Body mass index, or BMI, shows whether you are healthy for any particular height. People only discuss if their BMI is too high but no one is interested if the BMI is too low, which is surprising because it poses many health risks. Increasing the BMI has many benefits:
- You look better in public
- Less susceptible to illness and recover quickly
- Low risk of respiratory & digestive problems
- Less probability of cancer and osteoporosis
- Feel better, and
- Enjoy healthy life
But increasing your BMI is not an easy task and you should always consult your doctor for the best ways possible. In the meantime, we recommend you to estimate your BMI and then decide how best to go about it.
How to Estimate Your BMI
You can easily input your numbers at our online BMI calculator or if you are good at mathematics, follow this equation which is not too difficult.
BMI = weight in pounds / (height in inches x height in inches) x 703.
(The above is not a typo. We need height2, and to make it simple, we wrote that way)
For example, if your weight in pounds is 100 and height is 65 inches then your BMI would be:
(100 /65 * 65) x 703 = 16.63
This is too low and a healthy BMI should be between 18.5 and 25.0.
Your target should be to Gain at least 20 pounds which means around 9 kilograms.
Look yourself in the mirror and visualize, how would you look if you increased 9-10 kilos?
Add More Calories to Increase your BMI
Easier said than done, no?
Having more Calories than your daily body needs, increases your weight and in turn ups your BMI. But there are factors you have no control on, like your genes, your metabolism which makes the task more difficult.
Usually, men need between 2,000-3,000 calories and women need 1,600-2,400 calories to maintain their normal weight. To fetch an additional kilogram, you need to increase your figure by around 1,000 calories.
As mentioned above, due to some unavoidable factors, weight gain is not possible for many. Hence, for those, adjusting the figure to 1,200 can be safely assumed for showing positive results. Within reasonable time your BMI will surely reach desirable figures.
Increase Your BMI by Adding Muscle Weight
Why add only Muscle weight, you may ask!
When trying to increase your BMI, you may gain weight from fat also. You must make sure that most of the gain results from increase in muscles to increase your sense of well-being. Too much body fat will get you into obese category irrespective of your landing into the safe BMI.
To gain muscles, strength training is a must. The best muscle-building routine should include one exercise for each major muscle group, abs, chest, legs, and shoulders performed two to three times, with each set containing two to three reps.
Change your Food Habits for Better
Technically you can get extra calories from any food, it is best to stick with a variety of nutrient-rich whole foods. Foods such as bananas, dried apricots, avocados, sweet potatoes, peas, thick Greek yogurt, milk, and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna, tofu, beans, nuts and seeds serve your purpose better. It helps to have a weight gainer supplement to increase your daily calories and put on healthy weight. These weight gainers are formulated using complex carbohydrates, healthy fat and other essentials that also help you in your resistance training. Even if you have never trained before, the ingredients ensure once you start you will never look back and put on the muscular body structure and hence get more muscle weight.
Conclusion
BMI or Body Mass Index provides a rough estimate whether you are overweight, underweight or normal. But it helps you formulate your calorie intake in case you want to jump over. We discussed the ways of gaining weight using BMI and how you can safely achieve the result you have always wanted.
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