Healthy High-Calorie Foods to Supercharge Your Muscle Growth
Key Takeaways:
Including high-calorie foods in your diet makes sense when you’re trying to get to a healthy BMI and build muscle
Prioritize nutrient-dense, high-calorie foods. Avoid “empty calories” and ultra-processed foods laden with added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.
In a world where most adults are trying to lose weight, striving for the opposite — becoming bigger — can be challenging. You may second-guess your decision: “Should I be doing this?”
Plus, as a natural result of supply and demand, there are few resources for navigating weight gain and even fewer for doing so without throwing your metabolic health markers into disarray.
This article serves two functions:
Reassures you that, yes, sometimes, weight gain is a good thing
Shows you how to gain weight healthily with nutritious, high-calorie foods
That said, a disclaimer: the following content is for educational and informational purposes only. It’s not a substitute for medical or mental health advice. If you have any existing health conditions or eating disorders, please consult a doctor and/or dietitian.
What are the benefits of high-calorie foods for building muscle?
In other words, when is a good idea to gain weight? In general, a calorie surplus can help you when you are trying to
Get to a healthy BMI: The body mass index (BMI) is a numerical value of your weight in relation to your height. BMI = weight (kg) / height2 (m2). If you have a BMI of less than 18.5 kg/m2, you’re considered “underweight”, which puts you at greater risk of many health conditions, including malnutrition, osteoporosis, heart problems, and anemia. In such a situation, gaining weight till your BMI falls in the “healthy” range (18.5 to 22.9 kg/m2) is generally advisable.
Build muscle: A 2022 meta-analysis published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports suggests that, in addition to resistance training, a calorie surplus is necessary for optimal muscle growth. While excess energy intake will increase body fat, you could minimize the ratio of fat-to-muscle-gained by limiting your calorie surplus to 10% to 15% above your maintenance calories and hitting a minimum daily protein intake of 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Avoid the “see-food” diet
As hinted at earlier, just because your goal is weight gain doesn’t give you a free pass to put any and all high-calorie foods into your mouth. Prioritize nutrient-dense high-calorie foods with good amounts of:
Protein (regulates appetite and promotes lean body mass)
Healthy fats (may help lower your LDL or “bad” cholesterol and increase your HDL or “good” cholesterol; supports hormonal balance and health)
Dietary fiber (stabilizes post-glycemic blood glucose levels and nourishes gut microbiome)
In the same vein, this means you should avoid high-calorie foods that offer little else beyond blood-glucose-spiking simple sugars, artery-clogging saturated fats, and blood-pressure-raising sodium. I.e., “empty calories”. Examples of high-calorie foods you should avoid include:
Cakes, donuts
Chips, biscuits, and cookies
Fried foods
Ice cream
Ultra-processed foods, such as luncheon meat and potato chips
Soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, including bubble tea
How much you eat in a single sitting also matters.
Distribute your calories equally across meals to minimize excessive fullness, bloating, reflux, indigestion, and nausea.
For example, let’s say your target is 2,400 calories. That’ll be 800 calories each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Tip: if that’s still more calories than you can stomach in a single meal, consider having more meals (e.g., five instead of three) and/or munching on high-calorie snacks between meals — we share specific examples below.
High-calorie meals
But first, your meals. You can easily create calorie-dense meals by incorporating high-calorie, healthy foods.
Supplement your meals with high-calorie drinks
To facilitate higher satiety and lower desire to eat, individuals gunning for weight loss would do best to:
So, if you’re trying to gain weight, you should do the opposite: make your calories slurpable to boost your energy intake and “side-step” your body’s satiety-related hormone responses (at least, for a while).
Here are a few healthy high-calorie drinks to include in your meals or consume throughout the day:
Graze on high-calorie snacks
Still shy of your daily calorie target? Here are a few high-calorie snacks you could stock up on.
On a closing note, your blood glucose levels have a direct impact on your physical and mental well-being. Maintaining balance as you load up on nutritious, high-calorie foods (to gain weight, build muscle, or prepare for surgery) is important — and NOVI Magnum makes it easy.
If you have already signed up for our holistic NOVI Magnum program and would like to achieve your health goals through a health coach-guided exercise and diet plan, NOVI PT Plus is for you.
NOVI PT Plus helps through:
Creating and guiding you through personalized exercise routines and dietary plans that prioritize your safety and well-being, while helping you achieve your goals.
Holistic guidance and genuine care, using the NOVI Method. With our ongoing remote support, you will be motivated throughout the program.
Data-based program adjustments to help you achieve your goals in a quicker time.