Teenage girl want some to put on weight - how?

[MaitlandGirl]

DD2 has always been small (she was born at 35wks and weighed 4lbs 2oz) and has always eaten small meals every couple of hours. She's fairly fit and healthy and has no underlying problems but can't tolerate lots of fat in one meal as she has a grumbling gall bladder.

She's managed to keep her weight fairly stable through high school, but since she started at university (in Australia Uni student start in February) she's dropped 2 dress sizes and is now a size 2 and 5ft 7in. The main problem she's having is that she's walking around 7.5 miles a day on campus and can't keep her calorie intake high enough to even keep her weight stable.

With a family history of heart attacks and strokes she needs to keep healthy but she's desperate to put some weight on.

Has anyone got any suggestions? There's definitely no concerns over an eating disorder, she genuinely loves food but needs suggestions for foods she can eat 'on the go' that aren't full of high fat foods or spices.

At the moment her daily food intake looks something like this -

Breakfast : porridge (semi skimmed milk) with honey, bananas and blueberries and a drink of semi skimmed milk

Snack : oat protein bar

Lunch : macaroni cheese (she takes this from home and it's got leeks, bacon, broccoli and cauliflower in it), American style muffin and a fruit juice

Snack : granola bar or another oat protein bar

Snack : chicken salad sandwich or roll and fruit juice

Dinner : last night we had sticky chicken, ribbon vegetable salad and rice noodles

Supper : two slices of whole grain toast with Nutella and a drink of milk

She doesn't really like chocolate or crisps or any of the standard foods you should avoid if you want to lose weight so I'm a bit stuck on how to help her.

I would consider seeing a dietitian OP. She needs professional advice. Other than that, could she maybe have a meal replacement drink once or twice a day? They;re high in calories but not fat.

I'm the same size ish. 100lbs/45kg and 5'5.

Does she like nuts? Nuts and nut butters will help her put on weight and are still pretty healthy. More protein would also help.

When I lost a ton of weight after illness I had to use dietician prescribed meal replacement drinks. Nothing else really worked.

Thanks :) there’s a drop in dietician clinic at our GP so I’ll get her there for a chat. She lost over 2kgs in her first week at uni and doesn’t have any reserves if she gets sick. She’s not yet skin and bone but she will be by Easter if things carry on like this.

In the mean time I’ll buy some meal replacement shakes to give her some extra calories.

For a start - whole milk not semi-skimmed. If you are using spreads change from low fat to butter. Same with yoghurts - get rid of the low fat ones and have full fat ones.

Easy changes which don't mean she has to change her diet but she shouldn't be eater low or lower fat foods.

Bother, just saw the gallbladder issue which makes it harder.

Essentially, she needs the gallbladder out as it's giving her symptoms and she can't maintain her weight on a fat-free diet.

In the meantime I think she will need to see a dietitian as this is a specialist area - a lot of meal replacement shakes have a lot of fat as well as the protein to get the calories in.

She has my sympathy - I lost loads of weight on the gallbladder diet but it was fine for me as I was a fat fucker who needed to.

can she look at it from another angle - try not to walk so much? 7.5miles a day just around campus seems a lot - if a mile takes about twenty minutes or so then she's spending two and a half hours a day exercising before she does any other activity which is also time consuming if she's a busy student. How big is this campus?! can she get a bus/share a taxi/ride a bike instead for part of it?

I use complan or similar shakes in between meals to help gain weight.

When my ds 17 is on 'the gains' he has whole milk and shakes with Nutella and peanut butter /porridge.
Lots of bananas and pasta.

I used to pack nuts, protein bars and bananas for whenever I might get a sugar drop (I'm not diabetic).
If she's healthy and active, I don't see what the problem is to be honest.

Steak is good at least once a week.

Can your daughter with her gallstone issues eat nuts? This would be a food way to increase calories in a healthy way.

Otherwise what about looking at adding some smoothies/protein based drinks? Also, could she add protein powder to her porridge in the morning?

How can you be walking 7.5 miles a day on a college campus unless she never sits her toosh down for a lecture? Do you mean 750 metres?

There's a lot hysterical about your post OP.

Australian sizing is the same as British sizing. We don't have a size 2.

You can get size 6 in British clothing. Under that, you're looking at children's sizes. A US size zero, is a UK size 4-6.

Well she's eating masses. Hard to see how she could eat more. How do you know she's walking 7.5. Has she got a Fitbit? All sounds a bit intense and you're tracking her a bit too closely. Does she drink? Is she out with friends?

Is she actually an unhealthy size though? I’m assuming you mean a size 6/8 Australian which is perfectly healthy for someone her height. Gallbladder issues don’t seem great though. Best to get that sorted first and maybe consider hyperthyroidism.

I see sizes 2 and 4 in UK shops, they definitely do exist.
I no longer have a gallbladder, but my understanding is that fat doesn't trigger attacks for everyone and the low fat diet advice is outdated.
When my dd was an underweight toddler we were advised to add fat to her diet anyway we could. Your evening meal sounds tasty, but somewhat low fat.
I concur on the professional advice.

Thank you for the replies - just want to comment on a few things.

She does eat loads, in as much as she's always eating but she can't eat large quantities. She's never been able to stomach large meals so snacks every couple of hours.

Yes, she really is walking 7.5 miles a day, and I'm not getting confused between metres and miles. It's a large campus and her lectures are all over th place. It's a mile from our house to the station and then over that from the campus station to the top end of the campus so it all adds up. She's got an Apple Watch and that tells her all her stats for the day. She's a technology fiend and loves the interactiveness of it.

Size 4 clothes are available from a select amount of Australia retailers (the Cotton On group and Target are DDs favourites) and as they're all now too big for her it's safe to assume she's a size 2.

There's definitely no underlying health issues, it's just a case of calories in isn't matching calories out and she's not able to make any simple changes to her diet to increase her calorie input. She doesn't like full fat milk, or high fat foods and she's reduced her cheese intake after a couple of instances of gallbladder attacks after eating lots of cheese. Until her gallbladder attacks reach a certain level (frequency and pain) surgery isn't an option. I'll talk to her about increasing her fat intake and see how she goes. Certainly when she had her first attack the advice was low fat, but if that's not necessarily the case that makes life so much easier for her.

And yes, she does have friends and she does go out (not at all sure how this is relevant) - she's out every Friday night until far too late at the pub and although she doesn't drink a lot (she's a student and alcohol is expensive) she does drink.

I’d second getting a cheap bike to leave on campus. That would save her time and energy that it sounds like she doesn’t have to waste.