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Skinny Skinny Skin Skin Gain Some Weight
Fozwazerus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My mom is looking for a healthy weight gain supplement. She weighs about 85lbs and is 54 years old. She has always been extremely skinny and has been trying different weight gain methods for over 20 years. For many reasons they have not worked. I am positive that she does not maintain proper vitamin intake as well, a problem that could hopefully be tackled at the same time.
Her doctor tells her that there are some risks involved in post-menopausal women gaining weight, but he suggests that her current weight is already unhealthy and an even bigger risk. He has been telling her to gain weight for years. He sent her to a nutritionist years ago where she was prescribed Ensure shakes. She stopped drinking them due to taste & cost. A different nutritionist recently told her the same thing.
She also tried a powder years and years ago that was awful tasting. I know that protein powders have advanced in recent years in terms of taste and nutrition. Her doctor has recently convinced her to try again. Unfortunately doc has no recommendations beyond what she has already tried & the nutritionists are parrots.
Is there a healthy weight gain powder for an adult woman or is she destined to drink Ensure (or nothing)?
Her doctor tells her that there are some risks involved in post-menopausal women gaining weight, but he suggests that her current weight is already unhealthy and an even bigger risk. He has been telling her to gain weight for years. He sent her to a nutritionist years ago where she was prescribed Ensure shakes. She stopped drinking them due to taste & cost. A different nutritionist recently told her the same thing.
She also tried a powder years and years ago that was awful tasting. I know that protein powders have advanced in recent years in terms of taste and nutrition. Her doctor has recently convinced her to try again. Unfortunately doc has no recommendations beyond what she has already tried & the nutritionists are parrots.
Is there a healthy weight gain powder for an adult woman or is she destined to drink Ensure (or nothing)?
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To the people advising OP to just eat more - if she's that skinny, it's likel that she has some combination of a small stomach and fast metabolism. To eat herself to the point of being ill on fatty foods may be a favored past time for us video gamers, but I have to think it'd be even more unpleasant for her than drinking ensure shakes.
Asking at GNC is also probably a terrible idea. They are not doctors or dieticians. They are salesmen. Salesmen who's job is to sell you overpices supplements that you probably don't need and may or may not actually be any good for you. Some of the people there probably have some real interest in health and that sort of stuff, but as a general rule, I wouldn't expect quality dietary advice any more from them than I do computer and electronics advice from the people at Best Buy and Circuit City, in fact I expect less, because I'm pretty sure the GNC people are on commission.
Taking a proper look at your diet and trying to correct it with real food should always be the first step in fixing weigh issues and dietary needs. Supplements, as I said, are just to supplement an already good diet and I would argue are not needed probably 99% of the time. If she truly does feel that eating properly and paying attention to what is being eaten are not working then she should be talking to a doctor, not a salesman at a questionable supplements store.
People at GNC actually nutritionists? My experience with the place is that they staff it with kids. My experience is limited to only one store though.
I host a podcast about movies.
As to the shakes, how long has she actually tried taking them? When I'm working out seriously I do take a protein shake immediately after work outs. Any time I switch brands it tastes absolutely terrible to me for a week or two, but I adjust to it over time and am usually enjoying it by the time I'm done with whatever I bought and try to get the same brand again.
As to other shakes she might try, see if a walmart or whatever near you carries myoplex (not myoplex light). That shit is chock full of calories, has vitamins, quality carbs, protein, etc. I don't know if it tastes any better than ensure or not since I have never drank ensure.
Sorry if my first post was not terribly helpful. Whenever these diet questions come up, my first assumption is that the person is not actually reading the labels and paying attention to what they eat, because 99% of the time that is the case.
Right, but this isn't the main question.
Does she eat enough to begin with?
A doctor prescribed Ensure to my grandmother as well, but that's because she stopped eating as much as she should due to depression. In that case, eating was absolutely preferable, but since she wasn't going to do it the Ensure came in.
I know it sounds like we're harping here or being dense, but eating more if it's possible is absolutely the best solution, and doctors are often forced to work around habits that patients won't change.
What does she have against sweet tea and regular soda? And she's 54, if she starts drinking 5 diet sodas a day right now it probably won't hurt her a bit.
I host a podcast about movies.
Post the weekly menu and I can be more helpful.
Because regular soda is corporate poison that sucks the calcium out of your bones.
This is coming from someone who still drinks said poison.
Doesn't really work for some people. Case in point, my girlfriend, who has a very small stomach and high metabolism.
If she ate my quantities she'd hurl.
Weight gaining supplements will only work if she actually engages in enough serious weight training to gain muscle, and at her age she’ll need to hire a trainer to pull that off. If her doctors and dietitians suggest otherwise it’s because they’re still preaching outdated junk science and too lazy to crack a good book written in the last decade years.
Like others have suggested, she should switch from diet sodas to whole milk, or homemade milkshakes or smoothies. If she doesn't want to be drinking soda because it's 'bad' for her, then get to to drink juice. Tea should be milked and sugared... well, everything should be.
I don't really know her weekly diet. I live in CA and she lives in NY. When I live at home this would be a sample day:
Morning: 2x slice of toast + real butter + tea
Lunch: a donut or pie or cake piece
Dinner: Whatever I was eating in small proportion (chicken, chili, rice, whatever)
Snack: cup of icecream or see lunch
Wow I am having a hard time. I suppose I will just ask her to log her food for a week.
My girlfriend already eats small meals throughout the day. She gets in anywhere between 1100 to 1500 calories and I'd say she's at a pretty healthy weight (wouldn't want to go lower obviously), but according to the BMI, she is underweight.
Absolutely the best course of action. She might be eating enough, she might not. Either way, you'll at least have knocked out the obvious.
Make sure she's eating plenty of protien rich food. Go to a dietician, and ask them what she needs to be eating as well as the ensure, so that they don't just say "ensure". She has to eat other meals - what should those be.
Eggs! Eggs for breakfast is a good one, and is quick, easy, and goes well with toast.