels than those who followed a high glycemic index diet.

And when it comes to weight loss, being less hungry and having lower insulin levels can only be good things.

Low GI diets may also help people feel full longer—meaning they’re more likely to stick with their plan of eating fewer calories over time. But which foods should you look out for?

8) Mediterranean Diet Plan

The Mediterranean diet is filled with healthy fats, like olive oil and Omega-3 fatty acids. It’s high in fiber from whole grains, beans, and fruits and vegetables.

This diet is low in saturated fat. Packed with antioxidants that fight cancer, it’s thought to have many anti-aging properties as well.

The Mediterranean diet includes wine – typically red or white –in moderation, fish a few times a week, chicken breast without skin several times a week, and dairy products such as yogurt and cheese in limited amounts.

Olive oil is commonly used when cooking at home while butter or margarine are eaten sparingly if at all. Red meat can be consumed rarely every week if at all.

9) Jenny Craig’s Nutrisystem Diets

Nutrisystem has been around since 1992 and is one of a handful of diet delivery services that claim to be able to help you lose weight quickly and easily.

Their basic plan includes three meals per day, plus two snacks (the plan adjusts based on your age and gender).

There are about 100 menu items to choose from each week. Like many meal-delivery services, there’s no cooking required: All meals can be microwaved or heated in a skillet.

Both options cut down on prep time; you simply select a menu item and then consume it at your convenience.

10) South Beach Diet

For most people, eating healthier means shedding pounds. But if you’re looking to add a few pounds of lean muscle mass and possibly even change your body composition, it’s time to start eating like an athlete.

While losing weight requires a balanced diet filled with whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, diets designed to gain muscle incorporate more protein into your diet than you probably eat now.

Protein boosts metabolism, aids in building muscle tissue, and is associated with feelings of fullness after meals.