Diet and Exercise for Weight Loss vs. Weight Gain

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain weight, you need a different diet and exercise plan to meet your goals. For this, you need to know how to start paleo diet.

Learn about the key differences in the foods you should eat and the exercises you should complete to assist you in reaching your target weight loss or weight gain.

Diet for Weight Gain

If you’re trying to gain weight, you can certainly head to your nearest fast-food restaurant and eat as many burgers as you can handle in one sitting.

However, the type of fat you would be consuming isn’t good for your body. Instead, you should put together a diet that includes plenty of healthy fats to effectively gain weight.

Healthy foods that help you gain weight include milk, which has a good balance of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, and nuts, which are calorie-dense treats that are ideal for snacks or with meals.

Exercise for Weight Gain

Along with eating healthy fats, another key component of gaining weight is completing the right exercises. When you’re working out, skip isolated exercises that only target one specific muscle, and focus on compound exercises that utilize multiple muscles at the same time.

Good compound exercises to try include lunges, squats, burpees, walking lunges, and box jumps. While cardio is a great workout because it promotes muscle growth, you want to stick with light and low-impact cardio and focus more on strength training to gain weight.

Diet for Weight Loss

On the other hand, if you’re trying to create a diet plan that prioritizes fat loss, you want to stick with a good balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

Protein sources can include low-fat dairy, lean meats, and skinless poultry. For carbohydrates, go for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Finally, many of the healthy fats that are ideal for weight gain diets — such as nuts, avocados, salmon, and olive oil — are also acceptable for weight loss diets.

However, it’s important to remember that you need to limit these healthy fats to meet your weight loss goal.

Exercise for Weight Loss

For years, doctors told us that the best way to lose weight was with cardio exercise. Then strength training had some time in the spotlight as the ideal exercise for losing weight.

Finally, researchers from Duke University decided to study the two types of exercise to see which one was best for weight loss. For eight months the researchers tracked volunteers who performed aerobic exercise, resistance training, or a combination of the two.

The results of the study showed that aerobic exercise was the clear winner as an exercise plan for weight loss.

In fact, the people in the cardio group lost around four pounds, while those in the resistance training group gained two pounds. While the weight gain was attributed to added muscle, it didn’t lead to any extra fat loss during the study.  Once that weight is off you will also have to consider the cosmetic looks as well such as loose skin.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain weight, you now have the diet and exercise tips you need to create a plan that can help you meet your health goals.

What are you doing to avoid gaining weight?