Healthy Eating

How to Gain Weight in a Healthy Way

October 4, 2022

Whether you are burdened with work or your studies, it can be quite tough to stay healthy. Things can get quite complicated when you have to plan your meals and take care of your nutrition as well. And if not taken care of, you may gain weight or lose weight at extreme levels. And while people are generally aware of overweight issues, people need to know more about underweight issues. Being underweight can have serious implications in the long term leading to a weakened immune system, poor bone health, fertility problems, nutritional deficiencies, and more! Apart from a poor lifestyle, certain medical conditions can be responsible for making you underweight. People try out a lot of different remedies to reach their ideal healthy weight range like working out in the gym and other diet forms hoping that it would help. But, in most cases, they miss out on the right strategy suitable for them and are unable to see results. In this article, we will understand more about the harm of being underweight and how you can gain weight in a healthy way. How to Check if you\’re Underweight? In the current day and age, all of us see the crazy glorification of being skinny on the internet. Thus, it can be hard to determine whether you are skinny with a healthy BMI, or you are dangerously close to being underweight. The most common way used by the majority is to calculate one\’s body mass index or BMI. It is a measure that considers your height and weight and gives out a number through which you can determine if you lie in the healthy weight category or underweight. A BMI range of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be a healthy weight range. But if you have a BMI less than 18.5, then it means that you are underweight. If you fall into this category, it\’s time to make changes in your lifestyle for the better. Why you can\’t Gain Weight? If you aren\’t able to gain weight, the chances are that you have already tried stuffing yourself with food. You may have even gone for hours of exercise without seeing any progress. This indicates that there is something you are not doing right. While there are various factors at play, it is your daily calorie intake that will help you with gaining weight. This basically means that without consuming enough calories, you won\’t gain weight no matter what you do. To be more specific, you need to be in a calorie surplus to gain weight in a healthy way. However, there might be a few cases where you are already in a calorie surplus but still cannot gain weight. This can happen due to various other reasons some of which include the following: Factors Affecting your Weight Gain Fast Metabolism: A fast metabolism means that your body burns all consumed calories at a very fast rate. Thus, the current calorie surplus you are in may not be sufficient to gain weight. Intense Physical Activity: Since regular and intense physical activity burns a lot of calories, you may not be eating enough calories for the same. In other words, you might not be in a true calorie surplus and unable to gain weight. Medical Conditions: Certain medical conditions like hyperthyroidism, diabetes, PCOS, and others can affect your appetite and metabolism. And for many people affected by these, it can cause unintentional weight loss. If you have disturbed hormones, that too can affect your weight. Mental Health Issues: In case you are unfamiliar, both your mental health and gut health affect each other due to the gut-brain connection. If you are going through any kind of mental health issues, then it can definitely affect your gut health and metabolism. And hence, it can affect your current weight. Family History: According to recent research, your weight might be affected due to genetic mutation. However, usually, families with a history of a low BMI tend to be underweight because of their common lifestyle habits. Healthy Tips to Gain Weight While there might be multiple reasons for you being underweight, you can still overcome them by making the right lifestyle changes. You simply need to make the right lifestyle changes and essentially get into a healthy calorie surplus. Some of the simple changes that you can make in your lifestyle to gain weight in a healthy way include the following: 1. Calorie-rich Food to Gain Weight Your daily food intake plays the most important role in both weight gain as well as weight loss. When it comes to gaining weight, you can either start eating more or replace your current food meals with other calorie-dense options. Such calorie-rich food meals will allow you to increase your calorie intake without increasing your meal portions. However, it is highly important to make sure that you are also taking care of your nutrition intake for a healthy weight gain. For starters, you can try adding things like dates, nuts, smoothies, full-fat yogurt, eggs, meat, potatoes, and others to your diet. With the right combination of these and other food items, getting into a healthy calorie surplus will be fairly easy. 2. Regular Eating Intervals for Gaining Weight Even with calorie-dense food options, you may have to eat a lot of food. And depending on your calorie surplus food intake, you may have to eat large food portions. Because that is not possible for everyone, you can simply eat at regular intervals instead of eating in large portions. Even if you have a small appetite, managing multiple meals in a day is much easier than eating large portions of food. In other words, try having multiple meals in a day instead of three major meals with extreme portion sizes. 3. Avoid Junk Food for Healthy Weight Gain The other thing to keep in mind is that all calories are not equal. Since you would want to go for a healthy weight gain, choosing calories dense but healthy food

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Best Pre and Post Workout Meals

September 20, 2022

These days, more and more people are becoming more aware of the importance of working out. Hence, everyone is hitting the gym or training at home. However, very few know the importance of pre and post workout meals. Apart from training regularly, taking the right diet is also highly important if you wish to gain muscle mass. And this not only includes your food meals throughout the day but also your pre and post workout meals. Unfortunately, there is a myth widespread among people that one should keep their stomach empty before hitting the gym. But in reality, eating right to get energy and proper nutrition for your workouts is highly crucial. And this is only possible by having the right pre workout and post workout meals. So, if you also work out on an empty stomach, this guide is just for you! We have covered all the important information about pre and post workout meals down below. You can also find their nutrition info, ideal timings, and most importantly, the best pre and post workout meal ideas. What are Pre Workout Meals? So as you can guess by the name, a pre-workout meal is something that you eat before your workout sessions. But is any meal taken before workouts going to be a pre-workout meal? The answer for this is obviously no. In short, pre-workout meals are the ones that offer sufficient energy for exercising without making you bloated or feeling full. However, there is still more to pre-workout meals as you will see later on. To better understand what exactly a pre-workout meal is, you need to consider these two vital points: Nutrition from Pre Workout Meals: While all three macronutrients are equally important, your focus needs to be primarily on carbohydrates when choosing a pre-workout meal. And to be more specific, should go with meals that offer simple carbs instead of complex carbs. By eating simple carbs, your body can get energy much faster than it gets from complex carbs. Because of this same phenomenon, you may have even heard about carbo-loading in the past. It essentially means eating meals with simple carbs to perform your best while working out. Without a proper pre-workout meal, your muscles may run out of energy. This may resulting in feeling fatigued and exhausted while working out. While fats and proteins also provide energy, your top priority should be simple carbs for pre-workout meals. Timing of Pre Workout Meals: Speaking of time, eating your pre workout meals at the right time is also quite important. If you have ever tried a pre-workout meal in the past, then you must know that you should refrain from eating right before exercising. Because if you eat anything right before your workouts, it can make you feel stuffed and even bloated which will certainly affect your performance during workouts. Since even simple carbs take time to break down, a time gap is needed between your meals and workouts. However, a long gap will make you run out of energy by the time you start exercising. Based on these facts, it is recommended to eat your pre-workout meal 30-60 minutes before your workouts. It depends on what you\’re eating and the type of exercises that you do. But most people also eat three primary meals in a day including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Thus, while choosing the timing for your pre-workout meals you need to consider these too. Depending on your workout timings, you can either eat your primary meals as a pre-workout meal. Otherwise, you can eat your pre-workout meal between your primary meals and workout sessions. For most, it is going to be a small meal or snack for a pre-workout meal. Best Pre Workout Meals for Muscle Gain Now that you know the important things to consider while picking a pre-workout meal, choosing one should be fairly easy. But, if you\’re unfamiliar with nutritious meals, then check out these best pre-workout meals for muscle gain: Coffee & Biscuits: Even though it may sound quite simple, the caffeine from coffee and carbs from multigrain or digestive biscuits can give you a good amount of energy for your workouts. Fruit Bowl: In case you want something even simpler as your pre workout meal, then you can go with a simple fruit bowl which will offer you a good amount of carbs, natural sugars, and a wide range of micronutrients. Banana Smoothie: You can also consider this since both banana and milk offer you plenty of energy for your workouts. Peanut Butter Sandwich: A peanut butter sandwich offers more than just carbohydrates. It also contains fats and proteins which makes it an all-rounder pre workout meal. What are Post Workout Meals? By now you must know pretty much everything about pre workout meals. However, to get the best results from your training, eating the right post workout meal is also quite important. As stated above, a pre workout meal is there to help you get the energy needed for workouts. On the other hand, a post workout meal is needed for post workout recovery. Your muscles go through a lot of wear and tear during heavy workouts. And when provided the right nutrition while repairing, the muscles grow bigger than before. This is the phenomenon behind muscle build-up from workouts. So, for this process, your muscles need to restore glycogen, which is the stored energy used during workouts. All this can happen only if you consume the proper nutrients. Thus, it is imperative to take care of your body to speed up your muscle recovery. Coming up, we will dig more into the nutrients you should be focusing on for post workout meals. You will also learn about the ideal timing for your post workout meal to get the best results. Nutrition from Meals: After a workout, the right meal can really make the difference you need in your fitness journey. So, while a balance of every macronutrient is desirable, you need to focus more on the consumption

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How to Overcome Emotional & Stress Eating

Emotional & Stress Eating: Causes & Solutions

August 22, 2022

The modern world as we know it can be quite tolling on our mental health. And this can lead to all sorts of mental health issues like stress and anxiety. However, the issues don\’t stop there since mental health issues can lead to further health issues because of things like stress eating. If you are hearing about stress eating or emotional eating for the first time, then you are definitely at the right place! We will be going through all the important details regarding emotional eating and learning everything about it. More importantly, you can learn about the symptoms of stress eating and how you can overcome emotional eating with simple lifestyle changes. What is Stress Eating or Emotional Eating? When people turn to food to pacify themselves in a state of emotional imbalance, we call it emotional eating. Emotional eating is associated with mindless eating without being actually hungry. Although, if you’re an emotional eater, you might think you’re hungry when you’re stressed out. But, there is a difference between feeling hungry because of stress and being physically hungry. Actual Hunger vs Emotional Hunger To better understand emotional eating, let\’s learn about the differences between actual hunger and emotional hunger which leads to emotional or stress eating: Emotional hunger feels more like a sudden craving, whereas physical hunger comes gradually. If you are emotional eating, you will end up binge eating without minding the food quantities. For example, you may eat a whole bag of chips or a whole tub of ice cream without realizing how much you are eating. Emotional hunger comes after an emotional trigger and physical hunger generally takes place around your usual meal timings. While emotional hunger will be satisfied after eating a lot of food or feeling mentally better, physical hunger will be satisfied by eating just as per your usual appetite. Emotional hunger makes you turn to your favorite comfort food only and you will be eating particular food items. On the other hand, you will be open to more options if you are feeling physical hunger. Even if you end up eating a lot of food due to physical hunger, you won\’t feel guilty afterward. On the other hand, emotional hunger will definitely make you feel bad about binge eating. Whenever you are physically hungry, you will feel the effects of it in your stomach due to a growling sensation or something similar. However, emotional hunger is all in your mind and it is more of a thought than a feeling in your stomach. Symptoms of Stress Eating While there are various scenarios that can lead up to stress eating, the overall symptoms or reasons leading to emotional eating will be usually similar. Even if you recently had lunch or dinner, you may end up getting stressed due to work, studies, personal issues, or any other thing going on in your life. And if any of these factors make you crave eating snacks, then it is definitely a symptom of stress eating. While it is fairly normal to face such an experience once in a while, depending on food to overcome mental stress and agitation on a regular basis is definitely a matter of concern. Stress Eating is More Dangerous than you Think Now that you know more about emotional & stress eating, let\’s learn more about the dangers and effects of emotional eating: Weight Gain Relying on food to temporarily improve your mental health will make you eat much more food than required. Hence, it can result in serious weight gain issues over time. Lifestyle Diseases Since stress eating generally makes you eat comfort food including junk food and processed food items, it can lead to various lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, and much more. Economical Effects Apart from its effects on your physical health, eating a lot of food due to stress and anxiety can also have economical effects since you may end up spending a lot on food that you generally wouldn\’t eat. Mental Toll Even though you are opting for stress eating to overcome mental stress, emotional eating itself will also lead to a mental toll. If you are stress-eating on a regular basis, you will eventually start feeling guilty for the same which can make you further stressed about your health. Why do People Turn to Stress Eating? There can be multiple possible reasons leading to emotional eating including financial stress, relationship stress, work-related stress, and so on. Stressing out creates a sense of emotional vacuum in the mind. Because of this, people turn to stress eating as a way to overcome the stress in their daily lives. Eating food will make you feel psychologically full, thereby creating an illusion of filling any emotional void. These cravings are mostly for comfort food and fast food items that act as a dopamine hit and make you feel better. This is obviously a temporary relief because the hunger is for emotional fullness, not physical. And as discussed earlier, this dopamine hit comes at the cost of all kinds of health effects. Identifying Emotional Triggers Leading to Stress Eating: If you are struggling with emotional eating, then there are definitely some emotional triggers that make you do so. And if you want to overcome stress eating or emotional eating, identifying these triggers is highly important. Some common emotional triggers leading to stress eating include: Daily Life Stress As mentioned earlier, stress from various events in your daily life is one of the biggest emotional triggers of stress eating. Behavioral Habits For some, eating habits can be carried from their childhood to their adulthood. This simply means that if your parents rewarded you with food while feeling low, then you may build up a habit of the same. Social Gatherings While hanging out with friends is definitely great to reduce stress, people tend to hang out at restaurants and cafes. Hence, you may end up binge eating or stress eating in the name of a

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Improve Mental Health in a Stressful World

August 4, 2022

The importance of mental health and mental well-being is something that most people take too lightly. Too often, people may suffer in silence from the inside and have no idea of how to improve mental health. A majority of the global population is now facing mental health issues because of our hectic and busy life schedules. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to spread awareness about the importance of mental health. By being more open about mental health, we can all be helpful to each other in overcoming the mental issues we face on a daily basis. Working on achieving balanced mental health can help you better in handling life\’s challenges with ease. But as you know, it is not always easy to maintain a good headspace. Thus, we are here with a complete guide on the importance of mental health and how you can improve your mental health bit by bit. Importance of Mental Health and its Awareness! Mental health can be described as the state of mind. It can be regarded as a measure of how well a person is doing in life emotionally, psychologically, and socially. So, good mental health would mean that a balance in all these aspects exists. It also means that the person is able to cope with difficult situations of daily life well. Mental health is a complex concept that requires a balance of everything. Hence, it is often possible to experience days of bad mental health. However, there are some factors that can affect your mental health or make you more vulnerable to a disturbed mental state. The factors are: Biological: Any abnormality in your genes or an injury can affect your mental health. Lifestyle: Factors like unhealthy eating habits, disturbed sleep, smoking, alcohol use, lack of exercise, and others can also mess with your mental health. Life Experiences: Any adversities or trauma faced in the early stages of life can deteriorate mental health even in the later stages of life. Family History: Having someone in the family with a history of mental health issues or disorders can also increase your chances of being more at risk of developing a bad mental state. These factors are generally the reason behind developing mental health issues, and in certain cases, can even lead to more serious issues like developing mental disorders. This can include disorders like anxiety, eating disorders, depression, etc, that affect a person’s thinking, mood, and general behavior significantly. Signs and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health To avoid yourself paving the way to any serious mental health issues, it is important to recognize any early signs and symptoms of poor mental health such as: Feeling anxious frequently Lack of sleeper Isolating yourself from your loved ones Unhealthy changes in eating pattern Extreme mood swings Self-harm thoughts Having difficulty in performing daily tasks Feeling cold shoulders on a regular basis These are just some of the common symptoms of poor mental health and possible mental disorders that one may have. If you see a few of such symptoms together, then you should analyze your situation and make improvements in your life for better mental health. Why Mental Health is so Important? You must now know that a good mental state can help you in leading a much healthier and happier life. Improving your mental health can help you in achieving the following: Ability to cope with the daily challenges of life with ease Healthier relationships with your friends and family Better social interactions Better productivity for improved quality and output Improved physical health More confident in life To sum up, improving your mental health can help you lead a happier and more confident life to easily achieve all your life goals. Therefore, there is an urgent need to spread awareness about mental health so that we do not lose more people to serious health issues and help them lead quality life. How to Improve your Mental Health? Now that you know more about the importance of mental health, you should also try improving the same. Thus, here are some of the best ways to improve your mental health. You can try the following and go with the ones that work the best for you: Seeking out Friends and Family Sharing your thoughts and problems with others can be quite helpful for improving your mental health. You can share your thoughts and problems with either a trusted friend or family member. While it may seem like a very basic solution, it works much better than you may think. Talking openly about issues can help relieve stress and anxiety quite a lot. And if you are discussing things with the right person, it can also lead to possible solutions to your problems. Being with your friends and family can also help you reduce your stress levels a lot. Getting in touch with your old friends, cousins, and others that you know can be quite therapeutic. You can either go out for lunch, play some sports, or simply spend time at your home with your close friends and family to feel much happier to reduce your stress levels easily. A Clutter-Free Life for a Clutter-Free Mind When you overthink things, it is quite hard to focus on anything else with a cluttered mind. In that case, you can consider organizing the things around you since it can be quite helpful for clearing up brain fog. This can be quite helpful to come up with solutions instead of overthinking everything. You can start by organizing your closet, decluttering your desk, cleaning up your house, or even personal body care. By clearing out the clutter in your life, you can give yourself more space to focus on your mental health. Improve your Work Life for your Mental Well Being Whether you are working or studying on a regular basis, it can be quite stressful in the long run. If you are working or studying for long hours at a time, you may end up overwhelmed

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Plant and Animal Protein: Which is the Best?

June 15, 2022

In case you want to have a healthy body, it is highly important that you have a balanced diet that includes all the essential nutrients like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Because of the importance of nutrients like protein, you might be confused between plant and animal protein sources. Since protein can be found in both plant and animal protein sources, choosing between plant and animal-based food items can be a bit confusing. Thus, we are here with a complete guide on plant vs animal protein, differences between proteins, benefits of plant and animal protein, and much more. Protein and its Importance Protein plays an integral role in the growth of the human body. It serves as the building block for your tissues and muscles. Proteins can also work as an energy source for your daily activities. When you incorporate protein into your daily diet, it improves your overall health and body growth. This nutrient also performs other body functions such as strengthening immunity, maintaining cell structure, acting as a catalyst in many chemical reactions, regulating the functions of hormones, maintaining organ structure, and ensuring the overall development and growth of your body. Since you can get sufficient protein from both plant and animal food sources choosing the better one can be quite confusing for most. Thus, let’s take a deeper look at both of these. What is Plant Protein? Plant protein is the protein that comes from food items sourced from plants and trees. Even though plant proteins are considered “incomplete” by most, that is not the reality. While some plant protein sources may lack certain essential amino acids, you can combine multiple plant-based protein sources. These combine together and make for a complete plant protein source. Plant protein sources also consist of phytonutrients like antioxidants. These also include a lower amount of saturated fat and a higher amount of unsaturated fats. What is Animal Protein? As the name suggests, animal protein is the protein that gets sourced from animal-based food items. It is considered a complete protein and provides all the essential amino acids required by your body even if you don’t combine different sources together. And if you are consuming fortified animal sources, it can have higher quantities of nutrients Vitamin D, Heme-Iron, DHA, and Omega 3. Similarities Between Plant and Animal Protein Even though we are here to look at the differences between plant vs animal protein sources, there are still a few similarities between them. Some of the common benefits of plant and animal proteins have been given here: Both plant and animal protein food sources contain protein as well as essential and non-essential amino acids. These plant and animal protein sources also provide other nutrients to the body, namely fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. With either of these protein sources, you can fulfill your daily protein requirement which is needed for various body functions like tissue and muscle growth, cell structures, hormone function, and more. Differences between Animal vs Plant Protein? Apart from the various similarities given above, there are also various differences between animal vs plant protein sources that include the following: Amino Acids Proteins consist of various amino acids and the human body uses twenty different amino acids to build proteins. While your body can make some of these acids on its own, you still have to get nine of them from a healthy diet which are known as essential amino acids. This is where plant and animal protein sources differ from each other as animal protein sources can offer all of them from a single source. On the other hand, you will need to combine multiple plant protein sources if you want to get all of the essential amino acids for your body. Digestibility Plant protein food sources are generally easier to digest than animal protein food sources. Calories & Fiber Animal protein sources are higher in calories than plant protein sources despite which plant protein will keep you full for longer. This is due to the fact that plant protein sources are high in fiber and complex carbs. Nutritional Value The nutritional value of both these protein sources differs. Animal protein sources are rich in vitamin D, Omega 3, saturated fat, zinc, and all essential amino acids. On the other hand, plant protein sources are full of fiber, unsaturated fat, potassium, magnesium, and essentially the majority of the nutrients that we need. Heme Iron Animal protein contains heme iron which is more bioavailable than non-heme iron present in plant protein sources. In simpler words, heme iron has a higher absorption rate than non-heme iron. Antioxidants Plant protein comprises more antioxidants compared to animal protein. What are the Benefits of Plant Protein Sources? Whether you don’t have access to a non-vegetarian diet or you stick to a vegetarian diet as per your choice, plant protein sources can be a great way to fulfill your protein requirements while being vegetarian. And unlike what you would expect, plant protein sources have various benefits as given down below: Protection Against Heart Disease As per studies and research, people who follow a vegetarian diet containing plant protein sources are 30 percent less likely to die from coronary heart diseases than people who consume meat. Protection Against Cancer Eating a plant-based diet also decreases your risk of cancer. Plants include substances called phytochemicals that help prevent cancer. A Healthier Gut Plant protein sources are also rich in fiber which helps you keep your weight in check and protect your gut health. Prevent Type 2 Diabetes People who consume a plant-based diet are at a lower risk of getting type 2 diabetes than people who rely on animal protein to fulfill their protein intake. What are the Benefits of Animal Protein? Animal protein sources can also have their own benefits if included in your diet in a controlled quantity. This includes the following benefits that you enjoy if you are consuming animal protein sources: Low Fat Animal Protein Sources Benefits If you are consuming low-fat animal protein

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How to Gain Weight in a Healthy Way

Best Pre and Post Workout Meals

Emotional & Stress Eating: Causes & Solutions

Improve Mental Health in a Stressful World

Plant and Animal Protein: Which is the Best?

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