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I struggle to gain weight (always have), and fasting sounds incredibly easy to me - all you have to do is not do something. On the other hand, eating to gain we

I struggle to gain weight (always have), and fasting sounds incredibly easy to me - all you have to do is not do something. On the other hand, eating to gain weight if you have no/little appetite is hard work - you actually have to take the time to do it. Is there a relatively easy way to boost one's appetite? Drinking a gallon of full fat milk a day on top of one's usual meals is the easiest option I have found, but even that is a lot of hard work.

RobertRoberts 7y ago
I read a book years ago on fasting, and the author discussed people who couldn't gain weight sometimes had issues with their intestines, that after fasting recovered from. And then were able to gain weight more easily. I got the impression it was not just one day of fasting though.
vonmoltke 7y ago
> Drinking a gallon of full fat milk a day on top of one's usual meals is the easiest option I have found That's actually part of Mark Rippetoe's bulking diet. It's apparently the best combination of calorie density and beneficial nutrients. There's a section on diet on Starting Strength, if you are interested.
- dondawest 7y ago
  Never thought I’d see the day when Dr. Fraud Rippetoe gets recommended on HN. That guy is overweight and out of shape and his lifting advice injures 99%+ of people who take it. Tread lightly when following the incredibly stupid teachings of Mark Rippetoe, man.
magashna 7y ago
rather than full fat milk go deeper into the crevasse, melted ice cream
noir_lord 7y ago
I'm struggling like hell to eat enough to keep weight on at the moment, I've stomach issues though so that's the root cause. I've had to resort to body builders weight gainer which is mostly sugar, protein and dairy as I seem to be able to tolerate that OK.
matwood 7y ago
When I wanted to gain weight from lifting I had to set alarms on when to eat. I was never hungry. The gallon of milk each day is a good one. I kept peanut butter at my desk and would eat it whenever my alarm went off. I would eat an early dinner, and then eat again right before bed. It is work if you're not used to eating that much.
JabavuAdams 7y ago
Wow, that's almost incomprehensibly different from my own experience. I do like two push ups and notice myself bulking up. But it's so hard to not eat when I'm bored/have cravings. There's a whole suite of self-delusional and deceptive behaviour around eating, for me.
zadkey 7y ago
Yes, milk and cheeses are appetite enhancers. So is cumin. Believe it or not, for me, low appetite is often goes hand in hand with not getting enough salt. I have found that I can fix low appetite by getting more salt. I don't know the exact mechanism, but I suspect the Chloride part of Sodium Chloride contributes to the Chloride part of Hydrochloric acid in my stomach.
lhl 7y ago
To increase appetite you’ll want to increase your hunger hormones (ghrelin in particular), and minimize your satiety hormones (leptin, cck, peptide yy etc). Sugar has the least satiety of any of the macros (protein has the highest satiety) so if you’re looking to simply pack in calories, sugar sweetened beverages are good (I saw an interesting study that discovered that carbonation increases ghrelin response, so most soda will give you a twofer). Something like a donut (sugar and fat in combination has been shown to be particularly obesogenic) and you can get some of the hyperpalatability effect. Kevin Hall recently published a study showing ultra-processed food increased ad libitum food intake by about 500 calories per day: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248-7.pdf https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248... Also eating/snacking throughout the day will keep insulin high and increase hunger signals and driver fat storage in your body as a result. Of course, this basically sums up the Standard American Diet and explains why most people have the problem of putting too much weight on. Also, as a caveat to all these “interventions,” while they are effective for weight gain, they are almost all also generally terrible for your metabolic health, and will drive MetS, diabetes, CVD, cancer, etc (basically the things killing everyone eating the SAD).
gambiting 7y ago
Yeah, recently due to an illness I lost all of my appetite. Initially, it was actually quote amusing - I went from being casually hungry and snacking every now and then to just.....not needing food. Like, I could have a piece of toast and then not eat anything for the rest of the day and I would feel absolutely fine. After few weeks though I lost a lot of weight and it went from being amusing to being a major pain in the ass, because actually forcing yourself to eat when you're not hungry is extremely difficult. It's not that I have any physical difficulty with eating, it's just that I would have a couple bites and I feel my body telling me "you're full, you don't need more", and I know that's a lie and I have to eat to actually get better. I'm a lot better than when it first started, but yeah, the first two-three weeks were just amusing with how little food we can actually consume and how little effect it had on my daily life.

RobertRoberts 7y ago

I read a book years ago on fasting, and the author discussed people who couldn't gain weight sometimes had issues with their intestines, that after fasting recovered from. And then were able to gain weight more easily. I got the impression it was not just one day of fasting though.

vonmoltke 7y ago

> Drinking a gallon of full fat milk a day on top of one's usual meals is the easiest option I have found That's actually part of Mark Rippetoe's bulking diet. It's apparently the best combination of calorie density and beneficial nutrients. There's a section on diet on Starting Strength, if you are interested.

dondawest 7y ago
Never thought I’d see the day when Dr. Fraud Rippetoe gets recommended on HN. That guy is overweight and out of shape and his lifting advice injures 99%+ of people who take it. Tread lightly when following the incredibly stupid teachings of Mark Rippetoe, man.

magashna 7y ago

rather than full fat milk go deeper into the crevasse, melted ice cream

noir_lord 7y ago

I'm struggling like hell to eat enough to keep weight on at the moment, I've stomach issues though so that's the root cause. I've had to resort to body builders weight gainer which is mostly sugar, protein and dairy as I seem to be able to tolerate that OK.

matwood 7y ago

When I wanted to gain weight from lifting I had to set alarms on when to eat. I was never hungry. The gallon of milk each day is a good one. I kept peanut butter at my desk and would eat it whenever my alarm went off. I would eat an early dinner, and then eat again right before bed. It is work if you're not used to eating that much.

JabavuAdams 7y ago

Wow, that's almost incomprehensibly different from my own experience. I do like two push ups and notice myself bulking up. But it's so hard to not eat when I'm bored/have cravings. There's a whole suite of self-delusional and deceptive behaviour around eating, for me.

zadkey 7y ago

Yes, milk and cheeses are appetite enhancers. So is cumin. Believe it or not, for me, low appetite is often goes hand in hand with not getting enough salt. I have found that I can fix low appetite by getting more salt. I don't know the exact mechanism, but I suspect the Chloride part of Sodium Chloride contributes to the Chloride part of Hydrochloric acid in my stomach.

lhl 7y ago

To increase appetite you’ll want to increase your hunger hormones (ghrelin in particular), and minimize your satiety hormones (leptin, cck, peptide yy etc). Sugar has the least satiety of any of the macros (protein has the highest satiety) so if you’re looking to simply pack in calories, sugar sweetened beverages are good (I saw an interesting study that discovered that carbonation increases ghrelin response, so most soda will give you a twofer). Something like a donut (sugar and fat in combination has been shown to be particularly obesogenic) and you can get some of the hyperpalatability effect. Kevin Hall recently published a study showing ultra-processed food increased ad libitum food intake by about 500 calories per day: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248-7.pdf https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248... Also eating/snacking throughout the day will keep insulin high and increase hunger signals and driver fat storage in your body as a result. Of course, this basically sums up the Standard American Diet and explains why most people have the problem of putting too much weight on. Also, as a caveat to all these “interventions,” while they are effective for weight gain, they are almost all also generally terrible for your metabolic health, and will drive MetS, diabetes, CVD, cancer, etc (basically the things killing everyone eating the SAD).

gambiting 7y ago

Yeah, recently due to an illness I lost all of my appetite. Initially, it was actually quote amusing - I went from being casually hungry and snacking every now and then to just.....not needing food. Like, I could have a piece of toast and then not eat anything for the rest of the day and I would feel absolutely fine. After few weeks though I lost a lot of weight and it went from being amusing to being a major pain in the ass, because actually forcing yourself to eat when you're not hungry is extremely difficult. It's not that I have any physical difficulty with eating, it's just that I would have a couple bites and I feel my body telling me "you're full, you don't need more", and I know that's a lie and I have to eat to actually get better. I'm a lot better than when it first started, but yeah, the first two-three weeks were just amusing with how little food we can actually consume and how little effect it had on my daily life.