Rosalee Brown
A FRIEND said to me a few days ago that not everybody wants to lose weight. She had a problem gaining weight and the few times she succeeded, she lost it with the bat of an eye. I am aware of the efforts and frustrations, which are as real as for those who want to shed fat.
These are some characteristics of persons who have no underling disease, but are underweight or cannot maintain weight:
Not excited by food.
Food not a priority.
Have few favourite foods.
Hates the kitchen.
Does not necessarily like 'cooked' food.
Prefers to drink instead of eat.
Eats mostly snack food
Misses meals for other 'important' task.
Leads a sedentary lifestyle.
Everybody trying to gain weight does not embody all the above traits, but they do have a significant number, which contributes to their less-than-required caloric intake.
WHAT TO DO
1 Identify the foods that you love or will eat from the following food groups food from animals, peas, beans and nuts, cereals, grains and ground provisions, fruits, vegetables, oils and fats, and aim to include them in your meal choices, throughout the day. Try to have some food from animal or peas, beans or nuts at each meal.
2Identify the dishes and drinks that you will consume, for example, sandwich, soups, casseroles, blended concoction, and aim to make them available.
3Identify your favourite time of day for eating and have a large meal at this time.
4Capitalise on eating cues, for example, with friends, family, after physical activity.
5Schedule eating and try to adhere to the schedule, have small calorie-dense portions, for example, at breakfast, enriched cereal, snack, nuts; lunch, small balance meal with fruit or milk-based drink , no empty calorie substitute; evening snack, fruit; dinner, enriched soup. This equals five meals. If you make every bite nourishing then you will most likely get your calories.
6Some snack food might provide extra calories and might take away your hunger, but if your intake is not balanced in your major nutrients including protein then you will fail to gain muscle and the desired increase in body mass you seek.
7Customise your meals according to your day's schedule. If you will be spending a lot of time on the road with no place to eat, take along a liquid meal, nuts, or sandwich and so on. If you have meetings all day, a liquid meal can be a quick meal, when you take a bathroom break.
8Have liquid, high-calorie meals in your desk drawer, cupboards at home, in the glove compartment of the car, the same for nuts.
9If you are porridge or soup drinker, but can only manage a cup, there are ways to make that cup count by enriching it with extra fat or milk. There are also some flavourless, tasteless enhancers available, which have the advantage of enriching foods without distorting their
characteristic flavour.
10Make your eating environment beautiful;
use attractive eating utensils; eat at the table or on an attractive tray. Sit; spend some time and enjoy the meal; do not rush, or leave your meal unfinished to attend to something more important.
11Eat, then drink and make the drink nourishing.
12Exercise; do some weight training, which will help you increase your muscle mass. Some aerobic exercise will increase your energy output and you will have to compensate by consuming more energy if you are not already doing so.
13If all this fails consult a registered dietitian/nutritionist.
Rosalee M. Brown is a registered dietitian/nutritionist who operates Integrated Nutrition and Health Services; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
