Underweight. How to gain weight healthily?

[seriouslynonames]

Good morning all. I know it's not necessarily a popular point of discussion, but I really need to gain some weight. Always been on the slim side, have lots of digestive issues, but in the last few years I have really struggled to maintain a healthy weight. I don't think it's down to anything sinister, have had a few things checked and nothing found, though feel far from being in optimum health.
So I just wondered if anyone has had experience of needing to gain weight and doing it successfully that I might learn from.
Bacon sandwich every morning? Protein shakes in between meals? Just upping my portion size gradually? Snacking more? Snacking less?
I'm not very fit at all, having never developed a regular exercise habit and after a few years of post viral fatigue which left me with little energy. So I don't really know whether exercise would be a good idea if I'm trying to gain rather than lose weight!

Grateful for all tips or experiences you are willing to share. Thank you!

I gained weight after I started to add a handful of nuts to my breakfast each morning, plus eating more healthy fats, like olive oil, avocados, hummus. I put a couple of spoonsful of milk powder in full-fat milk. I was told if you are quite underweight it's ok to do things like add double cream, full-fat milk and full-fat yoghurt. I never have anything with refined sugar in. It is a balance between calories and what your digestion can stand.

what is your current diet?

Up your calorie intake from drinks.

I go quite underweight when stressed. I find the easiest way to gain it back is to snack on nuts and dried fruits. I can't eat much at one time but you can get a lot of calories in a small portion of nuts and it's a healthy fat and protein.

@AudiobookListener My GP said the same. Add fats not refined sugar.

When I was underweight through stomach issues I forced myself to have 3 meals a day plus a couple of snacks. I went for full fat yoghurts, lots of nuts, avocados. I ate even when I wasn't hungry, it did work.

Thanks all. I will add more nuts, seeds, avocado and hummus in. I eat them already but will eat more! Unfortunately dairy is one of the things I struggle with so Greek yogurt I love, but it doesn't love me. Maybe I will try adding it in smaller doses more often instead of a big bowl of yoghurt.. I do eat quite a lot of sweets stuff but I worry that cutting out refine sugar might make my weight drop more! Should I just cut out sugar and take that risk? Or add in more of the good fats first, then reduce the refined sugar after?

Protein can be your friend but you would need to space it out through the day. Can you have sausages and eggs for breakfast, something meaty for lunch and dinner and then add the nuts hummous and avocado snacks as well?

fry things in butter, add cream and butter to pasta sauces when its mostly cooked, put cheese and butter on veggies

try not to just add refined carbs and sugar. If you want to add something sweet, go for high quality icecream with fresh fruit etc

Fortifying your food, add cream to your drinks/ breakfast etc. How underweight are you? I have digestive issues and a low bmi and have been prescribed protein shakes

The doctor’s advice to my underweight DD was peanut butter, cook with butter, avocado, hummus, oily fish, whole grains, full fat yogurt (indeed full fat everything). Specifically told her to avoid refined sugar because she doesn’t have the body mass to ride out the carb high/lows - not sure I agree with her logic but definitely agree with the advice. Trouble is my DD doesn’t like feeling full, and all these things fill her up very quickly. So it’s a battle.

As it happens, because DD eats so little and so infrequently, as soon as she feels the need to insert energy-sources into her body she reaches for sugary junk. For the immediate energy hit. It’s awful. She’s still young so education is ongoing. But she just seems to be naturally inclined towards sugar and carbs, less inclined towards protein. Luckily she loves almost all vegetables, but still. It’s a process.

I'd say exercise would be helpful. No one ever had such a voracious appetite as someone who just finished swimming!

In terms of what you should do, I'd suggest HIIT. It doesn't take a huge amount of time, you can get a bit of everything in there, and it's effective even if done only a few times a week.

Once your appetite naturally increases, I recommend eating what you feel like. Your body will often crave what it lacks. Obviously don't go crazy for unhealthy foods, but use butter, oil, go for flavour, and general satisfaction with your meals.

If dairy disagrees with you it wont help you gain weight so it’s better to focus on other sources of healthy fats.

I find having four smaller meals a day (plus snacks) is much more manageable for me than trying to force myself to eat 3 large meals.
I also found having set meal and snack times helped me as once I got used to always eating at those times I started to actually feel hungry rather than having to force myself to eat

Would you mind sharing roughly what you eat on an average day?

Add things like cashews to stir fries; cook with a good slug of olive oil; flapjacks are good; non dairy milkshakes like the Alpro ones. Don’t worry about cutting out refined sugar, just eat a balanced diet and add extra goodness 😃

Thanks @Bearybasket
My almost daily breakfast is gluten free porridge oats (a mix of big oats and finer ones), and I make the porridge using unsweetened almond milk, then add a large teaspoon of coconut oil, a large tablespoon of ground flax (to help constipation), loads of frozen blueberries and a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds. Unfortunately eggs have often made me nauseous, made me sick as a baby, so can't eat eggs, so it's porridge almost every day.

Lunch is usually some bread, but not loads as it bloats me, proper butter on the bread, with hard cheese of some sort, hummus, and some combo of cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, radish. Sometimes with ham or tuna.

Dinner is hit and miss to work around kids' activities. Could be salmon stir-fry with noodles or rice, chicken or steak fajitas, pasta (with mozzarella or tuna or bacon or smoked salmon and veg). Pizza (shop bought or home made), chunky fish finger sandwich and veg, roast chicken and all the bits, spag bol, burgers with a load of veg (and sometimes homemade wedges or occasionally oven chips) etc. probably too much ultra processed on rush days with tricky logistics. We rarely have takeaway or eat out but if we do it's often pizza (kids' preference ).

In between all that I will almost always have a range of bad snacks - a bowl of cornflakes and almond milk, a few biscuits with tea, a bag of the kids' lunchbox crisps, or occasionally I do better and have a sliced apple with almond butter or some more hummus with something dippy.

Let me know any thoughts on where to add good stuff in, thank you!

If you can, I’d add some exercise too. Weight training is ideal to build muscle and strength, good for bone health too. And will make you hungry!

If you don’t fancy that, get out walking. Nothing mad. It will all help

Have you tried lactose free Greek yoghurt? It may be the lactose that is causing the issues.

Eat more high fat foods - tbsp of flaxseed on cereal/oats/in a smoothie, handful of nuts and 2-3 squares of dark chocolate as a snack, extra Virgin olive oil dressing on salads/cooked vegetables, 1/2 Avocado (sliced on a sandwich, smashed on toast, in guacamole), peanut butter (on toast, in a smoothie, as a dip with dates/apple), Greek yoghurt with tbsp peanut butter and fruit

Plenty of lean protein

You could pack 500 kcals into a smoothie and have for breakfast or a snack - banana, berries, 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (I recommend Nuzest if intolerance to lactose/dairy), oat/coconut milk, 2 tbsp flaxseeds, 1tbsp peanut butter

Try to build a daily menu with meals/snacks at the correct amount of calories - until you get used to how much you need to eat to gain/maintain your weight

Dd is underweight and the dietian recommended using calorie counting app in the opposite way to you would when dieting because it prompts you to addup your calories, add an extra snack, review your diet etc.
Also recommended 3 meals and 2 snacks and make it a routine so dd knows at 8pm if she hasn't has 2 snacks that day to get some supper.
Was also suggested to add a side to meals when possible (without over facing yourself). Meal planning has helped so I'm not then just giving a lighter meal because it's quick. Adding a half spoon more when serving up, not enough to notice but with every meal it adds up.

I lost a lot of weight due to illness ten years ago. There is nothing magic to gaining weight any more than losing weight. Understanding appetite is key. Interestingly weight loss from illness was common in the past and old re open books like Mrs Beeton always have a chapter on invalid foods which will help people regain weight after long illness. Check these out as the advice they give is still sound (though the recipes often sound grim!), tempting appetite is critical. Once your appetite is healthy and you are instinctively eating a balanced diet weight will return.

1. Look at what your diet is low in now. If you are underweight you may be missing fat/carbs/protein in your diet.
2. If you find you are missing whole food groups, in my case I really struggled with carbs, then you need to take two steps. Firstly build your calorie intake with some of the foods you already have an appetite for. Your body is wise - if it wants lots of processed carbs after years of tummy upsets because it can turn them into energy quickly trust it.

But also add increase the other sources of energy you are missing. So for me eating a bit more avocado or peanut butter wasn't hard, I enjoyed those. But having a second slice of toast was tricky. You may be the opposite way round. In which case can you add a bit more butter to your toast? Dressing to your salad? Have a larger portion of fish or meat?

Your objective is to be getting a balance of energy from protein, fat and carbs again. Take it slow and steady, trust your body, stick to healthy sources of energy like whole grain carbs, lean meat, oily fish, fruit and dried fruit, nuts seeds, eggs and full fat dairy ( if you can tolerate it - full fat dairy substitute if not) and you will be fine. In fact better than fine - it's a really healthy way to eat.

But as you get there if some days are Haribo days or cheese and cracker days that's ok. The only things to really avoid are sugar free or fat-free foods with sweeteners which aren't great for your gut and will fill your tummy without much nutritional benefit.

Hi, I had sudden weight loss over the summer and doctor doesn't know whats wrong. Still underweight and need to gain more and put at least a stone back, but not at once.
What protein shake are people taking? Homemade healthy protein shake to drink?
Thanks.

Full fat milk with any drinks
That's what helped me
Complan also good