Help any ideas on gaining weight

I had a similar experience a while back, turned out to be my thyroid. I assume that yours has been checked? unexplained weigh loss needs further investigation so I would go back to your GP.

I have a little bit of experience in this, but different circumstances. A friend with MS was losing weight because of difficulty chewing and swallowing (she has a direct feed tube in her stomach now but before she did this is how calories were loaded in). I didn't cook for her but gave her carers really high-calorie recipes.

Add cream and butter to as much as you can. Add the butter to stuff like vegetables on your plate. If you're having potatoes load with cheese and butter. Drink coffee with single cream. Eat high calorie posh ice-cream eg Häagen-Dazs. Eat Mars bars and as much chocolate as you can manage. Ditch skimmed and semi-skimmed milk and go for blue or gold top milk.

If you eat chips don't eat chunky ones, go for thin French fries (bigger overall surface area so they are fattier). Eat crisps. Deep fry things, don't grill. If you like bacon eat streaky as there's more fat.

You can also buy high calorie shakes from the chemist. I think it's called Fresubin. Ask your doctor to prescribe it or a similar high calorie preparation.

The fact that you weren't a skinny person before will help. There is a genetic difference and truly skinny people can't put on weight easily at all whereas some of us seem to gain weight just looking at a doughnut.

Ah yes, doughnuts, cakes, biscuits and fats. sugar and more fats and sugar. Carbs, carbs, carbs with added butter.
Good luck

Obviously don't cut out fresh fruit and veg or exercise but just load in the calories on top. Take a brisk walk every day but don't go to aerobics or anything. For every bit of exercise, eat chocolate afterwards.

I think people often under-estimate how difficult it can be to put weight on. I'm bordering on the underweight category for my height. I don't want to put weight on by eating loads of sugary foods etc, but just need to find extra "good" calories.

I always have porridge in the morning, adding lots of seeds and have an extra spoonful of oats to increase the amount. If I'm going shopping I take a small bag of nuts to nibble on. Bananas are good as I seem to be able to eat them even if I'm not hungry.

My portion sizes have to be slightly bigger than I would naturally take - but again that gives me more calories. I'm not naturally a "snacker" but try to have something to eat every couple of hours.

Look up "calorific foods" on google to give you ideas. Avocados, baked beans, rice, oily fish, etc.

You could speak to your GP about maybe taking a protein supplement but personally I prefer "normal" foods.

I’ve never weighed much for my height, but like Daisymae I had an overactive thyroid problem a couple of years ago and lost a lot of weight quickly. Now I am back to normal for me. I eat whatever I fancy, much of it very calorific. If I do manage to put on a little weight, it is always in the wrong places, like round my waist. This is very annoying!

I do think under 7 stones is very underweight though. I think she needs to get weight on asap. She's got no spare if God forbid, she got flu or something. A high calorie diet in her case won't be forever, just until she gets to a healthy weight.

I do try and eat as healthy as possible and do an average amount of exercise I have another GPs app in the morning about it but feel bad as I hate taking there time up for something that's not an emergency I will take all your suggestions on board and today bought full fat milk for the first time in years and will look into the high calorie shakes I'm so stressed about it and people look at me like I'm mad when I moan about it ,but then go onto tell me how gaunt I look , and the whole thing is stressing me out now and im really not a stressy person x

Bought these today. The start of a new regime. Running with weights. I put them in my backpack on the way home and I could feel my thighs tense up as I had other shopping in there, altogether about 11 kilos.
I plan to carry them in my hands when running.
Anyone here run with weights or weighted vest?

You do not need to overload on fatgy foods such as chips and icecream which do more harm than good . Ask your GP to refer you to a nutritionist who will give you proper advice. You can eat unhealthily and put the wrong sort of weight on, the sort that gives you visceral fat. Not a good idea.

fatgy fatty

Sometimes people find it okay to body shame both underweight and overweight people. I am under 5 feet tall (or should that be small) and weigh around 7 stone which is perfectly acceptable for my height and frame. We all have different body types some of it as in my case genetic. This is known as Ectomorph which means that you have a fast metabolism so burn up food and calories quickly and have trouble putting on weight. Try telling that to people who judge you! Comments I have received are: it is okay for you, you can eat anything you want, you need to put some weight on, you are so tiny, you must eat like a Sparrow. Actually I don't eat like a Sparrow I have a perfectly healthy appetite and enjoy my food. Let's celebrate who we are whatever shape and size and try to be happy in our own bodies. Yes I know that it is not always easy but we are so much more than our weight.

This is not about thin-shaming or fat-shaming. It's about someone who has, as a result of prescribed drug side-effects and the aftermath of coming off them is worringly underweight. Any answers should be about her and not grandstanding about personal fitness or food regimes. Give the poor woman a break.

An assertive discussion with the GP.

Agree totally with GabriellaG54 fatty, sugary foods are not the answer. Think diabetes and high cholesterol. You need to increase your healthy carbs if you can.

Not sure what Gabriella G54 running with weights in a backpack contributes to the OP's question.

wildswan16
You're right. It was mistakenly posted on the wrong thread but GN won't move it till tomorrow.

I have another GPs app in the morning about it but feel bad as I hate taking there time up for something that's not an emergency
Jeanlizzie read the above again and then think about it. The vast majority of problems people take to their doctor are not emergencies. Whether it is diagnosed cancer, a broken leg, or a spot on the nose. A&E is for emergencies doctors are for people like you, with debilating and worrying conditions that need treatment and may be difficult to diagnose.

So screw up your courage, go to your doctor and keep going to him until he refers you to a specialist and a dietician. Ask him to do both of the above and if he doesn't, go and see a different GP in your practice who will. I suspect you are being discriminated against because you are old, slight and just another old woman with old lady problems. As another poster said. Go in and be assertive.

We had to do that when our GP's only response when DH kept coming to him with excruciating pain in his arm, was to fiddle around with pain killers, none of which worked. When I went to the GP with DH and asked for a referral, after grumbling he did. DH was found to have several crumbling vertibrae in his neck causing a trapped nerve. He was treated for that and the pain went.

You need to increase your protein ,you can buy protein powder to add to things too

I'm 5'9" and for years weighed 8stone, sometimes dipping to 7 1/2
Then I gave up smoking and am now a normal weight for my height 9 1/2 stones.
So, if you smoke give up and at first you'll eat all sorts of junk but eventually it will settle down.

I eat a healthy vegetarian diet but it is heavy on the fat I'm afraid, just love cheese, cream etc. I do add protein and collegen powder to smoothies too.

Do press your GP to find out if there's an underlying problem and then eat whatever you fancy, plenty of it.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Agree LondonGranny. Professional help is required if a person is unintentionally losing weight.

I don't think the loading up on unhealthy fats is good advice. I agree with an increase in fat intake but I'd go for olive and rapeseed oils as much as possible. Extra protein is best at the end of the day or it may suppress your appetite. Building muscle through exercise is always a good idea, too.

I recently saw a nutritionist advising rich fruit cake for people with dementia who have a small appetite as it contains lots of dried fruit so is more nutritious thatn other cake - so maybe that's worth adding to your diet too?

I read ages ago about someone who was stick thin and who couldn’t put weight on, no matter what or how much she ate. Turned out she had a tapeworm. Had it unknowingly for years, apparently. An appropriate anthelmintic sorted the problem out.

For a close relative, we changed from semi skimmed to fullfat milk, added banana to ready brek for breakfast, and did little things like adding some custard to a piece of sponge so making it a simple pudding, which gradually did the trick, putting on about a stone. Hope you find whats right for you.