How To Gain Weight With A Fast Metabolism? Secret Revealed

How to Gain Weight With a Fast Metabolism? Secret Revealed

Last Updated on March, 2024

Being underweight is super demotivating, and it lowers your self-esteem. On the other hand, it has deadly side effects. 

Then again, being underweight with a fast metabolism is more like a curse! Whatever you do, you won’t gain weight. The same thing happened to me. Despite eating and taking enough rest, I wasn’t gaining any weight. 

However, after following a few health tips, I finally started to gain weight! 

In this article, I will share everything you should know about gaining weight with a high metabolism based on my knowledge and experience. 

So, let’s get into it! 

Shall we? 

What is Fast Metabolism?

Metabolism is a biological process that converts food into energy and gives us energy. Now, the metabolism varies from person to person. Some have a slow metabolism, and others have a faster metabolism. 

Those who have a slow metabolism burn calories and body fat slowly. People with faster metabolism burn calorie intake and body fat faster. 

A fast metabolism is mainly known because it burns calories (more than others) while resting or performing some activity. A fast metabolism is also known as high metabolism. 

How to Know If You Have a High Metabolism? 

People with high metabolism have some common characteristics. Which are: 

  • Facing difficulty while maintaining weight 
  • More energetic than others 
  • Difficult to gain weight 
  • Frequent sweating and higher body temperature
  • A lower percentage of body fat 
  • Insomnia 
  • Increased breathing and appetite 
  • Frequent bowel and bladder movement 
  • Irregular menstrual cycle 

So, if you have all (or most) of these characteristics, welcome to the club! (1)

Why Do People With Fast Metabolism Lose Weight Faster?

Many fitness experts state high metabolism as a double-edged sword

Why? 

It is because high metabolism is suitable for healthy or slightly overweight people. But for people underweight, it’s not a pleasant experience, just like weight loss with endomorphs. 

People with high metabolism usually burn more caloric intake (both while resting or doing any activity) than other metabolic types. That’s why losing weight is easier for people with such a metabolism. 

On the other hand, as they burn more calories, they barely store body fat and gain muscle mass. 

So, this is why people with high metabolism lose weight faster but acquire weight slowly. 

Recommended to read: Perfect Metabolic Confusion Diet Plans For Endomorphs

Risks Allied With Being Underweight

Just like being overweight, being underweight isn’t healthy at all. It’s risky and unhealthy! (2)

In this section, I’ll thoroughly discuss health issues associated with being underweight. I highly recommend you to read all these (before it’s too late). 

Weaken Immunity System

Our body weakens with time because of a lack of nutrition and essential vitamins and minerals. 

That’s when our body loses its ability to fight small viruses and flues. With time, things get more vulnerable. 

Risk Of Cardiovascular Diseases

Being underweight is a dangerous sign for our heart health. You might think that heart diseases are common with obesity, so why are underweight people also in danger?

A Study found an underweight person is more likely to lack hemoglobin serum in their blood. It’s the biggest reason heart diseases like (heart attack and heart failure) occur. 

Skin, Hair, And Teeth Problem

When you don’t consume enough calories, your body starts showing it up. That’s when we see poor dental health, hair loss, rough hair, thinning, and dry skin issues. 

These are primarily early signals that something wrong can happen!

Nutritional Deficiency

To live healthily, our body requires many essentials like vitamins, minerals, calcium, etc. When our body cannot get enough essential nutrition, it immediately shows up. (3

For example: If you don’t get enough vitamins, you’ll feel dizzier and fatigued.

Feeling Dizzy All-Day 

You see, our body requires energy to do things. But when we don’t eat more calories, our body starts feeling tired.

As there is nothing to burn to get energy, we feel tired and dizzy all day long. 

Slow And Impaired Growth 

In medical language, failure to deprive. When a kid is younger, a doctor recommends healthy eating habits. 

Our brain and other body parts require more nutrition and calories to grow properly at a younger age. That’s why most underweight kids don’t grow as much as they should. 

Irregular Periods 

An irregular period is considered a menstrual health threat for every woman. It can cause infertility. 

In most underweight women, irregular and absent periods are common problems. Even many of them get their first period late as well.

Premature Births 

Study shows, An underweight woman may have preterm labor or premature birth.

An underweight woman can have a baby 37 weeks earlier, which isn’t healthy. 

Anemia

Low blood count, aka anemia, is one of the common problems almost every underweight faces. 

Anemia’s symptoms are weakness, fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, and chest pain. (4)

When Should You Consider Weight Gaining?

First of all, you should consider gaining weight only if you are underweight or want to bulk up

Besides this, there are a few more circumstances to consider: 

  • Low appetite 
  • Improve athletic performance (be more sporty and bulky) 
  • Fixing your eating habit

Advantages & Disadvantages Of Weight Gaining With a Fast Metabolism 

Are you still not sure whether weight gaining is worth a try or not? If yes, consider checking the advantages and disadvantages of weight gaining below! 

Advantages

Safe for underweight people 
Less restriction 
Almost no restriction when it comes to eating 
No exercise is required

Disadvantages

No shortcuts; cooking meals takes time
Quite tricky for people with a low appetite to get started

Things to Consider Before Following a Weight Gaining Diet

There are some concerns to consider when following a weight gain diet. These are a few basics; a more comprehensive section is down below!

  • Avoid empty-calorie foods
  • Avoid processed foods and junk food
  • Eat a calorie surplus every day
  • Eat dense foods (high in calories)
  • Eat more (at least enough) calories
  • Drink smoothies (healthy drinks that provide essential nutrients)
  • Exercise everyday 
  • Focus more on whole grains
  • Keep track of your body weight 
  • Eat protein-rich foods and healthy fats
  • Exercise regularly to improve body mass and muscle growth

This Isn’t The End! 

Scroll down below and check out the in-depth guideline suggested by fitness experts and my personal experience. 

How to Gain Weight With a Fast Metabolism: In-Depth Guideline

When you consider healthy weight gain, having a high metabolism is a disadvantage. People with high metabolism tend to burn more calories which isn’t suitable for gaining healthy weight. 

However, some ‘health tips’ can help you with weight gain faster. And, here, I will share all those hacks with you.

Eat Calorie Dense Foods

Calorie-dense foods are high in calories. It focuses more on protein and fat instead of water and fibers. High-calorie foods are mostly those foods we avoid during a calorie deficit diet. Like:

  • Full fat dairy (like greek yogurt)
  • Whole milk 
  • Cottage cheese
  • Protein Shakes 
  • Dried fruits 
  • Unsaturated fats
  • Brown Rice 
  • Healthy oils (like olive oil, rice bran oil)
  • Whole grain pasta
  • Peanut Butter and so on. (5)

Don’t Skip Your Veggies

While eating dense foods, don’t avoid veggies and fruits. Besides, dried fruit also has fresh and seasonal fruits to get essential nutrients. 

In every big meal, try to combine dense foods with vegetables and fruits. 

Smaller But Frequent Meals

Meals

Having a large meal isn’t a good idea for many people. Then again, having a large dinner isn’t suitable for the digestive system at all. 

That’s why it’s better to eat smaller meals. Now, maintaining meal frequency can be challenging. For this reason, I would suggest you create a meal routine. 

Here is an ideal meal plan you can see (or adapt): 

Breakfast 

Snack

Lunch 

Snack 

Dinner 

Snack/Dessert

Gain Some Calories While Drinking 

Water Has Zero Calories!

So, no matter how many glasses of water you drink, you’ll stay hydrated with 0 calories! But we still get some calories while drinking. (6)

How? 

With the help of smoothies and fruit juices!

Smoothies and fruit juices

Fruit juices and smoothies are full of energy intake, have calories and essential nutrients. It also helps you to stay hydrated. 

For example, a juice has more calories than regular water. And, smoothies are even better. 

You can make a smoothie with protein powder, peanut butter, milk, and so on. 

Even one cup of peanut butter smoothie can help you gain 360 calories

Also, drink water before you eat. After having the meal, wait until you feel hydrated. 

And, don’t drink water while eating (unless food is stuck in your throat)! 

Add a Substitute Of Water While Cooking

When cooking or preparing a meal, consider making it with ingredients that have calories. 

For example, use milk, yogurt, or other calorie-filled liquids instead of water while making oatmeals. 

This way, without adding more food, you can still get more calories.

Art Of Dipping 

If you don’t like to eat or find it boring, you can make it enjoyable. 

How? 

With sauce and dipping sauces. You can definitely eat more with dipping sauces.

Don’t trust me? Take a slice of apple, dip it in peanut butter, and see how it tastes! Also, use olive oil, butter, or cheese to add a natural flavor to the food. 

Add Flavors 

Do You Want To Make Your Food Fun? 

If yes, add flavors and fun things to your food, like tiny sprinkles on the top of your favorite ice cream/brownies. 

This way, you can use hemp heart, coriander, tacky spices, nuts, seeds, syrups (like hazelnut syrup), and so on. On the other hand, while cooking, use butter, mayonnaise, or flavored oil like mustard oil. 

Also, I would recommend you try new recipes and foods to avoid getting bored while eating. 

Get Foods in Stock

Foods in Stock 

If you don’t like to eat or are just lazy (like me), you might not enjoy cooking or preparing meals.

But to stick with your meal routine, you need to keep enough meals in stock. That’s why I suggest you make more food and store it in your refrigerator. Also, buy some snacks (like protein bars) for you. 

This way, you’ll feel the motivation to eat! 

Stay Organized 

We both know that you cannot gain weight in one day. It’s a long-term thing! That’s why staying organized is necessary. 

Now, to stay organized, you need to focus on: 

  • Meal Plan 
  • Grocery 
  • Exercise (physical activity) 

Also, you need to make sure you avoid foods that you are allergic to or don’t like. Unless you stay organized, you won’t gain more weight. 

Store more foods you are comfortable with, odorless food (easy to digest), energy-dense foods, and so on. Lastly, don’t forget to track your progress. 

So, these are weight gain hacks you can follow for better results. 

How I Gained Weight Faster With Fast Metabolism- My Weight Gain Journey

My Weight Gain Journey

Being a hard gainer, weight gaining was never easy for me. Even if I ate junk foods all day without any physical activity, I wasn’t gaining even a pound. No weight gaining, no fat gain, nothing! 

To be honest, I hated every picture of myself as an underweight person. I used to feel tired and less energetic all day. 

That’s when I learned a lot about gaining weight with a fast metabolism. After all these efforts, I finally achieved an ideal weight with more energy and more disciplined life. 

While following the weight gain diet, I used to:

  • Eat six meals a day (the formation I have shown above) 
  • Workout 4 days a week (mostly strength training and bodyweight training) 

What I learned from my experience: 

  • Don’t worry about calorie counting (eat as much as possible)
  • Do force-eating (at the beginning, you may feel uncomfortable, but within seven days, you’ll feel better
  • Consume more food than you usually do
  • Eat foods more that you love
  • Try to have 5-6 meals a day
  • In the beginning, only focus on increasing appetite
  • Exercise 3-4 days a week (be consistent)

Is Exercising Required While Gaining Weight?

Exercising

Whether gaining weight or losing weight is your concern, exercise is necessary. You need more muscle growth and lean muscle tissues for healthy weight gaining. 

Besides, you need to burn calories to increase your basal metabolic rate (boost metabolism). Also, in between, you’ll gain fat. While exercising, our body burns fat and improves our immune function.

Also, it reduces the increased risk of heart disease. 

Consider exercising regularly if you want to gain weight and healthily burn your body’s energy. 

Exercises You Can Follow While Weight Gaining 

Heavy weights training 

While losing weight, many people focus on cardio. But for weight gain, these exercises aren’t needed. 

So, if you are confused about which exercise plan you should follow, you can follow all these exercises. 

  • Strength training. (7)
  • Heavy weights training. (8)
  • Free weights training. (9)

Also, if you want to get in better shape within a few weeks, consider following these workouts. 

Final Words 

Achieving an ideal weight is essential if you are not in your perfect weight. Also, weight gaining with a high metabolism is challenging as well. 

Being a hard gainer, you’ll also face problems and may feel like giving up, but I would highly encourage you to be consistent. 

I would highly recommend you follow this comprehensive guideline to gain better results faster. 

FAQs

REFERENCES:

  1. https://flo.health/menstrual-cycle/lifestyle/diet-and-nutrition/facts-about-high-metabolism
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422024/
  3. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326132
  4. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20351360
  5. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/calorie-dense-food
  6. https://sciencing.com/why-does-water-have-zero-calories-5764499.html
  7. https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/strength-training-at-home
  8. https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/10-weightlifting-exercises-for-beginners
  9. https://mirafit.co.uk/blog/six-best-free-weight-exercises-for-upper-body-strength/

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Linda Walter
I’m a fitness trainer and a health coach. My GOAL is to empower everyone to live a healthier life even after passing their prime. You can find more about me here.

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