These weight gainer shakes are high in calories but made with healthy ingredients! Packed with protein and suitable for males and females, they come with 10 flavor options!

The best weight gain shake
Over the last two years, I’ve been actively increasing my calories to aid muscle gain.
As someone who competes in fitness competitions, I usually go the other way- Cut calories to become as lean as possible (I lived off low calorie smoothies). To challenge myself, I competed in a higher weight class, which requires me to eat more calories than my body needs.
Now, this might sound like a dream for most people. However, it isn’t an excuse to eat ice cream, cookies, and potato chips in unlimited amounts. The way to gain weight safely and healthily is to consume weight gain smoothies and shakes.
Protein shakes for weight gain
Most of us are familiar with protein shakes, which are a great snack for weight loss diets, but actually, you can enjoy them the other way and have them as part of a weight gain diet.
By adding more healthy but high calorie ingredient, like peanut butter and rolled oats, you can create your own homemade weight gainer shake that packs in the calories without being too heavy or filling.
These homemade weight gainer shakes are also much more affordable and healthy than pre-packaged and store-bought ones. Most retail for over $8 a serving, and the ingredients include several kinds of sugars and fillers.
What I love about these weight gain smoothies is just how delicious they are. They are so smooth and creamy and easy to drink, and come with 10 flavor options to try.
How to make weight gainer shakes
The Ingredients
- Protein powder– Plant based, casein, whey, or brown rice protein powder. Do NOT use a mass weight gainer protein powder.
- Rolled oats– Also known as old fashioned oats. Quick oats can work, but the former will yield a thicker smoothie.
- Peanut butter OR nut/seed butter– Adds healthy fats and calories. I enjoy using peanut butter, but almond butter and sunflower seed butter work.
- Maple syrup OR honey– Add sweetness which is very important, especially if your protein powder is unsweetened.
- Milk of choice– Whichever milk you like.
- Mix-ins– For the three main flavors, you can choose between cocoa powder, banana, or strawberries. See below for more flavor options.
The Instructions
Add all your ingredients into a blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour into a large glass or protein shake bottle and enjoy immediately.

What is the best weight gainer?
While you can resort to a weight gain protein powder (like a mass gainer), you can actually increase calories even more, by choosing one of these calorie dense yet healthy options.
- Avocado– Adds heart healthy fats, along with fiber. Per one medium avocado, there are approximately 245 calories.
- Full fat yogurt– Adds extra protein and creaminess. Per one cup serving, there are 220 calories.
- Coconut flakes– Add some coconut flakes to one of the chocolate based smoothies. A 1/2 cup serving provides 150 calories.
- Ice cream– The more indulgent option, but transform your weight gain smoothie into a milkshake! Choose good quality ice cream and a scoop can easily provide around 300 calories.
- Chia seeds– Add extra fiber and protein and healthy fats. Per 1/4 cup serving, there are 200 calories. Be sure to add an extra 1/2 cup of milk to the shake so it will blend properly.
Ingredient swaps and dietary substitutions
Regardless of what diet you follow, you can easily adapt these weight gain shakes to be compliant.
- Make it vegan. Use a plant based protein powder and a dairy free milk, like almond milk.
- Ensure it is gluten-free. Choose certified gluten free rolled oats and ensure the protein powder is suitable for celiacs.
- Change the fruit. Coconut, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, apples, etc.
- Swap out the peanut butter. Peanut butter is affordable and delicious. Any nut or seed butter works.
- Use other grains. Buckwheat flakes, brown rice flakes, or any other flake cereal.
- Lower the carbs. Try making keto shakes instead.
Ten delicious flavors
To make any of the ten flavors below, simply prepare the base shake recipe and add the mix-ins as instructed.
- Blueberry muffin– Add 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries.
- Cookies and cream– Add 1-2 chocolate sandwich cookies or homemade Oreos.
- Nutella– Instead of peanut butter, use Nutella or healthy Nutella. Add 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to take the chocolate flavor up a notch.
- Double chocolate– Use chocolate protein powder, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and drizzle with chocolate syrup on top.
- Chocolate peanut butter– Use peanut butter and add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
- Banana– Add a frozen banana and use honey as the sweetener.
- Strawberries and cream– Add 1 cup of frozen strawberries and replace half the milk with Greek yogurt.
- Snickers– Add cocoa powder, caramel syrup, and cocoa powder.
- Chocolate coconut– Add 1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut flakes and use coconut milk.
- Tropical– Add coconut chunks and pineapple chunks and use coconut milk.
Storing and prepping instructions
- To store: Weight gain smoothies should be enjoyed within 2 hours of preparation, but they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days. When ready to drink, be sure to add a splash more milk to thin it out.
- To prep: Prepare baggies of oats and protein powder. When ready to make a shake, simply throw it into a blender with the nut butter, maple syrup, milk, and any add-ins and blend until smooth.
More smoothie and shake recipes to try

Frequently Asked Questions
To gain 3 pounds a week, you need to consume an additional 3500 calories over your daily calorie needs. If you make one of these weight gain smoothies once a day as a snack, you can easily meet this goal.
Homemade weight gainer shakes are great for skinny guys, as they pack in extra calories the healthy way and without adding excess bulk from non-liquid food.
Store bought weight gainer shakes may be calorie dense, but the ingredients in them are far from healthy. Most contain fillers, low quality sugars, and thickeners to bulk them up, instead of whole food ingredients used in the homemade ones.
Besides weight gain, consuming packaged and pre-formulated weight gainers can cause bloating and stomach pain, as they often contain artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. To prevent this, always make your own at home!

Weight Gain Shake With 5 Ingredients | Healthy And Nutritious
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup protein powder * See notes
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter ** See notes
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1 cup milk of choice
Instructions
- In a high speed blender add all the ingredients and blend until smooth. If making a different flavor, add the mix-ins required and blend once more.
- Pour into a large glass or a protein shaker bottle and enjoy immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
the best shake for gaining muscle and healthy
Your recipes look promising. My wife decimated and emaciated by illness. I am desperate to find smoothies and shakes that will help her to gain weight. I am looking forward to trying out your recipes. Thank you
Wishing her the absolute best health and recovery 🙂
Nice recipe 😄
Tried making this yesterday, and just following the recipe it turned out really thick and grainy, and it was really hard to get down. But I tried it again today with double the milk and half the oats, and it was a lot more smooth and liquidy. The volume is a bit more doing it that way, but I’d say it’s worth it for making it easier to get down, and the ratio provides slightly more calories when using whole milk.
Also, I’d recommend running just the oats and milk in the blender for a bit by themselves before adding the other ingredients and blending again. That helped to get the oats much finer and less noticeable in the texture.
What’s the reason not to use mass weight gainer protein powder?
You can= but I find they add tons of fillers etc in them. I prefer making my own 🙂
Just started this today hard to drink the whole shake but will get it down. Thanks for the post.
Hello I have recently lost about 75 lb I am looking to put it back on hopefully this works thank you very much for your post wish me luck
This is such a cool and interesting post, Thanks for sharing this post with us, Keep sharing this kind of cool and interesting post.
i had a medical procedure that went bad, im now a diabetic because of this,i went into hospital for procedure weighing in at 220lbs, two months later i was released weighing 160lbs. i have lost an additional 20 lbs, and need to put on some weight.i will keep in touch as i start using these shakes into my diet. hope it work,s.
Thank you. This really helped. Ive been really strugling to gain weight lately, but I will try some of these recipies. Thanks