Gaining weight is hard. Honestly, for some people, it feels almost impossible. While half the world is counting calories to slim down, a significant group of "hardgainers" or people recovering from illness are desperately searching for what food to eat to get fat without feeling like they’re constantly about to burst.
It’s not just about eating more pizza.
If you just spam junk food, you might see the scale move, but you'll probably just feel sluggish, bloated, and develop "skinny fat" syndrome where your visceral fat levels spike while your energy craters. You want mass. You want "good" weight. To do that, you have to understand energy density versus volume.
The math is simple, but the execution is where everyone messes up. To gain weight, you need a caloric surplus. According to the Mayo Clinic, adding about 500 calories a day above your maintenance level typically leads to about a pound of weight gain per week. But if you’re trying to eat those 500 calories in broccoli, you’re going to fail. You need fats. You need liquid calories. You need strategy.
The Liquid Calorie Secret
Stop drinking water with your meals. Seriously.
When you drink a big glass of water right before or during a meal, you’re filling up precious stomach real estate with zero-calorie liquid. If you’re looking for what food to eat to get fat, you should be looking at what you can drink. Smoothies are the ultimate "cheat code" for weight gain because they bypass the body's satiety signals to some extent.
Think about it. Eating two cups of oats, a tablespoon of peanut butter, a banana, and two cups of whole milk takes forever. You’ll be chewing until your jaw aches. Throw them in a blender? You can drink that in three minutes. You’ve just downed 800 calories without even trying.
📖 Related: Why the EMS 20/20 Podcast is the Best Training You’re Not Getting in School
Real-world success here comes from adding "invisible" calories. Heavy cream in your coffee. Whole milk instead of almond milk. Adding a scoop of high-quality whey protein or even powdered oats to your drinks. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that liquid calories don't suppress the intake of subsequent solid foods as much as solid calories do. This means you can drink a shake and still feel hungry enough for dinner an hour later.
Nut Butters Are Your Best Friend
Peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter—it doesn't matter. These are calorie bombs in the best way possible.
A single tablespoon of peanut butter is roughly 90 to 100 calories. It’s tiny. You can put it on toast, stir it into oatmeal, or just eat it off a spoon. If you do that four times a day, you’ve hit almost your entire surplus goal. When people ask what food to eat to get fat, they often overlook the simplicity of nuts. They’re shelf-stable, portable, and incredibly dense. Macadamia nuts are particularly potent; they are almost entirely healthy monounsaturated fats and are higher in calories than almost any other nut.
Dense Carbohydrates Over Fillers
You need to be picky about your carbs.
Don't waste time on "airy" carbs like popcorn or rice cakes. They take up too much room. You want "heavy" carbs. Think potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, and rice.
Rice is a staple for a reason. It’s cheap. It’s easy to digest. You can eat a massive bowl of white rice and feel hungry again in two hours. That’s actually a good thing when you’re trying to gain weight. If you’re constantly full, you won’t eat enough. Vertical Diet creator Stan Efferding often advocates for white rice over brown rice for athletes because it’s easier on the digestive system, allowing for more frequent meals without the bloat associated with high-fiber grains.
👉 See also: High Protein in a Blood Test: What Most People Get Wrong
Try this instead of plain rice:
- Cook your rice in beef or chicken bone broth instead of water.
- Mix in a tablespoon of butter or olive oil after it's cooked.
- Add avocado on top.
Suddenly, your 200-calorie bowl of rice is a 500-calorie powerhouse.
The Role of Healthy Fats and Red Meat
Red meat gets a bad rap in the weight-loss world, which makes it a goldmine for those wondering what food to eat to get fat.
Steak, 80/20 ground beef, and lamb contain more calories pound-for-pound than chicken or white fish. They also contain creatine and leucine, which are vital for muscle protein synthesis. If you're gaining weight, you likely want some of that weight to be muscle. Eating fattier cuts of meat provides the cholesterol necessary for hormone production, including testosterone, which is the primary driver of growth.
Salmon is another heavy hitter. Unlike tilapia or cod, salmon is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and carries significantly more calories. A 6-ounce fillet of salmon can easily hit 350-400 calories, whereas the same amount of cod might barely break 150.
Don't Fear the Dairy
Unless you’re lactose intolerant, full-fat dairy is a requirement.
✨ Don't miss: How to take out IUD: What your doctor might not tell you about the process
Greek yogurt (the 5% or 10% fat versions, not the fat-free stuff) is an incredible snack. Mix in some honey and walnuts, and you’re looking at a 400-calorie "light" snack. Cheese is another easy add-on. Sprinkle it on everything. Eggs, too. Don't just eat egg whites. The yolk is where the nutrients and the calories live. Eat the whole egg. Eat four of them.
Why You Keep Failing (The Volume Trap)
Most people fail to gain weight because they eat "clean" in a way that mimics a weight-loss diet. They eat massive salads with chicken breast.
Salads are the enemy of weight gain.
Fiber is great for health, but it’s a satiety signal. If you fill your stomach with voluminous leafy greens and high-fiber veggies, your brain tells your body it's full. If you must eat veggies, cook them down. Sauté spinach in olive oil until it's tiny. Roast carrots in honey. Reduce the volume so you can increase the intake.
Actionable Steps for Guaranteed Weight Gain
If you want to stop being thin and start seeing results, you need a system. Relying on "feeling hungry" won't work because your hunger cues are likely set to a lower weight.
- Track for three days. Use an app like Cronometer or MyFitnessPal. Don't change anything yet. Just see what your "natural" intake is. Most "hardgainers" realize they’re actually only eating 1,800 calories when they thought they were eating 3,000.
- The 10% Rule. Increase your daily calories by 10% every week. Don't jump from 2,000 to 4,000 in one day or you’ll get sick and quit.
- Oil Everything. Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to your pasta, rice, and even your shakes. It's 120 calories and you literally cannot taste it.
- Eat more frequently. If you can’t eat big meals, eat five small ones. Set a timer on your phone. If the timer goes off, you eat a handful of almonds or a protein bar.
- Prioritize sleep. You don't grow while you're eating or training; you grow while you're sleeping. Aim for 8 hours.
Gaining weight is a marathon of consistency. It requires the same discipline that people use to lose weight. By focusing on what food to eat to get fat—specifically high-density, nutrient-rich fats and starches—you bypass the "fullness" barrier and finally give your body the surplus it needs to grow.
Start by adding one 800-calorie shake to your current daily routine. Keep everything else the same. Within two weeks, the scale will move. Use whole milk, two tablespoons of peanut butter, a scoop of protein, and a cup of oats. That single habit change is often enough to break a multi-year plateau.