Can you give me advice on gaining weight?

When your goal is to gain weight, it's important to not only eat calorie dense foods, but also nutrient rich foods. Try not to just focus on high calorie food like takeaways, crisps and chocolate – while these will help to increase your calorie intake, they mostly provide empty calories and will also significantly increase your saturated fat and sugar intake, so not good choices for your overall health.

Gaining weight should be done in the same way as losing weight – sensibly and gradually. Good food choices when you're looking to gain weight are: Lean meat, poultry, eggs, nuts, pulses, oily fish, olive oil, avocado, nuts, full fat dairy foods e.g. milk, yogurt, cheese.

Eating extra calories might seem a bit daunting if you're used to small portions or your appetite isn't great so here are some tips:

1. Start off by adding in some extra snacks, and then gradually increase the total amount of food you eat over the course of the day.
2. The frequency of meal occasions is also a good way to increase calorie and nutrient intake. Try to eat 6 times per day: 3-4 small meals and at least 2 snacks per day.
3. At least 3 meal occasions during the day should include protein, complex carbohydrates, vegetables or salad and a source of fat.
4. Base your meals around wholemeal carbohydrates such as wholemeal pasta; lean protein such as skinless chicken breast and fish, and plenty of fruits and vegetables – then enrich these with additional ingredients such as yogurt, fruit, nuts and healthy fats.
5. Continue eating a wide range of foods from all food groups, but increase your portion size realistically wherever possible.
6. If you're looking to gain muscle mass rather than just gain weight, you will need to increase your protein intake as well as calories. Muscle mass will only increase with strength training. Post-training, include high protein snacks such as protein bars, protein shakes or milk to ensure maximum recovery.