Everything out there is to lose it not gain it. I am very depressed because of my weight and I am 52. But don't want to look old until I am old.

Hi,
I also had weight issues.
Ever since I had my first panic attack on Mar 27
I had stopped eating.It took my a while to understand that I was not only creating these awful feelings to myself but on top of that I was creating more distructive behaviour such as eating
Slowly I learned about anxiety and slowly I decided that I have to start eating
I searched the internet desperate to find ways to improve and start gaining the weight back
Today I am eating healthy and I gained almost 9 lbs.It is a lot for me>
Everyday I look carefully at the food that i eat to make sure that it has a lot of calories
I eat a lot of avocadoes,each one has about 280 calories.I eat a lot of bread,one slice has about 85 calories.With the bread I have butter it has a lot of calories I think about 60 per each slice of bread that you eat
I know that fruits and vegetables are good for me but now I stay limited to them because thay fill me up and I do not have enough calory intake>
I hope that this will helpyou a bit.
Good luck and keep me posted
Dubai

There are drinks you can drink and they're really tasty. They're called "ensure" and they're packed with vitamins and minerals. They're really good for you. You can get them in grocery store. They have chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors.

My dad drank these when he was going thru radiation for throat cancer. He couldnt eat anything, but the doctor suggested the ensure drink to keep him from losing to much weight and to get his vitamins.

My friend Jess also very skinny, has drank the ensure drinks. One every morning after breakfast and she's gaining weight.

I hope this helps out : )

I would also be interested to know about some healthy weight-gaining options. I don't want to give myself a heart attack, but I do want to meet my average weight for people my size and my age. I think I am underweight for anyone older than 15-yr.

I drank Ensure when my panic attacks stopped me from being able to hold down large quantities of food for a series of days. The Ensure was used to maintain nutrients, not necessarily weight, nor do I think it helps gain, but is rather like a meal supplement. They're not that tasty, but I really only stuck with the vanilla because it seemed like the weakest of flavors and I wanted to buy whatever I could get down my throat and hold down the easiest. I will recommend this drink, because it did help me through those tough times, but it is not promoted as a weight-gaining product. And I have not received any medical advice to the contrary.

If I had more money to throw around lavishly, I would definitly invest in a dietitian.

I thank all of you. Sorry it took me this long to figure out where to find anyones comments on what I asked. I don't know what I'm doing wrong with getting a question out there and then getting an answer. I just fumbled over this tonight just searching everywhere. Any help on this?

nanan- without knowing your eating habits it is hard to give help. I will say that Ensure drinks are great and will help especially if you are eating a well balance diet already. Have a nice steak, sweet potatoe and veggies or fish or chicken with the same. I wouldn't advice just eating anything such as junk food to gain weight as that isn't heathy but you could also add protien bars for snacks in betweeb meals also. I am 5'1" and 109lbs. I am not not sure what your weught is but anything between 95-115 is good for petite small boned women. Also, if you have soe free weights that woudl be a great help as muscle tone weight more then fat and that will help put on some weight. I wouldn't advice too much cardio though as that can cause weight loss especially of you aren't eating enoough calories. A nutritionist would be of great help also....but please have your thyroid checked.

I did have my thyroid checked and nothing. I am 51 and weigh 103. I am 5'4. If I could just gain 10 to 15 lbs, I would be so happy. After my third child which I had at 34, I had gerd so bad I couldn't sleep at night without sitting up due to heartburn. I had a procedure called Nison which, pulls your stomach up to your esophygus up and tied. This is not the surgery people use to lose weight. I was told after the surgery, which if I didn't have it, it would turn into cancer since there were precancerous cells already. So I had no choice. But everyone I talk to that had the same thing was told as I was that I would gain my weight back. My friend gained her weight back and then some. But nothing seems to bother her and she is a Physicians assistant. So I am not sure if its the stress or what but I really don't feel good about myself looking like I do.

Hi,
I lost 20 lbs when I had my anxiety attacks. I cried my eyes out when I was fitting in a sz 1.
Anytime I looked at food I wanted to throw up!
I knew this could not go on. I bought weight gain powder and made milkshakes instead of the ensure and I would try to eat things that didn't take much chewing, if any. (fruit, vegetables)I would even force myself to eat half a peanut butter sandwich with milk to chase down every bite I took. It was very important to me that I take supplements as well for what I knew I wasn't getting through my lack of food. There were times when I would be hungry and not anxious so I would eat anything I could get my hands on. I knew that I was feeling like crap since my body was needing fuel (food) to operate and not getting it. Nothing is harder than force feeding yourself when it is the last thing you want to do. I carried a protein bar around with me one time that took an hour and a half to eat but I did it. I did feel better once I had something in my stomach. My mother who is 82 suffered from anxiety when she was in her 30's and 40's and couldn't eat as well when it was happening. She did the same thing I did. It took time and our eating habits became normal again.
Hang in there. It will pass.
We are all in your corner!
Kathleen

nanan,
Here is a website that helped me:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/
Now I know it comes across as a site to help you lose weight but it can also help you gain it. It's free to join and you plug in your age/weight/height and it tells you what your ideal weight should be and how many calories you need a day to reach it in whatever amount of time you choose. It makes healthy suggestions for meals and snacks that makes it easy to plan what you need to eat for the day. It'll look like a lot of food at first so don't be overwhelmed. Just take it one day at a time. I'm still not at my goal but that's my fault. I kinda slacked off, then got sick, ... am probably at my lowest yet. I really need to jump back on. I also need about 10-15 lbs. just to look normal. I'm about your age so I know how you feel.

I know for me when my anxiety is high, I especially have trouble eating breakfast in the mornings. I have a nervous stomach, nausea, and diarrhea. I have been losing weight as well, but I have also recently had gallbladder surgery which hasn't helped. I have learned that Carnation Instant Breakfast is good for you too. It has a lot of vitamins and minerals as well and tastes pretty good.

It sounds like Ensure has been helpful to many. That is great but remember that losing weight or gaining weight is half caused by emotions. If you focus on the cause (anxiety, depression, etc), the weight gain will follow or be much easier to achieve. Lucinda's program is definitely the first route to go to overcome the anxiety, fears,etc. Building your self- esteem and feeling in control of your life is the key to gaining weight. Positive self-talk tapes are a great way to build your self-confidence. This is mentioned in the Positive/ Negative thinking Lesson in Lucinda's Prog. www.wholefoodfarmacy.com has whole foods that are rich in nutrients, minerals and vitamins and tasty, that might help you to gain weight. Nuts are nutritional and high in calories. Remember that Ensure includes many artificial things so you don't want to rely on it.

Hi everyone..I have totally changed my diet since starting the program and in the process lost alot of weight I didn't really need to lose. I am not willing to eat the things that make me feel bad just to gain some weight back so today I saw my dr. and asked him some things I could do to put some weight back on. He told me the main thing was protein, but that if I would drink carnation instant breakfast, vanilla because of the caffeine in chocolate, with a meal everyday that I would easily put on 5 lbs. He said that I did need to take into consideration that it did have other artificial things in it. Good luck to you all and best wishes.

I was hesitating to answer this, as most of you may already know I'm pretty into healthy living.

I wouldn't advocate taking supplemental drinks such as ensure, or eating a lot of fats to try to get your weight up.

What I'd suggest is bulking up on as much plant food as you'd care to eat. Tons and tons of fresh fruits, veggies, salads. You can eat nuts/seeds as well. These will give you solid nutrition and help bulk you up properly.

Weight training is essential. Also getting plenty of sleep.

Believe it or not, we build muscles in our sleep. Our bodies repair in our sleep. Sleep is super, super important, don't take it for granted.

One more thing, we are SUPPOSED to be thin, to a point. America has an obesity epidemic, the media has tried to brainwash people into thinking that just because the average women's dress size is a 12, that this is normal. It is not.

Fat babies are not "normal"...Fleshy relatives are not "normal" they are average and usually sick. So if you are looking around at some of your friends and relatives who might have some "flesh" across their bones, it doesn't mean you need to look like them.

Some people believe that if you don't have something to grab, then you are underweight. This is a far cry from an anorexic person. A healthy weight is not having a layer of fat. So you may be perfectly normal.

I grew up really thin and being 6'0 it was quite noticeable. Now that I'm in my 40's I have put on extra weight. I can tell you that I was way more comfortable at that "skinny" size than I am now.

If you feel good, you are probably fine. I don't know that you should really worry unless you are showing signs of an eating disorder, protruding bones, bad breath, etc. which I don't think you are.

Remember to eat good food for your nutrients. Your body will process it much better and utilize it, since fresh fruits and vegetables are the #1 source of nutrients and canned drinks and supplements are second hand and many times never used by the body but secreted out.

Think of what kind of food you want to build your body up on. Kind of like what kind of gas and oil you put in your car, the best, correct? So your body will thank you for building it up on pure, fresh plant foods.

Yeesh, there's only 5 mg of caffeine in the Carnation chocolate drink. That's not enough for me to worry about. I do love those though. Very tasty compared to Ensure which I think is kinda gross.

Shifrah, much of what you said is the exact opposite of what my dietitian told me. Fresh fruits and veggies are good but not in overly high quantities because they are filling to people with small appetites and don't provide enough calories. Many of my fruits and veggies were replaced with juice which I found less filling. The thing is, people who are underweight usually don't eat a whole lot and if most of the meal came from fruits and veggies, it'll only get to about 3-4 hundred calories a day. I can't live on that, let alone gain. Weight training was out but exercise wasn't. Exercise can stimulate the appetite but I had to take it easy. I needed to nourish the body before I could work it out. And your body is supposed to have some fat, not none. You can't live on zero fat. Anorexia almost never occurs after your 40s so if someone is older than that, it can't be an eating disorder. I'm just saying, this is what the dietitian told me and she really knows best because when I followed her advice, I did get closer to my goal weight. The link I provided for SparkPeople was the next best thing to a nagging dietitian for me. It made me stay aware of how how few calories I was actually eating ~ not poor calories, just not enough ~ so it was no wonder I couldn't gain. And ooooh, to be a size 12 dress? HA! I don't even fit in a size 2.

Craw you are correct in that dietitians don't follow or believe in a fresh food diet. They are usually trained via government standards, USDA requirements and so on.

With my high cholesterol, I was told by a dietitian to continue to eat meat and use vegetable oils. Meat having cholesterol and oils being pure fats, raise cholesterol levels, doesn't lower them. I lowered my cholesterol 100 points taking my health into my own hands and out of the dietitian's.

Nutritional info on Carnation Instant Breakfast, chocolate malt powder:

INGREDIENTS: SUGAR, NONFAT MILK, MALTED MILK (CONTAINS WHEAT FLOUR AND MALTED BARLEY EXTRACTS), MALTODEXTRIN, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, AND LESS THAN 2% OF DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CARRAGEENAN, SODIUM ALUMINOSILICATE, SOY LECITHIN, SALT, MAGNESIUM HYDROXIDE, SODIUM ASCORBATE (VITAMIN C), VITAMIN E ACETATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE (IRON), ZINC OXIDE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE (PANTOTHENIC ACID), COPPER GLUCONATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN MONONITRATE, PHYLLOQUINONE (VITAMIN K), BIOTIN, FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN B12, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Calories with skim milk: 220

This is mainly sugar, dairy milk and chocolate. Is that what the dietitian suggests building up on?

You can make a fruit smoothie in the blender with 2 large ripe bananas, 1 cup of fresh OJ and a cup of peaches, getting about 350 calories and none of the refined sugar, plus tons of fiber, Carnation Instant Breakfast has zero fiber.

All I'm saying is, in reply to the OP asking for help, what do you want to build your weight on? If you are happy with your dietitian, all the best to you. I'm just giving a response to someone looking for help, is all.