Ask Lemmy

If you're just under your calorie target, you can add high calorie snacks or toppings to gain weight. Do you like nuts and seeds? Avacados? Olive oil? Cheese?

You can buy or make lots of nice high fat nut snacks, roast them with your favourite spices if you like flavour or just a little salt if you prefer blander stuff. Snack on them throughout the day, and schedule times to have a portion of you're not naturally a snacker. Sprinkle them over salads or rice bowls or whatever.

Dip nice bread in olive oil and vinegar (with some zatar or other spice mixes if your like). Shallow fry things in olive oil - take slices of nutrious but calorie light vegetables, dip in a simple tempura batter of cornflour and water, then fry in olive oil. Crispy, fresh, delicious and lots of calories.

So you eat desert? Start having nice fruit with heavy cream poured over the top. Use cream in sauces or add to mashed potatoes, vegetable gratins, etc.

Lift weights and eat proteins. Increasing your leg muscles will gain you several kilos. For protein you can just supplement with pea protein isolate. Has the same effect as protein from meat and you don’t need to eat massive amounts of veggies to hit that target protein intake. For fats you can eat macadamia nuts and pecan trough out the whole day. Like macadamia nuts are about 75% fat. Don’t gain weight through carbs. Yes it’s the fastest way but it’s also the unhealthiest way. It will just fuck up your blood sugars and increase your chances to become a diabetic. Sure carb load if you need to run a marathon in a few days. But doing it frequently will only damage your body.

My problem was probably similar to yours. I just don’t get hungry. In university, I would have some oatmeal for breakfast and cruise through until about 10pm and get some fast food, too often.

My solution was to start working out. I saw my colleagues were all carrying fat bellies and I didn’t want to end up that way. But I also knew that if I wanted to work out, I needed to fuel my body. So every day I just plan my diet like building with Lego, filling out the macros and calories and eat it whether I want to or not. For some people, that’s not a good approach from a mental health perspective, but it works for me.

Start a workout plan (strong lifts 5x5 is a simple starting point without much fluff) and get an app (I strongly suggest MacroFactor - it’s excellent) that tells you how much to eat, and follow it. I went from 58kg to 77kg in a year, and after dieting the somewhat excessive fluffy parts back off I landed at 70kg and looking pretty shredded. The reason i say MacroFactor is because it starts off with an estimate of your caloric needs and based on your dietary intake (non-judgemental - if you miss it, you miss it) and your daily weight, it calculates your caloric and macronutrient needs. It’s based on good scientific research.

As a vegetarian, you probably don’t need to worry nearly as much about getting fibre and vegetables, but it can be harder just because animal products are nutritionally dense. Picture 600 calories of broccoli. Now picture a hamburger. It’s an unfair comparison, but the point is the calorie density is way higher. If you can do eggs and whey it can help. Renaissance Periodization (another good app) has a recent YouTube video about protein sources that’s really good.

Peanut butter is rather calorie dense. On sandwiches, as a dip, in sauces, or by the spoonful. Potatoes are quite nutritious and especially delicious when mixed with things like cream, butter, etc.

Protein supplements with weight training and other strength building exercises.

Add more oil or even lard to your healthy meals and slowly increase consumption.

Workout bro's use mass gain powder. I'm fat so I've never tried it, but I assume it's protein powder and probably sugar and maybe some fats.

I have a naturally lean body type. I put on quite a lot of good weight by doing strength training over several months. I supplemented my diet with a protein shake of which I drank half before training and the remaining after it.

Try it! It'll take time but you'll gain weight in a healthy manner and feel good about it.

Pastas, oils, lentils, nuts, legumes, and beans ig.

But do conaider that muscle will be a more sustainable form of weight maintenance for your metabolism. Also, protein poweders are very high in calories.

My sympathies. I will be watching the responses, I’m 170cm and I’ve never broken past 55kg, no matter how hard I’ve tried… I’m vegan, but I had the same problem long before I went vegan.

My body seems intent on pinning my weight to this value. Even in periods of high sedentary lifestyle or high exercise, I’ve always been between 53 and 55 kilograms. My fitness watch does report other metrics improving (VO2 max) but my weight stays the same 🤷🏻‍♀️

First of all, how old are you. You may not have to do anything at all when you agree in your 30s just from natural changes.

I had this same struggle, and I started construction work when I was 25. I had a fightclub physique for a time, and then when I transitioned to office work I gained 20-30lbs.

I'm doing ok now.

You could get into baking bread! It doesn't require much effort or money, it's interesting (to me, at least, your mileage may vary on this point), fresh bread is absolutely delicious, and bread also happens to have a heap of calories in it. Wheat didn't get to be one of humanity's two all time top sources of calories by being weightwatchers-approved

You could try a nutritional supplement like carbohydrates or protein;

• The 6 Best Weight Gain Supplements, According to Dietitians
• 12 Best Supplements to Gain Weight

I've seen people have good success not trying to eat more, but eating a carnivore or very low carb diet and adding in resistance exercise. The body will naturally hunger for the proteins to build more muscle as long as the muscles get challenged regularly

Things to stimulate muscle growth (anything where your muscles feel a little sore at the end)

• physical activity
• • walking
• • weight training
• • swimming

Hormones can have a massive impact on your body composition, if you have a doctor get your hormonal panel done. Eating low carb food will help your body's hormones get back into balance. High carb/sugar filled food messes with the super hormone insulin and that can keep you off balance.

Dont eat high sugar foods just to pack on fat, you want to build your natural muscle for a healthy lifestyle. If you must stay plant based you could explore plant based keto https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/vegetarian

Make sure you map out your food intake, at least once, in a micronutrient tool like cronometer and ensure your hitting all the targets

If you're young, don't have any other medical issues, are undermuscled, and have low energy - it sounds like a hormonal issue. Probably it can be resolved with a better diet.