Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

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Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

Postby Charissa » Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:23 am

Hi there,

I got here from the Forks over Knives website, so I hope I'm in the right place.

I'm a 29 year old female, still breastfeeding my 15 month old son. I'm borderline underweight and most importantly not feeling well because of this (feel sick a lot, which makes me not want to eat... get dizzy spells etc. etc.)

I've been trying to gain weight for the past year or so, more seriously since about August 2017. It's not working.

I was dairy free (other than that a rather conventional diet) up to October last year. I added dairy back into my diet hoping that that would help me gain weight. But ehm, nope, doesn't do the trick.

I'm interested in a WFPB diet because: It makes sense and my dad (only 55) has been on statins since last year. We have a mutation (not just what the doctors say - I got my DNA tested via 23andme) that causes an added risk for high cholesterol and heart disease. My uncle got himself checked because of my dad's diagnoses and promptly had to have 4 bypasses :shock:

My cholesterol has been tested and was high normal - I don't have to go back to get it tested for 5 years, though (Ehm...? That doesn't make sense to me?! I'm 29 and it's already on the high side and I DON'T need to get back in for half a decade?!).

I could write a novel - I've been a vegetarian in the past, primal/paleo for about 1 1/2 years (now 5 years ago), back to a more conventional diet with semi-healthy habits (low in sugar, focussing on whole foods but by no means fully committed).

A dietician prescribed high caloric drinks to help me gain weight - basically sugar water with a tad of protein. 600 kcal a day on top of my normal meals. But they DO make you feel full so... It didn't work AND made me feel yuck. So now I'm here (via What the Health - then Forks over Knives) and getting pretty serious about it. Trying more vegan or at least vegetarian recipes (luckily I LOVE lentils, haha, good excuse to eat more of those ;)).

But how do I eat WFPB to GAIN weight, not lose it? I'm guessing oils won't be off limits for me for now?

Any tips, tricks and recipes are very very welcome :)

Baby is waking up... Thanks if you've made it this far and I'm looking forward to reading your replies!
Charissa
 
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Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:07 am

Re: Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

Postby SonjaK » Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:59 am

Quick response: Go to Jeff Novick's link on this site and do a search for caloric density. He has several threads plus a great video on calorie dense foods. Basically instead of eating only on the left side of the chart (like someone who wanted to lose), you're going to add in more of the middle section.

You don't want to add oils because they aren't good for you, period, but you want to add more high calorie dense foods - like whole grain breads, avocado, coconut, nuts & seeds, soy milk, tofu, dried fruit, etc. These are all healthy items (depending on how processed they are) and will help you with the weight gain.

I think it's great that you are here asking!

Sonja
SonjaK
 
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Re: Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

Postby Willijan » Thu Jan 25, 2018 2:43 pm

You might try separating the issues of being borderline underweight and of not feeling well. For most people, this diet makes you feel good. Although there are those that doesn't happen to, such as people with unknown food sensitivities. And as far as being underweight, according to Dr. McDougall, your weight can be quite low compared to conventional standards and not be a health problem. See this article and especially the weight/height chart in it: https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2015nl ... andsex.htm

Especially with your family history and high cholesterol, this would possibly be a lifesaving diet for you, and it can also prevent more "minor" problems due to high cholesterol, such as macular degeneration. Therefore it is important for you to consider whether you can eat this way, even if your weight is already low.

As far as eating high-fat plant foods, they are allowed on this diet, but only in small amounts. To get the health benefits, the percentage of fat in the diet needs to be 10% or lower. You can only eat a very small amount of high fat foods to achieve that. If you haven't already, read Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book on his research to (successfully) reverse and/or prevent heart disease with a very low-fat diet. You will find that he didn't allow much (any?) high fat plant food for his patients, who had advanced heart disease. And he allowed absolutely not a drop of oil. When one patient started using spray oil, his angina came back, then went away when he stopped the oil.

Another convincing book to read on the importance of avoiding lots of high-fat plant foods is Dr. Dean Ornish's book, also a report on research that successfully reversed (and will prevent) heart disease.

There are other health problems with eating oil. It is not good, whether a person is worried about heart disease or not.

I hope my post is helpful to you, and I wish you the best. Let us know how you do.
Willijan
 
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Re: Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

Postby Charissa » Fri Jan 26, 2018 6:41 am

Willijan wrote:I hope my post is helpful to you, and I wish you the best. Let us know how you do.


Thanks! Definitely :) I just checked the weight chart and it's so encouraging to see I'm right where I'm supposed to be according to this one! It's tiring and demotivating to try to force yourself to eat to gain and then not succeeding. Perhaps I just need to maintain and have my body composition change a bit due to health improving :-D

SonjaK, I'm going to look up that video!

I'm not 100 % plant based yet, I guess I'm easing my way in. I know fully well I wouldn't be truly following the diet, but I'm thinking about going plant based 95% of the time (occasionally allowing myself some good quality cheese for example, once a week). I don't want to have food be the centre of my life (in a negative way)- but I do want it to nourish me and at least mainly be a positive thing.

I guess it's like anything in life, you need to set priorities but also not discount trying & knowing that even less than perfection is still worth the effort. Right? :)
Charissa
 
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Re: Hi! New and ... trying to GAIN weight! Help please!

Postby Willijan » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:02 pm

quote from Charissa:
"I guess it's like anything in life, you need to set priorities but also not discount trying & knowing that even less than perfection is still worth the effort. Right? :) "

Yes, definitely! Less than perfection can improve your health a lot.
For the longer term, remember that less than near perfection can be dangerous, but 95% (or whatever) is where lots of us started. I have continually improved in following this diet over 5 years, so I definitely wasn't perfect at the beginning.
Since you are trying this way of eating, you have a great opportunity not only to improve your own life, but also your child's. I would so love to have been a child whose parents fed me like this. It would have changed my medical history, I would have lost fewer body parts, and I would have been so much happier.
Enjoy!
Willijan
 
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