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GF hitting a plateau in her gaining efforts


no-caps

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my girlfriend has been on board with gaining weight for a while. At 5'0" she started at 90 lbs in 2012 and is now a comfortably plush 130 lbs. she's adorable, but she wants to gain more weight. problem is, about for the last year, she's had a lot of trouble doing so. she's got a small appetite, so we fight on that front sometimes. is there anything you'd suggest to help push her over the plateau? she was up to 140 at one point but she struggled to maintain it, I think she's got a fast metabolism

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Do you have any idea how many calories she's consuming currently? I'd recommend trying to have her keep track of what she's eating for a few weeks to make sure she's eating enough. For someone her height, her daily maintenance should be anywhere from 1500 to 1900 depending on her activity level. 

I'd suggest adding around 200 to 300 more calories on top of what she's already eating to start and then do readjustments if you don't see results. If she's still not gaining at 2200 calories, for example, she should try eating 2400 calories the following week. Sometimes the body does this thing called adaptive thermogenesis where it literally burns off the extra calories, but this is only temporary. As long as she continues to eat past her TDEE she will definitely gain. 

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i am not sure we have all the information but this may be a case for a lady that doesn't gain easily. a fatty lets the weight come and sometimes genetics are not on your side, you can only take the long term approach and let the pounds come with a positive intake on a regular basis. no need to rush anything or to fight about it. especially being so short. a couple of pounds and you will immediately get to notice it and enjoy it. good luck and thanks for sharing

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Guest MX8XV93
6 hours ago, no-caps said:

my girlfriend has been on board with gaining weight for a while. At 5'0" she started at 90 lbs in 2012 and is now a comfortably plush 130 lbs. she's adorable, but she wants to gain more weight. problem is, about for the last year, she's had a lot of trouble doing so. she's got a small appetite, so we fight on that front sometimes. is there anything you'd suggest to help push her over the plateau? she was up to 140 at one point but she struggled to maintain it, I think she's got a fast metabolism

Yeah try Diet Coke (or any soda with aspartame).  It increases appetite and sugar cravings and decreases metabolism, so it can be good for resetting a base weight.

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You can use heavy cream in the milkshakes. Even just one cup of cream blended with 2 cups of ice cream comes out to around 1500 calories depending on what kind of ice cream you use. Ideally best to drink as dessert later in the day/evening, after having eaten all the food required for the day.

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On 12/8/2019 at 1:58 AM, JohnnyX said:

Yeah try Diet Coke (or any soda with aspartame).  It increases appetite and sugar cravings and decreases metabolism, so it can be good for resetting a base weight.

I like the idea, but she has a strong migraine response to aspartame. anything else that does something similar without the side effects?

 

On 12/8/2019 at 3:08 PM, Chubbyboi said:

Look at drinking melted ice cream that’s a ton of easy calories.  As well as milkshakes after meals

 

On 12/8/2019 at 4:09 PM, Gusto said:

You can use heavy cream in the milkshakes. Even just one cup of cream blended with 2 cups of ice cream comes out to around 1500 calories depending on what kind of ice cream you use. Ideally best to drink as dessert later in the day/evening, after having eaten all the food required for the day.


she's not a huge fan of sweets, they tend to make her nauseated and give her a headache, though if I make them a bit more fruity she likes them more. super sweet stuff like chocolate or vanilla flavored stuff tends to not go down well or easily.

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If she doesn’t have a huge appetite, she could increase her daily intake through regular snacking. Nuts are very high calorie, especially pecans and macadamia nuts. Make sure a bowl of nuts is always full and always in reach. 
 

Also, you can make meals more calorie dense by increasing the amount of fats in them. You can add cream, butter, or olive oil, whichever would work best with the recipe. If you use hamburger, make sure it is 70/30 grade, and don’t drain it after cooking. 
 

Appetite can be increased by slowly habituating the body to more food. Make sure she eats just past the point of fullness for every meal. Eventually it will take more to feel full. 
 

Happy eating!

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9 minutes ago, bluetech said:

If she doesn’t have a huge appetite, she could increase her daily intake through regular snacking. Nuts are very high calorie, especially pecans and macadamia nuts. Make sure a bowl of nuts is always full and always in reach. 
 

Also, you can make meals more calorie dense by increasing the amount of fats in them. You can add cream, butter, or olive oil, whichever would work best with the recipe. If you use hamburger, make sure it is 70/30 grade, and don’t drain it after cooking. 
 

Appetite can be increased by slowly habituating the body to more food. Make sure she eats just past the point of fullness for every meal. Eventually it will take more to feel full. 
 

Happy eating!

OK! I think the appetite increase option is going to be particularly helpful. She wants to make sure she's eating good fats, so high-fat ground beef is something she's explicitly said no to before. Nuts and pushing past the point of fullness seem like good places to go from here, we haven't tried pecans or macadamia nuts. Plus she's already said she's a snacker. What other foods are similar in that way? easy to snack on, easy to pack during the day?

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Is she quite young? As time goes on the body gets better at gaining weight. 
 

If she doesn’t like sweets much, then she likes savory? The general tricks to gaining a lot of weight in real life for me have been:

1) Have a lot of food in a day. Keep it fun and flexible, but facilitate her being able to have whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Might try to keep a stash of goodies at work (chips, etc) and pick up fries from the drive through on the commute. Just for fun. Purse snacks are fun too. Mindless calories really add up!
2) Eat late. Having plenty of food in the evening and then ramping up to fullness before bed can help keep calories on. Binge eating can be really fun too, and expands the stomach over time, so that you can down more and more as your new “normal”. 
3) Exercise occasionally/eat very little some days. Keep your metabolism from trying accommodate for the higher intake. But don’t do it too much—try working out every couple of weeks or so?
4) Keep food and fat fun. It’s amazing how loooong of a time it takes to get fatter. If you can let it light up your relationship and keep things cute and interesting in the mix, it’ll make the time this all takes go by more quickly (and help nurture the non-feedery parts of your relationship in the meantime). 
 

Everybody is different, but those are a few things that have resulted in hundreds of relationship pounds in my life. 

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Cheese is good for snacking.

Avocados are really high in “good” fats, so you could add avocado toast and chips & guac to the snacking routine. Avocados are pretty perishable though, so anything using them are more of a late night snack than an out and about snack  

The tip of making meals more calorie dense still holds. Olive oil is full of good fats, so use it generously. 
 

Whatever foods she really likes, make sure that there is plenty of it readily available. 

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Good news all! Shared this thread with her, and she's really happy to have such good support for her needs. ❤

The plan for now is that we're going to experiment with a Boost VHC every day until we run out, see how that works. Then we're going to add more snacks to her diet, and really double down on the good fats.

Oh, and stuffing to fullness. Because that's a ton of fun.

Eager to share the results of our experiments!

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Another idea would be a food diary. Many skinny people who struggle to gain weight tend to overestimate the amount they eat, just like fat people trying to lose weight often underestimate their caloric intake. A food diary could help make sure she is actually eating the 2500 or whatever calories per day that it would actually take to put on weight. Plus, a food diary might make for fun content to post here. 

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