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If you have been losing weight unexplainably, chances are that the reason behind it could be diabetes. Been wondering how to gain weight with diabetes?
Diabetes does bring forth a lot of complications with it, the unprecedented weight loss being one of the primary ones. While it might seem like you can’t necessarily eat anything while being a diabetic, which is not completely true.
By the end of this, we hope you will have a fair bit of knowledge regarding the ways in you can gain weight if you are a diabetic.
Keep These Different Ways In Mind
Many people have this notion that, for a diabetic, eating anything is going to end up causing a spike in their glucose levels. That is not at all the case but a major misconception.
It is very important to cope back with the sudden weight loss to ensure that your body has a stable homeostasis and won’t necessarily end up being a problem for your body.
Let’s walk you through some effective ways that can aid weight gain when you are a diabetic.
Check Out These Effective Ways For Weight Gain During Diabetes.
1. Know Your Ideal Weight First
Before starting off with anything, you need to assess how much weight you have lost and how much you need to supplement it with.
Knowing your ideal weight and then comparing it with your current Body-Mass Index is important to give yourself an idea of how much weight you need to effectively lose.
Use this above BMI and Ideal Weight Calculator to know what your ideal weight should be based on your height and age. This can give you a rough idea of the same and can help you plan ahead.
In order for you to be able to ensure healthy diabetic weight gain, it is necessary that you know how much weight you need to gain and how much is optimum for your proper functioning of the body.
If you are aimlessly trying to gain weight without any set goal in mind, chances are that you will end up affecting your body and may even alter the glucose levels in the body for the worse.
2. Are You Eating Smaller Meals?
The only way to gain weight if you are a diabetic is to find ways that will end up combating the unnecessary weight loss in your body.
When we eat big meals with a lot of time in between, chances are that it ends up burning the fats in the body faster than you even realize.
If you are wondering how can a diabetic gain weight, the best way to do so is by consuming smaller meals but frequently.
Eat every three hours to ensure that you prevent the body from starting to burn the fat off for energy. That way, you preserve the healthy fats in the body and the same does contribute to the diabetic weight gain as well.
Since the consumption of more number of meals does take up a lot of dedication, it is always best suggested to plan out everything ahead of time to be able to abide by them effectively.
Instead of focusing on what kind of food you should consume, just keep it simple and nutritious and easy to make, one that you can whip up within a record time and without any kind of issues whatsoever.
3. Focus On The Glycemic Index Of The Food
Keeping everything aside, when you are a diabetic, the common phrase that you will commonly hear is, “You should consume low carb foods.”
The question is, how can one know which ones are low on carbs and which ones aren’t? That is where the trick predominantly lies, right?
In order for you to deduce which foods have permissible amount of carbs in them, it is important for you to know about the glycemic index.
Glycemic index is nothing but a reading that deduces how the food or the carbohydrate you are consuming is going to affect the body’s glucose levels.
Consuming foods with low glycemic index is very crucial for the diabetic patients. Instead of consuming a high carb diet, supplement the same with healthy fats and protein.
Don’t necessarily cut out on the carbohydrate intake completely because your body needs them for better brain function (R) (R) and other forms of metabolic activities.
Also, whenever you are eating carbs, make sure to add any kind protein or fats along with it which induces better calorie absorption altogether and contributes to better diabetic weight gain.
4. Focus On Your Fat Consumption Too
Many diabetics when trying to find answers to how to gain weight with diabetes, tend to steer clear off of the possibility of including fats in their diet thinking it will negatively impact their body and figure.
In reality, that is not how it works. There are categories of fats in the body; some are bad for you while some are actually good.
Diabetes and risks of heart diseases are quite common. If you want to keep your heart functioning properly, it is essential that you supplement it with healthy fats.
Deriving healthy fats in the form of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids is actually beneficial for the body’s weight gain.
These kinds of fats actually do help in not just contributing to your calorie gain of the body but also helps in ensuring that you maintain your glucose levels in the body in a safe level altogether.
5. Enhance Your Protein Intake
Protein does play a very crucial role in our overall body weight. If you are here wondering how you can gain weight if you are a diabetic, the best way to do so is by increasing the protein intake on a daily basis.
Not just that, protein is crucial in ensuring proper maintenance of your muscle mass and even prevents the unnecessary burning of the fats that often further contribute to weight loss.
Ideally, according to the dietary requirement, 50-56 grams of protein is what we need on a daily basis but if you are a diabetic and watching your carb intake, chances are that you can supplement the same with more protein in the diet.
Just ensure to not go overboard with the consumption because excess protein often ends up getting stored as fats. Even though it might seem like a tempting option, it is not the best or the healthiest way to do so.
6. Steer Clear Off Of Low Calorie Foods
If you have been looking for ways on how to gain weight diabetes, the very first thing you need to understand is the fact that relying on just the low calorie foods is not going to do you any good.
It is mandatory that you need to amp up the consumption of calories from the normal levels if you wish to gain weight in the healthiest way possible.
In order to gain weight fast, you need to increase the calorie intake by more 500 calories in addition to the normal amount that you consume. It does go without saying that you need to be very particular about the foods that you are picking for consumption. While it might be calorie dense, it shouldn’t necessarily have a high glycemic index because then it will end up disrupting your normal glucose levels in the blood.
Healthier fats and calorie sources do make up for an amazing addition to your daily diet and can actually help you gain weight if you are a diabetic without imposing negative impacts on your body.
Be creative with your food and that itself will make all the difference you possibly need.
7. Choose Good Supplements
Diabetic weight gain supplements are readily available in the market.
If you can’t work up your appetite, chances are that any form of food will seem revolting for you. In order to promote a healthy diabetic weight gain, it is important to ensure that you stick to consuming supplements that will actually show results and won’t end up inflicting negative impacts on the body.
Choosing supplements for weight gain is quite an extensive process altogether.
The last thing you want to do is end up getting a supplement that will inflict negative side effects than promoting healthy weight gain.
Natural supplements like whey protein and casein are actually beneficial for the body and won’t necessarily end up inflicting side effects if you consume it in permissible quantities.
8. Use Applications
As morbid and cliché as it might sound, when it comes to answering how can a diabetic gain weight, one of the best ways of doing so is by using applications.
There are a number of online applications available that help in not just managing diabetes but have beneficial impacts in helping you make the correct food choices as well.
For the best results in your weight gain journey, make sure to sign up for an application that helps in not just tracking the blood sugar levels but also keeps count of the Body-Mass Index effectively.
Having an application will help you get better insights on the type of foods you need to eat and the ones that would end up affecting your overall body functions because of diabetes.
9. Add in Resistance Training To The Workout
Gaining weight is not just about adding in calories after calories in the body. It is important that you maintain a healthy balance between the level of lean muscle and fats in the body.
Including resistance training with the weights in the workout regime often does help in gaining weight and that too in a very healthy way.
Resistance training primarily focuses on building and increasing the lean muscle in the body which helps in adding in a healthy weight gain without any kind of negative influence.
One thing that many people tend to do wrong is the fact that they either pick one side of the training. It is not important for you to stick to one form of training. You can easily pick both of the exercises and do them simultaneously without any kind of issues whatsoever.
Just ensure to balance it out because aerobics burn out a lot of calories and can end up contributing to more weight loss that you don’t want.
10. Weekly Check Ins Are Necessary
Last but not the least is to ensure that you keep a weekly check in with yourself to know how much difference you have brought about in your weight gain journey.
If you are simply just going on following some ways to gain weight to cope with the unprecedented weight loss, chances are that you are going to be ending up regretting every last bit of it.
Weight yourself at the end of every week to see if there are any changes and by how much. If you are not happy with the results, try and make adjustments to the diet to ensure that it will promote better results in the next week or the coming weeks after that.
Keeping a track helps in ensuring that you have a clear insight of everything around you and thus helps in successful diabetic weight gain.
Foods To Eat For Healthy Diabetic Weight Gain
Being a diabetic doesn’t mean you need to cut down on the food intake altogether. There are a number of ways in which one can consume their food to ensure that they don’t end up spiking their blood glucose levels but simultaneously contribute to the overall body weight as well.
It is very important to ensure that you consume food from time to time and consume more calories to effectively gain weight in the long run.
1. Whey Protein
Majority of the people around always have this lingering notion that whey protein is something that is only consumed by the people trying to build their body and abs.
That is not the case. This is one of the best diabetic weight gain supplement, given that you are not mixing any form of bad or refined sugar to accentuate the flavour of it.
Whey protein is very low on carbohydrates but very helpful in contributing to your overall weight gain effectively. It is very important to ensure that you consume it in permissible quantities and not overdoing the same.
Owing to the protein content, it is quite beneficial in boosting the overall insulin production in the body and also regulates the glucose levels in the body over long terms.
2. Almonds
If you want to have a snack that not just fills you up but also helps in restoring your body with the essential amount of healthy fats, it is important to ensure that you include almonds in your diet.
Almonds are loaded with healthy fats which are actually not just filling but very good for your health as well.
If you have been looking out for healthier snacking options that you can eat without compromising your glucose levels, almonds are actually a good enough option.
3. Fatty Fishes
Fatty fishes like salmon and herring etc. Fishes are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids which tend to have beneficial impacts on one’s body, especially in terms of weight gain.
Omega-3 fatty acids are also quite beneficial for diabetics who are trying to gain weight. It not just regulates the calorie intake of the body; it also does help in warding off the unwanted cholesterol levels in the body as well.
4. Beans and Lentils
Beans and lentils have an amazing impact in not just filling you up with the necessary proteins but also aid in promoting weight gain in diabetes patients.
They are a source of complex carbs and a healthy source of calories for our body. The benefit of this is the fact that complex carbs take more than normal time to break down which helps in keeping the body fueled for a long period of time.
5. Milk and Cheese
Milk and cheese are also a good form of nutrition that can help you gain weight, the only thing in this being the fact that milk and cheese have good amount of carbs in them as well.
This is the reason why it is important to ensure that you consume it in moderation and not go overboard with the same.
In order to get a clear answer on how to gain weight with diabetes, it is very important to ensure that you know what foods to eat and which ones to avoid. Irrespective of anything, make sure that you keep the carbohydrate intake in mind as well because that does play out quite an important role in this as well.
