Calorie-Dense Foods for Weight Gain: Nuts and Seeds Lead

Raw macadamia nuts are the most calorie-dense whole food we hold: 718 calories per 100g, so 500 extra calories weighs just 70g. Only 20 of the 182 foods in our USDA-derived database pass 500 calories per 100g, and 17 of those 20 are nuts, seeds, or butters made from them. The other three are an oil blend, salted butter and 70–85% dark chocolate.

If you are trying to gain weight, the hard part is usually not knowing what to eat. It is fitting the extra food in. So this post measures every food the way a gainer feels it: how many grams you have to eat to get 500 more calories, and how much protein comes along with them.

Foods highest in calories to gain weight

These are the 20 foods in our data with at least 500 calories per 100g, densest first. The middle column is the weight of a 500-calorie portion. The last column is the protein inside that same portion, which is where the list starts to split.

Sources are USDA FoodData Central: macadamias FDC 170178, hulled hemp seed FDC 170148, raw pumpkin seeds FDC 2515380. Two rows need a warning. Our "olive oil" row is really a corn, peanut and olive oil blend (FDC 167737), so it is shown under that name; every pure oil lands near the same 884 calories. Our peanut butter row is the reduced-fat kind (FDC 172458), so regular peanut butter would sit higher on this list than 20th.

How much food is 500 extra calories?

500 calories is 70g of raw macadamias but 407g of cooked white rice, 5.8 times the weight. That gap is the whole case for calorie-dense food when you are gaining. The foods people are usually told to eat more of are fine foods. They are just heavy, and a small appetite runs out before the calories do.

Every row is 500 calories. The typical food in our database has 119 calories per 100g, so a 500-calorie portion of it weighs about 420g. Watch the states: the rice row is cooked, while the oats row is dry and swells with water or milk, and the potato and egg rows are raw.

Which calorie-dense foods bring the most protein?

Hulled hemp seed gives 28.6g of protein in 500 calories, 5.2 times the 5.5g in the same calories of macadamias, and costs only 20g more food (90g against 70g). If the extra weight you want is muscle rather than only fat, this is the column to sort by. Among the 20 densest foods, raw pumpkin seeds (26.7g), reduced-fat peanut butter (24.9g) and raw peanuts (22.4g) come next.

Hard cheese is the other strong option just below the 500-calorie line. Swiss cheese gives 34.4g of protein in a 127g, 500-calorie portion, grated parmesan 33.8g in 119g, and cheddar 28.6g in 123g. Swiss and parmesan beat every nut and seed on protein, and cheddar ties hemp seed, but each takes 29g to 37g more food than the hemp.

At the other end, the three densest non-nut rows bring almost none. The oil blend has 0g of protein, salted butter 0.6g, and dark chocolate 6.5g per 500 calories. They add calories fast. They do not help much with the rest of what a gaining plan needs.

What this list does not tell you

Calories per 100g says how much food it takes to eat more. It does not say whether a food is right for your health, and it cannot tell you how many calories your own body needs. For that, start with your maintenance number in TDEE explained. If you are losing weight without trying, see a doctor first.

Our data holds no per-handful or per-spoon weights, so every figure here is per 100g or per 500 calories. Seven rows are left out of every number: the chicken breast and pork tenderloin rows, whose calories do not match their own macros, and five meat rows whose carbohydrate figure is below zero.

Keep reading

The two densest nuts meet in macadamia nuts vs almonds, and the protein pick has its own page at hemp seed nutrition. For the spreads, see almond butter vs peanut butter. If you want the opposite list, foods that fill the plate for few calories, read high volume low calorie foods, and for training days, how to eat to build muscle.

Most people who struggle to gain do not undereat on purpose. They skip a snack on a busy day and never notice. Message Sunn on WhatsApp what you ate, "two eggs and toast", and it tells you how far you are from your target, so a missed 500 calories shows up before bed.