Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

If you struggle eating ENOUGH food calorie dense and nutrient dense foods will be your best friend!

27 Jul 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:49

In this short nutrition advice segment, the speaker illustrates how calorie‑dense foods can make weight‑gain goals easier for athletes. By comparing the calories in a medium sweet potato (160 kcal) to the volume of carrots needed for the same calories, and the calories in three Power Bites (360 kcal) to three slices of wheat bread, the speaker shows that small, calorie‑rich foods provide the same energy with far less volume. The core recommendation is to prioritize compact, high‑calorie foods when trying to gain weight, while still including traditional whole foods like carrots and wheat bread for a balanced diet.

Chapters

This medium sweet potato is 160 calories. To get 160 calories of carrots, you would have to eat this many. These 3 Power Bites add up to be 360 calories. To get 360 calories of bread, you'd have to eat at least 3 slices. When athletes need to gain weight, they have to eat a ton of calories, a ton of food. So my number 1 hack when it comes to athletes and gaining weight is to focus on foods that have a lot of calories but at the same time are pretty small. It's going to be a lot easier for you to eat this sweet potato than it is for you to eat 3 cups of carrots. Same way as it would be easy to eat these 3 little Power Bites versus 3 slices of bread. Now, I'm not saying to never eat wheat bread or to never eat carrots. You absolutely need these foods in your diet. But what I am saying is when you struggle gaining weight, opt for foods that are smaller but have a ton of calories in them still.