Advice over gaining weight safely ?

[Rivermonsters]

Hi Mn, For context I’m 44kg and I hope to be 50kg by the first of January 2022. I was wondering if you had any advice on how to gain weight? Not stuff like “stuff your face with fast food” as fatty foods often give me stomach problems etc

Calorie dense foods, does your stomach tolerate carbs? Cheese?

@JoshLymanIsHotterThanSam I eat a lot of fruit and chicken. Not a big fan of cheese, can stomach yogurt and carbs tho

Half following for ideas, but also -
Add peanut butter to your yoghurt
Add double cream to everything that will take it (pasta sauce, mash, coffee....)
Lots of avocado
Snack! Mid morning rice cakes and hummus, mid afternoon flapjacks, or whatever floats your boat.

@Zarene thanks! Will buy some peanut butter ASAP

Add in some extra carbs at each meal - either by upping your portion size, or adding a piece of toast, cup of rice etc.

Dessert after lunch and dinner - yogurt, fruit and granola would work, or something heavier if you can manage that.

Piece of toast with nut butter before bed, and a glass of milk.

Would that work for you, do you think? Whatever you go for, ideally it should be an adjustment of what you’re comfortable with now rather than a complete overhaul.

Avocado? On toast, in salad, guacamole dips.

Make sure everything you use is the full fat version - e.g. milk, yoghurt, butter

Add cream and butter to mashed potatoes, mash turnips with butter.

@TooMinty @greenmacaron thanks for the advice. Would tortilla wraps with peanut butter be ok?

Tortilla wrap instead of toast, you mean? Absolutely. I’d recommend putting a little banana or chopped apple in too, delicious

Peanut butter is great! I have it on oat cakes.
I put a glug of double cream in coffee (if you drink coffee).

Small amounts of butter are quite easy to digest and calorific. Nuts are great.

Vast amounts of junk food just make me feel ill but I found by adding these high calorie foods (butter, cream, nuts) to my diet it has made a difference. It helps to slowly gain that extra bit of weight just to give you a bit more energy and reserves. Good luck.

Oh I forgot about peanut butter because I don't like it 😂

Toasted pitta bread cut into strips and dipped in full fat hummus/peanut butter/guacamole could also work. Also bagels with full fat cream cheese.

@TooMinty thx, yous have been so helpful ngl

You can add a nice lot of butter to a lot of sauces / food / veggies and it's generally also a big flavour improvement.

Fry everything in olive oil or butter.

Full fat mayo and / or oil based vinaigrette on pulse / grain based salads.

When I was underweight and had no appetite after an illness I managed to eat omelettes. I also found Complan chocolate milkshake beneficial and shrill have a sachet sometimes.

Definitely add lots of nuts and seeds - chopped in cereal, sprinkled in salads, handful for a snack, on top of yoghurt with fruit.

@Galassia will order some complan, good to get liquid calories in

You could use nutritional supplements.
Fortisp for example, the higher calories one is 330cal in 200mls.
If you add two a day in you'll be giving yourself a good boost.
Can you manage a smoothie? I used to make the following for my dsd when she was very severely anorexic..
Start with 50gms of berries.. Blitz with two tablespoon of rapeseed oil or other vegetable oil but not olive oil.
Add 100 ml double cream
50 mls full fat natural yogurt
About 50 mls fruit juice.

It makes a 200 ml drink which isn't too sweet or creamy and comes in at about 700 calories.

There is also a very good supplement called benecalorie, which you can only get in USA or Australia.. But you may know someone who can send you it. It's 300 cals in 30 mls of tasteless white goop you can add to pretty much anything

If you are low weight due to restrictive behaviour I hope you are getting some help and support.

The other thing you may need to do is a meal. Plan... Three meals, three snacks a day is advocated for weight gain in eating disorders.
You need the routine and structure.

Sprinkle seeds on everything. You can get a seed mix called “Salad Toppers” that are tamari flavoured and delicious.

Hummus and oatcakes.

Snack on sesame halva if you like it.

Nuts but beware they can fill you up easily

Hi op. Have you had an eating disorder? I would recommend taking to a nutritionalist. But like others said, whole foods are best as opposed to processed food. Nuts, seeds, avocado. Pasta better than bread. Butter, cheese. Steak.

@Imissmybum yes in the past.

Please get advice from a professional op. We're not professionals. Good luck x

Try adding sweetcorn to salads, it tastes delicious and it is a relatively small change so easier to do.

Do you eat any cereal for breakfast? I highly recommend adding almond meal to the bowl. If you eat soups you can add it to soups too. As long as you don't add too much, it won't change the texture noticeably but will bulk up the meals.
I'd also recommend adding croutons or bread when you have soup, and adding some spread or butter to the bread.

Smoothies are also great and very healthy! Add bananas and nut butters to the smoothie to gently add calories.

I think you know that you need a meal plan with the three meals, three snacks.
Focus on fats, carbs and protein.
If you are 44kgs I would gently suggest you have an active eating disorder and you know you need to eat, usually quite high amounts of calories to get the gain going, and then you need therapy to help you beat the anorexic voice in your head.
Good luck.