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Oats are one of the most popular cereal grains that are highly nutritious and versatile. You can have them in the form of oatmeal as a healthy breakfast, or granola bars that you can munch on for a quick snack. Oatmeal is usually prepared by adding water or milk and other optional add-ons like nuts, dried fruit, and sweeteners.
Depending on how you prepare your oatmeal, it can promote either weight gain or weight loss. Some instant and flavoured oats may be unhealthy because they contain too much sugar, leading to weight gain. While homemade oatmeal sweetened naturally may be healthier, promoting weight loss.
Do Oats Benefits Weight Gain?
If you’re looking to gain weight, oatmeal can certainly help you. But it is important to increase the caloric value of your oatmeal via healthy means, rather than piling on excess refined sugars and ending up with an unhealthy meal just to increase your body mass. Here’s a short guide on how to best prepare your oats for weight gain.
Which Oats is Best For Weight Gain?
Rolled oats, steel-cut oats and plain instant oats are the best starting points for weight gain. You can then add high-calorie ingredients like fruit, peanut butter and honey.
How to Prepare Oats For Weight Gain?
Oatmeal, by itself, is packed with nutrients like iron, magnesium and vitamin B1. Complex carbs and the beta glucan type of fibre abundant in oats make you feel fuller and ward off hunger.
So, how then to ensure that oats can be used for weight gain? The answer lies in the add-ons. When you add ingredients that have higher proteins and calories to oatmeal, you can increase its weight-gaining properties.
- Choose a type of healthy oats like rolled or steel-cut oats. Avoid instant oats that have added sweeteners, since it’s best to control added sugars yourself during preparation.
- Make oatmeal with milk instead of water to ensure higher caloric content and added protein.
- Mix in some crunchy elements like almonds, walnuts and seeds.
- Add dried fruits like raisins, apricot, cranberries and dates. These add some natural sweetness as well as calories.
- Finally, top your oatmeal with some delicious fresh or frozen fruits like diced strawberries, bananas, mango, blueberries etc.
- You can even increase the calories further by adding natural sweeteners like honey or agave nectar.
The Final Word
Consuming oatmeal can help you achieve your weight gain goals with great results. But ensure that you increase its caloric content by adding healthy ingredients. Gaining weight may seem easy, but choosing high-calorie food that is also healthy can be tricky. Before you know it, you may end up adding more body mass than required.
A personal nutritionist can greatly benefit you in this regard. With FITFEAST, our expert nutritionists can help you achieve a fine balance of weight-gaining but healthy meals. Get a FITPASS membership and start talking to your personal dietician today.
