I’ve always been skinny, but recently I’ve been ill and now I’m underweight to the point where it’s beginning to be a concern. Any tips for putting the weight back on without making myself sick? (I.E. without eating a ton of sugar, etc.)
Obviously I’m not going to gain weight just by eating what I normally do, but I’m not sure what types of food I should be eating. And I’m not really good at just stuffing myself or I wouldn’t be skinny to begin with.
I read this advice in a fitness magazine, I believe. Get a couple of decorative bowls and place them throughout your house where you will pass them frequently. Fill them with things like nuts, miniature Snickers bars, mini boxes of raisins, any sort of non-perishable snacky type food. Get in the habit of grabbing a snack when you pass the bowl. That way, you’ll add extra calories to your diet, but without having to force yourself to seconds at every meal.
Others can come in and tell me why that won’t work, but that’s all I got.
There is another board that has a very active fitness community that I’ve been using recently for my own fitness issues. I’m not sure if I should link it here but I’ll send you a PM with the link.
I drank Ensure or Boost, along with just forcing myself to eat more. I also took up meat-eating again, which I had stopped for a couple of years.
Friends with a very small for his age small child were encouraged to sprinkle cheese on his food at meals.
(Sadly, this was not good advice–child had digestive issues with milk and milk products.)
Do the exact opposite of what overweight people are advised to do. Add a pat of butter to your bread/potatoes/etc. Switch from skim milk to whole milk. Add extra dressing to salads. Add cheese to pretty much everything. Those of us who are heavy have to be incredibly careful about these things to the opposite extreme of those of you who are underweight. It is hard falling on one end of the spectrum or the other, but I am confident that you can gain a few pounds so that you are at a healthy weight again.
For me, when I’ve had to put on weight, I had the best success in eating small servings of calorie-dense food. So I would have 2 T of peanut butter (190 cal right there) on some really good bread from Wild Oats (150 cal a slice). So right there, I’d have 340 calories without feeling bloated or gross.
Also as someone else mentioned, cheese has a lot of calories for the amount you get. So have a slice or two with some crackers–and there you’ve got another high calorie but not stomach bloating snack.
Do you like ice cream? I know you want to avoid sugar but this is the only time of the year I can get Edy’s Grand peppermint ice cream, so sugar be damned. A half cup of that is about 230 calories or so 
I personally could not stomach the Boost or Ensure drinks, they really were disgusting to me. But if they work for you, fantastic.
These seem like good suggestions, I’ve got some nuts and peanut butter bars now. (The nuts are useful because I don’t have to cook and can keep switching kinds as I get tired of one.)
It sounds like protein is better than carbs for this sort of thing?
shudders I tried one of these once…I think it was Ensure (my doctor gave it to me because I was having trouble eating at meals). I didn’t get through one can of the stuff, but I’m also not a huge fan of soy substitutes for dairy products either. I’ve heard Boost is better though.
I would say just try to eat more at meals. Not necessarily a second helping, but don’t stop quite as soon as you normally would either. You’re still eating more than you used to, but it’s not a huge change to make either. Kind of the reverse of the dieting idea of not forcing yourself to clean the plate.
I would go for the nuts and calorie dense protein foods before fats like butter. You can be underweight and still suffer ill effects from eating too much unhealthy fats.
Avocados are also a good source of calories and healthy fats. Protein powders added to milk or other beverages might be a good idea as well. And you should continue to stay active in order to gain muscle (but don’t overdo it to the point of burning off more than you eat).
Get married.
Worked for my ex-wife.
Yes, generally protein is more calorie-dense than carbs.
True, for a given value of “true”, but it’s not necessarily good for you to get your energy requirements from protein - you don’t burn it as efficiently as you do carbs, there are more waste products (whereas carbs will burn right down to carbon dioxide and water). As a gout sufferer I know a little about this.
Protein is good if you want to put on muscle mass, which you might as well if you’re looking for healthy weight gain, but you need to fuel yourself with carbs as well. And to build muscle you’ll need exercise (and hence take in carbs to cover the calorie burn of the exercise). Eating, alone, can only make you fatter - though this may not be a bad thing if your body fat %age is extremely low.
I would second malacandra here. Try to eat as many baked potatoes and mashed potatoes as you canLoad them with cheese ans sour cream (if you like). Take extra helpings of pasta and rice.
Do you exercise?
I would add some weight training. Specifically, the old “breathing squat and pullover” routine that is the traditional advice to hard-gainers to build up.
What you want is short, intense bouts of high-level exertion, interspersed with completely adequate rest periods.
Do the routine three times a week on non-consecutive days - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday).
Warm up completely before you begin. (See your doctor before beginning any exercise routine, etc., etc.)
You do a very light set of 8-10 freehand squats with no weight. Rest about a minute and a half.
Then, using a very light weight (something you can easily handle for ten reps), you will do one set of twenty, taking at least three deep breaths (deep enough so that the bar moves on your shoulders) in between each rep. It will be very hard work. Keep your back absolutely flat, take a fairly wide stance, go down so that the tops of your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor. Do this inside a power rack, or have someone spot you who is paying attention. But get twenty reps. If you have to pause between reps to recharge, fine, but go all the way to twenty. If you can’t squat with an empty bar (standard bar is about 44 pounds), use a couple of dumbbells.
Once you finish the set, immediately, with no pause at all, do one set of pullovers with a very light weight. Have the bench and dumbbell set up so that you can do the pullovers with no pause at all.
When you are done, do not sit down or stand around. Walk slowly around while your breathing comes back to normal. It will take a while - this is a super intense exercise. That’s the idea.
Then complete your workout with the following - [ul][li]Bench press - 1-2 sets of 8[]Lat machine pulldowns or dumbbell bent over rows or use a barbell - 1-2 sets of 8[]Calf raises - 1 set of 20[]Barbell curl - 1 set of 8[]Crunches - 1 set to failure[/ul]That’s it. [/li]
If milk agrees with you, try adding two glasses of skim milk to your diet per day. If it doesn’t, try non-fat yogurt. You don’t have to stuff yourself, just add about two forkfuls of food to every meal over what you are eating now.
I would not recommend adding a lot of high-fat foods to your diet, either. Concentrate on carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice) and protein, so you add the kind of weight you want, not a lot of fat. Eat three meals a day and two snacks, but make them all healthy meals.
Ignore the comments you will get about how lucky you are to be underweight. Just take this as an opportunity to make yourself 100% more healthy and attractive by improving your body.
Regards,
Shodan
I have to second Shodan; some of the other suggestions in this thread were making me cringe. Adding a lot of snacks or fat to your diet is a great way to develop the other kind of weight problem. Healthy portions of protein and complex carbs combined with exercise is the way to go.
I take long walks and do 20 push-ups a day for exercise, otherwise I’m pretty sedentary. I’ll try the exercise regimen.
I’m not worried about gaining some fat, although of course I’d prefer muscle. I’ve started using Fitday.com and apparently my calories are split evenly between fat, protein and carbs. Not sure what balance I’m supposed to be aiming for there, though.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Nitpick: Ensure is not a “soy substitute for dairy” as it has more “milk protein concentrate” than soy items (I just read the label on the vanilla flavor Ensure I have in the fridge). The lactose has been removed, but it’s got real dairy in it.
That said - when I was underweight after a serious illness about a year ago I found Ensure to be a good thing for me. It’s not good for everyone. There are a variety of “nutritional drinks” out there in various flavors. If you can find one you like they are a way of adding 250-300 calories to your diet for each one you suck down, and they’re probably better for you than a candy bar.
Otherwise - eat slightly more each time you do eat. Adding some fats, such as butter or whole milk, will help but remember protein, vegees, fruit, etc. Sort of a berries-and-cream approach. Also, since it is possible to be both underweight and have high cholesterol simply adding fats isn’t the best advice. Exercise to built muscle is also good, and it’s the healthiest weight you can add.
All I really remember was that it tasted like chocolate pudding. Which wouldn’t be too bad, except chocolate pudding isn’t a beverage. In the end I gave the other one to my father and had Mom send me a bunch of granola bars and fruit snacks.