How to Gain Weight with Ayurveda? Ayurvedic Weight Gainers, Lifestyle Changes, Exercises & More

In a world where obesity, heart problems, and diabetes have taken center stage, issues associated with being underweight often go unnoticed. Moreover, many find it hard to make time to increase weight using popular methods. 

If you’re in a similar tussle, the right step is to find out how to gain weight with Ayurveda. Since Ayurvedic weight gainers bring a timeless solution to the fatiguing process of taking heavy supplements, followed by a strenuous workout regimen. 

Through simple yet impactful lifestyle changes, Ayurveda brings personalized help to tackle challenges related to weight gain. Read along to learn how to use exercises and Ayurvedic medicine for weight gain. 

Things to Know Before Starting Your Weight Gain Journey Using Ayurveda

In order to strike the needle of the weighing scale at the right weight, you need to identify the root causes hindering your digestion. It is crucial to identify the risk factors of being underweight to avert them before any long-term damage occurs. 

Here are a few things that you must know before starting your journey with Ayurvedic weight gainers:

Things That May Be Restricting Your Weight Gain

Certain lifestyle choices may hinder proper nutrient absorption, thus standing in the way of becoming your healthiest self or attaining your peak body, like:

1. Chronic Stress: Stress that continues for an extended period of time can lead to increased cortisol levels, which can potentially lead to food disorders or sudden weight loss. 
2. Strenuous Work: Doing work that requires physical labor, without keeping the nutrient intake at par with energy requirements, depletes the energy reserve of the body. Thus resulting in fatigue and decreased weight.
3. Skipping Meals: Fasting for long intervals between meals can lead to an imbalance in the stomach acids and cause poor digestive performance. 
4. Hormonal Imbalances: Hormone-related imbalances, such as hyperthyroidism and menopause, may lead to sudden fluctuations in weight.

These are a few ailments that may make a backdoor entrance if the BMI is not kept in check:

1. Osteoporosis: Low body weight increases the chances of Osteoporosis, with reduced bone mineral density, which increases the risks of quick fractures in adults, topped with a slower healing process.
2. Menstrual Irregularities: Lower weight can lead to several hormonal imbalances, causing infertility among men and women. This leads to added menstrual complications and irregularities among women. 
3. Anemia: Inadequate intake of essential nutrients like iron leads to poor absorption of oxygen by the cells, thus causing anemia. 
4. Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies: Several nutrient deficiencies, especially vitamin B12 and vitamin D, lead to chronic fatigue that creates hindrances in carrying out basic daily tasks. 

What is Agni, and What Role Does it Play in Weight Management? 

Agni is used to refer to all the acids and enzymes that act on the food to aid digestion in the stomach. Maintaining this balance is crucial to achieving your ideal weight, enabling proper nutrient absorption, and sustaining a healthy metabolism.

A balanced Agni means ensuring proportionate acidity and enzyme levels in the stomach’s digestive juices. These juices are the most essential element in the breakdown of nutrients, which lays the foundation for enabling better absorption of the food in the later steps of digestion. 

A few symptoms to identify whether you have Agni imbalance are

1. Diarrhea/Constipation: When Agni is not balanced, the food gets absorbed by fermentation, which leads to excessive gas and diarrhea or constipation.
2. Acid Reflux:  In case of pitta dominance, Agni can be aggravated, which leads to symptoms like acid reflux and heartburn. In extreme cases, individuals may be at the risk of developing GERD.

These are the ways to ignite the Agni and keep its flame consistent:

1. Correct and Balance Agni: Adding pungent spices like ginger, cumin, cardamom, black pepper, cayenne, can help rebalance the Agni. Herbal teas like fennel, Cardamom, ginger, mulethi and triphala have also proven helpful in correcting Agni. 
2. Balanced Diet: A balanced diet, consisting of all the major nutrients, is key to good health. An easy way to ensure your meal is a balanced diet is to check for the six tastes, i.e., salty, astringent, bitter, sweet, sour, and pungent. 
3. Timely Meals: The best way to improve all bodily functions is to have meals at fixed intervals every day. Fasting for too long between meals is the root of Agni imbalance, and scheduled meals will fix this problem permanently.  
4. Detoxification: Ashwagandha, mulethi, triphala, and lukewarm lemon water are rich in antioxidants, have anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties. Taking a herbal tea made out of these on an empty stomach in the morning will ramp up your metabolism and aid proper weight gain. 

Sticking to the basics paces up the weight-gaining process when accommodated into the lifestyle and followed consistently. 

What are Ayurvedic Doshas & How Do They Impact Metabolism?

There are 3 types of doshas: Kapha, Pitta, and Vata. Whether you have them depends on the composition of the body, i.e., prakriti, since birth. It is important to know if you have a dosha, as its presence may cause poor digestion & absorption.  

Identify and eliminate these invisible underlying hurdles in your weight gain journey. Wherein, Vata is the element reflecting air and space; Pitta denotes the qualities of fire and water, whilst Kapha reflects the elements of water and earth. 

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how to balance each of these doshas:

1. Vata: Incorporating astringent foods like broccoli, leafy greens, corn, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, etc., can help keep erratic digestion at bay, which is often caused by Vata imbalance.
2. Kapha: A balanced Kapha ramps up the metabolism through dry and warm, pungent food items like ginger, garlic, and mustard. These food items beat the sluggish metabolism created by the oily and heavy nature of Kapha dosha.
3. Pitta: Pitta imbalance usually manifests in the form of acidity, acid reflux, GERD, and inflammation, which leads to poor absorption in the initial digestion process, disrupting absorption. A simple way to counter it is by consuming cool food items like dairy products and fruits. 

Now that you’re aware of the basic factors that impact weight gain, let’s discuss how to gain weight with Ayurveda in the section up next.

How to Gain Weight with Ayurveda? 

Gaining weight with Ayurveda requires you to work on various aspects of your body and lifestyle. Eating planned meals is just one of the aspects that need to be worked upon. Here are a few crucial aspects, focusing on which will aid your weight gain journey:

Impact of Mind-Body Connection on Weight Gain

According to Ayurveda, eating habits are influenced largely by the mental state of humans. When left unsupervised for too long, they can lead to bad weight gain, which is called “dirty bulking” in modern terms. 

Here are a few ways emotional/stress eating can manifest and impact the body:

1. Food Disorders: Our relationship with food is sometimes governed by our emotions when they overwhelm us. Many turn towards food to find emotional respite, which leads to complications like binge-eating disorder. This leads to craving junk food and can lead to unhealthy weight gain if not identified and kept in check initially. 
2. Stress Eating: In times of stress, the mind starts to turn toward unhealthy foods, which increases the cortisol levels in the body with long-term exposure. Inflated amounts of cortisol can result in a heightened appetite and accumulation of bad body mass (around the belly and arms). 

Managing emotions is thereby a crucial step in ensuring that the weight that you’re gaining is clean and is not stored in the form of fat but rather in the form of muscle mass. 

Aspects of Gaining Weight Using Ayurveda 

Consuming a diet rich in complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, protein, and dense calories is a crucial aspect of how to gain weight with Ayurveda. 

The first of the five pillars of gaining weight sustainably is a diet rich in the following nutrients: 

The second pillar is the process of eating itself. It is advised to follow these steps (prakriya) while consuming food:

1. Meditating: Concentrate on the food, its taste, texture, aroma, and consistency.
2. Chewing Thoroughly: Chew the food thoroughly and slowly, savoring each bite. 
3. Sitting Mudra: The ideal position while eating is the criss-cross applesauce/cross-legged/ sukhasana position. 
4. No Distractions: Do not multitask while eating, keep your electronic gadgets away, and pause the TV shows for a while. 
5. Prayer/Gratitude: Express gratitude towards the nutrients you’re receiving and the entire process that goes on behind putting food on your table. 

Hydration is the third pillar of the weight-gaining process, as it aids the absorption of nutrients. Water clears the blood and improves the overall state of the body. Various juices, coconut water, and fruits with high water content help keep the nutrients locked in the body for longer. 

Eating a balanced meal is the fourth pillar, which has to be followed consistently. The meals must contain all six components—sour, sweet, salty, pungent, astringent & bitter.

Eating timely meals is the final pillar that enables a healthy, sustainable, and smooth weight gain journey. It keeps the bodily juices balanced and regulated, while maintaining energy reserves at the same time. 

Now that we’ve covered all the crucial aspects of how to gain weight with Ayurveda, let’s move towards the next section to find out a few exercises that will help sustain that body weight for a longer time. 

Ayurvedic Weight Gainers and Yoga Asanas 

Ayurvedic medicine for weight gain includes drakshadi kashayam, sattu, ashwagandha, shatavari, triphala, etc. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the ayurvedic weight gainers:

1. Ayurvedic Weight Gain Powders

Gokshura, shatavari, ashwagandha, and vidari are a few gainers that complement bulking. When taken alongside a balanced meal, they can increase muscle mass, which can be further complemented with an exercise/workout routine. 

2. Drakshadi Kashayam

Drakshadi Kashayam is a boon in the form of a tonic, used for enhancing liver function, balancing pitta, and lifting the entire digestive system to its optimum function. 

3. Tonics & Supplements

Taking the ayurvedic supplements for weight gain, like triphala, guduchi, and bala can help fix doshas and improve the health of the entire digestive tract. Shatavari and Gokshura have been proven to maintain hormone balance post-menopause, on top of improving gut health. 

4. Chyawanprash

A spoonful of Chyawanprash a day has been trusted to improve immunity function for decades. Being a mixture of honey, ghee, and numerous herbs, Chyawanprash highly benefits health and complements weight gain. 

5. Sattu

Sattu is a totally organic and Ayurvedic weight gainer, as it is rich in protein. The best properties of Bengal gram are held intact in sattu, since it is made by roasting and grinding the gram into a fine powder. It is a side-effect-free alternative to protein powders and can be consumed with milk.

Can Ashwagandha Increase Weight?  

Well, ashwagandha does not directly increase weight, neither as a direct impact nor as a side effect. However, according to a study conducted by the National Institute of Health, ashwagandha performed better at treating stress as compared to a placebo. 

Which means that ashwagandha stops chronic stress and thus treats poor eating habits related to it. When the digestive system works at its optimal, the process of nutrient absorption becomes easier. This could explain why many think of ashwagandha as an Ayurvedic weight gainer. 

Exercises, Yoga, and Therapy for Effective Weight Gain 

While weight training is suggested for gaining muscle mass, Ayurvedic weight-gaining techniques are largely focused on improving the digestion and absorption of food. 

The following exercises amplify digestion and absorption by stretching out the guts:

1. Bhujangasana: Bhujangasana, also known as Cobra Pose, has proven to improve metabolism and aid digestion.   

2. Matsyasana: Also known as Fish Pose, Matsyasana helps stretch and relax the abdominal walls.

3. Sarvangasana: Sarvangasana, with legs straight up in the air, helps improve blood circulation and clears out the guts.

4. Vajrasana: Also known as the Diamond Pose, Vajrasana adds strength to the thighs and calves, diverting the nutrients towards muscle growth. It is also known to calm the mind and relax abdominal muscles. 

Lastly, do remember that helping your body fall into a rhythm, staying hydrated, and eating clean are the core ways to reach your ideal weight in the healthiest manner possible. 

Now that we’ve covered the Ayurvedic medicine for weight gain and cracked the code of how to gain weight with Ayurveda, let’s move towards the summary.  

Ayurvedic Weight Gainers In a Nutshell

Ayurveda professes natural ways to gain weight, which may seem simple but require a long-term commitment to making healthy changes to your diet and lifestyle. 

Adequate sleep, a balanced diet, hydration, and a few exercises would be enough to get you to reach your desired weight on the scale and sustain it for a long time upon reaching the threshold. 

Ayurvedic weight gainers are your friends in this process, which helps boost immunity and optimize nutrient absorption. With that said, we wish you consistency and an unshakable willpower in your weight-gaining journey. 

FAQs

Which Ayurveda is best for weight gain?

Personalized diet plans, resolving doshas, balancing Agni, and taking Ayurvedic weight gainers are the best ways to gain weight. 

What is the name of the weight gain Ayurvedic medicine for females?

Indian ginseng/ashwagandha is the best medicine for easing weight gain in women. 

How to gain weight with Ayurveda?

Inculcating healthy lifestyle habits, following a balanced diet with evenly spaced meals, getting adequate sleep, and exercising are the steps towards gaining weight using Ayurveda. 

Can ashwagandha increase weight?

Ashwagandha promotes metabolic functions to ease the weight gain journey; however, increasing weight is not its direct function. 

Sources:

5 Easy Food Swaps to Avoid Acid Reflux by Kapiva

Ashwagandha: Usefulness and Safety by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health