[dar917]

After 9 and 1/2 mos at this I'm still underweight. I'm 5'9" and my scale said 123.5 lbs this morning. I know, most people have the opposite problem. I think my biggest problem is I just don't eat enough calories; I think I eat around 1800 calories a day. I try to eat healthy and some days I feel like all I do is eat!

Should I just eat more carbs? I was told to eat no more than 5 carb choices per meal but it would be easy to eat more, especially if I drink a whole glass of juice instead of half for a start. I read somewhere (I think on here) that you basal insulin should be half of the insulin you take in a day. Does it really matter if I would take say 5 more units of Novolog than Lantus a day?? And those of you on a pump, you only use one type of insulin don't you?

So what say you all? Eat more carbs? Protein bars or shakes? See a nutritionist?

TIA!

[BlueSky]

I think you really need to have some kind of strategy for this. Your reasons for wanting to gain weight, the kind of weight you want to gain and your insulin sensitivity are important considerations. Are you underweight because you lost muscle when you became T1? If this is the case, you should be be doing what it takes to build new muscle. In addition to looking and feeling better than carrying extra fat, increased lean muscle mass improves insulin sensitivity. It gives you more control over your blood glucose. You build muscle by by doing resistance exercise and using protein supplements.

Join a gym and get a trainer to help you devise a an exercise program. Exercise also stimulates appetite, which it sounds like you need. It sounds like you are getting enough carbs, and increasing them further will make controlling your blood sugar more difficult. Getting those extra calories from eggs, cheese, nuts etc would serve your cause better.

[dar917]

I can't afford to join a gym but I could lift large soup cans or something.

I hate how natural and healthy foods are so much more expensive than junk foods too.

[ant hill]

Originally Posted by BlueSky

It gives you more control over your blood glucose. You build muscle by by doing resistance exercise and using protein supplements.

Forget the protien suplements eat the proien rich stuff and I know that steak is not in your budget now but look at eggs bacon and some exersize that will stimulate hunger.
Aww and another thing too, Today I will look at some of that Lindt mint chocolate.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by ant hill

Forget the protien suplements ...

The only way I was able to build muscle was to have a protein shake (about 30 grams of protein) immediately after workouts. There is a 30-60 minute window of opportunity during which muscles are very receptive to amino acids. Some people can get away without doing this, but for some of us it is essential.

[REDLAN]

Physiology is a complex thing - and now I'm over 40, I find building any muscle very hard - I think I'm going to try the protein shake tip

dar917, I suspect however that being female, I'm guessing you're rather more interested in increasing your covering of subcutaneous fat (i.e the fat that is deposited just below the skin, and gives our bodies a smoothed appearance) rather than muscle per se

question? do you feel well? It is possible that your low body weight may be caused by an underlying illness. For instance hyperthyroidism can cause low body weight. Any doubts get checked out by your doctor.

Assuming that you are well, the first point to understand is that our bodies have a genetically determined set point. This is believed by most researchers to account for around 70% of our total weight. we have control over the remaining 30% - that is we can through diet and exercise move our weight up or down by around 15% of our natural set point weight (most people achieve much less than this)

It is likely that you are one of those individuals whose set point is naturally low. Probably in your case you're looking to gain a maximum of around 10lbs before your body decides that it's too heavy and starts to adapt to the extra calories you are eating (contrary to popular opinion most humans do have compensatory mechanisms to stop them gaining too much weight through excess food consumption)

I don't know much about the effects of protein on the body, but the body treats carbs and fat almost interchangeably - if you eat more carbs and less fat then the body will convert the excess carbs into fat (there is some evidence that eating like this will help you lay down fat more easily) - if you do the reverse and eat more fat and less carbs, the body stops converting carbs into fat and starts to prefer to burn fats over than carbs, thereby preserving your limited carb supply.

In your case - I'm wondering about the "healthy" foods you are eating. I'm thinking that this means wholefoods - i.e. wholegrains, fruits, vegetables etc.

One of the reasons that wholefoods are recommended is because of their fibre content (which is believed to improve digestive tract health - now disproven), and because of the belief that wholefoods are higher in vitamins minerals etc (I have no idea whether this is true or not)

The issue with wholefoods is that they are very hard to break down - it is almost impossible for the body to extract all the available energy from them, so....

you might be eating 1800 calories a day, but your body is likely to be extracting much less.

I suggest that you eat slightly less healthily - include some processed food in your diet - i.e. white flours. If you can increase your carb consumption (without making your control worse), then (in theory) this should help you gain weight more easily than increasing the amount of fat. Although realistically if you increase your carb consumption you fat consumption is also likely rise. (most western peoples eat fat and carbs in equal amounts)

[Scratch]

It might be a good idea to first get an estimate of your bodyfat percentage. There are scales that can do this, skinfold calipers can be used, or using a sewing kit's tape measure and doing various points on the body there are calculators on the net that can give an estimate based upon that.

A few different ways of measuring can be used to see if they are all in the same ballpark and using those you can have a decent estimate of what your bodyfat percentage is.

Wikipedia has a reasonable chart of bodyfat percentages and what levels correlate with what sort of body type.

Description Women Men
Essential fat 12–15% 2–5%
Athletes 16–20% 6–13%
Fitness 21–24% 14–17%
Acceptable 25–31% 18–25%
Obese 32%+ 25%+

With that, you'll have a better idea of whether you may want to prefer to gain muscle or gain fat.

The 50/50 basal/bolus guideline is just a general guideline. My basal/bolus split is about 30 to 40% basal, 60 to 70% bolus.

It's also very reasonable to gain strength without a gym membership. In fact I'd recommend anyone who decides to start strength training to consider beginning with simple bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups, squats. There are ways to change the leverages to decrease or increase how much strength is needed to perform bodyweight exercises and early on a lot of strength gained comes from simply teaching the nervous system how to coordinate the muscle fiber recruitment. I think the development of strength like that with increased body awareness is a good thing to work for.

[dar917]

Originally Posted by REDLAN

question? do you feel well? It is possible that your low body weight may be caused by an underlying illness. For instance hyperthyroidism can cause low body weight. Any doubts get checked out by your doctor.

Yeah, I feel pretty good. My thyroid is OK. My ribs don't stick out or anything so I guess that's good. I've had mono, and the flu a while back though and I seem to lose weight easily when stressed out and don't eat much.

Originally Posted by REDLAN

I suggest that you eat slightly less healthily - include some processed food in your diet - i.e. white flours. If you can increase your carb consumption (without making your control worse), then (in theory) this should help you gain weight more easily than increasing the amount of fat. Although realistically if you increase your carb consumption you fat consumption is also likely rise. (most western peoples eat fat and carbs in equal amounts)

I can try! I'll buy 1% milk instead of skim next time....ugh, processed foods. All those chemicals and artificial preservatives and hormones....

[REDLAN]

processed foods

by processed I mean food that has been ground or milled, or otherwise prepared to make it more digestible, rather than food that manufacturers add stuff to - although the 2 go hand in hand.

e.g. ground nuts are better than chopped nuts, which are better than whole nuts.

I think there are several avenues for you to explore - for instance you mentioned a nutritionist - in the UK we have dieticians - dietician's have to have a recognised qualification to be called a dietician, unlike the numerous TV diet doctors which we get on TV. I assume the states have something similar, and it may be better to get some proper nutritional advice from someone who is qualified, rather than from us lot of hacks - if you have access to this then that would be my bet.

Bluesky mentioned egg, cheese, and nuts - if you like these then they are energy dense foods, easily cooked and mixed with other foods, and they have a small impact on blood glucose. In your case eating low-fat might not actually represent eating healthily.

what's your staple carb? How do you do with potato? another energy dense food, easily combined with eggs, and cheese - if you're thinking health conscious you can go for jackets rather than chips.

[UpNorth]

You need to wait for a few months before you start exercising after having mono
But until then, try to eat more proteins. Egg and bacon is good and doesn't cost much. if you can handle them, beans could be a good option too...
Egg, bacon and baked beans... ****, now i'm hungry! LOL

[dar917]

Originally Posted by REDLAN

what's your staple carb? How do you do with potato? another energy dense food, easily combined with eggs, and cheese - if you're thinking health conscious you can go for jackets rather than chips.

I love potatoes; I usually either eat them mashed or baked. I eat rice and bread too. Problem is I'm poor and I don't buy a ton of food.

[dar917]

Hah, I just remembered this thread. OK, on Friday I weighed myself, it said 128 lbs. I decided I just have to eat more calories and protein. My appetite is pretty good. I've been drinking 1% milk. I bought a box of South Beach Diet protein bars to eat at work (those are long gone though). I eat my baked eggs and sausage for breakfast.

My blood sugars have been pretty iffy the past week though, with everything else going on. Spent too much on eating out this week too.

I really need to go grocery shopping.