mr@homxb.UUCP (M.RINDSBERG) (12/03/85)
> > I do not know if this is the group to post this to but does > anyone have any suggestions on what foods one could eat to gain weight. > They must be within a restricted budget and be easy to fix. It is > for a friend of mine that is 25 pounds underweight and does not make a > great salary. Are any of you nutritionists that could give me some > suggestions? I was told that non-fat dry milk mixed in foods like > ground beef would help. He takes vitamins but does not eat regularly > and works at night which really screws up his whole lifestyle. He should > weigh about 175 and weighs 150 now and does not feel the greatest. > > Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. > B. Bates > !ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!becky Eat Pasta (and lots of it). It is relatively cheap. mark
bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (12/05/85)
I tend to pay more attention to the opposite problem, but some basic facts should help. We all assume your friend has seen a doctor and the cause of his underweight was diagnosed as eating habits. Facts (if I remember correctly): Fat 9 Calories/gram Carbohydrates 4 Calories/gram Protein 4 Calories/gram Alcohol 7 Calories/gram (not so sure about this) Thus, the most concentrated form of calories are those foods with the highest fat content, period. Assuming the primary goal is to increase caloric intake (while maintaining an otherwise healthy diet), and assuming your friend has some limits as to how much volume he is willing to eat, the best bet is to take a healthy diet and try to add fat to it. Problem: Saturated fats are suspected to be highly correlated with heart disease. Most animal (and a few non-animal, such as Cocoanut) fats are highly saturated and thus not something you would like to vastly increase your intake of. This leaves most vegetable and fish oils. I would be careful to look up fish oils also before heavily indulging (esp, if I remember, shellfish, shrimp etc.) This also indicates that the suggestion to add non-fat dry milk may not be very good (I assume, at best, it is equivalent in calories to adding sugar, tho healthier, another misconception, sugar is *not* all that fattening, again it's the preponderance of fats like butter in sweet foods that make them fattening.) The suggestion to add Pasta was based on a misconception, Pasta is not that high in calories, it's those fatty sauces we pour on top of them that make them fattening but given that, the suggestion can be useful, Pasta with a Bolognese sauce certainly can pump in the calories (I just gained 1 lb writing that.) Frying foods in vegetable oil is something (tempura, sauteed mushrooms as a side dish, fried chicken...there goes another 1lb.) The lie here is that the fat we all crave is BUTTER, and it isn't very healthy (that is, ice cream, shakes, cheeses, fettucine alfredo..nother lb.) Also, of course, salad dressings with lots of oil (tho the filling properties of the salad may be counter-productive.) Avocadoes are remarkably fattening, tell your friend to live on Guacamole and tortilla chips! (if any of you doubt that look it up before replying.) Bananas are a bit higher than other fruits. Also, mayonaisse (I think these days the amount of egg [hence, cholesterol] in commercial mayo is so low that it's considered low cholesterol. Hey, sardines on rye bread with a slice of tomatoe, onion and a big glob of mayo (nother lb.) NUTS..no, I mean like walnuts etc. Peanut Butter, nuts are quite fattening and not that bad for you at all (unless you are worried about the, what was it, aflatoxins, a while ago peanuts were accused of carrying some heavy carcinogens, not sure how that panned out.) Make a very nutty granola with lots of dried fruit and keep it around for snacking on. Red meat is certainly high (you mentioned ground beef), a good size steak can approach 1,000 calories (assuming his goal is around 4,000/day that's pretty hefty) BUT I don't recommend it at all (avoid red meat myself for all the well-known reasons...italian sausages are *not* red meat, contrary to popular belief, they are a vegetable :-)) As a person who lost and managed to (mostly) keep off over 50lbs two years ago, I have come to the conclusion that most overweight people would lose weight without trying if they would just stop eating meats, especially red meats. The opposite is probably true (but again, there are alternatives.) The point is, get a calorie book and start reading it. I highly recommend some of those with the vast listings of foods by brand name, some go as far as to list caloric content of fast food items by brand name (like MacDonald's, Stouffers, Wendy's.) Look in your corner drug-store book rack. Also, find one that includes cholesterol and saturated fat contents in the listings. These usually do justice to 'raw' food also, but how many of us don't use manufactured foods? At all!? Just a guess, if you have some idea of your friend's eating habits and it is anything like friends of mine who have had the same problem, I bet he has no taste for rich, fatty foods (eats *his* pasta with just salt and pepper, wonders why he never gains weight even tho he eats as much as his tubby friends.) Wish I had less taste for those foods! -Barry Shein, Boston University P.S. If you find various problems with adding fat to the diet fine, I can make some arguments against it also, but it is factual and discussion rather than flame would be useful. About the only other choices are: Increase volume of food, Increase absorption (hard to do), Decrease metabolism (not a great idea either.) I suppose adding MUSCLE mass is what we are really after, so heavy exercise would be a definite plus (thus aiming for high-protein/high-fat in the diet as only proteins can build muscles, note how carbohydrates like sugar and pasta are almost excluded from these observations, interesting.)
rau@steinmetz.UUCP (Lisa Rau) (12/05/85)
> > > > I do not know if this is the group to post this to but does > > anyone have any suggestions on what foods one could eat to gain weight. > > They must be within a restricted budget and be easy to fix. It is > > for a friend of mine that is 25 pounds underweight and does not make a > > great salary. Are any of you nutritionists that could give me some > > suggestions? I was told that non-fat dry milk mixed in foods like > > ground beef would help. He takes vitamins but does not eat regularly > > and works at night which really screws up his whole lifestyle. He should > > weigh about 175 and weighs 150 now and does not feel the greatest. > > > > Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. > > B. Bates > > !ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!becky > > Eat Pasta (and lots of it). It is relatively cheap. > I disagree with this advice. Pasta is low calorie because it is very low fat. It is also very filling. Because of these two things, it is an excellent food to eat while trying to LOSE weight. I would suggest taking your advice from a nutritionist as you suggested. I personally find that my capacity for eating is limited by my stomach size. Because of this, frequent meals will maximize caloric intake. L. Rau rau@ge-crd *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
prastein@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (12/05/85)
Pasta is good, but unless you eat a LOT, it won't do the job. Of the three
main kinds of nutrition groups, that is, protein, carbohydrates, and fats,
protein and carbo's have the same number of calories per gram. Fats have
over twice that. So, in other words, to gain weight (oh, that I should have
such a problem...) foods that are high in fat are what your friend should
concentrate on. Some methods might be to fry (in low colesterol fats), drink
whole rather than skim milk, eat almost any pre-processed or prepared food
(American food processors like to add LOTS of fat and salt) (on second thought,
the salt would be enough to keep me AWAY from preprocessed. And, anyway, you
specified cheap...). Peanut putter is a good source of both protein and
fats, as are nuts in general, though they're more expensive. Avocadoes and
coconut (HIGH in saturated fats!) are both high in fat, though more expensive.
If all else fails, tell him to come to me. I have several spare pounds
I'm willing to give away (:-)).
Marshamazur@inmet.UUCP (12/07/85)
What your friend could try is dieting. A book I read recently was by
a man at a weight control center who put people who needed to gain
weights on diets. It is a very interesting concept.
Since the body usually reacts to a drastic intake in food by slowing
down the metabolism, what he would do was put people on 500 calorie
a day diets for 3 days, and they would usually lose 5 or so pounds.
Then he would ask them to go back to their normal eating habits until
their weight plateaued - which was usually 1 or 2 pounds higher than
it had been before! This process was repeated until the desired
weight gain had been achieved.
Since this is not my problem, I can't try it out, but it makes a lot
of sense to me (and explains in a simple way why 95% of weight loss
is not maintained). References available upon request.
Beth Mazur
{ihnp4,ima,harpo}!inmet!mazurdsmith@uiucuxc.CSO.UIUC.EDU (12/07/85)
The average person doesn't realize how difficult it can be for some people to gain weight. We're so concerned about being thin, that we forget about those people who are overly so, and would like to put on weight. This can really be as difficult as dieting. In my opinion, the best way to put on weight is to combine a good diet with proper exercise. The exercise not only prevents the added weight from becoming unseemly fat, but it also stimulates one's appetite. Your friend should eat frequently throughout the day, as opposed to trying to gorge himself three times a day. Five to six "meals" a day allow the body to properly digest the food. Many people also find that taking B-complex supplements stimulates the appetite. As for what foods to eat, someone trying to gain weight can really eat just about whatever they like - obviously, focusing on those foods which are high in calories. Drinking as much whole milk as one can stand is a good start. If he has a blender, he can make some weight gaining drinks which aren't terribly expensive such as the following: 2 cups whole milk 3 eggs 2 tbls sugar or honey 2 tbls peanut butter 1 tbls vanilla flavoring Basically, I would suggest eating frequent well-balanced meals, emphasing dairy products, and peanut butter.
evans@mhuxt.UUCP (crandall) (12/07/85)
The most loved food which we have to be careful with because of its high
caloric value is WILD RICE. Why doesn't your friend get a calorie counters'
book?
Sukie Crandallstup@whuxl.UUCP (SMITH) (12/11/85)
Maybe the best way to gain weight is to look at what
people on reducing diets are told to avoid, and eats lots
and lots of those things. After living on only 700-900
calories/day for 18 months, and only having lost 25 lbs
I can honestly say that more things are fattening than
non-fattening!:-) BUTTER BUTTER BUTTTTTTTER I miss you.
(Actually I lost the 25 lbs in about 5 months, but have not
lost any since - just holding. I want my butter!)
Unfortunately, at least in my case, it would seem
that my body got used to the reduced caloric intake and
adjusted to it. Too bad for me. Now I'm stuck on this
miserable low calorie stuff forever.wildstar@nmtvax.UUCP (12/17/85)
From what I heard on the reports concerning health insurance, a person is better off underweight than overweight. Anyone who is approximately 5 to 10 percent underweight for height, build, and bodytype ( which is usually the case for ectomorphs ) has a substantially lesser risk of heart and artery disease than even people of average weight. This does not mean to say that being underweight is always good, just only slightly so for many people. My advice to the gentleman who posted the original message to just simply eat as much or as little as feels natural, however, make sure that the meals are *balanced*. That means at least... calories: about 15 per pound ideal weight per day, minimum... protein: unless you are a vegetarian, that means meat, eggs, milk, cheese, fish, or poultry. If you don't have time to cook, there are people you can pay to prepare home-cooked meals for you. Stay on the vitamins, but do not "megadose". And be sure to have vegetables: especially squashes, sweet potatoes, and members of the cabbage family. I don't pretend to be a doctor, but having weight problems in the opposite direction ( 10 to 20 percent over ), I have some knowledge of nutrition that has paid off. Andrew Jonathan Fine