Best Weight Gain Pills: Buyers Guide

Today we’re looking at how weight gain pills can help fix this problem. They’re a great way to drive up better eating, improve muscle gains and reduce fat mass gains, and keep you healthy as you bulk up.

We’ll be looking at some major questions and answering them for you – such as:

• What are weight gain pills?
• How do weight gain pills work?
• Are weight gain pills healthy – do they have side effects?
• What’s the best weight gain pill on the market?

So, if you’re looking for the best weight gain pills, read on and we’ll get right into it…

Introduction to weight gain pills

The point of a weight gain pill is to improve the quality and quantity of weight gain. Whether you’re skinny and want to gain weight for health reasons or are bulking up, there are a few things a weight gain pill can help with:

• Help you gain weight
• Improve the health of your weight gain
• Support better appetite, metabolism, and digestion
• Produce better results when you reach your goal weight.

It’s not just about the number on the scale – but that is the place to start. Effective weight gain pills ensure that you’re gaining weight, that it’s high-quality and healthy, and they support the processes that make it happen.

How do weight gain pills work?

Weight gain pills can have many mechanisms. The market includes a range of products with different approaches – which is why we’re writing this article. It can be bewildering when there’s so much out there!

A great weight gain pill will work with your body to provide better weight gain. This includes things a range of possible effects you want to look out for:

• Boosting appetite so you can eat more
• Improving metabolism to keep your energy levels up
• Supporting better digestion of food – and better comfort
• Improving the absorption of nutrients through the gut
• Producing better training results
• Supporting better dietary choices
• Protecting you from stress, anxiety, and other negative influences
• Help you get hungry again after eating (food turnover)
• Preventing mineral deficiencies

These are the most important mechanisms. A product that works will do at least one of these. The best weight gain pills on the market do all of them – or at least most. These can be combined in a weight gain pill because many ingredients offer multiple benefits at once.

For example, digestive enzymes like glucoamylase both improve digestion and support better food turnover. This is one example, but there are dozens of other examples. Healthy weight gain comes from combined benefits like these – or synergies, where ingredients work better together.

Using weight gain pills responsibly

Obviously, the important thing to remember is that weight gain is about diet. Weight gain pills are there to support a healthier weight gain diet. If you’re making the wrong food choices or you’re not eating enough, that’s still on you.

While a weight gain pill may boost your appetite or metabolic efficiency, it can’t choose the chicken breast over the pizza for you.

Think of these pills as support. They are supplements after all – they should supplement your diet and empower you to make better moves. You still gain muscle and weight one choice at a time!

List of Weight Gain Pills

AppetiteMax

AppetiteMax is a great example of how to get a weight gain pill right. It targets the whole range of possible benefits that we discussed earlier. These obviously include appetite, but also metabolic and digestive efficiency, food turnover, and performance/result-boosting effects.

The overall design is smart, it considers everything you need, and it comes out with a focus on healthy, natural ingredients. This makes AppetiteMax my go-to example and is why I think it might be the best weight gain pill on the market.

Key ingredients include hunger spark for appetite, amylase, and glucoamylase to boost digestion, ginseng, and piperine to improve nutrient uptake, B vitamins, and minerals to support health, and even D-Aspartic Acid for short-term testosterone support. These all drive different mechanisms in the weight gain journey.

It does come at a price – the price – which may put some people off. The value per dollar is great, however, with a bottle covering a whole month and stronger results than others on the market.

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Eatmor Appetite Stimulant

A popular competitor with AppetiteMax, EatMor revolves around the same Hunger Spark main herb. However, after that, it does come across a little weaker in a few areas – specifically the food turnover and the support of metabolism.

EatMor’s focus on turmeric, ginger and other herbal extracts does let it down slightly. The inclusion of damiana and Eurycoma is out of place – since they’re neither appetite boosters nor weight gain support. They’re good for libido and mental energy, but don’t overlap with results or appetite like the ingredients in AppetiteMax.

Fenugreek is a mixed ingredient with most research conducted in non-human animals, and with mixed benefits and drawbacks. It’s a very mild benefit in other areas and mildly boosts appetite, but does also increase biliary acid significantly and doesn’t improve the speed of digestion (for food turnover).

Remember that – even with compounds like these which are healthy – they do not weight gain support. You want your product to do what it says, and judge it by that effect alone. Health benefits are a bonus – not the whole game!

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Eatup pills

EatUp also uses the Hunger Spark herb, just like the last two products, but focuses on weight gain through a combination of water and glycogen retention. Its focus on compounds like creatine and watercress extract are more associated with short-term weight gain than long-term tissue building.

You’re not going to get the performance benefits of creatine (that requires at least 2-3x as much as you could get from EatUp), but you will definitely gain short-term weight. For the long-term, hunger spark, B vitamins, and plenty of antioxidants.

EatUp focuses on some similar compounds to EatMor: fenugreek, ginger, and turmeric. It also includes chicory and watercress for additional antioxidant powers, as well as supporting fluid retention. These produce a mild increase in appetite but lack powerful long-term benefits.

Typically, short-term weight gain isn’t as effective or useful. The real health benefits of weight gain come from building muscle, connective tissues, and bone density. You could save money buying creatine by itself, and then combining it with either of the previous products (at 2.5 grams per day).

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Nutrithick weight gain pills

Nutrithick is a product targeted at women, in particular, and is all about gaining curves ‘with or without exercise’. Obviously, weight gain should always be paired with exercise to make sure it’s healthy weight gain, even in skinny people who just want to achieve a normal weight.

As with EatUp, there are a few ingredients that are included without much sense – like maca root. Fenugreek will typically contribute to lactation and may be included in relation to breast milk and health in mothers, as well as the normal benefits outlined above.

Creatine is underdosed again but – as before – leads to short-term water weight.

It does have some other, great ingredients. Blessed thistle and chamomile are both anti-anxiety compounds that can help with exercise recovery and thus healthy weight gain. Added lysine is particularly useful for vegetarians and vegans, who are often lysine-deficient.

This product does have some targeted benefits for women’s health but, as in Eatup, it just doesn’t contribute closely enough to weight gain. The weight gained is dependent on continued use because it’s water weight, and the product has a very weak effect on appetite, food turnover, and tissue building.

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Nutrigain weight gain pills

Nutrigain is at the bottom of this list for a reason. We’ve gone from a great example to a questionable one, relying on Fenugreek as the only active ingredient in the product, far less powerful than others on our list.

The additional ingredients include B vitamins, which are great, but not appetite boosters alone. Lysine is present again, but this is only a major benefit for people on plant-based diets with deficiency risk.

Creatine is underdosed while theanine is a great amino acid – but not for weight gain! Maca root is overrated for weight gain, too, which limits the overall benefits to weight gain in the long term.

We’ve worked with Nutrigain before and both the ingredient analysis and a month of actual use showed a very little positive effect. Even compared to NutriThick or EatUp, this is a relatively weak product. You could get similar benefits from B vitamins and Fenugreek and save yourself some money!

How to Choose the Best Weight Gain Pills

Weight gain pills – like any supplement – come with serious range. There are great products on the market and not-so-great ones.

You want to get the best for your money so that you’re getting results, happy with the purchase, and feel like your cash is working for you. If you’re not getting results, you’re just wasting your money and time.

Especially when it comes to your health and wellbeing, investing in a supplement is an investment in yourself. That means you need to put some time into choosing the right one – and you need to know what you’re looking for. We’re covering the latter with the 5 most important factors for choosing a weight gain pill.

Ingredients and effectiveness

If you buy it, it should work. When it comes to supplements, that’s all about the ingredients. The stuff that is in your weight gain pill is the #1 factor in what effect it’s going to have. Specifically, it should work at helping you gain a high-quality, healthy weight with natural ingredients.

With weight gain pills, that means you need to be proven, reliable ingredients for boosting appetite, metabolism, digestion, nutrient absorption, anti-stress, and plenty of vitamins/minerals. Basically, if an ingredient does anything on the list of benefits we outlined above, it will work.
Any good weight gain pill should focus on a combination of appetite gain and food turnover, especially. Then, things like metabolic and digestive support add to the mix, and you can eat more and get more from it at the same time.

There are dozens – or hundreds – of possible ingredients for a weight gain pill. That’s why we’ve included our favorites so you can see examples and have some great choices, even if you don’t have the time to research for yourself.

Price

Nobody wants to pay over the odds for their supplements. Weight gain pills are another place where this is important. You’re going to be paying for a bunch of food, too, so make sure your supplements are offering you value for every dollar you put in.

Keep in mind that good pricing doesn’t mean getting the cheapest product. It means getting the best value for money. The most expensive isn’t always the best and the cheapest isn’t always the best value choice.

A product that’s slightly more expensive but covers all your needs and works better is often the best choice. What matters is justifying your dollars – making sure that your result-per-dollar is higher.

Also, look out for the serving count, as some products are offering a smaller supply than you might think. 120 capsules is a lot until you realize you’re taking 4-6 a day, and suddenly that big bottle doesn’t even last 3 weeks!

Quality

The actual quality of the manufacturing and the brand are important. Getting a product that has been certified with good manufacturing practices from the FDA, for example, means you know what’s in it and that it’s not being contaminated.

This is a small issue for most people since major issues are rare, but checking with 3rd party reviews of brands and products is a good place to start. Consumer reviews and FDA documents just help make sure that you’re getting the goods from someone you can trust.

Dietary Considerations When Taking Appetite Pills

You can’t just take an appetite pill or weight gain pill and immediately pack on weight without doing any work. While it will help, it’s about making better dietary, training, and lifestyle choices. The results show up over time by supporting normal weight-gain processes.

So what are those normal weight gain processes and what dietary considerations should you take when using – or considering – weight gain pills?

Calorie balance: how weight gain works

The single deciding factor in whether or not you gain weight is how much energy you take in compared to how much you put out.

Intake is from food, while output comes from a range of sources: your resting metabolic rate, your non-exercise activity throughout the day, and the structured exercise you’re using. These are all affected by the choices you make and your lifestyle/habits.

For example, regular strength training or HIIT exercise will boost both your metabolic rate (through a process like EPOC or increased muscle recovery demands) and the energy required in the workout. Equally, living an active life and participating in hobbies that keep you moving boosts NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis – and thus calories.

When we gain weight, we want to consume more energy than we use. Obviously, gaining healthy, high-quality weight does require you to exercise as well. As you can imagine, that means you need to eat more calories per day than you use – on average – through these combined outputs.

How many calories should you eat to gain weight?

TDEE refers to this combined output and is used to estimate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It’s counted in calories, which is why they’re such an important part of dieting – both up and down – from where you are right now.

Don’t treat calories like an enemy, though. You get the best results from your diet when you use it as a tool to understand and guide your choices – rather than feeling like a slave to it.

For example, if your TDEE is 3,000 (because you’re an 85kg man looking to build mass, so you’re strength training 3 times a week with a good program), you might eat 3,250 – 3,500 calories a day. This would be pretty normal – and definitely effective.

Using calorie-counting responsibly

There’s a bit of controversy around the idea of calories-in vs calories-out. It’s worth noting that you can’t get a 100% perfect measure of your TDEE unless you’re using some expensive, high-end scientific equipment.

That’s why it’s an estimate. It’s a starting point for your own weight gain journey. It doesn’t have to be 100% accurate. If you step on the scale at the end of the week and you haven’t gained weight, then you need to put your calories up. If you’ve gained too much, you need to dial it back.

The calories in vs calories out equation works. Eat more than you use, you’ll get bigger. Eat less than you use, you’ll get smaller. What matters is that you’re working towards a clear, average daily intake that gets you closer to your goals. It’s okay to experiment and find that along the way!

Macros and results: the quality of weight

What your weight gain or loss is made of is the result of the things you eat, not just the calories you consume.

When you eat way over your calorie intake, you’re going to gain more fat than you need. It’s just the priorities your body is set up for – it wants to store excess energy for use later. That’s what fat is.

However, when you’re eating at a ‘normal’ calorie surplus (250-1000 calories over your TDEE), the main factors are your exercise and the macronutrients. These are the 3 big nutrients that make up most food / where most of your calories come from: protein, carbs, and fats.

Protein

Protein is the building block of muscle. When you eat it, your body breaks it down into amino acids, which are then recombined for a variety of tissues. This includes muscle (obviously important), tendons, ligaments, other connective tissues, and even bones themselves.

Eating more protein drives up your synthesis of these important issues. When you’re exercising, it’s also the most important recovery resource. Your body knows when you’ve eaten and digested it, as it signals that there are proteins ready to replace or repair damaged tissue.

Eating plenty of protein is key to a good weight gain diet. The more protein, the better your body uses additional calories to support healthy weight gain and strength. This also helps prevent injury in the connective tissues – like tendons – which keeps you gaining weight and getting stronger over time.

Carbohydrates

Carbs are short-term energy and are often found in plant foods. The ones you need to focus on for weight gain are sugar and starch.

Sugar takes ‘short-term energy’ to the extremes. It goes from food to the bloodstream very quickly. That’s why you should only eat sugary foods just before, during, and after exercise. Starches are slower, and take hours to get into the system, releasing more consistently. You’ll find sugars in fruits and starches in vegetables, typically, though there’s overlap with root veg like carrots.

Use carbs to bump up your daily calorie intake, as well as provide workout energy. If you limit carbs, you limit your ability to grow muscle mass. Focus on quality from foods like rice, whole grains (like oats), beans and pulses, potatoes and tubers, vegetables, fruits, and a small number of refined carbs around exercise.

Fats

Dietary fats are less important, but they still have a role to play. They’re typically high in calories at 9 calories per gram, so why aren’t they more important?

Dietary fats are slower digesting and less involved in the muscle-building process. High fats diets are less effective at building muscle by a long way. They’re also more digestively stressful compared to healthy carbs (like starch from potatoes) and increase the risk of cramping and associated issues.

You’ll also find that fats and their slow digestion shut down the “food turnover” that is so important for effective weight gain. This is key to eating lots in a day without just cramming in junk food.

Fats should be used with an eye to quality, not quantity. A few, high-quality fat sources from seafood, high-quality dairy and eggs, olives, and avocados are more important than eating 100s of grams per day.

Vitamins and minerals: supporting your healthy weight gain

Vitamins and minerals are the unsung heroes of your body. They offer a support service to your body’s natural processes and maintain the machinery that keeps you going. Without them – when you’re deficient – you run into major problems and limitations.

When you’re dieting, both for gain and loss, you need these processes. You need plentiful vitamins and to provide your body with these supporting nutrients. They’re typically found in seafood, veg, fruits, and high-quality dairy and animal products.

The sheer variety and range of vitamins and minerals are important. We’ve discussed the best vitamins and minerals for weight gain before, with far more detail. The key is that you can get vitamins and minerals from diet and supplements alike – focusing on a range of colors in your veg, whole grains, beans and pulses, and the foods mentioned above.

Supplements that offer high-quality vitamins and minerals like Supergreens and even some appetite pills or weight gain supplements are a great boost. Products on today’s list like AppetiteMax put them at the front of the product, where they can support healthy weight gain.

Weight Gain Pills: Side Effects

Some weight gain pills come with side effects – there’s always at least a very small risk you may react negatively. Some products contain controversial ingredients, but we’ve avoided those with our list today.

Individual intolerances or adverse responses are always possible. We don’t know your personal medical history and what you’re allergic to, for example. If you have any existing known medical conditions or intolerances, consult your doctor for further advice.

Weight gain pills are typically very healthy for the average person. They even support healthy function. That said, your health is yours to manage, and it’s important that you acknowledge there’s always a possibility, however small, of side effects.

Final Thoughts

Weight gain pills are a way to support healthy weight gain and a regular, effective metabolism. When you support the processes behind appetite, weight gain, and muscle building you will see better results.

The benefits of these products are wide-ranging and our 5 products from today’s list have different takes on weight gain. They offer something different and great examples like AppetiteMax go to show that there are health-positive, effective weight gain pills out there that are responsible for your wellbeing.

Focus on the things we’ve outlined today and the examples some of these products set. They’re effective across multiple mechanisms, safe, considerate of health, and promote more than just weight gain. Be discerning with your choices – because this is an investment in your health and results – so take the time to get it right.