Gaining weight is so hard

I managed to get up to 365lbs just by accident!! I guess I'm just gifted.

completely unhelpful.

Purposeful gaining of weight and muscle is difficult. It's significantly more difficult than losing weight.
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OP- find foods you eat- and eat more of them. Any high calorie- "empty" foods- (these foods usually are labelled 'junk') are great options.

peanut butter, ice cream- milk- chips- pasta.
nuts- butter and oil to everything- bacon- eggs- milk- reeses- peanut butter and jelly- cheesecake in your smoothies.


My question about the burger upsetting your stomach- have you been eating a low fat diet mostly? Because often times that's what happens- people eat a low fat diet- go for one burger- get sick and swear off burgers because they are unhealthy- and the reality is their gut just adjusted to a low fat diet and the extra fat threw the balance out. If that's the case- you can rebalence by adding more fat in slowly.

Yes, completely unhelpful (the people who said gaining weight is easy and comes naturally). What Jo said is helpful.

To those who said gaining is easy, I know this may come as a shocker, but what's easy for you isn't easy for everyone. Gaining weight is difficult for me, but losing is easier. So do I walk around telling everyone that losing weight is easy (all you have to do is eat less). No! Because I'm cognizant of the fact that everything in life is easy for some people and difficult for others.

OP- I see you have ulcers and other medical conditions. I'm not sure what specific type of diet you need to be on for those conditions, but if you are able to, try and eat foods from all the macronutrient groups (as others have said). If you have to exclude certain foods, just rule out those foods which affect you negatively, but don't rule out fats completely (unless you really do have to be on a low-fat diet). I think it's good that you're trying to gain weight, because the health detriments of being underweight are usually not discussed, but being underweight can in fact be unhealthy. Of course, just like being overweight, it depends on the person as to how detrimental it is.

OP, the thing that helped me the most was working on re-defining my definition of "healthy." As women especially, the message that gets pounded into our heads is that healthy = low-calorie or low-fat. If you're a little more educated about nutrition, it's that healthy = low-calorie, low-fat and nutrient-dense, but low-calorie is still part of that stupid equation.

If you need to gain weight, that formula is 100% wrong.

If you need to gain weight, the healthiest choice you can make is one that gets you to meet your calorie goal.

Yes, it's important to choose nutrient-dense foods for overall health, but at the end of the day if you're low on calories, it's better to choose ice cream AND strawberries. If you're low on calories, the ice cream isn't a splurge -- it's a necessity.

i have tried EVERYTHING and to no avail... doesnt help im constantly on the go chasing a toddler either...

Have you tried eating an extra 500 calories a day? Do that for 2 weeks. Weigh yourself.

If scale hasn't gone up, add another 200 cals a day. Repeat until you start gaining weight.

If you haven't tried this - you haven't tried everything yet!

Calorie dense foods (many have already been mentioned in this thread) are the way to go. Don't try to eat loads of steamed brocolli and grilled chicken breast - get some fatty cuts of meat, pasta, creamy sauces, etc.

Ok so a lot of people on here are saying eat more fat, which is great and true - lots of healthy fats are out there and they make for easy calories. Olive oil, coconut oil, butter, cheese, flax seeds, (add to shakes, salads, etc), meats, nuts.

But what you really need as much or more are CARBS! High-quality carbs. Are you using your food diary? Mine spells out for me exactly how many fats, proteins, carbs, etc I need to meet my goal. Getting enough carbs but not too much sugar has been one of the hardest ones to get right every day. Fats are pretty easy. But carbs...load up on carbs. Your example meals didn't include a lot of carbs. Get a whole grain pasta - just one serving gives you like 41 grams of carbs. That's great! I love brown rice and make a couple cups at a time. You don't even have to eat plates and plates of it to get good calories and carbs - all without very much sugar! It's brilliant. Some sugar is good...fruits...I aim for carbs that are not more than about 10 grams of sugar at one time. If you loaded up on cokes & desserts, you'd get all the carbs you need but they wouldn't be good for your body. So be smart about it, get lots of carb foods that have low sugar (bread, rice, pasta) and then supplement that with other high carbs food with SOME sugar (fruit, energy gels, etc). Use supplements to your advantage -- meal bars, energy gels, etc. They can be quick and easy to eat and give you the extra carbs, proteins and fats you need.

If you still want to eat what most people would think is weight loss food, like salad, just add avocado, olive oil, flax seeds, nuts to the top - and for carbs, you can make some quinoa (cooks fast) and add on top or have rice/quinoa on the side. So there your additives are really the bulk of the calories, fats, and carbs here that you wouldn't have gotten with just the vegetables and you avoid the unhealthy dressings.

Lastly, make sure you use this great tool on here - the food diary etc. Download the MyFitnessPal app to your phone, it's free. It's even easier to add foods you just ate to your diary because when you go to add a food on the phone app, it actually lets you scan the barcode on the foods you eat (on the boxes, wrappers, etc - they almost all have a barcode). When you scan, the nutrition info comes up on the phone and you just add that to your diary. Super easy and awesome! Then just skim over the calories and different nutrients you've eaten throughout the day to see what you have left to consume for the day.

My bad. Lol she definitely won't gain weight on a low-fat, low-carb diet.

unfortunately due to a very fast metabolism that didnt work either, tried it in the past. i have literally tried to do everything people who have extra weight do and to no avail

Daily, whole milk, breads and grains, protein (chicken, powders, ...). Just like gaining weight, our genetics play a part. ensure is in a container so that is technically a can. They gave it to my dad to help him gain weight in the care facility because he was not getting enough nutrients through other foods.