High calorie foods for healthy weight gain

[Applejack88]

I am looking for idea of high calorie (but healthy) snacks and meals that I can build in to my regular routines. I'm naturally a slim person, but have found since having my children and always being busy that I have to be really careful not to slip down to an unhealthy weight.
I don't have a big appetite, but do my best at trying to eat regularly and in decent quantities.

I'm just having my lunch and totted up todays calories only to find that despite not feeling hungry or lacking in energy I have only consumed 846 calories (or I will have once lunch is over!).

Obviously I could get the calories via cakes/chocolate/junk food generally but firstly this would be super unhealthy, and secondly not long term maintainable.

I don't like eggs, although will tolerate them in 2 ingredient banana and egg pancakes. Otherwise, open to any suggestions!

My goto is rice pudding for dessert. Easy to digest and nourishing as well as calorific. Homemade is best but tubs are OK if I'm worried about going underweight.

Nuts are good - a dish of mixed nuts and raisins to nibble during the day are healthy and calorific.

Nothing wrong with a cheese sandwich or cheese and crackers as a snack.

How many sit-down food breaks are you having during the day? If you're having breakfast, lunch and dinner then schedule in elevenses and afternoon tea, so you have a drink and a sandwich or snack which can be as healthy / calorific as you like. The kids can join you, my family used to do this and none of us were overweight.

Cheese, nuts, nut butter, falafel, coconut, dates, humous

My partner has to work so hard to gain weight.

He used:

Protein shakes
Pure peanut/almond butter with apples
Peanut butter cookies (just PB and egg)
Olive oil - sprayed onto food

When I need to put a bit of weight on I have a milkshake twice a day to gain weight.

When I had to get my appetite back and put a lot of weight back on after a stay on hospital I turned to cheese omelettes a couple of times a day.

Thank you everyone, some great ideas.

@AmaryllisNightAndDay I am only having breakfast lunch and dinner as sit down food breaks, I can easily add a morning sit down snack, and do tend to have something around 3.30 with the kids, but I will try and make this more of a mini meal.

I feel like I can't talk to anyone in real life about this because I get 'well lucky you' and it makes me feel guilty!

@MariePaperRoses I wish I liked omelette - I really have tried but I can't stand the texture!

Lots of recommendations of fat but this is very filling if you don't have much natural appetite and may exacerbate the problem. You want complex carbs which will trigger hunger hormones once your blood sugar drops back down. Fruit (especially tropical) fruit juice even more so, healthy cerials like bran and weetabix, homemade flapjacks. Basically the opposite of what I do on low carb to lose weight.

Saying all this, if I could get away with it I would eat some of the more unhealthy options. Why not add a glass of red wine and good quality chocolate? Don't forget that even 'unhealthy' food is made from scratch it is much better for you as fewer ingredients and less additives. Carrot, courgette or apple cake?

I wonder that your focus on being healthy all the time is what is leading you to undereat unconviously? Just something to consider.

Fruit yoghurt is lovely and has health benefits while also containing fat and sugar too.

@Luckydog7 no, definitely not a problem. I love crisps and chocolate and things, and do eat them. I just meant I don't want to use just these kind of foods to increase my calorie intake daily, rather I'd like my meals to provide more calories.... and then the other things will be extras - does that make sense?

Avocadoes, oily fish, wholewheat pasta, butter, full fat yogurt, cream, nuts, cheese, jacket potatoes (with lots of butter) and increasing portions of all foods. Red wine in moderation- alcohol is pretty calorific. Dark chocolate too.

Not that you necessarily avoid these foods when losing weight but you tend to be careful how much you have and decrease portions overall, so have these without worrying how much you have and try to eat slightly bigger meals each time to put weight on.

I found that having a glass of milk or fruit juice with meals a good way to add calories.

Trick to put on weight is eat often

DS11 had weight issues , so by eating 5 times a day during school holidays he’s put on a stone within couple of months

what he ate a lot of : avocado, gurnsey milk, walnuts, double cream with strawberries

Something like this I only have to look at to put weight on.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tomato-mascarpone-risotto

Or something like gnocchi with a creamy sauce

https://thegourmetgourmand.com/gnocchi-with-gorgonzola-sauce-and-walnuts/

Gnocchi, cream, cheese, nuts - yep, that would do it.

I find I can eat an absolute ton of risotto and pasta if I'm not careful so if I were trying to gain weight I'd go there.

@Applejack88
Oh great I just thought I should voice that so hope I didn't offend you.

Lots of people are recommending all the foods that I am eating while trying to lose weight btw. High fat low carb is not good for building appetite for many people. If you are satisfied on 800 calories a day then I would focus on increasing your appetite as that doesn't seem a lot (but I'm a fat bastard so take everything I say with a big pinch of salt!)

Full fat Greek yoghurt (the proper stuff) with berries or nuts and drizzled honey or granola (or any combination) helped my DM get easy calories into her when she lost weight. Otherwise, crumpets with butter (yum!), cheese and crackers, nuts?

To add calories without too much extra volume add ground or finely chopped nuts where you can. Ground nuts can be stirred into sauces, chopped nuts on salad and stir fry's.
Add butter or cheese to vegetables or roast them in oil. If you eat sandwiches double up the filling, things like cheese and coleslaw, bacon and avacado, hummus and roasted veg.

Yes there is some overlap. But what I was recommending was actually the opposite - when you are wanting to lose weight you eat higher fat foods as they fill you up but absolutely in moderation. I was suggesting the OP don't moderate it. Things like cheese and nuts are filling and can be hard to moderate as you can eat a handful, it will be 600 calories and not necessarily fill you up, but they are not bad for you. And if you can combine that with wholewheat pasta (again a healthy choice but you need to moderate carefully if trying to lose weight) the fat & carbs combo should be weight gain central.

Little and often to increase appetite is good too. Grazing in front of the TV so you don't notice how full you are getting- basically the opposite again of what you do to lose weight.

@Luckydog7 not offended at all!
I will also have dinner later, so it won't be 800 calories all day. But I don't think I'd hit the target amount even including dinner.

There are some great suggestions here. I'm going to go through them all later and make some meal plans. Thank you

I have anorexia and have had to gain weight at various times over the years…my advice is

• go for 3 meals and 2/3 snacks
• drink calories (easy way to boost intake - juice, milk based )
• avoid too much protein as too filling
• nuts
• granola/muesli
• chocolate is an easy not very filling calorie monster

good luck!

Smoothies made out of a banana, a heaped tbsp of almond butter or peanut butter, any fruit you want, full fat greek yoghurt and milk.

What do you eat normally - I assume you don't want bigger portions so can you just add one thing to the things you usually eat to make it more calorific? eg, add some cheese, or some rice or some fruit? I think for most people, to eat so few calories would suggest relatively small portions and very low fat - so if you slightly increase one of both of those, you'd see an increase.

Eg, add dressing to vegetables, feta and avocado to your salads, a swirl of cream to your soup, a few extra spoons of rice with your curry etc.