Help to put on weight please!!!

[Indianafrankie]

Really hoping someone can help with some ideas as I’m struggling at the moment. Have been through an incredibly stressful period in my life over the last few months and have lost around 2 stone, I’m now around 7 ish stone and really need to put at least a stone back on. Definitely no underlying health issues just stress and not eating or looking after myself properly. Have turned a corner now and am eating - just the usual things people would eat and what I’m cooking for my children, but I can seem to put any of it back on. I have to walk 8 miles a day which I don’t think is helping so I always feel like I’m playing catch up, what can I eat that is good for weight gain combined with the amount of walking I’m doing? Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks

I'm in a similar position. My start weight was 6 stone, I'm now just over 7 and trying to get to 8-8.5.

What's been most helpful for me is My Fitness Pal. I know you usually hear it used by people trying to lose but it's really been helpful for me in trying to gain. I gave my height, weight and goal weight and it set me at 2500 calories per day. I found to start with I was having to eat more than that to see any gain (approx 3000+ which seemed impossible but I did it), but it was giving me a way to track. I enter everything in and scan barcodes/weigh everything to try and be accurate.

I'm having a lot of peanut butter on toast with extra butter, cheese on toast etc during the day. A healthy meal at night like fish/meat with veg and a lot of carbs. I was drinking complan or protein shakes between meals to start with, but stopped those when I gained my first stone as it was upsetting my stomach a bit.

I highly recommend MFP to calorie track, it really kept me motivated and on track.

3 main meals a day and morning / afternoon snacks
Full fat dairy
“Good fats” -‘oily fish, avocado, nuts etc
Avoid eating junk food and surgary snacks just for the calories as you’ll end up with sugar highs and crashes if you’re not careful.
Do some strength training to help build muscle.
Look up body building diets for an idea of the types of food they include in their diet.

I'm the same, I'm 6st 12 and really need to put weight on. Force myself to eat when I don't have an appetite. Very hard.

I have porridge for breakfast every day as I find it's the easiest thing to swallow when no appetite!

Protein shakes plus 3 meals a day, high calorie healthy snacks like nuts, cheese

Watching for ideas too. Stubbornly just under 8 stone at 5ft 4" and just so weedy. I found drinking Complan filled me up so I ate even less 😳

Thanks so much everyone, some really good suggestions which I will follow and yes will definitely look at the strength training as well I’m just way too thin at the moment and honestly it’s not a good look. Need to get into the routine of three meals a day as a single mum with a full time job have been just about managing on one but this has to change now, I need to look after myself more.

Just to add, your stomach will stretch over time allowing you to eat more, so do persevere. I would begin with eating 3 meals a day or if you struggle with large quantities maybe 5 small meals a day. Being organised is the key. So prep the night before. I know that’s difficult when busy, but it will soon become a habit.
You don’t want to fill up on snacks or drinks. When you start to be able to eat more, then introduce snacks. They could be just a couple of crackers with cheese and an apple. Or peanut butter on slices of apples. Or a handful of nuts. Don’t avoid healthy food because it’s not fattening. Plenty of veg will still do you good. Good luck.

The easiest thing to do is to make what you eat and drink more calorie dense. So if for breakfast you have porridge and a coffee, make the porridge with gold top milk, a blob of cream and have a gold top milk latte. If you can have a couple of biscuits mid morning, have dark chocolate hob nobs (or similar) rather than a digestive, and again have a milky drink. If you have a sandwich at lunchtime, full fat mayo and an avocado on your chicken sandwich massively ups the calories, or if you have soup, stir some double cream into tomato soup, and have a bit of cheese on the side. Dinner time, macaroni cheese (full fat milk, cream, all the cheese) or risotto go down easily

If you can't face the meals, make up some smoothie bags for the freezer - scoops of really high quality ice cream, cream that was frozen in ice cube bags, banana slices, oats, frozen fruit/ chocolate/ peanut butter depending on what you like, and then you can whiz it in a blender with gold top milk and then drink it when you are walking. I have a little Breville smoothie maker thing which came with two bottles and blends the stuff in the bottle so no extra washing up and made in under a minute

Brilliant ideas thank you! Especially the smoothies when walking that will definitely help.

When I need to ‘fatten up’ the teens (after illness or similar). I use full fat everything, loads of avocado, cheese, peanut butter, custard. And wholemeal bread and pasta too. Flour is v high in cals - about 300 per 100g so pizza is also good choice - can make it healthy with wholemeal flour and veg toppings.
Porridge is great and you can sprinkle all sorts on it / seeds, nuts, fruit etc. Banana is a fairly high cal fruit.

I used to do some weight training, not to get bulging muscles but to tone up and add a little bulk. Gym instructor said it’s really good for bones etc as you get older.
I used to have your problem (I don’t know I’m older! lol) but that’s what helped me.

I've just had a crumpet with butter 😋. Perhaps we could post our ideas on here for daily inspiration 🙂

Why do you have to walk 8 miles a day? Can you cycle it or part of it instead?
Would probably burn fewer calories.

Definitely fill in a food diary and try to make yourself sit down to eat three decent meals a day. Then maybe have some easy snacks to hand for when you are busy, full fat yoghurt, flapjack bars etc.
You will need to treat it as a project in the same way as someone trying to lose a stone.
If you are still struggling after a period of say six months (earlier if you lose more weight) I think you should talk to your gp. It sounds like it could be a form of anorexia as it is not normal to forget/be too busy to eat enough to maintain a healthy weight. Walking 8 miles a day if you are fit and used to it will not burn off enough to stop you gaining.

Yes have been trying to think of alternatives to this too, it’s the school run - I’m in another country and it was the only school that had a place for both of my children, no car at the moment due to paperwork and my youngest can’t ride a bike at the moment but hoping to change that asap!

I understand what you mean, I think a lot of it has also been struggling to adapt to the culture change here - I’m in another country, school finishes at 2 and after that is when they eat a big meal here so say around 3 and then they eat again around 9 but i just can’t get my head around eating so late so I just haven’t been if that makes any sense

As my username indicates I have the same problem (if you search my username I had a thread earlier this week with loads of kind posters and great tips). Things that help me are:

• cream in my coffee (no matter how stressed I am I still need coffee!)
• butter in and on everything
• smoothies with added peanut butter (peanut butter generally is great)
• full fat everything
• crackers with butter and cheese or peanut butter (I find crackers easier than bread)
• crisps (if I can face them)

Good luck op. I know how hard this is.

You could try a tag along bike attached behind yours if child is old enough to stay in balance.

Brilliant idea thank you!

If your weight isn't causing you any health problems, then I wouldn't worry about it. NB If you ARE suffering health issues due to being underweight then ignore the below and talk to your GP.

There's very little benefit to carrying extra fat around, so eating more calories to gain more fat to weigh more is a bit silly, particularly just eating more carbs and increasing your fat intake is BAD for you (there are NO "healthy" fats!).

The BEST way to increase body weight is by building muscle - the walking will mean your legs are fine - try and do some upper body exercises as well. Swimming in particular is excellent, also things like rowing, light weight-lifting, etc

Make sure you don't miss meals, but don't try to eat MORE than you want either. Finally make sure you are eating enough protein and getting enough vitamins.

Surely there are healthy fats? Avocado, nuts stuff like that?

There's very little benefit to carrying extra fat around, so eating more calories to gain more fat to weigh more is a bit silly, particularly just eating more carbs and increasing your fat intake is BAD for you (there are NO "healthy" fats!).

This is all wrong. Please ignore this.

My husband really struggles to keep his weight at a healthy level. Lots of the tips here are great. DH does a high calorie afternoon snack - that had quite a big effect. He normally has full fat natural yogurt with seeds and dried fruit and a couple of biscuits. He also has a protein shake mid morning.

Dd was down to 6.5 stone but is now back to a healthy 8. We achieved this by snacks (calorific, not filling eg mousses) between meals, lots of butter, extra olive oil in pasta, anything to tempt her too. She had a tendency towards eating issues

@CarlottaValdez

There's very little benefit to carrying extra fat around, so eating more calories to gain more fat to weigh more is a bit silly, particularly just eating more carbs and increasing your fat intake is BAD for you (there are NO "healthy" fats!).

This is all wrong. Please ignore this.

My husband really struggles to keep his weight at a healthy level. Lots of the tips here are great. DH does a high calorie afternoon snack - that had quite a big effect. He normally has full fat natural yogurt with seeds and dried fruit and a couple of biscuits. He also has a protein shake mid morning.

You don't seem to understand the difference between calories, protein, fat and carbs - or the difference between maintaining weight and putting it on.

I repeat, there is no benefit in adding carbs/fat to a diet in order to bulk up because all you'll add is body fat and cholesterol both of which are bad for you.

A high protein shake, or the kind of high calorie snacks you described, are excellent for maintaining weight if the person cannot otherwise consume sufficient calories. This is NOT the situation the OP is in.

As for the full fat natural yoghurt - if he enjoys it and he doesn't consume a lot of fat, there's no problem. You have a requirement to consume SOME fat in your diet. Again, this is NOT the situation the OP is in, where people were badly advising her to eat LOTS of fat.

To the OP, if you have any doubt, please check with a GP - they will confirm what I have said and warn you off any unhealthy approaches.