Usually people look for a vitamin or even a food supplement to gain weight or to help them lose weight. However, some people need to gain weight. Finding the right vitamins to help you gain weight is very important. Whether you are trying to gain weight or need to gain weight for your health, here are the options that can help you.
Top 5 Vitamins to Help You Gain Weight
1. B vitamins
If you have a vitamin B deficiency, you may have an eating disorder. This can make it difficult to gain weight. Vitamin B also helps maintain muscle tone. Some of these vitamins also help convert carbohydrates into energy. If you have a deficiency in vitamin B1 or thiamine, it can cause you to lose weight. On the other hand, a deficiency in B12 or B9 can cause anemia, which can cause you to lose your appetite and lead to weight loss.
Taking vitamin B can help you improve your weight. It can give you better health and increase your muscle tone. Gaining weight requires consuming more calories from nutrient-dense foods. Taking vitamins for weight gain is only effective if you have a nutrient deficiency that caused you to lose weight. Nutrient deficiencies that can cause weight loss include vitamins C, B12, and folate.
The weight gain food supplement is a godsend to avoid consuming too many calories per day.
To read: The benefits of food supplements
Nutrient Deficiencies and Weight Loss
Most people who eat a balanced diet can get all the vitamins they need from food and avoid deficiencies. But an unhealthy diet or certain diseases that affect how your body absorbs nutrients can cause your blood levels to drop. When this happens, especially over a long period of time, you start to experience symptoms. Deficiencies in vitamin C, vitamin B12, and folic acid can lead to anemia, which is when the body cannot produce enough red blood cells. The main symptoms of anemia are fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle weakness, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, personality changes, confusion or forgetfulness, loss of appetite, and weight loss.
Causes of anemia
Vitamin C deficiency is usually caused by poor diet or problems absorbing the nutrient. Smokers are at increased risk for vitamin C deficiency because smoking interferes with absorption. People with chronic diseases such as kidney disease or cancer are also at increased risk for deficiency. B12 deficiency is sometimes caused by a lack of intrinsic factor, a protein made in the stomach that is needed for the body to absorb the vitamin. It can also be caused by surgery to remove or bypass part of the small intestine, a restrictive vegetarian diet, removal of part or all of the stomach, medications, aging, and autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
A deficiency of folate, a B vitamin—called folic acid in supplement form—is usually caused by low dietary intake, malabsorption disorders, and medications. Pregnant women have increased needs for folate and are at greater risk of deficiency, as are people on hemodialysis for kidney failure. Some medications used to treat cancer can affect folate metabolism, leading to low folate levels.
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Vitamins for weight gain
If you have lost weight due to a nutrient deficiency, you should not try to correct the problem yourself. Typically, correcting a deficiency involves short- or long-term use of supplements combined with increasing dietary intake of the nutrient in question. If an underlying disease or medication is interfering with absorption, your doctor may factor this into your treatment plan.
In the meantime, make sure you're getting at least the recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of vitamins C, B12, and folate, as determined by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies of Medicine as being appropriate for the general population. These amounts vary depending on whether you are male, female, pregnant or breastfeeding.
Vitamin C:
- Men - 90 milligrams
- Women - 60 milligrams
- Pregnancy - 85 milligrams
- Breastfeeding - 120 milligrams
Vitamin B12:
- Men - 2.4 micrograms
- Women - 2.4 micrograms
- Pregnancy - 2.6 micrograms
- Breastfeeding - 2.8 micrograms
Folate:
- Men - 400 micrograms
- Women - 400 micrograms
- Pregnancy - 600 micrograms
- Breastfeeding - 500 micrograms
Maintaining these intakes, or the amounts recommended by your doctor, will help normalize your blood levels. You should then begin to regain the weight you lost with the weight gain supplement.
Calories to gain weight
Whether or not you have a nutrient deficiency that is causing your weight loss, your diet is the most important factor in weight gain. If you are not consistently meeting your daily calorie needs, you may end up in a calorie deficit, meaning your body is burning more calories than you are consuming. This causes the breakdown of fatty acids and lean muscle mass, leading to weight loss. If you are unsure about how many calories you need to gain weight, it is important to talk to your doctor. Calorie needs are individual and depend on gender, age, activity level and other factors such as genetics, medications and medical conditions.
You can get a rough idea of your caloric needs to maintain your weight by using estimates from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015-2020. For example, moderately active men ages 26 to 45 need 2,600 calories per day, and moderately active women in the same age range need 2,000 calories per day.Being moderately active means that you engage in physical activity equivalent to walking 1.5 to 3 miles per day at a pace of 3 to 4 miles per hour. This activity is in addition to activities of daily living. If you're not meeting your daily caloric needs, simply increasing your intake to meet these goals can cause you to gain weight. If you're already meeting your caloric needs, you'll need to increase your intake beyond the recommended amounts. People with fast metabolisms, who often have trouble gaining weight, need to eat more than people with slower metabolisms to achieve the same weight.
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A good goal is to start with a modest increase of 250 to 500 calories per day, and then increase it as needed over a period of weeks or months. Gaining weight slowly will help you avoid gaining a lot of fat, especially if you follow an exercise regimen that includes resistance training.
2. Vitamin D
One of the most important vitamins, vitamin D helps you gain weight if used properly. This vitamin helps your immune system and can protect you from diabetes. It also makes your bones and teeth stronger. While simply taking vitamin D won't make you gain weight, a deficiency in this vitamin can make it more difficult to gain healthy weight.
3. Vitamin C
Vitamin C, which has the ability to slow down your metabolism, can help you gain weight. It is a vitamin that is necessary to protect your body, but also to help you gain weight. While slowing down your metabolism can make you gain weight, vitamin C can also prevent you from overeating.
4. Iron
A very important metal that your body needs, iron can help you gain weight. It plays a role in transferring oxygen to the cells in your body. While taking iron in itself won't make you gain weight, it can make it easier to gain weight in a healthier way.
5. Proteins
While it's not a vitamin that helps you gain weight, protein is essential for healthy weight gain. It's important for muscle function, and studies show that you'll gain more weight with protein supplements. Getting enough protein each day can make a difference. However, eating too much doesn't mean you'll gain more weight. It's best to get between 0.6 and 0.9 grams per kilogram of body weight each day. There are several vitamins and supplements you can take to help you gain weight. However, the main factor in weight gain is consuming more calories than you expend each day. Of course, getting the right vitamins in your diet can help you gain weight in a healthy way.
Many athletes trying to gain weight use protein-packed shakes and bars and the right vitamins to gain weight. However, these athletes must consume enough calories each day to gain weight. While most vitamins cannot help you gain weight, a deficiency can cause you to lose weight or prevent you from gaining weight.
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Focus on healthy foods
Gaining weight isn't just about calories. You can eat pizza all day and get a lot of extra calories, but you'll also get a lot of saturated fat and simple carbohydrates, both of which can wreak havoc on your health. If you're looking to fill a nutrient gap, it's especially important to eat foods that are rich in this nutrient. For example:
- If you are deficient in vitamin C, eat red and green peppers, citrus fruits, kiwi, strawberries, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe and cauliflower.
- If you are deficient in vitamin B12, eat clams, liver, trout, salmon, milk, cheese and fortified cereals.
- If you are low in folate, eat beef liver, spinach, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, avocados, broccoli, and fortified cereals.
In general, a healthy diet for weight gain should include whole foods, including: carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; protein from fish, chicken, beans, and dairy; and healthy fats from avocados, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. This last category should definitely be at the top of your list of foods for weight gain because fats are higher in calories than carbohydrates and proteins. By adding them to your meals, you can increase their calorie content. If you're having trouble getting enough calories from solid foods, you can try adding nutrient-dense smoothies that include ingredients like full-fat yogurt, nuts and seeds, avocado, and coconut oil. You can also try eating several small meals a day instead of three large meals.
To avoid endangering your health, call a professional in food supplements.