Need to put weight back on

Hi Jean,

Sorry to hear about your struggles and really great to hear that you are trying to put weight back on.

The most important thing is to do this slowly. It can be really dangerous (even fatal) to eat loads when you are weight gaining rather than building up. I honestly would get a referral to a dietitian because they will be able to help do a meal plan with you which caters for your height, weight, and where you need to get to to become a healthy weight. Because everyone is different, including lifestyle and activity e.g. someone could work in an office, so be sat down all day, compared to someone who stacks shelves. They require very different amounts of food.

That said, there's nothing really innovative about meals plans and common meal plans will be a balance of all the food groups (including plenty of carbs). They will involve building in snacks in between meals and build up to puddings. You can also buy things like Ensure or Fortisep which are nutritional drinks. But I stress that how quickly you build up, and how much you have depends on your body, which is why you should be doing this with dietitic support. They will also help with portion guides.

My weight is healthy now, and the kinds of things I eat might be:

Breakfast: Porridge with fruit, or toast, or pancakes

Snack (days I'm at work): Mini brownies or flapjacks (if someone has bought these in!) or I find graze snacks really helpful

Lunch: at the moment, it's a whole load of homemade soups. I love this time of year because there are so many varieties of soups. I might have some type of bread with this depending on what is in the soup

I tend to get home from work quite early so will either have a snack, or will have dinner early if I'm heading out to athletics or gymnastics clubs.

A snack might be some hummus and celery or carrot sticks or piece of cheese

Dinner: Really varies, I really enjoy experimenting with cooking, I won't eat something with loads of pulses if I'm going to gymnastics, so might have a risotto, whereas on days I'm not at sport, I might have something like veggie spaghetti bolognaise or lentil curry. At the weekends I like to treat myself so sometimes might have a macaroni cheese or a pizza (not all the time though).

If I'm low on calories - I tend to estimate now rather than count - then I will have a yoghurt post dinner (or probably a hot chocolate now the weather is getting chillier).

Hope this helps.