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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Trying To Gain Weight

I need to gain weight. What I really want is to put about 20 pounds on but I would settle for 10. The problem: I'm ALWAYS nauseated. It is this nausea that slowly robbed me of a pound here and a pound there over the past 7 years. I often will be really hungry and then when I begin eating my nausea will kick up and I'm not able to eat as much as I want. Complicating matters, I eat really healthy food, all of which are low in calories. My body loves these healthy foods and has actually begun rejecting the more processed, sugary, crap.

Over the years I've tried a couple things to get my weight up but have not had much luck. Just yesterday I began feeling a renewed sense of urgency on this matter. I need to find a way to make this happen. Here are the things I'm currently doing to add calories to my diet:

- I put cheese on almost everything I eat (not breakfast)
- I try to drink some calories by adding juice to my breakfast
- I snack on Wheat Thins
- I try to have a little dessert with both lunch and dinner

My husband suggests that I eat a big snack close to bedtime and I'm going to give that a try. But I'm also open to any suggestions you may have. Have any of you struggled to gain weight? Have any of you had any luck gaining?

HELP!

5 comments:

  1. I had a hard time getting my mother to gain weight, she like you was very thin. What I ended up doing was having her drink an ensure with breakfast and then one in the afternoon for a snack and that really helped. i wish I could give you what I don't need. Too bad we can't do transplants.

    Heather

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  2. How about including toast with your late night snack? If you can't have the gluten, there are good gluten-free alternatives. That way you could get some calories. I was trying to think of things that are soothing to eat with a nauseated tummy. Toast came to mind first.

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  3. My advice would be to snack a lot - every few hours. Also distraction is good. If you can watch a really good movie or TV show and trick yourself into doing mindless munching, you might look down and discover your plate is magically empty. These were my tricks to gain weight during the beginning of my pregnancy when I was really nauseous. Hope they help!

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  4. Every since I got put on preventatives (for me, antidepressants)....the weight came on uncontrollably. I gained about 30lbs in 10 months. Back in 2000, I knew nothing about antidepressants or even why I was being put on them. At that point I didn't care what they gave me, as long as it helped control the chronic headaches.

    So, here we are 13 years later and taking off weight has been so hard. Between the cycle of chronic headaches, the medication, depression and not wanting to work out plus all the other stresses, it surely has been a battle. I have mananged to take off about 20lbs and have accepted that I will be on these medications the rest of my life.

    For you, the best option for possibly gaining weight is to add in more carbs. I know you are a healthy eater but adding in carbs at every meal would probably help you gain some weight.


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  5. I drank a lot of smoothies when I was trying to gain weight. I used ice cream (or non-dairy Coconut Bliss) or cream in them to add calories and fat. Tofu or full-fat yogurt would work, too. The only thing that truly helped me gain weight was getting my nausea under control. And I was able to do that by lessening my migraine severity by moving to a more stable climate and finding a somewhat effective migraine preventive. Not sure that really helps you with your dilemma, though!

    What about trying a migraine preventive that causes weight gain? I thought of this because cyproheptadine (the only preventive of more than three dozen that's ever made me gain weight) is sometimes prescribed specifically for weight gain, especially in kids. Maybe it would have the added benefit of reducing the migraines, as well.

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