How to Gain Weight on a Vegan Diet

Marta Ferraz Valles, MA, RD, LD, an outpatient dietitian at The Institute for Digestive Health and Liver Disease at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, recently responded to a query from VegNews.com regarding how to gain weight on a vegan diet. Below are her responses:

What are the best vegan sources of calorie-dense foods that also provide essential nutrients? 

Calorie-dense foods tend to be the ones higher in fat, since fats have more calories than protein and carbohydrates. For whole sources of calorie-dense (and nutrient-dense) foods for weight gain on a vegan diet, include nuts and nut butters, seed and seed butter, avocadoes, and olives. You can also include healthy oils like olive and avocado oil.

How much protein should someone aiming to gain weight consume on a vegan diet, and what are the most effective plant-based sources? 

For weight gain, the goal is to increase calories, not necessarily protein. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For a person who weighs 150 pounds, that translates to 55 grams of protein a day which can easily be achieved by including legumes, tofu, nuts, seeds, quinoa and/or soy milk into the diet.

What role do fats play in healthy weight gain, and how can vegans incorporate more healthy fats without relying on processed foods? 

Fats provide more calories (9 calories per gram) than carbohydrates and protein (4 calories per gram), so they are great to help with weight gain. As I wrote before, healthy sources of fats include nuts and nut butters, seed and seed butter, avocadoes, and olives, as well as olive and avocado oils.

Are there any common mistakes that vegans make when trying to gain weight, and how can they avoid them? 

Common mistakes include relying on ultra-processed foods that are high in calories because they also contain a lot of added sugars, salt, and oils, as well as chemicals and preservatives. These include foods such as many vegan pastries, cookies and desserts, and vegan processed meats and cheeses, among many others. Instead, choosing calorie-dense foods that are also healthy (such as the ones discussed before), increasing portion sizes, adding extra snacks, or making calorie-dense smoothies with non-dairy milk, fruits, nuts and seeds, may be healthier ways to gain weight. Of course, it is okay to include some processed foods in the diet that we may enjoy and add some calories, but ideally, the bulk of our diet should come from whole, plant-based foods.

How should exercise, particularly strength training, be incorporated into a weight gain plan on a vegan diet?

Strength training should be incorporated at least 2 to 3 days a week. Add exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once such as squats and deadlifts, and safely use heavier weights to build muscle.

Marta Ferraz Valles provides nutrition counseling for weight loss and gastrointestinal conditions, working closely with the physicians of the Institute for Digestive Health and Liver Disease. She assists patients in developing individualized nutrition plans for a variety of health conditions including:

• Celiac disease
• Chronic constipation
• Cirrhosis
• Food intolerance
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease
• Gastroparesis
• Inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
• Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
• Obesity
• Pancreatitis