Doing everything correctly, such as eating more, selecting foods high in calories, and consuming whole milk, can be subtly annoying when the scale doesn’t move. Individuals who are attempting to put on weight frequently find themselves inundated with dietary recommendations, with little attention paid to how to prepare them. It turns out that the whole issue could be that gap.
Food’s nutritional profile is altered by cooking techniques in ways that are easy to overlook. Cooking significantly increases the net energy the body absorbs from foods high in fat, according to a 2014 National Institutes of Health study. This implies that different preparations of the same ingredients can have significantly different effects on the body. It’s not a small footnote. It’s perhaps the most crucial factor in the kitchen for anyone attempting to gain muscle or regain weight.
Perhaps the most underutilized technique in contemporary weight-gain cooking is slow braising. It’s the kind of thing your grandmother probably did without giving it much thought: cook a tougher, fattier cut of lamb or beef slowly in a liquid until the connective tissue is completely broken down. Beyond creating something soft and flavorful, that process releases collagen into the cooking liquid and increases the fat’s bioavailability. A piece of chicken that has been quickly seared is not as calorie-dense as the final dish. The trend toward fast cooking may have subtly reduced the calorie efficiency of meals that could otherwise be great for gaining weight.
Another method that has virtually vanished from regular cooking is bone broth reduction, which is mostly found in restaurant kitchens and specialized wellness communities. Fat, gelatin, and minerals are extracted in a concentrated form by simmering bones, such as chicken backs or beef knuckles, for several hours. A layer of calories and protein that most people wouldn’t consider counting is added when that reduction is used as a base for rice dishes, soups, or sauces. Each serving of rice cooked in a bone broth reduction absorbs a lot more nutrients than rice cooked in plain water. It’s a tiny adjustment that adds up over five or six meals a day.
Most recipes completely omit the step of dry roasting nuts before incorporating them into meals or smoothies. Roasting improves the flavor profile, slightly alters the fat structure, and increases the availability of calories. This makes it easier to eat more without experiencing palatability fatigue, which is a serious issue for people who try to eat more than they’re naturally hungry for. Dry roasting works well for peanuts, cashews, and sesame seeds, and it takes less than ten minutes.
Emulsification, the process of combining fats and liquids to produce stable, uniform mixtures, has merit as well. When homemade protein smoothies are made with whole milk, avocado, nut butters, and banana, they work much better when they are properly emulsified as opposed to roughly blended. It is easier to consume the volume of a properly emulsified smoothie without feeling instantly full because it is denser in usable calories and sits differently in the stomach. Although the science underlying this is fairly simple, it is rarely included in popular weight-gain recommendations.
In contrast to pan-frying with too much heat, steam cooking preserves fat content, especially for eggs and fish. When cooked at high temperatures for an extended period of time, oily fish, such as salmon, which is already one of the better foods for healthy weight gain, loses some of its omega-3 content and total fat. Gently steaming it for a brief period of time preserves the fat in a form that the body can effectively process. It’s still unclear if the majority of home cooks have ever been informed of this, which may help to explain why steaming is still more closely linked to diet food than to eating calories.
All of these approaches have one thing in common: they all require a level of patience that is largely lacking in contemporary food culture. Preparing large amounts of rice or protein at the beginning of the week is known as batch cooking, and it’s a smart move. However, a lot of nutritional value is still lost when batch cooking is done incorrectly. Steam-cooked fish, dry-roasted nuts, properly reduced sauces, and braised meats don’t require advanced skill. They require patience and a slightly more traditional perspective on food.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that, despite leading physically demanding lives, the generations who relied on these techniques—cooking out of necessity rather than fashion—often had little trouble maintaining their weight. It’s worthwhile to consider whether that is a coincidence or something more significant.
