How to PUT ON weight

Eating whatever you want without gaining weight isn’t as great as you might think. Being underweight may mean that your bones may not be as strong as they could be, and your periods may be irregular, which can affect fertility. Also, you’ll have fewer ‘reserves’ if you fall ill.

So where do you start? In order to gain weight, set yourself realistic target weights and aim to gain it gradually – say, around 1kg a month. Instead of having the occasional extra snack, you need to consciously take in more calories than you burn on a regular basis. You’ll need to add approximately 350 calories to your daily intake. It’s best to do this as part of a balanced diet, rather than simply eating more fried kuku (chicken) or sugary foods. Yes, you will gain weight that way, but you’ll be gaining health problems associated with a high sugar diet. After all, being underweight does not render you immune to heart disease, diabetes or rapid ageing.

So, start by eat three regular meals plus two or three snacks, rather than struggling with a few really big meals. Ideally you should eat every three hours. The trick to gaining weight healthily is to add in a little more food here and there, rather than stuffing yourself with empty calories.

Add plenty of high calorie, highly nutritious foods such as seeds, nuts and avocadoes to your diet (think peanut butter, not jam, on your toast). Also have a snack, such as a piece of fruit, with some nuts or some muesli every night before bed so that your body does not go into a famished state during the night.

I suggest that you include protein in some form with every meal. Meat, fish, beans, lentils and tofu are all great. Starchy carbohydrates such as wholemeal pasta/rice/potatoes at each meal should also make up a part of every meal (ideally the brown varieties).

While I’m generally not a fan of fruit juice, diluted fruit juice (half juice, half water) could be added to every meal to up the calorie intake (with diluted juice the blood sugar spike you’d get from normal juice is reduced).

Last of all, you could also include fenugreek seeds in the diet – they’re meant to be pretty good at stimulating the appetite.

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Note: Do bear in mind that some people naturally have a slender constitution. Research shows they don’t have a very high metabolic rate; rather it’s a combination of their inherited body shape, their natural appetite and their activity levels (for example, they may be naturally rather fidgety or enjoy playing lots of sport).