Putting On Healthy Weight

The desire to shed extra baggage and firm up is a goal for lots of folks, but not everyone.  If you’re underweight for

your body structure and have started your program to PUT ON healthy weight, or if your current weight is in good range, but you want to transform it into healthy proportions of skeletal, muscle, and fat; this tip is for you.

 

In addition to building your major and skeletal muscle groups through your fitness program, developing healthy eating habits (including what you eat and how you eat it) are essential.  Here’s why:

 

If you’re significantly underweight, chances are you may have a weak digestive system.  A healthy digestive system is what makes absorbing and using the nutrients in the foods you eat possible.  Being at a healthy weight doesn’t guarantee that your major organs are working well, but getting up in the normal range does improve your chances of regulating blood sugar and insulin levels and avoiding osteoporosis – and this means a lot for your overall health and longevity.

 

Building and maintaining healthy cells (including muscle cells), means supplying them with a steady stream of healthy nutrients. And you need all your organ systems, including your digestive tract and liver to function at a high level in order to achieve this.  Nourishing cells for growth and maintenance begins in the digestive tract.

 

Here are a few simple things you can do to ensure optimal digestion:

 

1.       Chew your foods until liquid.

Especially if you are underweight and your digestive system is weak, by chewing your foods until liquid, you take burden off of your digestive organs and increase the likelihood that most of the nutrients in the foods that you eat make their way into your bloodstream.

 

2.       Eat at rest, not on the go.

Being physically active or emotionally upset while you eat diverts blood away from your digestive organs and to your skeletal muscles and nervous system. Optimal blood supply to your digestive organs is crucial to keep them functioning well.

 

3.       Ensure regular exposure to friendly bacteria.

Having healthy colonies of friendly bacteria in your digestive tract is critical to optimally break down and extract nutrients from the foods you eat. Easy fix?  Eat yogurt every day.

 

To keep your liver healthy, avoid regular consumption of alcohol, deep-fried and sugary foods, and acetaminophen (Tylenol).  Regular exposure to these substances can impede liver function and even cause injury to your liver cells over time.

 

In addition to doing simple things to maximize digestive tract and liver health, gaining healthy weight means getting those extra calories from healthy, nutrient-rich foods. 

 

Foods like sweet potatoes, organic eggs, avocados, olives, and yummy smoothies made with nut or soy milk are all good choices for promoting growth and providing your cells with health-promoting nutrients. Raw, organic nuts are also good choices, but it's best to eat only about a handful of nuts per day since eating more than that on a regular basis can lead to a decrease in digestive efficiency.

 

Adding extra protein to your diet does help build skeletal muscle mass, but you don’t want to overdo it.  Aim to consume about half your body weight in grams of protein.  So, that means if you weigh 150 lbs, consuming 75 grams of healthy protein per day is right on track.