Hello all!
I was requested to do a post about weight gain so here we go!
I suppose i'll start off with my story, and then give you guys some tips if you're looking to gain weight.
PART 1. MY STORY.
I'm not exactly when it was, or how it came about my last year i got OBSESSED with health. Well, maybe not even health; just food and calories.I learnt about calorie "allowances" and then learnt that every ones calorie intake is different, and i calculated myself to have 1,600 calories a day. I got obsessed. One day i went to my friends Jubilee party, and saw loads of yummy cakes, thickly spread with buttercream. I decided not to restrict myself and just eat really low cal the next day, so I ate and ate and ate all these beautiful cakes and biscuits.
I felt bad. Bad about eating butter, bad about eating sugar, bad about having around 7 items.
I kept asking my mum if it was okay that I was eating this and that.
A few months later, many of my mums friends had pointed out that I was thin. I just said, "Oh that's just because I've grown taller!". My mum got really scared about it. Being a vegetarian at the time, she was worried i hadn't got enough iron or calcium. I was pretty fussy, and only searched "low calorie" this and that on google. If i wanted to bake a lemon drizzle cake, i would make sure it had under 100 calories. If i ate two slices, I would feel bad. These things I was baking and eating weren't "healthy", they were processed low cal foods!
My friends started pointing out my weight, and one even said to me, "I'm worried i'm gonna snap you in half when I hug you!"
I was having pretty bad health issues. Being a growing girl, i should be eating MORE not less!
I always hated the ideas of thigh gaps, thinspo scared me. But the more and more hipster tumblr pictures I saw, the more a "thigh gap" looked appealing.
I also don't know when it snapped, maybe it was when my bones started clunking more (gross, I know, but that's what happens when you don't have enough muscle or fat on them), maybe when I saw my cheeks weren't going rosy; but I realised i had to gain weight. At this time, i had become vegan too.
So here we are now; vegan and underweight. Only a little bit, i'm nearly there.
I know some people are naturally skinny, and I'm not being big headed but I have always been a healthy weight, not thin.
At the time it didn't seem that dramatic but now I look back at it I realised what I did was stupid.
Very recently I got into health, properly. Protein, calicum, iron, nutrients etc but now i've let go a little. I always choose the healthier option but if i want to eat those chocolate biscuits I will.
PART 2. FOOD FOR WEIGHT GAIN.
Okay, I'm really sorry for this long post! I have a few tips for upping your calorie intake. Some people think it's easy eating more but it's actually not. I'd rather eat healthy fats to gain weight rather than sat fat (she says eating three chocolate digestives). So here are a few tips of easily upping it without noticing that much. Oh and just a quick little personal thing, I should eat 2,500+ cals a day for weight gain and about 2,000 with no weight gain but i do NOT COUNT CALORIES. Sometimes i use an app on my phone beacuse I might undereat, but I don't get obsessed with it. Anyway, first of all, nuts are your friends. So easy to add loooads of calories! One brazil nut contains 30 cals, and don't let that scare you, take advantage of it! It's better to balance the calories out in each meal. Using all milk to make porridge, add flax seed to your smoothies or soup, Eat higher fat humous (which also tastes better!), add seeds and nice high cal dried fruit to yogurt/cereal or on it own, eat more high cal fruit like bananas and pears, more root veg, add a little oil on your veg and for protein when vegan, eat loads of seeds, nuts, beans, humous, and soya milk (which contains 8 grams of protein in 200ml I think). Here is what (on an ideal day) i eat;
Breakfast: Porridge with nuts, bit of honey and a dollop of yogurt. Side of orange juice.
Snack: homemade muffin/cookie (made with wholemeal flour) or a granola bar (which i don't like because of all the sugariness, but it's better than nothing!) and fruit, or a banana and chai tea latte or chocolate soya milk.
Lunch: banana and walnut sandwich on wholewheat bread (so good!) or soup and humous on brown bread or mixed salad leaves, grated carrots, pumpkin seeds (protein and added cals!) quorn roast pieces (if you're vegan, check about quorn! I actually eat eggs so I can eat most quorn things but the deli slices have milk in them!) with humous and bread on the side. + fruit.
Snack: yogurt with nuts, oats, seeds and dried fruit or (depending on my snack before) a homeade biscuit or muffin.
Dinner: it varies a lot but there is always lots of veg, carbs and protein.
Snack: My favourite snack for this time, is a granny smith apple stuffed with honey, oats, nuts and dried fruit baked in the oven at 180 celcius for 35 minutes, or more soya yogurt with all the toppings.
If I haven't eaten enough cals and it's night time, i'll drink a soya milky drink or make a smoothie with added nuts and yogurt!
So I'm really sorry for this long, jumbly post but I hope it helps!
Good luck!
Esh
xo
