How Can I Gain Weight?

I've being trying to gain weight for most of my life and have been unsuccessful. I have always been underweight and I'm finally gonna try another way of gaining. I've started to take whey protein and would like to know whether this will help me gain weight because when I read about whey protein it's used to lose weight. so basically I would like to know whether it will help me gain weight?
Jeff

Dear Jeff,
The only way to gain weight is to eat more calories than you burn. I'm not sure how old you are when you say you've been trying to gain weight most of your life. Usually once people get into their late 20's they don't have that problem anymore: I don't believe it's as much an effect of physiology as it is lifestyle--when we're young we are often very active and even 'forget' to eat sometimes.
Whey protein does nothing magical to promote weight gain--it may contribute extra calories to your intake. Beware of consuming too much protein (more than a gram per pound of body weight) which could be stressful on your kidneys (which have to remove the unused nitrogen from your body--you can only use so much protein in a day!)

I have always recommended Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink as a supplement. You mix a package of powder with a glass of milk and--presto--nearly 250 calories added to your diet (depending on whether you use whole milk or low-fat). Do this twice a day and gain a pound a week.

How Can I Lower My Triglyceride Level?

I am a 43 yr old woman who recently had a blood test and my cholesterol is fine but my Triglycerides are 316. My doctor wanted to put me on medication but I would rather try to lower this number naturally. I am 5ft 6inches tall and weigh 220. I have lost 40 lbs in the past year and am continuing towards my goal of 145lbs. I am doing this by watching what I eat and exercising. I am obviously doing something wrong as my Triglyceride count is too high. What controls Triglycerides levels? How many carbs am I allowed to eat each day? I thought 200 carbs was ok but searching online it seems it should be 130 grams. Also the fat allowance is fairly wide as well. I am very confused and want to adjust my diet to improve my count but am not sure what to do. Terry

I'm glad you are trying to control your triglyceride level with your diet. Congratulations on losing 40 pounds in the past year! That is a great rate of loss and I'm nearly positive if you do that again this year your triglyceride level will be much lower!

First, be sure you are completely fasting when you get your triglyceride level drawn--it is extremely sensitive to anything you've had to eat or drink over the past 12 hours.

Triglycerides are the form in which fat travels in your blood before being stored. (It's also the way your body fat is stored, but these stored compounds are not reflected in your blood test). Shortly after a person eats more carbs than they need, the body converts the digested sugars to fat (in the form of triglycerides) for storage to use later for calories. So triglycerides are largely affected by your carbohydrate intake. Moreso by sugary carbs and by alcohol; and even by fruit juice (so limit this to just 4 oz a day at the most).

I think 200 grams of complex carbs a day is a great target for you! 130 is a minimum number of carbs for a healthy diet, so that may explain where you've seen that number. In a balanced diet, nearly 50% of your calories should be from carbs, so if you are eating a 1600 calorie diet for weight loss (which would be very sensible) then 800 of those calories should be from carbs, and that is 200 grams! perfect :)

Exercise should help as well, as it will mobilize the triglycerides to be burned as fat energy instead of storing it! Good luck keeping up the great work!!

How much weight can you lose, safely?

Dear Tony,

That depends so much on the individual: your height, weight, age, current diet, and whether or not you are on a supervised program (like the pre-packaged meals, where you can lose 5 or 6 pounds a week, or "the biggest loser" where you can apparently lose 10 or 12!).. But the canned answer is, about 2 pounds a week for men who are overweight.

The slower it comes off, the more likely it is to stay off!

And the way to lose fat is to eat 500 fewer calories per day for each pound you want to lose (and/or exercise to burn off 500 calories each day for a week, which takes nearly an hour a day). For most people it would be hard to exercise for longer than that, or to cut more than that out of your diet and still be eating a healthy diet.

I'm trying to lose weight, but I feel like I can't eat any less!

There seem to be lots of diet articles out there about "just cut this one thing out of your diet (soda, egg yolks, butter on your popcorn, etc)" but what advice do you have for diet pros who've (for example) gone through weight watchers and the like and have already integrated low fat/low cal subsitutions for everything they can think of? You know, where they've streamlined their diets so much that it seems like there's nothing left to substitute, yet no more weight is coming off. Kind of like the person who's trying to save money, but they already make coffee at home and use bagged lunches, yet the "most useful" advice they're finding is "Don't buy coffee at starbucks! And stop getting take-out!"

One of my WW friends and I were talking about this last night, how we feel like we've gotten to the point of no wiggle room because we've substituted everything we can think of and already think a 1pt brownine and a 0 point pickle is a good snack.
Rebecca S.

Well, Rebecca, speaking from personal experience, I think for those of us who are always watching our diet and eating everything low fat and low cal . . . we sneak treats in because we deserve it because we've been so careful watching our diets!

I know this was the case with me ...I was sooo careful, but the weight just kept going up, and then I realized I was rationalizing those high calorie foods: "I can have a donut since this is a special meeting (unusual circumstance) and I never eat donuts"; "I can have this pizza since it's a social event and not normally something I would do at home"; "I can drive through the fast food restaurant window for a burger and fries since I'm in a hurry and I heardly ever do this," etc., etc, on vacations and at parties, and just because I felt like I hadn't had a candy bar in forever! I "once-in-a-while"d myself up 20 pounds in less than a year!

How do you get it to stop? Write down everything you eat... you'll realize when you are allowing yourself these little treats and see how often you've been eating more points! Keeping a food diary works to help people lose weight almost 100% of the time, so give it a shot for 10 days and see what happens :)

Don't forget the other side of the balance equation either: exercise. We also fool ourselves into thinking we get plenty of exercise walking up and down the office hallways or the very large parking lots to get from our car to buildings where we work or shop. Try clipping on a pedometer and count the number of steps you take in an average day. The recommended goal is 10,000 steps a day. If yours is much lower, try adding another 1000 (about 1/2 mile) every few days.

Does Money Motivate People to Lose Weight?

I think having contests over a long period of time (12 weeks, for instance) can be very helpful and motivating for people who are trying to lose weight. If they give it time they can lose weight in a healthy way and feel a sense of accomplishment. Working in groups like this helps even more, with members of the group motivating each other.

Money, alone, is certainly not enough to motivate most people. I was involved in a work-related contest to lose weight one spring. About 60 staff members signed up. After the first three weeks I think about 10 people were still trying to lose weight. As with any weight loss program, people are very motivated in the beginning. After time they lose their resolve, unless they have a commitment to continuing the work and the changes they have to make.

Often, though, diet betting is done over a short period of time and simply for the purpose of 'winning a bet'. Not to generalize, but from what I've seen this type of diet bet is more often played by men as opposed to women. Maybe in part it's because men actually can lose weight so much more quickly because of their body physiology.

"I can lose 10 pounds in a week" they challenge a friend. And they do: by starvation, exercising in over-heated environments to lose water weight (which, of course is extremely dangerous), and sometimes using laxatives or other cathartics to rid their body of anything that translates to "weight"... this can be absolutely life-threatening. But the bet is about winning--not about healthy or permanent weight loss.

Finding a way to motivate people to lose weight is an ongoing effort. If adding money to the pot helps, then it can be an effective aid to the process. But making a bet to lose weight and doing anything to get the weight off to win--that's just plain dangerous and downright stupid.

Newly Diagnosed with High Blood Pressure.

What can I do to lower my blood pressure without having to go on medication? I already eat healthy, exercise, and do not smoke. Larry B.

Dear Larry,

First of all, kudos to you for living a healthy lifestyle! Not smoking is a great step in preventing a whole host of chronic diseases so that is a big deal in itself. Eating healthy and exercising means even more bonus points for you!

Even when we think we're eating healthy, foods can affect different systems in our body differently--what's healthy for one condition may not be so for another. So here's what I know has been shown to help lower blood pressure in a significant portion of the population.

1) Lowering sodium intake: Even if you never salt your food there is a tremendous amount of sodium in canned foods (soups, stews, sauces), processed foods, smoked foods, luncheon meats and fast foods. Take a look at food labels from packaged foods you eat: If you eat at chain restaurants you can get the information on nutrition easily (either at the restaurant or on line). An average to aim for is 700 milligrams of sodium per meal, for a daily intake of 2000 milligrams. Many people find after a cursory search of their usual food products they are usually eating 5,000 or 6,000 milligrams a day! Be sure to look at the serving size when you check the sodium content on a label, too: many canned foods you eat at one sitting are considered two servings by the manufacturer.

2) Increasing your intake of calcium and potassium has been shown to help lower blood pressure. I have no idea what amounts of these minerals you are currently consuming. The guidelines for three servings of dairy products daily should help you get in close to the recommended 1000-1200 milligrams of calcium daily. Potassium is easily found in many fresh fruits and vegetables. Guidelines for fruit and veggie intake range from 5 per day (total) to 12 per day---so chances are you could raise your servings in this group, even if you're already eating a healthy number on the smaller end of the scale.

3) I know of one man who was diagnosed with high blood pressure after eating black licorice. There is something in pure licorice root (so it would not be found in cherry candy licorice, for instance) that raises blood pressure. He backed off the licorice and did not have high blood pressure again for years. Are you taking any supplements? Herbs? some of these have side effects we haven't thought of, or may not know of. Cold medications or other over-the-counter products could be contributing to raising your blood pressure.

Be sure to ask your doctor for his input on specific amounts of sodium, calcium, or potassium you should be taking in daily, as these can vary greatly based on other conditions you have that I am not aware of!

How Much Fat Do I Need In My Diet?

Believe it or not, fat is essential for good nutrition. There are components in some fats known as essential fatty acids. They are essential to our good health. At times people have tried to follow extremely low fat diets in attempts to lose weight, and suffered deficiency symptoms such as scaly, dried skin and thinning, falling hair. Fat is necessary in our body to keep our temperature controlled, pad our organs from shock, and serve as a back-up for times we may require extra calories. Unfortunately, most Americans get far too much of it in our diets and this can contribute to obesity and other problems. So what's the right amount and how can we get enough without getting too much?

The amount of fat you really need per day is quite low--only about 10 or 20 grams. Recommended guidelines for dietary fat restrict total fat to 30% or less of your daily calories. If you follow an 1800 calorie diet, for example, this means no more than 600 calories should be from fat. There are 9 calories per gram of fat, so dividing 600 (calories) by 9 (calories/gram), we find the suggested dietary fat content to be about 66 grams per day. Saturated fat should compose less than 10% of the calories, or in this case, 20 grams.

It's not difficult to keep the fat in your diet under 30% if you eat a diet composed largely of grains, fruits, vegetables, lowfat dairy products, and lean meats and fish. Keeping the fat intake low becomes very difficult if you include high fat meats (like hot dogs, bacon, sausage, or bologna); if you eat fried foods (donuts, fried chicken, french fries, onion rings); if you indulge in desserts (such as pies, cakes, most cookies, chocolate bars, regular ice cream or milkshakes); or if you add fat to your food (in the form of salad dressing, butter or margarine, mayonnaise, sour cream, etc). To keep the fat in your diet to a reasonable level, consider reducing the high fat foods you eat listed above (high fat meats, desserts, fried foods, and spreads). A reasonable serving of meat is 3-4 ounces, about the size of a deck of cards. And we really can get enough fat in our diet without frying foods or adding mounds of butter and other sauces.

People who are in danger of not getting adequate amount of fat usually have very restrictive diets. They look for ways to reduce their fat intake by buying "low fat" varieties of any food they can; they avoid even healthy fats such as nuts, olive oil, and avocados; they never add oil or spreads to any food. Often they are trying to lose weight; sometimes they believe they are eating healthy by limiting their diet severely to just a few types of fruits, vegetables and grains; occasionally they are suffering from an eating disorder such as anorexia.

Fats are essential in our diets and in our bodies. Cases are rare, but do exist, when people suffer essential fatty acid deficiency. But most often, too much fat is consumed in the American diet. To keep your fat at a reasonable level, the following steps will help:

1) Take a good look at the foods you're eating and pay attention to the fat content on the food labels (how many grams there are in a serving--not what the front of the label advertises as "30% less fat"--that doesn't tell you what you need to know).

2) Avoid eating fatty and fried foods if you are eating heart-healthy or trying to lower your weight or your blood cholesterol.

3) Don't strive for a fat-free diet with zero animal products, no added oils, and all 'low fat' varieties of packaged foods. We do need fat in our diet; just remember we rarely need more than 10 or 20 grams.

4) Aim for less than 30% of your calories from fat and you'll be getting just the right balance for your best health.