How to Help Your Athlete Gain Weight the Healthy Way

 

The topic of weight gain for athletic performance is an incredibly complex, tricky topic, especially for caregivers of young athletes. It can be difficult helping an athlete gain weight in a way that’s healthy from a nutritional standpoint and maintains a healthy relationship with food from a mental standpoint. Doing all of this while still making mealtime enjoyable for the whole family, and fueling your athlete appropriately for sport, can feel overwhelming.

But here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, offers simple explanations for why and when an athlete should focus on weight gain and easy ways that you can help them achieve those outcomes.

 

Evaluate the ‘Why’ for Weight Gain

If an athlete feels like they need to gain weight in order to excel in their sport, it’s important to talk about the athlete’s mental health and relationship with the scale before moving forward.

“I have parents who contact me and say that their son plays baseball or football and needs to gain weight to be competitive,” Ziesmer says. “I can understand that, but at the same time, it can easily get out of control.”

“Athletes who think they ‘need’ to gain weight can develop bigorexia—the need to be bigger,” says Ziesmer. “And for some athletes, there’s simply nothing that they can do to grow their muscles any faster as their body goes through puberty.” Simply put, there is no powder, potion, or quick fix that will help your athlete safely bulk up.

Ziesmer believes that the only time weight gain is appropriate for young athletes is when the athlete is underweight for their height and age, or is actually losing weight throughout a season. “I look at growth charts and compare that to the athlete, rather than looking at the sport they’re playing,” she says. “To gain weight just to be competitive in sport is very tricky and potentially unhealthy.”

On the flip side, not every sport celebrates weight gain, and your young athlete may be trying to stay smaller and delay puberty. In sports like running and gymnastics, athletes may be intentionally avoiding weight gain in order to fit a certain body type/size that they perceive to be best for their sport, even while hearing from a doctor that they need to be gaining weight to be in a healthy range.

A visit to your athlete’s doctor should tell you where they are on the growth chart in terms of their weight compared to their height and age. “If your athlete is below the 25th percentile and if that number is dropping, that’s a red flag,” says Ziesmer. She does note that some kids are just naturally going to be smaller, and that’s perfectly fine. The key is looking for that downward trend in the growth chart or in their BMI—if it continues to track lower and lower, intervention may be required.

 

How to Support Healthy Weight Gain

 

1. Look at the Overall Diet—Not One Specific Meal

At TrueSport, we talk a lot about what to eat around practice and competition, but we also focus on what an athlete is eating throughout the day. Ziesmer notes that especially where weight gain is a goal, caretakers need to be even more focused on the athlete’s total intake, not just how they fuel for training.

 

2. Hone the Athlete’s Plate

Helping your athlete gain weight does not mean taking them out for fast food and milkshakes for every meal. “First, I would recommend looking at their overall diet and asking yourself if most of their meals follow the guidelines laid out for an athlete’s plate, where every meal has an appropriate amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat, and vegetables,” Ziesmer says.

“A plate for a heavier training day should be half covered in carbohydrates, a quarter protein, a quarter vegetables, and a couple of thumbs of fat. This should be your athlete’s normal meal ratio if they’re trying to gain weight.”

 

2. Add Liquid Calories

Your athlete may simply not be eating enough during these mealtimes. “Some kids who are on the smaller side or who tend to lose weight easily have a hard time eating enough food at one time,” Ziesmer says. “In these cases, I would suggest adding more calories in the form of easy-to-eat liquids. For example, they could incorporate a healthy smoothie as a snack after a meal.”

 

4. Use Healthy, Dense Fats

“Adding high calorie and nutrient dense foods to meals and snacks is a great strategy,” says Ziesmer. “Peanut butter or any type of nut butter is great. Adding avocado and cheese to dishes can be helpful. Cooking food in olive oil or avocado oil rather than a no-calorie spray is good. And you can always throw some chia seeds and flax seeds into smoothies.”