For thin people that don’t know how to gain weight

I am a notoriously thin person (guy in his forties) that has always struggled to gain weight and also keep it on for good.  I know that this issue is grossly overlooked because everybody seems to be wanting to do the opposite:  lose weight.  Well, just know that you are not alone in your weight gain quest.  I find that the info on how to gain weight is very generic and amounts to the general idea of just eating more.  Well, let me tell you:  it is not that easy.  In this article I want to give some food recipe ideas that have helped me and describe a life style that allows for weight gain.  And I also want to dive deeper and look at the causes for staying thin no matter what you try.

Why am I so Thin?

That really is the key question but very hard to answer unless you know for a fact that you have a illness that causes it (like cancer, etc.).  For most of us, we just know that our body just does not want to put on fat.  For some the problem is a fast metabolism which is not such a bad thing because these people might not be able to gain weight but usually have plenty of energy since they digest food fairly well.  Now, as for me, I will say that my experience has taught me that I am thin because of my anxious personality and high stress sensitivity (low stress tolerance)  Since the bodies’ physical systems are connected to its mental ones through hormones (see pituitary and adrenal glands) the body has a hard time processing food and liquids at a pace that is slow enough to be absorbable by the gut.  Stress sensitive people like me lose their appetite when anxious, stressed, exhausted (from exercise), etc.  People that gain weight respond to stress with hunger while some of us thin people only get a good appetite going when we are relaxed and free of worry.

Life Style Habits that encourage Weight Gain

As previously mentioned you need to be in a calm and relaxed mood at least 1 hour before a meal.  Sit and read, watch TV or YouTube or whatever else relaxes your mind and body.  As an example, I used to get really hungry from siting in any boring 1 hour lecture at university.  However, running cross-campus to the next lecture destroyed that hunger right away.  See, the majority of people will get hungrier from exercise, but not me (and maybe not you).  As for working, same thing:  You can work hard for a while but you will need to stop 1 hour before eating to get relaxed enough for your body to be able to do anything with your food (feed your cells and so on).  In a perfect world for a thin person like me to gain weight they would need to sleep at least 9-10 hours a day and only work 3 hours per day day at most. Combine that with only light exercises like walking or chi-gong for a max. of 30 minutes a day and 30 minutes of strength training per week at most.

Gaining Fat or Muscle – what should you aim for?

Short answer:  both.  The 30min of strength training a week (some upper body, some lower body) will take care of the muscle gain while not overexerting your body and nervous system.  Thin people just don’t have the reserves to train hard every day or even every second day like some strength training experts suggest.  Just realize, that these “experts” are talking to the people that have no weight gain difficulties.  Gaining fat is harder because it is more hormone driven then muscle building but still doable for thin people.  So, now I want to present a little bit of food and eating advice and a recipe or two that have helped me gain 5 pounds in one month (which is a lot for a thin person).

Best Food Choices to Gain Weight

Here is what works for me:  Generally speaking I stay away from all foods that are hard to digest even if they are calorie rich. An example of this would be nuts and seeds.  Not only are they fatty which is a strain on the system (a lot of bile is needed for most fats and oils) but they often pass through the colon only partly digested.  This is especially true if your transit time through the digestive tract is fast (under 24 hours) like mine.  So, that leaves easy to digest carbs (Cassava/Tapioca is perfect) and proteins (fish and chicken breast are good) with some good fats like raw coconut oil (and others of course).  Also, the softer and more liquid the food is the better because your body has to work less to digests them.  That’s partly why they say to chew your food well (the other reason is enzyme activity in the mouth).  And don’t forget to eat what you like as well to make it easier to eat enough.  It won’t help you if you have to force down the food because you hate the taste.

Recipe Number 1 – Milk Rice

Very easy to make and a good mix of Easy to digest Carbs, Protein and Fat (sorry milk-allergy people)

Take 100 grams of Short Grain Rice (Jasmine works well, too), combine in 2 cups of Full-Fat Milk (grass-fed if you can get it), add a few drops of liquid vanilla extract and cook the whole thing on low heat for 20 min or so until the rice is tender and the whole thing thickens up.  Then sweeten with sugar (coconut sugar is best) to taste.  Enjoy.  Gives you about 700 calories.

Recipe Number 2 – Chipa (from Paraguay) – a kind of Cheese Bun made with Tapioca Starch

A little more involved but gluten-free as a bonus:  Take 5 eggs (free-range of course) and crush them into a large bowl, combine with 140 ml full-fat milk (grass-fed again), add 50 ml Olive Oil (cold pressed), add 200 grams cottage cheese and 2 cups of shredded cheese (whatever kind you like), about 1/2 a tea spoon baking powder, salt to taste (I like a little more) and a few caraway seeds (1/2 tea spoon or so) as well.  Stir the whole thing well.  Now take Tapioca Starch or Tapioca Flour and keep adding it while stirring the mixture.  Eventually it will be hard to stir when it gets thick enough (after about 400-500 grams of starch).  Put in the fridge for few hours until the mixture is cold.  Then form into any shape you like (balls, etc.) and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until golden in color.  Enjoy.  Gives you a lot of calories per bun with a good ratio of carbs, fat and protein.

Lastly, I want to say that there are plenty of alternate recipes online if my descriptions are confusing.  This is the first time I wrote down a recipe and it’s all from memory.

More weight gain advice to come another day perhaps.