How to gain weight? (With healthy foods.)

Basically you use more than you put in, so I would run twice a week, to still keep relatively fit, I would have some carby snacks, cut down on proteins a tad, I would eat 6 meals/snacks a day, and the meal/snacks sizes shouldn't be kid's ones nor just veg or fruit.

A few years ago, I lost a most a third of my body weight through illness.

This is what I ate to put it back on:

Breakfast: 16 weetabix + milk

Lunch: A couple of sandwiches and a couple of bananas.

Supper: A wok full of stir-fried vegetables - meat + a massive bowl of rice.

No snacks.

I was also working on a building site at the time and as my waist size was the same at the end (slightly thinner actually), I was have been putting on muscle and not fat. (actually that was quite obvious).

I'm not sure that this would work for you though because when I had reached a certain weight, I automatically cut down on the amount of food.

Bloody hell, I bet you went through a lorry load of bog roll...

Why cut down on protein? Protein is needed to build muscle so I would have thought increasing ones intake would be better.

Because it fills you up. I didn't say cut it out completely, but if I have an egg, I won't be hungry for carbs, unless I push myself. Too much protein kills appetite. Protein is good, otherwise, sure, we all need it. But not too much, if it is animal protein, either, since cholesterol seems to be high for OP.

Might be the portion sizes, that somebody already mentioned, otherwise the diet looks good. I would have more carbs, a bit of protein, not so much exercising, I would eat more often and more food. But that worked for me.

I move that we start a BMI bank, where BMI points can be freely deposited into a cup, and withdrawn by those in need.

To assist in the process, gastronomical porn will be available in the lobby.

Do you really need to gain weight, just because you`re BMI is low? I mean, if you feel well, why should you gain more weight?

What is a low BMI, anyways, I have lived for 30yr bellow 15 and I was considered healthy, re my body frame and metabolism.

It's only when it went up a bit I realized how much more I like being in my body..The doc might have been subjective, too, it does depend on how you feel. But, upping one's weight after decades of being thin is a major pain.

Were you worried about your health/weight before going to the doctor, or have you just started worrying since then? Do you feel healthy and full of energy? I am imagining that you are, with the amount of physical exercise you are doing. (unless you are actually feeling tired and rundown after that) If so, then I would be asking more questions of the doctor eg: what is my current BMI, What should it be? Why? Is that taking into account my muscle to body weight ratio? Are you showing any signs of disorders that can be associated with undereating?

Or was there a generalised assumption going on in the doctors clinic?

There is a figure for "average" BMI, but different figures for "the normal range of healthy" and there will always be people outside those figures, who are still perfectly healthy - many well-tuned athletes for example (and the reverse of course, of being within those figures, but still not nutritionally healthy.) If you really need to put on weight, then from the list of foods you mentioned, it does seem as if you could easily add more carbohydrates - the complex ones mentioned by other posters. Eeerrr, not sure about the idea of 16 weetbix for breakfast though!!!

I'm interested in the GP's assessment as well. I'm well 'underweight' in terms of BMI and extremely inactive. But my GP never told me to 'gain weight'. He told my my iron was low and I should eat more liver, other than that I was exceedingly healthy---for now

Low BMI is okay up to a point but fat cells are needed for hormone regulation. If you haven't got enough fat, your hormones can be low which, in women at least, can cause fertility problems, etc.

In addition, my MIL was told by her doctor that low BMI as you get older isn't optimal because if you get sick you need some extra reserves to help you recover. If you are already thin and you get sick, you can reach dangerous low weight and it can lead to all sorts of other problems.

I see what you are saying but if I was in the OP's shoes I would rather be building muscle than fat, or a good mix of the two. Personally I have no problem with eating protein & carbs together I guess it is going to depend on her preferences and finding what works for her.

BMI is not always a good indicator of being a healthy weight. According to the BMI charts my husband is classed as very overweight, he is far from it just very tall with a lot of muscle & little fat. They charts do not take into account body composition at all.

Story of my life! Although not nearly as active as I used to be the only real health way I found to gain weight was to gain it in lean muscle mass. Easiest way to do this is drop a little of your cardio and do some weight training. Diet wise increase your calories with some carbs mixed with fats. You body needs the fats to break the carbs down into usable blocks. Your diet sounds really healthy so if I were you I would only add a little more carbs and change the exercise. And make the change fairly slowly. Now the most important thing. Listen to your body. There is millions of years of survival instinct built in to your body. It will tell you if it's happy with the change.

And don't cut out protein your muscles need that too. I think balance is pretty much the goal.

Good luck! Ah cr@p now I feel like I need to do some exercise.

I have been at the receiving end of it for all my life. At 22, I had difficulty joining the Air Force because I was more than 10% below "ideal" BMI. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as ideal, it is just the average weight of healthy (more precisely, not sick) people in that population. Just as the average penis size is about X inches, but a couple inches this side or that doesn't matter for functioning.

After several weeks of eating bananas and milkshakes I barely managed to add 1 kg. The Army would have rejected me, but Air Force took me in, with remarks in my dossier that otherwise perfectly healthy individual, he will likely put on weight with age. Just that it too me 15 years later to get that weight thanks to the Swiss Alpine air.

But the point was, when I was underweight, I would still kick the asses of 95% of my batch mates in anything physical, and I was among the 5% who came out of the boot camp unscathed. Likewise I know some guys who were more than 15% overweight, but were champion lifters in the gym, never got sick, and could run a mile in 5 mins. That's when I decided ideal BMI is like ideal penis size.

A more atrocious thing (that I as a layman could see, but the Indian medical fraternity hadn't), was that in the 90's, they used to use BMI charts developed in Western world, without calibrating for the fact that Asians are genetically thinner guys. In short, they were using wrong scales and giving thin guys pain. Now they have corrected it.

So, basically cheese fondue!

(I have used breaded fish, molluscs or chicken in place of, or in addition to, bread)

Tom

Yep. Hubby and I are working on making a baby, and nothing is happening, unfortunately. Sorry for tmi.

But that's the reason why I must gain weight.

Thank you so much for the answers

BMI should be related to age as well. Some people take 10 or 20 more years for their body to actually become adult, having their metabolism start working as in a regular grown up body.

For a thin body, I was completely fine, but the minute my weight shifted a bit from my usual weight, either lower or higher, the hormonal works and chemical balance had a lot of work balancing and getting used to.

I would advise OP to work on gaining slowly, I'd say 5 kilos a year or year and a half. I think that 's the main bitch about low weight, if you put mere 5kilos on, it is a relatively high percentage of your body weight and it can shift other chemical responses in your body. Immunity seems to work better for me, with slightly higher BMI.

Female ultra-endurance athletes, lots of anecdotal evidence.

That's true, for sure. I think if I was in her shoes, though, having fertility troubles, it does sound like eating too little and running already 4 times a week, I would slow down, instead of build yet another muscle. Looks like spoiling herself a tad, not increasing the regimen, might work.

I think making a baby is a fine reason to just take a break, eat whatever you fancy and as often you feel like, indulge a tad. Rest, munch on comfort food, moderate exercise (4x a week is quite intense for somebody who needs to fatten up to prepare for a baby, and who already has a low BMI), take it easy.

There is a Czech physiotherapist who found a relation between rotated pelvis of some women and infertility, if you want to check this out.

With this extra information, If I were you, I'd probably ignore my previous post regarding the Weetabix and go for some of the other suggestions inc. nuts etc.