SOldcorn Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 Now would it depress you all too much if I joined in from the other way round. A year ago (well bit more), before my cancer treatment I was 336 pounds and a 46" waist, I am now 182 and a 32" waist and still shrinking. I literally cannot eat enough calories a day to cover my energy use. So I am after suggestions on ways to gain weight or at least stay the same. my issue is due to the cancer treatment I now have great difficulty swallowing food unless it is quite moist. This makes food at work quite difficult as the only easy to get lunch is a snadwich and I basically can't eat bread. So if we consider this thread to be about being your ideal (in your own mind) weight I will join in, but if it is only for people trying to lose weight I shall go hide again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted May 29, 2008 Author Share Posted May 29, 2008 SOldcorn, I have no problems with you joining us with our issues. Yours is just a bit 'the other way around' as you said. Qwyk recommended peanut butter as a way to add some weight if you don't have other issues it would hurt. You should be able to handle that on its own. Glad to hear you're doing better with your treatments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forlorn Hope Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 Now would it depress you all too much if I joined in from the other way round. A year ago (well bit more), before my cancer treatment I was 336 pounds and a 46" waist, I am now 182 and a 32" waist and still shrinking. I literally cannot eat enough calories a day to cover my energy use. So I am after suggestions on ways to gain weight or at least stay the same. my issue is due to the cancer treatment I now have great difficulty swallowing food unless it is quite moist. This makes food at work quite difficult as the only easy to get lunch is a snadwich and I basically can't eat bread. So if we consider this thread to be about being your ideal (in your own mind) weight I will join in, but if it is only for people trying to lose weight I shall go hide again. Ray Liotta uses Chinese food (lots of carbs and salt) to put on weight for roles, and this seems like it might fit your bill, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaintByNumbers Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 SOlcdorn -- what is the correct weight range for your body type? Not many people are "healthily" _more_ than 182. What is your % body fat? You probably need to work on maintaining muscle mass. Your physician can determine if steroids or HGH (human growth hormone) are compatible with your illness. Probably not. The object would be to curtail catabolism (muscle wasting). The amino acids Arginine and Ornithine, taken on an empty stomach to maximize their uptake in your bloodstream, push the body towards an anabolic (muscle building) state. They taste like dog poop, and there are some mixtures that add co-factors and moderate the taste. Sugar has the most calories for a given weight, and it dissolves, so hot sweet tea can give you a lot of energy. Can you swallow a slurry? Protein shakes come in several flavors. Whey protein is digested faster than milk (casein) protein. Egg protein has the best amino acid balance, and would be the choice to swallow the least amount, but is most expensive. But isn't special diet covered under the UK National Health? There are liquid amino acid products, but I'm not sure if they have a complete amino acid profile. But they might be easier to swallow, and would reduce the amount of the other you need to eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 Well a year ago my doctor told me to loose weight or die. This is because I'm lucky enough to be developing a fatty liver which will wreck my liver and kill me if I don't do something about it. At first it was a wake up call and I lost quite a bit of weight fairly quickly. I cut sugar for 6 months and did a lot of walking but then I hit a wall for whatever reason and the doctors ultimatum became a weight around my neck. I couldn't get down as low as I was suppose to. Now I'm creaping back up. I need to get off sugar again. It's my number one enemy and fortunately I'm moving to a town with sidewalks all over the place. I'll try to stay up with this if I can keep apathy, my number two enemy, from dragging me down again. I'm 5'10" and I weigh over 260lbs. I'll know for sure tonight since I have a doctors apointment. Unfortunately with the move I'll be sans health insurance again so this is my last trip until I find a new job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Snack Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 They taste like dog poop... So, you know what dog poop tastes like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganm Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I lost 15-20 by only paying attention to calories taken in vs daily allowance. Still have about 10-20 I would like to loose. I was astounded how quickly calories add up. Between lunch and snacks (not even counting breakfast and dinner!) it wasn't uncommon for me to take in enough to sustain me over the entire day; and it didn't seem like that much. Now I shoot for 500 calories a meal and a couple 110 calorie snacks a day; this includes drinks, condiments, and everything. I have a very sedative lifestyle so abot 1500 calories a day is plenty for me. I've realized my biggest problems are a complete lack of exersize, equating one "thing" to one "serving", and (as my wife puts it =P ) I'm a "grazer". Instead of eating 3 meals a day I'd prefer to just munch all through out the day. I used to eat Earls Cheesy Popcorn and thought that one bag was one portion. Then I read the back, it was like 4 portions of 300 calories EACH! Even those little bags of Doritos are 3 servings of 110 calories; that's like 3/4 of a meal! Exersize is still a big problem; work on computers all day, get home and it's back to work (dinner, laundry, cub scouts, being dad... you know), then when we have time to exersize we are about to fall in a heap... always an excuse, I know =/ Wifey and I gotta get a handle on it now because our metabolisms are both plumeting and it's only going to get harder! I think what makes it seem so hard is that its SOOOO easy to gain weight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Well the doctor said I was 265lbs and that means I didn't gain my usual 10 pounds in the last year but I didn't loose any either. Oh and again they told me I should be dead. So tomorrow I get to go in for labs even though I won't have any health insurance by Monday and I can't seem to find a job in the town I'm moving to. Oh and we're going to have a baby in 8 months. Ain't life grand. I suppose I should get involved in this but I feel pretty good for a dead guy. woops! I put 165 pounds when I should have typed 265..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaintByNumbers Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 >So, you know what dog poop tastes like? Its easy to eat less if you eat things you don't like... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vejlin Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 what has helped me out the most in the past has been switching to biking everywhere. After visiting Texas for RCon I realize just how lucky I am for living somewhere where biking everywhere is feasible. If I lived in Texas realistically I'd bike nowhere. It's simply too hot, distances are too great and to be frank texas roads are too "bike hostile". Either way if you live in a place where biking is feasible, try it out. It will be hard in the beginning, but it gets better pretty fast in my experience. I've not lost a lot of weight since switching to biking, but I'm leaner, stronger, in better condition and best of all it really energizes me. Another thing I've found is that large fatty meals are evil. Not only are they fatty and high on energy, but they also make you apathetic for the next couple of hours which means you're burning less energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintminion Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 You know, pain and impending doom can be a great motivator! (yuck!). My best weight loss was during pregnancy ( yes, I said weight LOSS). I developed gall bladder problems and it couldn;t be surgically removed until after the pregnancy. So, they watched me like a hawk and I could eat like 10 grams of fat a day without any painful attacks. Look at what you're eating and figure out what 10 grams of fat gets you. Not much! The fear of a painful attack ( a lot like giving birth, trust me), pretty much kept me creative and eating less as well as virtually fat free. I lost 40 pounds on that diet, but I won't go back to it. It literally made life hellish when dealing with family and friends and holidays and going out, and it isn't a lifestyle I can sustain long. Needless to say, I crept up from there as soon as my surgery was done. But I can remember that pain, and sorta imagine, the heart attack or other problems being this overweight can cause. The problem now is that I feel great. I feel fine, especially when compared to the chemotherapy last year. My bloodwork is good, slightly elevated cholesterol, and I'm back to some bad snacking habits. And yep, that one thing = one portion, at least to our eyes, is so true! It always amazes me the serving size for a bottle of soda, or pasta even. It makes it so hard to re-train our eyes ( just like in painting when you have to retrain your eye for highlights and shadows) to see portions differently. One trick I've done when we eat out is to make any dish received = four servings. I try and eat a quarter of what's on the plate, especially pasta dishes! After that it's salad, a drink, and the rest in a nice box for home. It's the variety you need to invest your calories in at the restaurant, not cleaning a plate! Did our grandparents ruin us by making us clean our plates? Sorry, my parent's never did, though I know some who did carry on that habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganm Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Paintminion; that's a good point about "cleaning your plate". My parents were pretty steadfast about it but thankfully I had the metabolism of a freak'n humming bird (wish I still had that!). I am not carrying that on with my kids. We don't let them waste food when we can avoid it but we aren't going to force them to eat for the sake of not wasting food. If it's really worth saving we can throw it in a container and in the fridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vejlin Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 I sometimes wonder how much of obesity is caused by the whole being raised to "eat up". It makes great sense when food is scarce, but frankly it's been a loooong time since food was scarce in the west. Which is also why we've adopted the somewhat (around here at least) controversial "stop when you're full" approach with our kids, instead of the more classic "eat up" mentality. Guess only time will show if it makes a difference. So far I don't feel like I'm in any position to lecture my daughters about eating habits. Both me and my wife are struggling with weight, while Nynne stops when she's full, eats insane amounts of fruit and isn't showing any signs of obesity. Yes wasting food is bad, but compare the resources wasted throwing out a few servings of food when you're a kid, compared to the extra food eaten over a lifetime of overeating (because you don't stop when you're full). And that doesn't even include resources spent treating obesity related medical issues. I have no numbers but I'm pretty sure the whole "don't waste food" mentality is wasting a lot more resources than simply throwing out the food when you're done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuaslater Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 vejlin, you've convinced me to start biking more in Philly. There's no excuse for not doing it. I would love to feel energized again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vutpakdi Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 There is a fascinating book called Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink that recounts his research into factors that influence people's eating habits and ideas for how to improve your eating habits. For example, just how a dish is described in a menu influences people's perception of the taste of the meal. So, "panko and regiano parmiggiano crusted chicken sauteed in olive oil" was rated better than "chicken parmesan" when the actual food was the same. One experiment involved putting endless bowls of hot wings (yes a dream for some) on tables during a sporting game. All tables also had bowls for bones. On half of the tables, the bowls were never emptied; on the other half, the bowls were emptied continuously. The tables were the bone bowls were emptied quickly ate more (20-30% more, I think) hot wings since people couldn't gauge how may they had eaten. Fascinating reading with good tips. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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