High calorie foods with numerous allergies.

uscmhicks
uscmhicks Posts: 2
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi everyone, I'll cut straight to the chase.

I'm a 21 year old male, 5'10.

When I was 18 I lost an awful lot of weight following a still undiagnosed digestive problem which caused an awful lot of mal-absorption, nausea , a stomach ulcer and so on. Over the years I was pumped with various antibiotics which made things ten times worse (I've not taken any of these again for a long time now).

I was always a relatively skinny guy but at my worst I was only 112 pounds!. For a guy my age and height that's pretty damn skinny!

I weighed myself today and I'm now at 122 pounds. I'm steadily gaining weight but here's the catch, I've realised I have numerous quite severe food allergies to gluten, dairy, fish and a much less serious nut allergy. I also react to various fruits.

I managed to gain the additional weight with the help of coconut milk, avocado and occasional home made almond muffins which contain around 300 calories each ( if my digestion is ok ).

I'm not the type of person who wants to avoid food, the complete opposite. I'm trying hard and pushing myself to gain.

I was wondering if anyone could possibly recommend any food for me that they think might be helpful for weight gain keeping in mind the allergies?

I've also been considering working out at the gym with friends but am wondering if I'm best gaining back the body fat I need before worrying about muscle. My BMI is 17.8 and between 18.5 up to 25 is healthy for my age and height.


Thank you in advance for any help.

Replies

  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    If you're working on gaining lean mass, you will be gaining fat at the same time anyway. So I wouldn't sweat it. Weight-lifting is pretty much always going to be beneficial. Overall weight gain is going to be dictated by your diet regardless.

    Oils (olive, coconut?)? Eggs are good. If you need some carb sources, rice, potatoes, corn, oatmeal are good carb sources that are gluten free. How about some fattier cuts of beef and pork and such?
  • WeeMikeSilver
    WeeMikeSilver Posts: 7 Member
    If you've got an allergy to dairy, then I'd highly recommend trying raw milk.

    Without going into too much detail here, a lot of people I know who have had problems with dairy, have tried raw milk and other raw dairy products and been fine.

    A lot of dairy allergies can be due to the lack of lactase in the body, and the dairy itself, any raw dairy product has this left in, amongst copious amounts of other good things, and has helped lots of people start eating dairy products again.

    And for yourself, you may well find that your other allergies starting getting better too.

    Have a look over this website... http://www.raw-milk-facts.com ... and you will find a lot of good information.

    As an example, a good friend who used to have dairy as a kid, grew intolerant of it by the time he reached his teenage years, and everything dairy after that made him tired, bloated, and generally rather ill.

    I met him when he was 23 and got talking about raw milk to him, he went away and read up about it, found himself a local farm that sold it (not that many in the UK unfortunately, but try looking here http://www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk/unpasteurised-raw-milk-uk) and slowly introduced it into his eating routine.

    I didn't see him for about 3 weeks after our chat, but when I did, he was elated. He was now drinking a full glass of raw milk a day with no ill effect. He said he had started off with just a simple mouthful to begin with each day, and then slowly increased it as the days went by.

    At first he said he felt a little sick, exactly like he would when he was a teenager, but much milder, but that this went away after the 3rd day, and he didn't feel bloated, have any wind or any other ill effect.

    As far as I am aware he doesn't have any other allergies so I can't say if this has helped him with anything else. Unfortunately I haven't seen him since before Christmas due to him moving away, but he was drinking a couple of glasses a day and more sometimes when we met up as I love the stuff and drink a few pints a day myself, and as far as I am aware he has been absolutely fine with it.

    Certainly something worth considering.
  • uscmhicks
    uscmhicks Posts: 2
    Thanks for these tips guys, sorry for the extremely late reply.
    When I posted this topic I was 122 pounds, I'm now 134 so have gained 12 pounds! For the past three months I've been doing various body weight and dumbbell exercises at home and trying to eat more. Press ups, squats, pull ups etc.
    I've not been using a gym as of yet since I was trying my best to get my muscle used to some exercise again.

    I've had to avoid pretty much all ab exercises due to my stomach ulcer and noticing it really irritates it the day after making it impossible for me to eat. I'm not concerned about having abs anyway, I just want more weight from here. I'd like to get up to around 147 pounds and then go from there.

    Food is still a big challenge and having any kind of diversity is extremely hard. It would be great if I could use peanut butter but with an allergy it's impossible and as much as I'd love to try to reintroduce dairy I don't think my digestion is ready at this point. I've used coconut milk in the past but find drinking a smoothie using this tends to ruin my appetitie and the creamy textures lies on my stomach for hours on end. I'm thinking of using around 300ml of almond milk ( around 90 calories ), a banana ( around another 90 ), and half a cup of blueberries ( around 45) to get another 200 calories in my daily routine to try and push the weight up further.

    I'm really struggling for meal ideas though, especially considering I'm already spending a massive amount on food on a weekly basis. Here's hoping the weight continues to pile on!
  • Kestrelwings
    Kestrelwings Posts: 238 Member
    There are plenty of calorie and nutrient-rich foods suitable even if you have multiple intolerances. Don't underestimate the benefits of experimenting with combinations that tempt you. Possibles include:

    Homemade nut butters using nuts you do not have problems with, for example cashew nuts
    Advocados
    If you tolerate almonds & coconut, carry these with you to 'snack on the go'
    Coconut oil added to your foods
    Vegan ice cream (coconut milk, fruit, sugar/honey - look up recipes on Google)
    Add instantised oats to your shakes (MyProtein do an excellent one that mixes really well)
    You can get vegetarian protein shake power (again try MyProtein, but others do them too)
    Carbs are cheap & you can try ones like quinoa to boost protein at the same time

    Hope it goes well.
  • foreheadwax
    foreheadwax Posts: 5
    Why not plain meat?

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