A different problem...regaining weight

[reflux]

Hi all,

I was ill for two weeks and lost a significant amount of weight. I went from about 165 to 145; my normal weight sans strength training is 160.

In order to help speed along my recovery and to improve my energy level, I need to get back to 160. The caveat, I don't want it to be all fat and worthless (aka empty) calories. So, visiting Krispy Kreme 3x/day is out.

How do I approach my diet? In addition to my normal 3 meals a day, what do I eat and how often? Also, Ensure is out. My stomach hates it.

Thank you in advance for your help everyone.

Andrew

[sdyeti]

I would assume that re-gaining weight is like losing it...the slower the better. (I could be totally wrong here).

You could always take the Super Size Me approach!

kidding...

Or, you could work in more weight training and gain some of it back as muscle.

I'm guessing, though, that you'll be back to your old weight soon. Being sick generally dehydrates you. No matter how sick I've ever been, the weight I "lost" has always come back without much effort. I say give it a week and you'll be normal again.

Originally Posted by reflux

Hi all,

I was ill for two weeks and lost a significant amount of weight. I went from about 165 to 145; my normal weight sans strength training is 160.

In order to help speed along my recovery and to improve my energy level, I need to get back to 160. The caveat, I don't want it to be all fat and worthless (aka empty) calories. So, visiting Krispy Kreme 3x/day is out.

How do I approach my diet? In addition to my normal 3 meals a day, what do I eat and how often? Also, Ensure is out. My stomach hates it.

Thank you in advance for your help everyone.

Andrew

[allison]

Try adding in more healthier foods throughout the day. Eat bigger mini-meals. If you like it, eat some cottage cheese with fruit in it, have a PB&J on wheat as a snack, add fruit/veggies to the meals.. have two chicken breasts a day instead of one (not at the same time).

Have more cereal/oatmeal for breakfast and add in healthy nuts/seeds/dried fruit. Snack similarly.

We've been having bigger and bigger salad's with dinner every night. In addition to lettuce (or spinach) we have yellow squash and zucchini chopped up, cucumbers, tomatoes, I have an avocado (they've been on sale), then dried cranberries, and sprinkle on Planters Trail Mix Nuts, Seeds, and Raisins. Be more liberal with your olive oil/dressing?

[stinkyrider]

Try MetRx?

The bars taste like sh!t but the shakes are pretty damn tasty.
About 700 calories and 70 grams of protein when mixed with milk. I put on a lot of lean mass real fast in high school while drinking that.

[tkblazer]

drink more beer

[art23rockpile]

I may incur some wrath from the truly 'health conscious' reading this, but a lot of lean red meat in the diet will help, along with protein drinks between meals. Mainly just eating more than normal (but try to limit fatty foods) will add weight. It's worked for me in the past.

[allison]

Originally Posted by stinkyrider

Try MetRx?

The bars taste like sh!t but the shakes are pretty damn tasty.
About 700 calories and 70 grams of protein when mixed with milk. I put on a lot of lean mass real fast in high school while drinking that.

True. Justin used to eat them for meals. Some of the flavors aren't too bad.

I've also had Muscle Milk Lite and Myoplex (EAS) Lite shakes. If you're not looking for "Lite" you can always go with the Myoplex regular in addition to mini-meals.

Definitely watch adding *too* many calories back in cause otherwise you may wind up asking how to lose the calories in a week or so

Originally Posted by art23rockpile

I may incur some wrath from the truly 'health conscious' reading this, but a lot of lean red meat in the diet will help, along with protein drinks between meals. Mainly just eating more than normal (but try to limit fatty foods) will add weight. It's worked for me in the past.

Nah, I think that lean red meat is important in a diet. Has stuff that other meats don't have (predominately iron).

That reminds me.. I should probably have some next week

[reflux]

GREAT info people! As always, STR rocks.

I hadn't considered the metrx stuff. I will look into that.

Thank you for the great info Alison. I can't believe I forgot about pbnj's; they're a staple of my ride diet. As for cottage cheese, I have never tried it. The look of it alone has scared me. Is now the time to try it?

Unfortunately I am at least a month away from returning to the gym and riding. Sad Andrew.

[Zippy]

When I used to bodybuild, I'd eat every two hours and it looked something like this:

Breakfast:
6 eggs (no kidding)

protein bar (ProPerformance blueberry)

Lift

Lunch:
Huge turkey sandwich, salad and tortilla chips

Protein shake

Dinner:
Chicken breast the size of my hand, potato, sweet potato or yam, more salad

This is in addition to all the creatine and androgen precursors I was dumping into my body.

I went from 145 to 170, but it took a while (years!) because I was trying to put on just muscle and not fat.

Sounds like you've dropped fat and water weight and your energy levels should rebound once your immune system recover. I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you're unusually tired, in which case adding some carbs to your diet will help your energy levels.

Oh yeah, 170 doesn't sound like it's that heavy, but I'm only 5'5" tall and was on the verge of buying XL T-shirts and cutting them shorter because Large shirts didn't fit my shoulders and lats.

[allison]

Originally Posted by reflux

Thank you for the great info Alison. I can't believe I forgot about pbnj's; they're a staple of my ride diet. As for cottage cheese, I have never tried it. The look of it alone has scared me. Is now the time to try it?

I can really only handle the Lite with pineapple. It tastes pretty good IMO. High in protein and calcium, and not too bad with fat/carbs. If you aren't worried about weight, obviously the regular with pineapple (or any fruit) would be good and probably taste better. I took a bit of getting used to, but not a lot.

I may be buying some here soon to add to my PM routine for additional protein before working out in the afternoons.

[bobzrag]

just start porking out - eat everything in sight, the fattier and greasier the better - works for me! ...oh and beer

[sdyeti]

Just a note on pb & j though...

stay away from crappy pb like jiffy, etc. that pour lots of excess sugar and oil into them. get some good organic, natural pb.

Stay away from partially hydrogenated anything!

How long has it been since you were sick??

I wouldn't rush into changing your diet just yet if you just got over whatever your illness was. Give it some time.

[reflux]

Alison - I have some canned pineapple at home that's not being used as we speak. I might just have to pick up some Lite CC to see what happens.

SDyeti - Haha, I lied: I actually hate peanut butter. My true love lies with almond butter from Trader Joes, but I can't recall what additives it has, if any. Thank you for the reminder.

The flu and pneumonia. I was at Mission for 4 nights and was discharged last Wednesday (1.5 wks ago). It wasn't until this past Sunday, after a week of IVs and eating everything my stomach could handle, that I weighed myself at 145.

Zippy is right in that most of the weight I lost was muscle and water weight. Haha, and "they" thought I was skinny before...

[allison]

I like Jiffy.

[chongoblanco]

wow! i wish I had the problem of trying to gain weight! hang with me for a weekend you'll put on 10lbs in a day and a half.

All you can eat brazillian bbq place on lemon and the 91fwy in fullerton does the trick very well

[sdyeti]

Some of them are making a "natural" product now...not picking on that brand specifically but making the point that partially hydrogenated oil (which is in those types of peanut butters) is horrible for you. And, there's no need for it.

Originally Posted by allison

I like Jiffy.

[chupacabra]

I'd keep the long rides to a minimum. Instead ride shorter trails with climbs and keep a low cadence. On days off the bike, lift. Eat lots. When I was younger I couldn't gain weight no matter how much I ate or lifted. Of course I was doing way too much cardio. So all the calories were burned off before they could be incorporated into muscle tissue. At least thats how I look at it.

[queenwilhelmina]

Dude don't waste your money on nasty fake bars. Eat more starchy carbs (especially after excercise) and follow Steph's advice on the training. You'll fill out more without getting fat if you do it correctly. You don't need to start stuffing your face with manufactured foods to gain weight.

[Zippy]

Originally Posted by sdyeti

Some of them are making a "natural" product now...not picking on that brand specifically but making the point that partially hydrogenated oil (which is in those types of peanut butters) is horrible for you. And, there's no need for it.

AAHH!. Now I'm having horrible flashbacks about fatty acid oxidation cycles! Make it stop!

[chongoblanco]

a very nice combo here, one of my favs