Help my DH gain weight

[stephienoodle]

So, I've got the opposite problem from what the rest of you mamas are usually talking about... my husband needs to gain weight. He's 6 feet tall and only weighs 131 pounds. Part of it is likely that he has a mild case of cerebral palsy - his muscles are constantly moving, so he burns calories a lot faster than most folks. He also runs 10-15 miles a week. We're primarily concerned because he has little to no fat reserves - if he gets sick, he has nothing to keep him going.

So, DH had been around 137-138lbs, but since going gluten free for mental health reasons in the last couple of months, he's lost weight. He's not a snacker and has always had to force himself to eat past the point of fullness in order to keep weight on. He's a sweets lover, but has a yeast/bacterial imbalance thing happening right now, so he's trying to not eat so much sugar until that improves. He doesn't like salty foods. He also does very little cooking and doesn't like to ask me to make something special for him if he's hungry (even though I will) and would rather have something easy to grab from the fridge, freezer, or pantry.

What gluten-free, low-sugar, not salty traditional foods can I feed him to fatten him up a little? I've tried to get him to eat nuts, but he just doesn't really want to... so I'm needing some fresh ideas.

[rhiandmoi]

Homemade Larabars?

http://canaderican.blogspot.com/2009...you-think.html

Would that be too sweet for him?

[nerdymom]

What about making some granola bars with oats soaked in whole milk yoghurt, with almond butter or peanut butter, dried fruits, crispy seeds, or carob chips?

[nerdymom]

Originally Posted by rhiandmoi

Homemade Larabars?

http://canaderican.blogspot.com/2009...you-think.html

Would that be too sweet for him?

Lol, we xposted with similar ideas! I am intrigued by that recipe, thanks for sharing!

[tanyalynn]

A little roundabout, but low zinc sometimes causes lack of appetite, and can be involved in mental health issues, like my depression. Maybe worth investigating (there are zinc sulfate liquids that taste different based on whether you're deficient or not) and if it's an issue, then maybe his appetite would increase, plus it's helpful for digestion.

Um, is this too much honey?

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/...andy-bars.html

I like to keep large batches of meatballs and drumsticks on-hand for when we need fast food. I'm also just starting to make idlis (fermented lentil/rice biscuit/dumpling-type things), this is the recipe...

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...-ix-idlis.html

They're bread-like, which is a nice treat being gluten-free, and they're very portable. Slather with a nut butter and they're more substantial, if those are more palatable than straight nuts.

[deditus]

I agree with Tanya on the zinc.
I have been doing well weight-wise since adding an avocado a day to my diet. I make a pudding with an avocado, a banana, 1 spoonful of honey, enough coconut milk to blend (4oz or so) and 1 T. cocoa powder and it's yummy! I freeze a batch in popsicles for dd.
Also, I add 1 T fat to my veggies - whether it's a baked sweet potato with a T of coconut oil or a veg mix fried in lard or duck fat - it gets lots of fat.

[kjbrown92]

I've been gaining weight since making (and eating) a batch of popovers every morning. There's no sugar in them (sorghum flour, tapioca starch, eggs, sea salt, olive oil).

Smoothies made with fruit, carrot juice, yogurt and/or coconut milk. You can stick avocado in that too.

I made arroz con pollo last night and put avocado on that.

GORP (good old raisins and peanuts)? I can eat that by the handfuls. When I have salad, I make my own balsamic viniagrette and then add pine nuts (good fat) for a little crunch.

Does he eat things like bacon, sausage? We fry in bacon grease a lot (we're dairy free; you could do butter obviously).

It souds like you're married to my brother (though he won't admit he has a problem with gluten).

What kind of meats do you eat? Do you eat the fattier fish, etc?

[prescottchels]

Subbing...
I have mal-absorption issues in my small intestine so I can eat ANYTHING and not gain weight, such a mixed blessing...
I'm GF too. Gotta run to work. I'll be back.

[StrongBeliever]

I've got the same deal going on with my hubby, as far as the tall and slender goes. Tad over six foot, and stays in the same weight range as your DH. Two year ago when we were eating vegan(ack!!!) he got down to 124 pounds. It was awful. He has always been slender, but that was too much for me. We switched over to TF (which is something similar to how I grew up) around two years ago. He put on weight pretty quickly. This last summer was the best... He got up to around 145, which seemed very meaty and good to me. He felt a lot better too I think, put on tons of muscle. These last few months we've been eating WAY less meat for financial reasons, and he promptly whittled back down to 135ish. I can stuff him with all fats imaginable and oodles of high quality grains prepared well, but he just doesn't keep the weight on unless he is eating three meals of meat in a day. Strangely, when he does eat a meat heavy meal late in the day, he gets outrageous night sweats. I don't know is that is healthy or not. Anyway... We don't struggle with it too much, because it seems just to be the way he is made, the thinness. When our financial situation gets better I am going to go less grains for sure... They make me over-fluffy and DH over-twiggy.

Eggs were one of my husbands big weight savers... Maybe deviled eggs, or plain hard boiled eggs? Quiche is pretty good out of the fridge, if you could make them ahead. You say he doesn't like salty, but maybe you could find a good quality , low sodium canned fish... Quick and usually tasty, like sardines or something. Make your own beef jerky?

Definitely check into what a PP said earlier about zinc. It comes to play into a lot of issues. In the past had a boyfriend with no libido, no sense of smell, and a very limited palate(which seemed crazy to me) due to taste issues... All of this from a zinc deficiency. All things improved, to a degree, rather quickly when he started supplementing.

[stephienoodle]

Thanks for the suggestions!

We eat a LOT of meat. I never use lean cuts and don't even drain ground beef when I use it. He'll rarely eat bacon but will eat sausage, so I feed it to him fairly regularly. I also feed him a fair amount of eggs, but I had totally forgotten how much he loves deviled eggs. Once I make it to the farm this week and get some more eggs and ground beef, I'll make some of the deviled eggs and some meatballs to keep around. I think I'll also ask him if he's interested in guacamole on eggs when he eats them. If I did them breakfast burrito style, I could sneak extra fat in with the avocado. Beef jerky is on the radar to get made, but mostly for me. He's not overly interested in it.

In the past, I haven't had too much success in getting him to eat things like granola bars and he usually balks at nut butter sandwich type things. I'm not sure why... he just generally is resistant to homemade breads (even before he went gluten-free) and steers more towards the sweeter baked goods. I'll probably try some of those larabar type things though and send him to work with him. I also tried something similar to the mounds candy bar things a while ago... he doesn't enjoy the taste of coconut oil as a base for candy or in a smoothie. He *does* like pina colada flavors though, so maybe I just need to somehow use coconut oil with pineapple for smoothies?

Zinc-wise, I *think* he's ok because his hair test was fairly high in zinc. He does fail the beet test though, so maybe we need to deal with that more. I'm hoping that if he can stick with gluten-free for a while he might start putting weight on because he's absorbing food better... but he keeps being tempted by sweets that people bring in at work and sneaking gluten in.

Kathy, what is funny about your brother comment is that his sister *is* named Kathy... and he doesn't want to admit that he has issues with gluten but gave in a couple of weeks ago and said, "I hate it when you're right." That was as he was flipping out and really moody the morning after he had breadsticks with lunch when he went out to eat with coworkers the day before.

Ok, so here is my "Project Chubby Hubby" to do list:

1. Deviled eggs
2. Meatballs in the freezer
3. Figure out pina colada style smoothie with coconut oil
4. Sausage patties precooked in the freezer
5. Mexican style eggs so I can add much cheese and avocado
6. Homemade Larabars

[Juvysen]

HEY! Other people with husbands shaped like mine! Dh is 6-ft and at his heaviest I think is 135? And that's been recently. He's a huge snacker, but no sweet tooth. Total Carbaholic. Anyway...

[Juvysen]

p.s. what's the beet test?

[prescottchels]

If you guys are doing dairy, what about:
Whole milk yogurt
cheese sticks
cottage cheese-full fat-personally I can't stand the stuff, mostly cuz of texture, but I discovered that if I throw it into the blender til it's smooth I can totally do it. I mixed in some agave syrup and lime juice and it tasted like lime yogurt Maybe you could mix in coconut oil, crushed pineapple and some sweetener-honey or agave-sounds delish to me!
Ricotta cheese is also pretty high in protein and I love putting cocoa powder, rice milk-just enough so the blender can go, and agave syrup in it, again in the blender and it's like chocolate pudding w/o all the preservatives and crap-drool
You said earlier he doesn't like salty snacks... I love nuts, but don't buy them roasted and salted at the store cuz their tooooo salty, so I roast my own that I buy in bulk, raw or roasted, but not salted. I use cast iron, heat it up w/some olive oil, pour nuts in, enough to cover the bottom, spritz w/more olive oil, sprinkle w/lemon or lime juice and sprinkle w/sea salt,as much or as little as ya want. I start the pan on high til things are sizzling then turn it down to low/med-low til the nuts are browning, stir lots. If you try one straight outa the pan it'll be soft, but as they cool they crisp again. When they're completely cool put them in small tupperwares or zippies. Perfect for on the go snacks. I always have a bag w/me. I usually do this w/almonds or macadamia nuts, but you could do it w/anything really even sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. I'm not a fan of plain mac nuts, but I love them roasted like this. You can experiment w/different spices too. Garlic, curry, cinnamon/sugar, whatever your fave flavors are.
Cheers,
Chelsie

[JMJ]

Great ideas. You can also try putting fat on his veggies. I put cod liver oil on mine and DD's to get us our Vitamin D.

[StrongBeliever]

So what's with all these string-beany men? *haha*

Just had a thought... If he is one of those kinds that is a sucker for sweet baked goods, maybe you can do some fake-out type baked things that will help him cope, but that are also loaded with fat and protein. Think flour-less chocolate cake, flour-less peanut butter cookies and such. I bet you could find a gluten free flour and fake out some cream puffs, as they get all their structure from the egg. The pudding in the middle could be rife with egg yolks and butter. The puffs themselves are EASY as have no sugar in them. Of course, this would all be dependent on finding a low-glycemic sweetener. I've had pretty good luck with xylitol in stuff like pudding and hot chocolate, but never tried it in a cookie(where sugar is part of the structure). I don't really know tons about that kind of thing, just use non-refined sweeteners myself. Maybe someone else can jump in with some sweetener suggestions. I just know how HARD it is to go cold turkey on the things you love, the comfort foods and what-not. If he could have a few back-up treats so it's not all sacrifice for health, ykwim?

Allrecipes.com has recipes for the flour-less chocolate cake and flour-less peanut butter cookies, if you think that might be something that would work for you guys.

[Brown Lioness]

Thanks for this thread, but instead of my husband having the problem, IM the one thas underweight (5'7", 120lbs).

I REALLY would like to gain 10 to 15 lbs, healthfully, and stay there! lol

*scribbles notes*

[prescottchels]

StrongBeliever-I use Xylitol a lot, I've subbed it for sugar in just about everything-cookies, brownies, bread, muffins... The only thing you have to watch out for is that it can give some people the runs. I made GF brownies that all my non-GF friends love, and used all xylitol for the sugar, 1 cup, I think it was not good for one gal in particular.... So now when I know this one friend will be eating what I make I either use fructose or do something like 1/2 fructose, 1/2 xylitol or something. I also use agave syrup-very low glycemic index, maybe the lowest for sweeteners, or honey instead of sugar too.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by stephienoodle

Zinc-wise, I *think* he's ok because his hair test was fairly high in zinc. He does fail the beet test though, so maybe we need to deal with that more.

Fairly high like middle range/normal-ish, or fairly high like at the upper end? That's one of the minerals that can show up at either extreme, high or low, and mean low, and if symptoms fit, I'd get one of those mineral taste test kits. I saw a zinc only one at, I think it was vitacost, it's a specific strength of zinc sulfate and it was clear by the label what it was for, or you can get a multi-mineral one, JaneS likes the one here...

http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1118978