Weight gain advice

[dahmin]

Hi all, I've always been skinny, even before I became a vegan about 8 years ago. The only time that I gained weight was when I was pregnant. After child birth, I lost it all and back to my skinny self again. I would love to be fatter, about 20 to 30 lbs fatter! Being a vegan is not easy on putting fat to the body or maybe my diet is a bit off. Any tips guys? :confused:

[SeaSiren]

Count yourself lucky! What is your daily caloric intake? How much fat do you consume? Are you weight lifting (this is great for building definition)?

[tails4wagging]

Its in your genes, I am afraid!!.

My brother is thin and always wanted to put weight on. Where as me, I have been fat for about thirty years!!.

My brother is always on the 'go' never still, his metabalism is faster than me.

Yes, count your blessings, you are less likely to have health problems when you are thin. You lucky devil!!! :)

[Peas'nHominy]

Are you suffering with any ailments? For an example, do your muscles ache? What does your doctor say about your BMI? I'd ask a doctor first, because after all, it could be something other than just diet. Like over-active thyroid, diabetes, etc etc.

Or, maybe you are an exquisitely healthful and gorgeous woman, just as you are! :)

[medus]

Me too.. I'm really skinny and I always was. :)
As tails4wagging said it's probably in my genes, but I still try to put weight on.
Everyday I eat handful of nuts, peanut butter, olive or flax oil with bread, avocado, olive spread, salads with oil, etc.
...everything seems useless :)
btw, my body mass index is 19 (http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm), which is normal... could it be that we are not skinny just everyone around us is fat? ;)

[Mystic]

I am skinny too - I used to have anorexia, but I have never been able to put the weight back on no matter what I do - I was thin before the ED and was unable to gain weight, so I guess as long as I am healthy who cares! I eat loads of flax oil, avocado, beans, grains, DATES - I limit nuts coz they give me eczema if I have it too much - but everything is in abundance. Just worry about your health - that is what is the most important.

[DoveInGreyClothing]

Umm, come over to mine for some of my vegan cakes...?
Seriously though, it's in your genes and there's very little you can do about it. Read one of those books that tell you how to dress to flatter your shape. It's amazing what a difference a few subtle changes in cuts of clothing can make to your overall appearance.

[dahmin]

Umm, come over to mine for some of my vegan cakes...?
Seriously though, it's in your genes and there's very little you can do about it. Read one of those books that tell you how to dress to flatter your shape. It's amazing what a difference a few subtle changes in cuts of clothing can make to your overall appearance.

i love vegan chocolate cake. they sell them at fresh n' wild, tastes ok, a bit dry though.
yea, i know it's probably my genes. my mom is also slim.

[ChocolatBlanc]

Now, I've been trying to lose a tiny bit of weight in the past few months. But for a few weeks I've just been laid-back about what I eat, and I really haven't exercised enough :o . Yesterday I decided to check up on my weight, just to see. I was really surprised, like Whoa! :eek: This scale has got to be wrong! I couldn't have lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks!

I weighed myself after eating too, so maybe the scale is just messed up. But according to that infernal machine, I'm a pound away from what the BMI charts deem "underweight." My mom would freak out if she knew what I weighed right now. She already thinks that since I'm a teenager and a vegetarian, I must automatically have an eating disorder. :mad:

Anyway, after gorging myself on cookies and nuts almost to the point of exploding, I realized there must be a more sensible approach to this. How can I gain a bit of weight healthily? Should I worry about the weight I lost? I'm not really skinny, so should I lift weights or something to put on some muscle? What should I do? Can something be wrong with me? Should I consult my doctor? Should I just shoot the scale? Is the earth actually flat?? Someone help me!

Please offer any advice-- I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

[Karma]

How much do you weigh? How tall are you? What kind of stuff have you been eating? What have you been doing to lose weight? It depends on all these things, but sounds like your weight just now is just perfect. Might not be wise to try and lose any more though. Maintaining a stable weight and eating healthily are a challenge in themselves I am finding! How do you feel in yourself? Do you feel great, or not so great? And do you feel you have a balanced approach to food? Sorry, too many questions. You don't have to answer them all. Just stuff to think about....

[Cryospark]

Your body will try it's best too maintain your ideal weight, don't look at the number. Think of how you feel, do you feel better?Are you just anxious over the loss?
If you think your eating correctly and your losing weight still, take note of what your losing, is it fat or is it strength and muscle. Fat is merely stored energy, you don't need it on your body, you get it through what you eat. Because your vegan you get the energy when you need it atleast you should.
If you find it is your strength that your losing, excercise.

[ChocolatBlanc]

I'm 5'7", and my weight yesterday was at 118 lbs. I feel as fine as ever overall, and I think I have a pretty varied, healthful diet... maybe not enough vegetables...I haven't exercised enough lately, but I wonder what kind I should be doing? Earlier (like, not in the past 2 weeks) I was doing lots of jogging and jump-rope and stuff to lose weight, but then I became rather sedentary and lazy. It doesn't seem to make sense: I've lost more weight being inactive than being active! I'm just wondering what could have caused this... :confused:

[Cryospark]

metabolism reacting to stimulation possibly, you may want to consider eating some more at mealtimes, is your heart rate elevated? feel a little hotter then you use to be?
excercise needs a rest time to recooperate, if you over-exert yourself obviously you will feel sluggish, excercise breaks the cells down a lil they rebuild stronger but if they break down to much then they take longer to heal and can possibly not heal well or in time so next excercise you do won't be too good you will feel weaker then before. Always complicated hey....

[Mija]

Throw that scale away, I'd say, and you'll have one thing less to worry about!

[waveslidah]

Chocoblanc I may have a possible explanation for the weight lose. I have personally experienced the same type of weight lose while making a transition from being consistently active (lots of long distance running and bicycling). Typical weight lose would be around 4 lbs in less than 2 weeks and than it would plateau there. What is occurring is as a runner my body has become accustomed to loading my leg muscles with glycogen, which is a sugar/energy that has high water content. When your body senses that you are no longer exerting yourself on a regular basis than you slowly begin to store less glycogen (which has lots of water)

Of course the reverse is true and I have transitioned from being a lazy junk food junkie to a exercise maniac with an impeccable diet only to gain weight for the first few weeks. I kind of freaked out but luckily stuck with the program and ended up slimming down about 40 lbs the healthy way- slowly. When I asked people for advice/explanation about the initial weight gain they would say that the weight gain was muscle mass. This explanation did not seem rationale since I had gained about 4-4 lbs in 2 weeks (from distance running 4-6 miles a day). Packing on muscle at that pace would require 2 of the following 3 options 1)extremely rare genetics 2) intense heavy lifting 3)or steroids- I engaged in none of these. It is more feasible that my body was begining to store more glycogen in order to accomodate my increased activity- (this was a pretty heavy crash course).
So in short you may be losing weight but it probably isn't fat. If you start exercising again you may regain the weight, but you will be healthier and look better. It sounds like calorie restriction may be a poor idea for somebody like you so you may want to shun any notions eating to lose weight, especially if you are exercising.
Your weight is only one of several indicators of health; however the bmi bottom range is pretty low so you may want to be very mindful and cautious of your health and well being.

[ChocolatBlanc]

Thanks for the input, everyone. waveslidah, that's an interesting explanation as I hadn't really considered weight loss as being affected by anything but the loss of fat or muscle. I guess I'll ease myself back into regular excerise and, well, see what happens :)

[sound]

Hey, my name's Andrew, I'm new to the forum. Does anyone have any advice about gaining weight on a vegan diet?

I lost about 10 pounds when I went vegetarian last year and since going vegan have maintained my weight, but I'm too thin as it is and ideally would like to thicken out a bit...

:)

[Gliondrach]

Hello, Andrew.

You say that you lost 10lbs when you became a vegetarian. Was this excess fat or was it muscle? If it was fat it is very easy to put back on by eating fattening foods, of which there are many. Why do you want to put weight on? Millions of people are trying to lose it.

As far as you know, has your metabolism changed? Do you eat a lot but still can't put on weight? Do you have any strange symptoms, or has anything physical changed?

If you have lost muscle you may be expending too much energy so that your energy needs are being met by your body relying on protein instead of carbohydrates to supply that energy. This happens when there is not enough carbohydrate or glycogen and stored fat to burn. If you don't have enough stored fat and you are very active, you might be burning up protein from muscle tissue.

Regards,

Martin.

[Mystic]

I guess the answer would be to increase the calories you consume if you can. I find this hard too, as I get too full, but if you can, here are some ideas:
- snack on nuts and seeds and dried fruits (they are concentrated and high calorie, as well as being nutrient dense)
- make smoothies with coconut milk, banana and flaxseed
- add olive oil and flaxseed oil to everything
- use vegan butter/margarine on everything
- use dense wholegrain bread (just 100% wholewheat flour, water and salt) or Essene bread - these are higher in calories.
- AVOCADO is a skinny vegan's best friend, as well as nut butters
- Don't restrict vegan choccie cake!

[Pilaf]

Eat more potatoes... they're good for ya. :D

[Mija]

It seems that most of the vegans are very slim or even skinny, but I've even put on some 5 kilos after becoming vegetarian and then vegan. Not that I care, though. I guess my organism needed that.

[FR]

I do not think it is too healthy, but maybe refined carbs will do it for you. Try eating white rice, semolina pasta, and white bread. Try baking with white flour.

[Tombstone]

- Eat before you go to sleep; the food won't be used for energy when you sleep
- Eat lots of nuts, put lots of vegan margarine on your bread, eat fried food
- Always eat as much as you can at all times

The exact opposite of what most people are trying to do :cool:

[acousticCORE123]

Peanut butter works well ...add it to smothies, sandwiches, or just eat it out of the jar

carby foods help out too, but eating protein might work best ... like beans

[harpy]

You might find this helpful, even though the advice may require a bit of adapting for vegans:

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/increase.html