Weight loss-When eating more isn't enough

Factual Questions
21

7 miles a day is quite active so that will make the calorie equations more in the range of 14-15 calories required per day per lb of body weight you wish to maintain not 13. To maintain a a weight of 140 lbs at your activity level you need to eat approx 1950-2100 calories per day. 130 lbs requires 1820-1950 per day.

As you indicate the issue is your lack of appetite. Lack of appetite is often cued to wide range of medical issues. It might be best to start at the other end of the telescope and ask why you are not hungry vs why you can’t gain weight. The “why” re weight is obvious, you eat far too little. You need to find out why you aren’t hungry.
What causes poor appetite?

22

Oh, absolutely correct, my mistake.

23

If you have no appetite, then high-calorie drinks are definitely the way to go since you don’t have to be hungry, just a bit thirsty. They don’t have to be Ensure or anything like that, ordinary full-fat milk will do. Or if you’ve got a blender you could make milkshakes (a recommeded recipe is one pint milk, one banana, and maybe a couple of tablespoons of full-fat yogart) and drink them between or with meals.

24

Eat. More. Fats.
Fats are the most calorie-rich foods (9 cal/g). Use olive oil liberally. Put Benecol on bread and eat that. If you are feeling “full” try trading some carbs for fat. Protein is good, but it is a calorie-poor food, so it fills you up faster.

25

I don’t know why I don’t have an appetite. My doctor originally thought it was depressive symptom, and while this could be true, it would be the only physical one that I’m experiencing. It could be a side-effect of Wellbutrin, but I’ve been on that for awhile and my weight has been stable for most of the time I’ve been taking it. It’s not the heat because it started last summer and the winter didn’t bring it back as one would expect.

My sense of smell and taste seem functional. And when I’m in a different environment (like when I’m visiting my sister or attending a training workshop in the middle of Nowhere, West Virginia, as I did a couple of months ago), my appetite will abruptly resurface. And occassionally, like on Beignet Morning, there it is. So it’s not constantly lacking. Just frequently.

Are there foods that stimulate the appetite? Maybe that’s what I need to eat more of.

26

Active.

How fast do you walk? At you weight walking for an hour burns between 136 (at 2mph) and 272 (at 4.5 mph). That’s an awful lot of calories to be burning daily considering how few you’re taking in. Yoga’s another 136 to 272 calories an hour depending on the type of activity.

Considering your activity level, you need close to 2000 calories a day just to mantain your weight, and another 500 a day over that to gain a pound a week (use “moderate” here). Any chance you can develop a taste for those horribly calorie laden drinks from Starbucksthat dieters are warned away from?

27

Wellbutrin is associated with a lessened appetite in some (not all) people (in fact their symptoms sound pretty much like yours). Just because it does not take you down to a skeleton doesn’t not mean it’s not strongly affecting your appetite.

28

When I’m fired up, I do 3.5 mph. When I’m insane in the membrane (I know I’ve got to stop saying this, but it makes me smile), then I’m zooming away at 0.5 mph. Often in the middle of the street, with cars honking at me. Once I get to the other side of the street, I’m back to 3.5 mph. Or a little less, if my right leg gets limpy.

I know none of that makes any sense and I don’t know why I’ve having these motoric difficulties. There was a time when 7 miles a day seemed like a good work-out to me. Now, knowing how difficult I move sometimes, it seems more like a form of self-flagellation. But I know it’s good for me and keeping whatever is troubling my brain from getting worse. Just like yoga is. That’s why I want to focus on building up my diet than paring back my activity.

29

Yes, you should be concerned as a matter of health more than of vanity. It increases your risk of death and may contribute to how lousy you feel. It increases your risks of osteoporosis and may mess up your hormonal cycles which, as you know, can have a variety of other untoward effects.

This article has some numbers for you. This graphic summarizes. Underweight (BMI under 18.5, compared to your 17.9) is more of a health risk than is overweight or obesity, up to a BMI of over 35. Same findings in Canada.

No I do not advise panic, but do take it seriously.

30

And agreed with not paring back activity.

31

Symptoms that appear and disappear like that are very likely mental. Unless a change in environment includes eating different foods.

Anecdotally, I find that Taco Bell always makes me hungry. And American Chinese food will fill me up fast, but I will be hungry again fairly quickly. And, yes, of course drinking your calories is a good idea if you aren’t hungry.

BTW, McDonald’s triple thick chocolate milk shake has over 1000 calories.

32

I don’t think it dampened my appetite too much when I first started taking it at a relatively high dose (450 mg).

It bounced back afterwards. Any weight loss after that, I just attributed to my daily walk-a-thons.

My daily dose at the time when my appetite replummeted a year ago was just 100 mg.

So it could be that Wellbutrin is screwing around with my metabolism, but I’m not sure it can explain the lack of appetite. For most people, eventually this side-effect goes away, and I wouldn’t think it would get worse at a lower dose. Though I do realize drugs can have non-linear effects.

I’ve looking on the web to find some advice on how to boost my appetite. Apparently horseradish, parsley, and cinnamon will make you hungry? Did not know that. As well as eating a late night snack (which I already do about an hour before I go to bed…the desserts that ya’ll think I should go without :)). One site suggested drinking fruit juice, which will cause a spike and then crash in blood sugar, compelling you to eat. That does not sound good at all. But frankly, neither does munching on parsley and horseradish (my nose burns just at the thought).

I think I’m just going to have to woman up and eat when I don’t want to, in portions that seem ridiculous to my warped eyes. And I need to start spending some money too and buy more groceries. I don’t know what I’m going to buy, but I’ve got to buy something and just cram it in my mouth and eat it.

33

The problem with biscuits and cakes isn’t that they’re unhealthy, it’s that they can make you feel full but are devoid of what’ll really help you gain weight. No protein, no fats, no complex carbohydrates. For me a packet of biscuits will kill my appetite for the next meal, and if I did it regularly I’d start losing weight, even though the common conception is that ‘biscuits are fattening’. There’s nothing wrong with eating junk food but if you’re trying to put on weight, make it the heavy-duty kind (pizzas, fried food, etc) rather than the empty, sugary kind (cookies, ice cream).

Another thing that is really helpful is to get a solid calorie count for what you’re eating, from the packets. It’s a bit of a pain but once you’ve done it once it means you have a good idea of how many calories you’re getting and how to increase it. Trying to estimate it all gets confusing quick and it’s quite easy to get it wrong.

34

I don’t know why I thought a quarter of the kind of frozen pizza I get was 500 calories. I just looked it up. It’s 330. I don’t even know how I graduated from high school! :smack: I’m usually much better at calorie counting than that. You’ve got to believe me!

But OMG. The idea of eating half rather than a quarter…<retches for overly dramatic effect>

I do feel worried now. It would be one thing if I had an appetite, because then I could at least enjoy the binging. But without one, every time I just think of food, I just think of the unpleasant sensation of being overly full. Intellectually I know I’m eating to give my body energy, but psychologically it just seems like eating is a waste of time and, strangely, energy.

35

I forgot to say.

I would actually say that for me, carbs don’t make me feel especially full. Protein does, however. I could eat a steak for breakfast and it would sit in my stomach all day, like a brick. But two or three biscuits (the small kind, not the Hardees-drenched-in-lard kind) go down easy and burn up quick. For me.

When I do have an appetite, it is often in my sweet tooth. So cakes, pies, and cookies are what I go after (hence, the beignet). A slab of bacon just doesn’t have the same effect. And doesn’t your body work harder to digest protein? Wasn’t that the logic behind the Atkins diet?

But I know I do need to add more protein to my diet. I am rather sinewy and would like to keep it that way.

36

It’s too bad you’re on Wellbutrin instead of Prozac or Zoloft or one of the other SSRI’s more associated with weight gain.

37

Again, timing matters. Force down the bedtime Ensure Plus or its equal. The milk with meals idea is a good one. Avocado is a good addition.

Here’s a WebMD link on underweight.

They also advise strength training.

38

Spices in general, as opposed to bland food, may start appetites. Many dopers in threads about “do you like veggies/ what foods do you dislike” have commented on how they grew up with bland, overcooked, mushy veggies they hated, but now they have discovered ethnic cooking (Italien/ Indian/ …) and cooking things al dente, they like it. Yes, you don’t eat a lot of veggies - still, you might try different styles of cooking to waken up your appetite.

Similarly, many people here report that they have a real problem with the consistency in their mouth of some foods - some can’t stand mushy stuff, others gag at hard lumps. Could that also relate to your appetite?

If you always only eat tiny portions, your stomach will have gotten used to that. If you eat a little bit more each day, your stomach will stretch slowly (competitive hot dog eaters apparently use water for that purpose).

Is there a difference between store cooked food and home-made? Or between food you cooked yourself and food somebody else (your SO/ sister/ mother) made for you?

39

I used to be scrawy. You’re eating about half as much food as a scrawny person needs. And you’re eating almost all garbage. In short, you’re starving yourself slowly.

This is what you want to eat:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 1/4+ lb bacon / ham, 2-3 slices of toast with a liberal smearing of PB & maybe some J. Maybe some potatoes. Definitely a whole orange, apple, or banana, or an equivalent mound of berries. Plenty of water. No soda. Maybe some fruit juice, but check the label; you don’t want thin food-colored HFCS, yuo want the real thing.

Lunch: A 12" sub & your favorite chips. Or a bowl (not cup) of serious thick soup / stew and a half monster-thick sandwich. My homemade turkey or ham sammiches are about 5" tall, and it’s all meat & cheese with a couple layers of lettuce & tomatos. They weigh over a pound. Not like the crap from subway which is white bread & shredded iceberg with 1/2 oz of fake cheez in it.

If you like burritos, try a Qdoba or Chipotle. One of those is almost a decent lunch in terms of both size & content. You can make them at home for almost nothing.

If you want pasta, have a lasagna; not a smidgen of spaghetti with ketchup on it. A real one filled with meat & cheese & real tomoatoes, 8 oz or more. Have a big salad as well.

For a change of pace, go to any fried chicken joint. Get the 8 or 10-pack of chicken with no accessories. They’re loss-leaders & usually real cheap. Eat 5 or 6 pieces for lunch & save the rest for later.

Have an apple, orange, or banana with whatever else you ate. No soda. No sweet dessert. Plenty of water.

When you’re hungry again at about 3pm, eat a power bar.

At 6pm it’s dinner time: 12+ oz of meat or fish, a hefty salad with not much dressing. A whole baked potato; two if they’re small. Real sour cream is fine; so’s butter. Avoid fake crap like “low fat” or “lite” anything, or margarine. At least 6 oz of real vegatables. Get some beans / peas in there a few times a week, maybe in lieu of the potato.

if yuo can find a place with a decent soup/salad bar, do that once a week. 3 plates of salads (not all the mayo-encrusted crap; real greens), and 2 bowls of soup oughta do it.

Skip dessert. No soda. Plenty of water. No post-dinner snacks except maybe some berries or couple bite-size chocolates.
That was me at 5’10 and ~130 lbs. From age ~14 to age ~40. Every day, unless I was really hungry or working out hard. Then it was more.

Things to note: almost no sweets. Almost nothing out of a box, except at lunch when you’re away from home & have to settle for restaurant cooking. Not much white bread. Nearly zero “empty” calories. Not avoiding fat, but not really seeking it out either.

40

Somehow I skipped over the posts which established that you’re a she, not a he. Knock 10% off my regimen above and you’ll be golden.