Now this is a topic totally alien to me, as I can gain weight just listening to the sound of a chocolate bar being unwrapped, but the wife has been told it could help medically to gain a bit of weight. The problem is she is just one of those people who can’t to this easily. She eats same size portions as me and I’m almost twice her weight. She does eat a fair share of junk food and doesn’t do a great deal of excercise, although has an active job.

What’s a good weight to steadily put on weight without eating slabs of lard or causing other issues? I guess aim for 1-2lb per week but should be looking at something like protein powders or similar?

Buy a Pinarello with full team sky kit. 🙂

Edit: Although if doc is suggesting sticking some meat on, maybe he/she should be discussing her intake and suggesting what (and why?!). I hope it wasn’t a throwaway comment by the doc.

Buy a Pinarello with full team sky kit.

Why?

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/boasson_hagen_spent_more_time_in_the_gym_this_offseason/

Become male and over 25 – instantly tubby.

Drink more beer.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/Underweightadults.aspx

For healthy weight gain eat a calorie surplus (obviously) e.g 2500/3000 calls for a 100lb person. 3-4g of carbs per lb of bodyweight, 0.8g to 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight and the rest in fats (4 cal per gram of carbs/protein,9cal per gram of fat). Get a PT to prescribe some resistance training 2/3 times per week to build a bit of muscle mass.

Just drinking protein shakes won’t help. You don’t store excess protein, you just piss it out. You need to use the muscles to need the additional protein in the diet. Eat more starchy carbs and healthy fats. Those get stored.

Get her to eat more often too. I eat 6 meals a day. Noms. Meal replacement shakes are useful for squezing in extra cals. Whole milk too. Cheap and calorie packed.

My powerlifer pal likes to pour olive oil over all his food when he’s on a bulk because it’s so calorie dense.

She eats same size portions as me and I’m almost twice her weight.

No she doesn’t, you’re lying! It’s not possible! Laws of physics can’t be broken blablablabla!

Calories in vs calories out 🙄

Have a meat shake.

Guinness .

if you can handle milk

https://stronglifts.com/gomad-milk-squats-gallon-gain-weight/

Bread, bananas, full fat milk?

Thanks all. Don’t disagree about calories in vs calories out-I suspect my out is far less due to sitting in an office all day. My point is more that she eats plenty and therefore increase portion size alone may be a struggle.

Changing to whole milk could be a good shout. I’ll go have a proper read of the other links.

Bigger portions, more pies, more beer, more icecream.. oh and moar cake!

Up the protein?

Or ignore the Doc. What are the reasons they gave?

Well if she’s got an active job then she just needs to increase her calorific intake. I’ve got a desk job but on the odd occasion, a few times a year, i’m supporting a customer event where i’m on my feet all day for a week, I will lose weight and a belt notch size, just purely by being more active and being on my feet for most of the day. So if your wife dos indeed have an active job then she’s not eating enough to gain weight.

Larger portions or if she can’t manage the volume in one sitting go on the Hobbit diet – 1st breakfast, 2nd breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.

Oh.. apparently lots of sex gives you a better appetite and will help put on more weight. Explain that you are only trying to help her out by doing it really often…

Pooh less, eat more.

I was told the same last May, after losing a stone and a half due to stress/anxiety + having absolutely no appetite -weird for me as always loved cooking + resultant grub! With the help +sound advice of a “food scientist” + finding food I wanted to eat, gradually increased my weight from 8 stone to 9 and a half….But it took about 5 months of patience, very gradual weight gain each week when we had a “weigh in” at home,eating when I couldn’t face it + my husband making sure I ate! It helped to keep a food diary too, to roughly estimate calories. Food planning helped too.

My GP said eat proper food with only the occasional treat (which went against NHS dietitian advice, but our GP is a mega fit lady who runs etc + looks after herself!)

Stuff which helped:

Smoothies made with cream/full fat milk or coconut milk, avocado, banana, coconut oil, flaxseeds, almond or peanut butter, berries, ice cubes, full fat Greek yogurt. Lots of recipes online.

2nd or 3rd breakfasts – used to have a smoothie 1st thing, then 2 fried eggs or plateful of scrambled eggs from works canteen, then maybe toast too or bowlful of porridge or as a treat, Canadian pancakes from a brill cafe where we live.

Drinks – use full fat milk in coffee, tea, drink full fat milk if you can! Also bought a juicer to get more good stuff in system with eating + chucked stuff in it like spinach, kale, apples, ginger, celery, cucumbers – loadsa recipes online.

Grazing – spoonfuls of nut butter during day, anything calorific on crackers = cheese, avocado, nut butter + cottage cheese, generously buttered toast 🙂 , little snack bags of nuts+ very dark chocolate+ dried fruit, full fat natural yoghurts. Having several small meals a day.

Extra calories in main meals – mashed sweet spuds with butter + cream – same for mashed cauliflower, using a decent stock + extra butter + cream in soups, eating rib eye steak (treat, obviously!) Adding cream to sauces etc, homemade rice pudding…Nommmm.

Look online for interesting recipes – spent a while looking at paleo + healthy food blogs for recipes, which was useful to get inspiration. Started baking stuff with almond flour, used avocados – nice pud = avocado+banana+cacoa powder, fridge it +it’s kind of like a choc mousse!

Sugar doesn’t work for me, so it was important to have decent protein+ good fats. However, love very dark chocolate+ that helped! I was referred to see an NHS dietitian, who work within their guidelines. However, they recommended stuff like fig rolls, Mars bars, sugary stuff which would’ve only resulted in putting on fat + me hating food! I did look at powdered shakes such as complan, but they’re rammed full of cr*p, sugar + you’re better off making your own.

Hmm, that’s some waffle! Hope your wife manages to gain weight healthily, she’ll feel better for it 🙂 Good lucks x

Hey thanks for taking the time to post that. Lots of useful tips in there, cheers!

Gaining weight can be really hard for some people – especially if there is some kind of underlying medical issue.

Few tips that i’ve picked up along the way.
1) Meal replacement shakes as snacks during the day (various options from GP prescribing something like Ensure Plus, to buying Complan from the supermarket, to weight gain type powders.
2) Liquid fat: NHS dietitians have access to all sorts of stuff! Basically a giant bottle of ‘good’ fat that you can add to food such as mashed potato etc.
3) Supermilk: Rather than switching to whole milk, mix normal semi skimmed with instant milk powder – doesn’t taste much different, but doubles the carb/protein content. Can be mixed into other foods, tea/coffee, but also used for hot chocolate to provide a fairly substantial intake before bed.
4) Regularity: 4000kcal days mixed with 2000kcal days doesn’t seem to work as well as 3000kcal every day (adjust numbers for individual obviously)