How to Gain Weight Healthily: Indian Foods That Actually Work
Expert-reviewed guide for Indian diets
Let me be honest with you — gaining weight the right way is harder than losing it for most people I see in my clinic. The advice "just eat more" sounds simple until you're the person who feels full after half a plate of rice and can't push through it. I see a lot of thin young men and women, especially from South Indian and North-Eastern states, who've been told their whole lives that they're lucky to be slim. They come to me not because they're vain, but because they're tired, weak in the gym, or have been told their haemoglobin and bone density are concerning.
The Indian diet, for all its beauty, has a real caloric density problem for underweight people. A plate of dal-chawal is nutritious, yes — but if you eat the portion that makes you full, you may have consumed only 400–500 calories. Someone who needs 2,800–3,200 calories to gain weight has a long road ahead eating only dal and rice. The solution isn't to replace good food with junk. It's to intelligently add calorie-dense, nutrient-rich foods to what you're already eating — a spoon of ghee here, a handful of dry fruits there, a glass of whole milk before bed.
There's also a specific mistake I see constantly: underweight people drinking a large glass of water right before meals. Water fills the stomach and blunts hunger — which is great if you're trying to eat less, terrible if you're trying to eat more. I always tell my thin clients: shift your water to between meals, never just before. And another thing — many underweight people are actually light smokers or heavy tea and coffee drinkers, and nicotine and caffeine both suppress appetite. These habits quietly sabotage every effort to gain.
One more thing before we get to the food list. For ectomorphs — the naturally thin body type — the goal isn't just calories, it's caloric density without sacrificing nutrition. Eating 500 grams of chips every day will put weight on you, but it'll be inflammatory, insulin-spiking, liver-stressing weight. We want dense, real food. Nuts, dairy, legumes, eggs, and whole grains are your friends. Let's go through them properly.
Foods to Eat
Whole Milk (Full-Fat Doodh)
Two to three glasses of full-fat milk per day is one of the most efficient weight-gain strategies I recommend. A single 250ml glass gives you around 150 calories, 8g protein, and a good mix of saturated and unsaturated fat. The key is to drink it between meals — not with them — and ideally one glass before bed when your body is in anabolic mode. If you're lactose intolerant, try A2 milk or small quantities of curd instead.
Banana and Milk Smoothie (Kela Doodh)
This is genuinely one of the most underrated mass-gainers in any culture. Two ripe bananas blended with a glass of full-fat milk, a teaspoon of desi ghee, and a few soaked almonds gives you roughly 500–600 calories in one glass that takes five minutes to make. The natural sugars in banana spike insulin gently, which helps shuttle nutrients into muscle cells. Have this 30–45 minutes before a workout or first thing in the morning before breakfast.
Dates (Khajoor)
Five to six dates give you about 140 calories, 2g fibre, and a range of minerals including potassium and magnesium. More importantly, they're incredibly easy to eat — there's no cooking, no preparation, no "I'm already full." I tell my clients to keep a small box of khajoor on their desk and eat three before lunch and three before dinner. Combined with milk, the protein-carb combination is excellent for muscle building. Buy Medjool or Safawi varieties if you can — they're meatier and less sugary than the cheapest supermarket dates.
Mixed Dry Fruits and Nuts
A 30g handful of mixed almonds, cashews, walnuts, and raisins gives you 170–200 calories and high-quality fats and protein. Almonds and walnuts are particularly good — almonds for vitamin E and monounsaturated fats, walnuts for omega-3. Soak almonds overnight and eat them peeled in the morning — it improves digestion and nutrient absorption. Avoid salted, flavoured, or honey-roasted nuts; the sodium and sugar are unnecessary additions.
Desi Ghee
One to two teaspoons of good-quality desi ghee added to your dal, rice, or roti adds 40–80 calories of clean fat without changing the taste of your food significantly. Ghee is rich in butyric acid which is excellent for gut health, and its high smoke point makes it far safer for Indian cooking than refined oils. The key word is "added to" — you're not frying things in ghee, you're finishing your meal with it. This is exactly how traditional Indian cooking used ghee before refined oil became dominant in the 1980s.
Rajma and Chana
One katori of cooked rajma gives you about 15g protein and 225 calories — impressive numbers for a plant food. Chana (chickpeas) is similar. Both are also high in fibre, which sounds counterproductive for weight gain, but the fibre actually slows digestion and keeps blood sugar stable, meaning the calories are used for building rather than fat storage. Have rajma or chana as your primary protein at lunch, not as a side dish. A full bowl, not a small serving.
Whole Eggs
Three whole eggs give you 18–21g of complete protein and about 210 calories. More importantly, the yolk contains fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K and choline, which is critical for brain and muscle function. I hear so many people still saying "I only eat egg whites" — this is outdated advice. Unless you have a specific cholesterol problem, eating 2–3 whole eggs daily is perfectly fine and dramatically more nutritious than whites alone. Boiled, poached, or scrambled in ghee — all good.
Whole Grain Roti with Peanut Butter
Two whole wheat rotis spread with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter (no added sugar) gives you a remarkable 350–400 calories with a good protein-carb-fat balance. Peanut butter is 25% protein and rich in monounsaturated fats. Make sure you're buying the kind where the only ingredient is peanuts — the commercial brands with added hydrogenated oil and sugar defeat the purpose entirely. This makes an excellent pre-workout snack or between-meal calorie boost.
Amla with Honey
This might seem like an odd inclusion in a weight-gain list, but hear me out. Amla (Indian gooseberry) is the highest natural source of vitamin C in the Indian subcontinent — one amla has 20 times the vitamin C of an orange. Vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis and, crucially, for iron absorption. Underweight individuals are frequently iron-deficient, which causes fatigue that undermines their ability to exercise and build muscle. One amla with a teaspoon of raw honey in the morning sets the nutritional foundation for everything else to work better.
Sattu Drink
Sattu — roasted gram flour — is a traditional Bihar and UP staple that deserves a much wider audience. Two tablespoons of sattu mixed with cold water, a pinch of black salt, and a squeeze of lemon gives you about 12g protein and 130 calories in a drink that takes 30 seconds to make. It's cooling in summer, filling but not heavy, and extremely affordable. I recommend it as a mid-morning drink for underweight clients who find it hard to eat large meals.
Foods to Avoid
Skipping Meals
For someone trying to gain weight, skipping even one meal is a significant setback. Your body enters a catabolic state roughly 4–5 hours after eating — meaning it starts breaking down muscle for energy. Three meals plus two snacks is the minimum structure for weight gain. Set alarms if you have to. I'm serious about this — I've had clients exercise religiously and eat well at two meals but skip lunch due to work, and they show zero progress for months.
Excessive Chai and Coffee
Two to three cups of chai or coffee per day is fine for most people, but if you're thin and struggling to gain, caffeine is actively working against you by suppressing appetite and increasing cortisol (which promotes muscle breakdown). If you're having five or six cups, reduce to two and shift them to after meals — never before. The appetite suppression from chai before a meal can easily cut your food intake by 20–30%.
Low-Calorie Diet Foods
Anything marketed as "low-fat," "diet," "light," or "sugar-free" is not for you. Low-fat curd, diet biscuits, skimmed milk — these strip out the very calories and fats you need. Choose full-fat dairy, real nuts, whole grains. The "diet food" industry is designed for weight loss, and adopting it while trying to gain weight is one of the most common and frustrating mistakes I see.
Cigarettes and Tobacco
Nicotine is among the most potent appetite suppressants known. Even one or two cigarettes a day meaningfully reduces hunger signals. Beyond appetite, smoking impairs nutrient absorption, reduces lung capacity (limiting exercise), and elevates cortisol chronically. If you smoke and are underweight, quitting is the single most impactful thing you can do for your weight-gain efforts — more than any food change.
Excessive Spicy or Heavy Fried Food
I know this sounds like I'm taking away the fun, but very spicy food and heavily fried food (think deep-fried samosas, excessive mirchi, achaar in large amounts) cause digestive irritation that reduces nutrient absorption and food tolerance. The goal is maximum nutrient density from every calorie, not just maximum calories. A stomach that's irritated doesn't absorb food properly — you can eat a lot and still not gain.
Drinking Water Just Before Meals
This one surprises people. Water before meals is frequently recommended for weight loss because it occupies stomach volume and reduces appetite. For the same reason, it's counterproductive for weight gain. Drink your water 30 minutes before meals or 30 minutes after — never in the ten minutes before you sit down to eat. This small habit change, consistently followed, meaningfully increases how much you can eat at each meal.
Practical Tips for the Indian Kitchen
Eat Every 2.5–3 Hours Without Exception
Weight gain requires a consistent caloric surplus — which means eating frequently enough that your body never runs out of fuel. Plan five to six eating occasions per day: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, pre-workout/evening snack, dinner, and ideally something small before bed (a glass of warm milk with haldi and a teaspoon of ghee works well). Use phone alarms until it becomes habit.
Add Calories to Food You're Already Eating
The most sustainable weight-gain strategy isn't eating alien foods you hate — it's adding calorie density to your existing meals. Finishing your dal with a teaspoon of ghee, adding a handful of peanuts to your poha, mixing dry fruits into your curd, blending a banana into your morning milk — these additions add 300–500 calories to your day without requiring you to eat significantly more volume.
Prioritise Post-Workout Nutrition
If you exercise — even basic bodyweight training — the 30–60 minutes after your workout is the most important nutritional window of your day. Your muscles are primed to absorb protein and carbohydrates for repair and growth. Have a banana with two boiled eggs, or a glass of milk with sattu, or curd with honey immediately after training. Skipping post-workout nutrition while exercising is one of the most common reasons people train for months without visible results.
Track Your Food for Just One Week
Most underweight people genuinely don't know how many calories they're eating. They feel like they eat a lot, but the numbers tell a different story. Use any free app (even just estimating portions) for one week. Almost every client who does this is surprised to find they're eating 1,400–1,600 calories when they thought they were eating 2,000+. Knowing the real number gives you something concrete to improve.
Sleep 7–9 Hours — This Is Non-Negotiable
Growth hormone — the primary hormone responsible for muscle synthesis and healthy weight gain — is released almost entirely during deep sleep. If you're sleeping less than seven hours, you are biochemically limiting your ability to gain muscle regardless of how well you eat. No supplement, no special food will compensate for chronic sleep deprivation. This is not optional advice — it is foundational.
Get Your Iron and Vitamin D Tested First
Before committing to a weight-gain plan, I always recommend checking serum iron, ferritin, and vitamin D levels. Deficiency in either of these — both extraordinarily common in India — causes fatigue, poor exercise tolerance, and impaired appetite. You can eat all the right foods and train consistently, but if your ferritin is 8 and your vitamin D is 14, you'll make very slow progress. Correcting deficiencies first is the foundation on which everything else rests.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many extra calories per day do I need to gain weight?
A: A surplus of 300–500 calories per day over your maintenance calories is the sweet spot for weight gain without excessive fat accumulation. For most young Indian men, maintenance is around 1,800–2,200 calories — so a target of 2,100–2,700 is realistic. For women, add 300–400 to your maintenance. Calculate your weight in kg, multiply by 35 for a rough maintenance estimate, then add 400. Track for two weeks and adjust based on actual weight change.
Q: Will drinking milk at night cause fat instead of muscle?
A: No, and this is a myth I want to specifically debunk. The body doesn't stop using protein and calcium for muscle repair just because it's nighttime — in fact, the opposite is true. Growth hormone peaks during deep sleep, and having protein available (from milk) during this window actively supports muscle synthesis. A glass of warm whole milk 30 minutes before bed is one of the most evidence-backed recommendations for underweight individuals trying to gain muscle mass.
Q: Is it okay to eat more ghee and butter to gain weight?
A: Yes, within reason — one to two teaspoons of ghee per meal is beneficial and not harmful for most healthy people. Ghee is a stable fat, rich in fat-soluble vitamins, and much better than refined oils. However, it is still a fat and should be added to your food, not used in large quantities for frying. Don't pour ghee liberally on everything — use it as a finishing fat on cooked food. Two to three teaspoons per day is a comfortable, healthy range for weight gain.
Q: I eat a lot but still can't gain weight. What's wrong?
A: The most common reasons I find: (1) You're overestimating how much you eat — track it for one week with an app; (2) You have high stress levels and elevated cortisol, which promotes muscle breakdown; (3) You have an undiagnosed condition like hyperthyroidism, which dramatically increases metabolic rate; (4) You have poor gut absorption due to a condition like coeliac disease or inflammatory bowel disease. If honest calorie tracking shows you're eating 2,500+ calories and still not gaining over two months, see a doctor and request a thyroid panel and basic gut health workup.
Q: Should I take mass gainer supplements?
A: I almost never recommend mass gainers as a starting point. Most commercial mass gainers are 70–80% maltodextrin — essentially refined starch — with a small amount of protein powder added. They are calorie-dense, yes, but the quality of those calories is poor. The banana-milk-ghee-almond smoothie I described gives you similar calories with dramatically superior nutrition. If you've genuinely hit your maximum food intake and still need more calories, a basic whey protein (not a mass gainer) added to your milk smoothie is a far better choice.
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