Advice needed on putting on weight

[monstertufts]

I'm too thin and have been trying to put on weight. All I ever manage to do is give myself a big pot belly and make myself feel bloated: the weight never seems to travel anywhere else.

If anyone out there knows anything about nutrition, could you tell me whether there are certain sorts of things I should be eating in order to put weight on properly? I have been assuming that it doesn't matter where I get my calories, as long as I get them, but perhaps this is where I've been going wrong.

Some additional info: I'm vegetarian, and I'm breastfeeding 8-month-old DS. I used to run and go to the gym before he was born, but I never have the time any more ... running around after him and his sister is the only exercise I get! Breastfeeding does seem to make it especially difficult to put on weight, but I was thin before I ever had children.

My dh has difficulty putting weight on and we've been using homemade milkshakes to boost his calorie intake that are nice and healthy. If you google homemade weight gain shakes you might find one that suits you. The recipes tend to be on body building sites but don't be put off by that. If you are fairly active they won't make you fat. I can't link on my phone but they include things like oats and bananas and peanut butter. Of course it might not be what you are looking for. Dh usually makes them up and just sips it during the day rather than forcing it all downs at once as they are pretty filling but in general each shake adds an extra 1000 calories to your diet.

One of the main things to try is snacking-eating something every 2 hours.

Maybe you could post here what you normally eat in a day, as it may be that you are simply undereating for your size and the fact you are BF.

Basically you should have protein 3 x a day- at every main meal. if you are a veggie this means you have to get the protein not just from cheese and other dairy but also from pulses and nuts.

You also need to try and increase your muscle mass which comes from exercising. Doing weights or exercises at home etc might help but you need to watch your pelvic floor so soon after the birth.

Snacks that you could eat that are healthy would be high good fat foods like avocados, humuus, walnuts, then things like dried fruits- apricots, figs, dates etc. and wholemeal scones, fruit buns, etc.

If you've always been this presumably this is healthy for you but might still be worth double-checking you don't have an over-active thyroid with your GP since this can cause weightloss and is very common after childbirth.

I'm on meds which suppress appetite and find it difficult to eat enough as a result. Things which have helped a bit include switching to full-fat milk, avocadoes, nuts, having toast with peanut butter rather than marmite, dressing veg with butter or olive oil, eating small snacks frequently as Amelia suggests and most basic of all making sure there is always plenty of high-calorie food in. Fortunately I have a toddler and what works for me works for her too.

I find eggs and pulses and issue because they can be too filling and leave me feeling stuffed even when I have eaten very little. Scrambled eggs made with lots of butter, and bean chilli with a dollop of soured cream and lots of cheese work OK, but do be careful with the ratios!

If your main problem is weightloss and certainly whilst you are breastfeeding then I really don't think it matters where the calories come from. If you tend to put on weight round your middle and want to avoid that then exercise is your best bet, chocolate and avocadoes will both sit there. Overall, for your long term health it is good to get energy from protein and fat as well as carbs

Penelope- just out of interest, why would avocadoes sit on one's middle?

I thought they were a good fat and as long as eaten as part of a sensible diet, were fine?

One more thing OP when you say you are underweight, who has said so?

If your BMI is below 18.5 then yes you are- and you will be at risk from certain conditions like osteoporosis in your 50s because low weight is a risk factor.

I meant if the OP tends to gain weight round her middle whatever type of high calorie foods she eats will cause the same pattern of weight gain. Completely agree that they are a good fat and better than chocolate hobnobs and chips which is all I wanted to eat when breastfeeding. But will make no difference to her shape.

Thanks for the advice everyone :)

First, I'm probably not technically underweight. I haven't weighed myself for ages, but I generally hover around a BMI of 18.5-19. I've been the same weight since I was 14. It's not for health reasons that I'm keen to put on a bit of weight, it's because I'm 37 now, and being thin is making me look really ropey! My face always looks tired and drawn, and plenty of people tell me how thin I am (when, probably, they would not dream of mentioning it if they thought I was too fat, but that's another issue).

Also, I don't put on weight around my middle, as such - I don't have a spare tyre or 'muffin top'. My belly just looks bloated if I eat too much.

Amelia, your asking me to write down what I eat has made me think quite carefully about my diet. Here's what I ate today, which is reasonably typical:

Breakfast:
4 slices of toast (multigrain bread) with quite a lot of butter.

Lunch:
Huge plate of pasta (probably double what a 'normal' person would eat) with a sauce made from tomatoes, olive oil, quorn sausages, onion, garlic, and philadelphia.
3 chocolate bars (@ 210 calories each)
About 50g pistachio nuts

Tea:
About 50g pistachio nuts
Big bowl of muesli-type cereal (oats, raisins, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, honey) - probably double a normal portion - with full-fat milk.

Drinks:
Decaf tea with full-fat milk, water, squash.

Okay- I am not a dietitian but I do some work which sometimes includes talking to them and discussing diets of certain people. Recently we discussed 5 adults inc. a veggie.

Can I be really blunt? Your diet is not particularly healthy. The only protein you are getting is your nuts , milk and sausages made from Quorn. If this is a "normal day" then you are having only 1 portion of fruit and veg- the pasta sauce. The minimum you should have is 5 a day.

You are also having loads of fat- Phili. choc, butter, nuts, full fat milk.

Your diet is very cereal based with too little protein and not enough Vitamin C or iron.

This could account for the bloated belly- lots of people get this with eating a lot of wheat or gluten.

You should try to include eggs, pulses like chick peas, beans and lentils, lower fat cheeses, and lots more fruit and veg. I'd say that what you eat now could make you feel very tired as it's heavy on refined carbs and sugar- high energy burst then a slump.

Please don't take this the wrong way- just trying to help.
A BMI of 19 is healthy - but any extra weight is better as muscle not just flab

Just some ideas
breccie- how about porridge with a banana? Slow release carbs and fibre.
Or eggs- omlette, scrambled, boiled etc.

Lunch- lentil soup, baked beans on toast, fruit, yoghurt, Muller Rice pot, cheese and oat cakes, wholemeal scones, fruit buns.

Dinner- Pulses- bean casserole, cauliflower cheese, wholewheat pasta, green veg, salads, stir fry with mushrooms ( high in protein), vegetable pilaff, risottos, fruit salad, more yoghurt.

Drinks- smoothies and fruit juice much more nutritious than squash.

You really do need to eat more protein - all that carbohydrate and sugar will just sit round your middle as you say it does. Eggs are a great source, and keep eating the fat. I know a lot of people say don't eat fat, and eat more carbs but I've been told by a dietician that's a terrible diet and what you should do is keep carbs down and eat more fat!

really don't want to sound preachy so excuse...

but you are also low in calcium- which will damage your bones if you have been breast feeding for 8 months. You should have 3 portions of dairy a day- worth looking up the RDA for breast feeding women but reckon it will be around 1200mgs.

Not going in to the ins and outs of what you eat but that is a hell of a lot of food. 100g of nuts and 3 bars of chocolate is probably about 1/2 the calories an adult woman needs in a day alone and those are just your snacks.

I do know breastfeeding made me fearsomely hungry so it could be that, but your baby is 8m so presumably on solids too if this has been going on for a while and particularly if you are slim, always on the go and having difficulty sleeping you really ought to see your GP as I suggested. Hyperthyroidism is really easy to treat but often missed.

I don't think those cals add up to a huge excess. if the OP has a high metabolic rate- she has always been slim- then she could quite easily burn up 2000 cals a day, and more while BF. The toast, cereal and pasta might not add up to more than 1000 cals.

I am more worried about lack of fruit and veg, protein and calcium.

Thank you all so much for all of the advice ... and amelia, no offence taken at all, I'm really grateful for the feedback!

I generally think I eat reasonably healthily, so it's interesting that that's not how it's perceived by others, and I can see some areas for improvement now. I do try to eat full-fat food where possible given that I want to gain weight, but I hadn't considered at all that my diet was 'high fat'. Amelia, what you said about my diet causing bloatedness and lethargy definitely rings a bell.

I have to say that I am not very good at taking notice of which foods are high in carbs or protein. I started reading some labels today and this has made me even more confused! For example, I noticed that baked beans contain 4.7g of protein per 100g, whereas chocolate contains 7.5g per 100g, porridge 11g per 100g, and pasta about 12g per 100g. Yet beans are considered a good source of protein...? Am I missing something here?

I'm going to stock up on eggs and yoghurt - everyone seems to agree that that's a good idea! I don't think I'm short on dairy products as I normally eat quite a lot of cheese, so yesterday's diet is fairly atypical in that respect. Just having the protein issue flagged up for me is enormously helpful - it's easy, for example, to throw some lentils in with some pasta sauce.

Penelope, DS is only cutting down on his milk very slowly, perhaps because I'm doing BLW with him. I did go to my GP when I lost weight breastfeeding DD, two years ago, and he ran some tests. I'm not sure if they checked my thyroxine levels, so I'll ask about that. But I definitely don't have trouble sleeping - at least, when the DCs allow :D

Thank you again for all the advice. I'll post again to let you know how it goes!

The protein-beans are relatively high in protein. I think what you need to consider is that they also contain fibre and minerals whereas choc is mainly fat- the protein comes from the milk and butter. Might help is you do some basic googling to see the fat/protein/carb requirements per day? Women's fat requirement is 20 grams saturated fat a day max.

Protein content on food can be a bit of a red herring. Pasta contains loads because of the gluten content but wheat gluten is hard to digest and not a particularly useful source of protein. Quorn contains only 14.5g of protein per 100g but is much easier for the gut to breakdown.

This is really helpful, thank you both. I've been reading the NHS web pages about diet and am shocked to discover how little I knew about healthy eating I'm pushing things in the right direction: more protein, more fruit, less fat ... I just need to make sure I replace (and increase) the calories I lose from reducing fat. I've been thinking that perhaps part of my problem putting on weight is psychological: it feels so horrible to get bloated and flabby after stuffing myself with fatty food that I stop doing it for a while so I can deflate. If I fill up on healthier calories, though, perhaps I'll be able to be more consistent about it!