Weight Gain

I am copying the many times copied thread, "What did you eat today?" in hopes of helping some of those who are just starting to gain and have no clue what to eat. I know that when I began weight recovery, I was eating tons of low-cal foods just because that's what I was used to. I learned the hard way that dense foods are essential to weight gain when you have high caloric requirements (at one point I needed 4500 cal to maintain my weight on BEDREST). Perhaps newbies can get some ideas if we post our weight gain meal plans! Even if you're not gaining anymore, grab an old one and post it!:]

Please note that every body is different and some will need more or less calories than others to gain. This thread is just so that you can get an idea of what you need.

Oh, and yes, I'm breaking the "no calories, no portions" rule, since it is pretty helpful in this case. If you want to post cals/portions you can. I just ask that you don't post if you're not eating enough, though as this is a weight gain thread, I would hope none of you are undereating.;]

I'll start....

Breakfast (875 cal)*

• 1/2 cup oatmeal (150) cooked with
• 1 cup evaporated whole milk (300)
• 1 mashed banana (100)
• 2 tbsp peanut butter (200)
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed and cinnamon to taste (50) 
• 1 hard-boiled egg (75 cal)

Morning Snack (300 cal)*

• 1/4 cup mixed nuts (200)
• 1/4 cup dried apricots (100)

Lunch (660 cal)*

• 1/4 cup rice cooked in 1 cup chicken stock (300) and
• 1/2 cup canned or cooked chickpeas (145) and
• 1/3 cup shredded cheese (150) and
• 1/4 cup each onion, peppers, and tomato (30) cooked with
• 1 tbsp olive oil and curry powder to taste (120)

Afternoon snack (390 cal)*

• 1 serving baby carrots (35)
• 1/4 cup hummus (155)
• 1/4 cup mixed nuts (200)

Dinner (875 cal)*

• 1 cup of my insane Mac & Cheese recipe (515)
• 2 cups tossed salad (45)
• 2 tbsp rasins (60)
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds (105)
• 2 tbsp dressing (150)

Evening snack (480)*

• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (180)
• 1/2 cup homemade granola (300)

About 3600 calories :]

I eat about 10 times more than the RDA of sugar, same with fat. But most of my sugar is either fruit or honey, I don't use proccessed sugars, and the fat comes from nuts, olive oil, or diary products. so I don't think it's too much of a problem, and I think you're not really supposed to count the sugar from fruits, though the logs here still do.

I still do eat a ton of carbs too, my mind just works in weird ways. I'll have no problem putting down 3 servings of rice or pasta, or bowl after bowl of cereal, oatmeal, toast, cookies. But bagels are still "unsafe"? I'm sort of crazy, but I think at some point when my stomach problems were at their worst I had a lot of pain after eating a bagel and my mind still hasn't taken it off the bad list since. I have a lot of "safe" and "unsafes" that dont really make sense, but oh well. Despite logging calories I'm still keeping my intake at about 3500 or more. so I guess it's good that logging hasn't made me stop eating. I haven't done it today yet! I only started doing this daily about 3 or 4 days ago so i think I just need to stop this habit right now and if I can manage a day, then 2 then 3 and so on I'll go back to not logging.

aqua- I love cooking! I've wanted to oopen up my own bakery or restaurant for about 10 years now and would still love to. I know a ton of good food blogs and recipe sites, mostly vegetarian or vegan, if anyone wants a good list for food ideas just let me know!

Gibbit- I understand the whole I do not fear carbs except bagels thing. Now though I love my whole wheat bagels. I think that I have gotten over MOST of my fears. Like last week I had an organic white hamburger bun and boy was it amazing! It was so soft. Basically though if it has the word organic/all natural on it, I will eat it! I love my organics and all naturals! :)

Laba-I have never worried abotu sugar actually. Just one of those things that never really made me "worry" during my eating disorder. Oh well! I think that during recovery sugar is perfectly fine!

Lunch: melted provolone cheese with tomato on whole wheat BAGEL (haha) and some blueberries, grapes, and cut up peach!

 

EDIT-

agruskin-I can totally understand what you mean by not knowing what you want. I struggled with that too and still do. I just sometimes have to stop for a second and really think about what I really am in the mood for. It can take a little bit to figure it out, but I feel more satisfied knowing that I ate what I want! I also had to just make myself add more variety. Variety in most aspects of life is GREAT! When I was not in recovery and in my worst times of my eating disorder, I had the same two breakfasts like everyday! Not fun at all!

A BAGEL!  I forget tho, are they thomas?? lol

LALA-i never worried about sugar either, carbs maybe.

GIBBIT-w/ my stoamch probs i acnt eat OATMEAL, what everyone here always raves about, and bananas.

ok, so i keep flip flopping w/ my meal choices like i said b4 and always end up eating the same things over and over- so im commiting myself to the following, eating intuitively is not where i am at yet-

afternoon snack- cereal+milk, trail mix, fruit

dinner-boca cheeseburger+bun, 1/2 potato cut up and baked like french fries, loaded salad

regular snack

Hi everyone! I started Renfrew today with their intensive outpatient program being there from 9-2pm. It actually wasn't too bad. I can't do it on my own, eating what I should, and they make me eat but it was good because after each meal we have meal support therapy and it helped soooo much! But my food intake has gone way up! I'm not allowed to count calories but here's what I had today, tell me what you think..is it a lot? 

Breakfast: 1 whole wheat english muffin with 1 tbsp peanut butter 1 banana and 1 cup 2% milk

Lunch: 1 cup pasta salad (scary) 1/2 cup vegetables, 2 oz chicken, 1 small apple, 2 cookies, 1 cup of milk (ohhhhh it was tough)

Dinner: 1 flour tortilla, 1 cup mixed chicken and vegetables

Snack: 1 cup special k with 1% milk cup

 

that seems like so much and tomorrow is a food challenge...PIZZA...everything is catered in so it will be from Papa johns or some place like that. I'm terrified..but I can do this.

 

Good work and good luck to everyone else :)

Original Post by gibbit:

I love cooking! I've wanted to oopen up my own bakery or restaurant for about 10 years now and would still love to. I know a ton of good food blogs and recipe sites, mostly vegetarian or vegan, if anyone wants a good list for food ideas just let me know!

I LOVE to cook, too!  My dream job is to be a chef and I have actually thought seriously about culinary school... except that my parents think I should worry about feeding myself well before I worry about feeding others.  Understandable, I guess.  I could spend all day baking a cake for my friends but eat none of it myself.  Anyway, I would love to hear what vegetarian recipe sites you like... My friends make fun of me because I procrastinate by looking at recipes and food blogs online.  P.S. Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" is an amazing cookbook!

So for today...

Breakfast:  scrambled egg whites with 1/2 an avocado; Fage 0% with almond butter and strawberry jam

Snack:  smoothie with skim milk, banana, protein powder, and Puffins peanut butter cereal

Lunch: more Minestrone (I made a TON the other day); Fage with almond butter; cranberry juice; slice wheatberry bread

Snack: same as before, then did a spin class at the gym

Dinner: grilled veggie sandwich with pesto on focaccia; fruit salad

Dessert: 1/2 pint vanilla soy ice cream

ashley-I just wanted to say that I think you are doing so well. Keep up the HARD work! You are so going to eat that pizza. You can do it! You can do it! Food wise, that is still not a lot at all although it may seem like it. Liquids are great. They can get much needed calories in while not feeling full :) Keep it up girl!

I also love to cook! We should all open up a restaurant together! :)

ASHLEY-fantastic!  you can totally have the pizza!  yum!

i also felt like i ate a ton today, i think maybe close to 1700, i dunno, i dont trust myself or the calorie counter and with things like potatos, i had half of one, i really dont know the weight so i dont know the calories?  im thinking ill stay at this level for a few days also bc i feel like its a range of caloric intake, like i said, i dont always know the exact amounts since i dont really measure stuff. 

GIBBIT-i often will stop and think, waht do i want, but like tonight, i so wouldve ended up having another cheese sandwich for dinner if i hadnt commited on the board to something else.  i think i could eat the same few things over and over but when i do try new things, its like wow, tht was so good.  but having the same old is also really good, its really hard and i dont know how to listen to my body.

LIKEARE-i forget, youre still trying to gsin, right?  what has been your pace of gaining?

keep up the good work everyone!

tues-

BFAST-roll w/ ~1 tsp PB+jelly, yogurt, cut up strawberries, ~ 2 tsp dried fruit

SNACK- some kashi choc pretzel bar

LUNCH-roll, cheese w/ letuce+tomato, fage yogurt, apple

SNACK-protein shake cereal+milk, trail mix, fruit

DINNER-boca cheeseburger+bun, 1/2 potato cut up and baked like french fries, ketchup, loaded salad

SNACK-yogurt+apple

tomm i am comiting to eating more regularly throughout the day

Yes! We can have the healthiest restaurant ever! haha
Here are some of my favorite sites:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html
http://www.vegalicious.org/
http://happyherbivore.com/
http://thevegandiet.blogspot.com/
http://oatmealmix.wordpress.com/ --> i just recently found this one. This girl shares my love of oatmeal, but eats even more of it. Oh the possiblities!!

 

Ashley- I totally admire you for doing this! You are doing so well and you will conquer that pizza tomorrow! eek pizza scares me, it's the lactose intolerance, cheese in certain forms is scary. I just started getting kefir cheese which has probiotics so I can eat it!

Agru- setting one goal a day is a great tool in recovery! And we rave about oatmeal because it's so easy to add almost everything in the pantry into it, but you can do the same with any cereal or yogurt. I alternate between a yogurt mix and oatmeal, so in my yogurts I'll mix granola (replace with any cereal of your choice) nuts, dried fruit, sometimes coconut, protein powder or whole milk powder, honey, fruit. Pretty much anything I can think of, and the extra powders and nuts are what really up your calories.

I managed to not count today!! woohoo!!
breakfast: whole milk yogurt, fage total, protein powder, banana, strawberries, almonds and pecans, granola

lunch: scrambled eggs, salad, carrots with bean dip. apple juice

snack: went to a frozen yogurt place, vanilla fro yo with raspberries.

snack: couple spoons of pb

dinner: boiled more gnocchi and topped with tofu mushroom alfredo sauce ( i need to finish this off already!) added in peas and brocolli. sliced tomato spread with walnut pesto. apple juice.

snack: dont know yet? Might bake some cookies...I'm craving more pb...uh oh

Breakfast: Oatmeal, skimmed milk, Banana, toffee hot chocolate powder, 45g special K (mixed in)

Snack: Cinnamon, rasin bread, 2 Tablespoons of soynut butter, 1 pot of raspberry bio yoghurt.

Lunch: Salad (Mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, butterbeans, Quorn chunks and balsamic vinaigrette) 1 mini wholewheat pitta.
an apple, an orange and a pear.

Snack: Bear NAKD granola with strawberries, live yoghurt and cinnamon.

Dinner: Roasted peppers stuffed with brown rice, tofu and ratatouille, Green beans and brocolli on the side.

Snack: Cocoa made with skimmed milk, 1 dark chocolate flake and a banana bread raw food bar.

breakfast: 1.5 cups vanilla rice krispies, 1/2 cup rice milk, 1 source yogurt, 1/2 cup honey almond flax

snack: apple with almond butter, rice cake, strawberries

lunch: 1 source yogurt with honey almond flax cereal and blueberries, watermelon

snack: vanilla shreddies, 1 simply organic cranberry granola bar

dinner: corn on the cob, sol cusine veggie burger on a wholewheat english muffin with ketchup, dijion mustard, tomatoes and lettuce

GIBBIT- An entire blog dedicated to oatmeal? That is AWESOME beyond belief. Also, your the only other person on here besides me that every says anything about being hungry. Everyone else is always saying they are really full. Does this worry you like it worries me??? I'm afraid that once I need to start maintaining again I'll be too hungry to eat a proper amount and I'll just keep eating like I am, and gain weight forever! But on another hand, good job with not counting! I still can't do that :\

Breakfast- Mini w.w. bagel with veggie cream cheese, oatmeal made with almond milk, orange, egg, almond milk

Snack- Mini bag of popcorn, blueberries

Lunch- Grilled cheese with provolone on w.w., Stonyfield w.m. yogurt, Kashi soft-baked bar, carrots

Snack- Berries, carrots, pudding, Yoplait kids, Boost smoothie

Dinner- 2 slices four cheese PIZZA, scoop of soy ice cream

Snack- String cheese, berries, orange, almonds, Clif Mojo bar, Molli Koolz ice cream beads, SNB and banana shake

Who loves whole wheat bagels? I DO!

Those sites look great!  Here's another one:

http://veganyumyum.com/

And agruskin, yes, I am still trying to gain.  My goal weight is 115, and I have about 2.5 weeks to get there (when I'll be visiting my parents).  I started at 100 and having gotten to 108 in about a month... so that's like a little under 2 lbs a week.  Wow, thanks for asking about that, actually, because I definitely won't be at 115 in time if that's the rate things are going at.  Time to increase again...

 

hi everyone!

AQUA- you said, "Does this worry you like it worries me??? I'm afraid that once I need to start maintaining again I'll be too hungry to eat a proper amount and I'll just keep eating like I am, and gain weight forever!"  LOL- ME!  the more i eat the hungrier i am.  i can not imagine being able to go back to eating less or the amount that i was before and yes i am scared about maintaining and those are the thoughts that make it even harder for me to want to gain weight!  also- im having the cliff mojo PB+ pretzel bar w/ lunch today, it sounds so good!!

LIKEARE-how tall are you?  im about 5'4 and i think 115 is my goal as well, for now, altho i truly see myself ultimately as a bigger person, like 130s or so.  but yea, youre really active, spin burns a ton of calories so increase away!

i felt like i ate a ton yesterday!  i stayed w/ my plan altho i really wanted another cheese sandwich instead, i just love cheese!? 

Eee! So I'm going to hit just under 2000 today in intake, and while I did have to walk for 45 (at my pace, I hit about 4.5mph, so that's about 200 calories burnt?) to get to my therapist and back but I still managed to plan (and will consume!) 2000 and that's something! :D I've gotten in a fairly good balance, too and I have LOADS of energy right now, it's amazing! I've not even reached the full 2000 yet xD I'm so determined for change after the threat of daypatient particularly, and I realise I have MISSED eating! Haha. I've gotten SO hungry today, though, even when I ate a large bowl of oatmeal or a large spud with 150g of tuna, veg and chilli! x: Is that normal? Better yet, is that a good sign? XD Crazy!

yes! I'm so scared of that! I feel like I've starved myself if I haven't gone way over 3000 calories a day! Yesterday I felt like I had eaten so normally and didn't count, and then ended up totally pigging out at night. After all the good food I had already eaten I had cinnamon raisin toast with almond butter, honey and lots of butter! then grahm crackers with cream cheese and apricot jelly, a bunch of almonds and dried pears, then dried prunes that I filled with pb, and a hot chocolate. And I'm getting closer and closer to my goal weight so I'm really scared I won't be able to stop! I've been trying to exercise to make up for all the eating now that I don't need to gain so desperately so now I'm getting into a binge/ complusively exercise cycle. This sucks.

Oh, and I've already logged this mornings calories :( I thought maybe I'd try to have a normal breakfast instead of having all my extra add ins and supplements, and my yogurt and fruit bowl still added up to over 700 calories! I have no idea how to be normal.

edit: I just checked out veganyumyum.com, it looks so good! Thanks!

yup, maintenance is exactly what is scaring me and gets in my way of gaining.  i dont know how normal ppl balance everything, not constantly think about food, excercise... the thing is, i dont know that i was ever a healthy weight in my life..

LALA- im also so hungry all the time now, what does it mean, i dont know?  what is the tuna veg chili?  it sounds really good!

Yeah, maintaining scares me more the gaining I think. Sometimes I'll sit down to a meal feeling really hungry. Then I take a couple bites of whatever the meal is, and I'll stop feeling hungry. But this only lasts like five minutes, and then I get hungry again while I'm eating! It kind of prevents me from enjoying my food! On Monday I'll ask my nutritionist and/or doctor how they get patients to go back to eating a normal level without starving themselves!

I've not started thinking about maintainance yet purely because I've still got a lot of gaining to do. I... apparently naturally undereat (going by the intuitive eating I experimented with o__-) so I'm not -too- worried about it yet - but who knows where I'll be a couple of months from now.

Agru: It's so wierd! x__x I ate a big bowl of porridge and was still hungry for custard afterwards, but it's good because it's getting my calories up. I've had mixed messages that it's either a sign you've eaten too little (?!) or your metabolism is working harder. I haven't a clue. x:

I had a jacket potato with a tin of tuna mixed with a bit of chilli and bbq sauce (and veggies on the side) for my lunch. (: It was tasty, and normally that sort of meal fills me up - but I was hungry almost half an hour afterwards!

LALA- i think the terms for foods are diff where you are, what is a jacket potato?  just a baked potato?  and you say chili, is that just a sauce or you mean beans?  and another q, lol, custard?  is that like chocolate pudding?

i hope being hungrier now means that my metabolism is speeding up and adjusting, not that ill just be forever hungry?!

AQUA-great idea to ask yuor nutritionist bc im the same, ill get full and then a little while later really hungry again.  sometiems i feel like i could just eat forever but maye find out what it means when youre always hungry? lol

Agru: Jacket potato = baked potato in the skin. I mean chilli as in the vegetable, and custard... it's a pudding of sorts, yeah. xD Dairy. Similarly, I really hope this is a sign of a speeding metabolism because I am CRAZY hungry so frequently now! x___x