high calorie ideas needed

[Lora Dykes]

Even before i began to convert to being vegan I had a horrible time keeping weight on. I would eat most of if not all of a medium pizza, a large bowl of spaghetti topped with plenty of cheese... and large calzones. But I was never able to get stable above 110 pounds.
This was my first completely vegan week (been working towards this since the start of the year). The fluctuation has always been there but I decided to check my weight. Yesterday I was at 108. today I am at 106.5.

I have seen doctors for the weight problem and they have always told me to just eat more food because they can't find anything wrong with the blood work.

Are there any hints or tips anyone has to gain weight or keep it on? I have been keeping a mental tally on my calorie intake (to make sure I eat enough) aiming between 2000 and 2500 a day (which seems like a lot more food on a vegan diet).

I can't afford to lose any more weight, so some high calorie ideas are needed.

[Clueless Git]

Hello Laura,

Massive high carb meals just before you sleep might help.

[tickled onion]

Don't guess your consumption, use this: http://cronometer.com/ you can have a free basic account. To get more good food in try blending it, blend dates or bananas with water, you can pack 10 bananas in a smoothie with a litre of water which will give you about 800 calories, add some greens to it if you like, carbs, not fat. It is much easier to drink more food than it is to chew more food. Your body will sit at it's natural weight, as long as you eat healthy your weight will take care of itself.

[teddyplanet]

Get more calorie-dense foods into your diet; more oils, nuts and seeds (especially nut and seed butters), dried fruits, avocado, vegan fat-based spreads (i.e. margarine or 'cream cheese') and 'cheeses', certain grains (i.e. quinoa) and pasta.
You could try and cook with added oil, or puree root vegetables with extra oil/veg spread, etc. I hope this helps somewhat!

[tickled onion]

fats and oils make you fat and clog your arteries, not healthy.....

[Shadewood]

Onion, isn't that just saturated fats? Unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good for you, as long as you're not going overboard anyway. Nuts are full of good fats for example.

[tickled onion]

moderation is the key, fat, any kind of fat, will promote arteriosclerosis for example. It isn't so much as some fats are bad for you and some are good, a few have some benefits as you say, raising good cholesterol and lowering bad cholesterol for instance, but you have to look at calorie intake as a whole. It is recommended that less than 30% of the total calorie intake is fat, I try to not get anywhere near that (I aim for 10-15%), it means nearly a third of a meal would be fat. As another example, if you have a salad with calories mainly from carbs (which the body utilises very well and efficiently), as soon as you add a dressing comprising just one tablespoon of oil, even extra virgin olive oil, you up the percentage of fat and lower the percentage of carbs in the meal enormously, as the oil is 100% fat. We need fat in our diet to function, but not as much as people think. A handful of nuts can consist of 60-80% fat, depending on the type of nut.

Cooking with oil, especially frying at high temperatures, also changes the chemical structure of oils, which changes the way they react in the body.

[Shadewood]

I see. Thanks for explaining. I'm still new to many aspects of nutrition, really. I can go a bit crazy on the nuts actually, I ate about 500g of red skin monkey nuts in one day. [even though I exercise a lot some days it was still excessive and it's something I usually avoid]

[teddyplanet]

Sorry, out of curiosity tickled onion, are you a dietitian? I'd like to see your sources before you tell someone this information. I will research about fats when I get home. For the record, I am currently studying dietetics.

When you have trouble keeping weight on your priority is going to be getting good calories in, and carbs are not going to be the most efficient way. Even starchy carbs are very filling. Nuts, seeds, avocado etc. provide good fats, plant-based oils are not necessarily the best for you but they can help with your calorie intake, Shadewood.

[tickled onion]

Sorry, out of curiosity tickled onion, are you a dietitian? I'd like to see your sources before you tell someone this information. I will research about fats when I get home. For the record, I am currently studying dietetics.

When you have trouble keeping weight on your priority is going to be getting good calories in, and carbs are not going to be the most efficient way. Even starchy carbs are very filling. Nuts, seeds, avocado etc. provide good fats, plant-based oils are not necessarily the best for you but they can help with your calorie intake, Shadewood.

No, i'm not a dietitian, but i believe i am very healthy. Many sources tell us eating low fat is better for health, The China Study is one example, the 80/10/10 diet is another. Nuts and seeds can provide good fat, but in moderation, as with most things, Eating lots of fat isn't healthy in my opinion, even if you want to gain weight. At this stage we don't know a great deal about Lora Dykes, how tall, how active, how healthy etc, so giving the opinion of eating lots of fats, good or bad isnt particulary helpful either, in my opinion.

I'm sure there are people disagree with me, there always will be, it makes the world go round, and not many things are more controversial than diet, i'm sure people will argue about the best ones for health long after we are all gone.