I don’t know where to post this, so I’m posting it here.
I need to gain some weight because I’m borderline anorexic. But I can’t afford much more than bread, potatoes, eggs and cheese, That is my diet. And I hate eating it. It’s the only thing I can stomach that is cheap, but I hate it. I don’t want to eat eggs and potatoes for the rest of my life. I would rather die of malnutrition, like I am currently doing.
I have no appetite, but that is a symptom of something else. Ideally, there is a way to gain weight while eating less mass. Something calorie dense.
I might be slightly exaggerating. But for the last couple of years I’ve been eating potatoes and eggs for almost every single meal of the day. And yes, I eat one warm meal a day. Sometimes I suppliment with some bread to stop the hunger pains. Sometimes I also eat a piece of vegetable.
Hi, I recommend beans (soak them overnight) and rice. Also, I would look into buying oats. They are a very good source of calories and are healthy for you. Put them in a blender and soak in water for 15 minutes, add sugar and blend. This can be a supplemental meal in itself.
Fry potatoes, boil potatoes, bake potatoes… They will taste very differently. Use seasoning. Don’t be shy on salt/pepper/whatever your culture uses. Eggs can be very different too besides fried or boiled: soak bread with egg and fry it. Very tasty. Add some flour or whatever you have in the fridge to make an omelette. Not a fan of cheese, but I am sure there are many ways to use it too.
Seasoning is the key - i was in a similar situation to op, I figured out how to make breakfast sandwiches that I love out of ingredients that are palatable to me. I use rotisserie chicken, spinach, eggs, and previously ovened cubed potatoes, broccoli or whatever veggies I could afford and bought that week. I’d used salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder on the ovened veggies and put them in the fridge, buy bulk eggs for cheap, buy bulk croissants, but any carb will do or just skip it and make an omelet.
I toast the bread in the pan. Cheap pan spray, throw in hand shredded chicken pieces, cold veggies, eggs on top of that, and here’s what made the difference for me - then sprinkle Tony’s Cajun on that while it cooks, flip, top with bulk cheese of choice, sprinkle nutritional yeast on top for gut health, bam, now it’s delicious thanks to those added flavors. I actually now love having my same meal every morning and the leftovers a few hours later for lunch. I vary my dinners, but breakfast and lunch are always the same aside from varying veggies in the mix.
Sandwitches and fried bread requires chewing. My teeth are coming loose (probably because of the malnutrition). It’s a bit hard/painful to bite and chew things.
Chicken is expensive. So is cheese. I can afford up to two to three slices a day when rationing for the whole month.
But spinach and broccoli do sound nice. I’ll buy some next month, when I can afford anything aside from the very basics. And eating those will help me gain weight?
Based on your diet you might have scurvy
Her some vitamin c in you! Better yet: take a complete multivitamin daily.
Based on your responses here I think you will object that they are too expensive. But they’re cheaper than the dental care you will need for the rest of your life without meeting your nutritional needs.
I get vitamin C. Oh wait, the energy drink I supplement with has every vitamin under the sun EXCEPT vitamin C. Thanks. I shall raid the medicine cabinet in search of those precious yellow tablets.
And do not worry. Dental care is free.
If dental care is free, go see a dentist asap and tell them about your issues.
If medical care is free or cheap I highly recommend you see a doctor as well, to tell them about your issues around food and eating, both emotional and physical.
They can prescribe high calorie, high nutrition drinks to supplement and support your diet. And a lactose neutraliser if you’re intolerant and the drinks contain milk. And possibly an appetite stimulator to make eating seem more appetising.
Wouldn’t a multivitamin be cheaper than an energy drink?
No, drop the energy drink completely. What are you thinking, that’s your problem right there. It’s expensive, and probably accounts for half your food spending. It’s also fucking terrible health wise especially if you aren’t eating much of anything else. There is not such thing as “supplementing” with an energy drink.
Things that are cheap and good imo: rice, lentils, bulk nuts, canned beans, tuna tin cans and veggies in general. Porridge sucks but it’s easy to make and cheap. If you want to avoid energy use while cooking, look into cooking in a thermos, stuff like couscous, porridge or middle soups.
Hunt specials and change where you buy thing if needed. If you don’t like veggies, boil and blend. Ration of like 1/3 potato, 2/3 veggie, stock, plus some onion and garlic.
Get the oil, it’s basically where people get half their calories.
What’s your budget anyways (food total, include the money spent on fast food and energy drinks).
A medium potato has 30% of daily vitamin c but you need to eat the skin. So scrub potatoees and leave skin on when cooking. It will also be better to bake or fry. Even if making mashed potatoes, you can bake them and then mash with skins on. They’re better this way imo.
Oil is expensive. So is electricity. Boiling is cheapest.
And I’m looking to gain weight, not make my food less miserable.
On a calories per dollar-ratio, oil is probably at least one quarter of the price of potatoes.
The difference in electricity costs is not going to be significant in the context since you’ll make back the money on the calories you ingest from the oil instead of more potatoes.
Cooking potatoes in oil is also very significantly less miserable than eating boiled potatoes, and this is coming from someone that actually likes boiled potatoes quite a bit
You need 50g of oil to roast a kilo of potatoes, and you can buy 4L jugs of it.
Okay, and how do I gain weight from that?
It makes the potato have more calories because it has oil in it.
Same amount of chewing and swallowing. More calories. It’s what you want!
Oil is very calorie dense
So why not just do a shot of rapeseed oil and be done with it? Why even involve the potato?
Am I going too far? Maybe. Will that stop me from trying? No.
did that some time ago, it’s not particularly nice tastewise, but you can just chug one or two shots a day - that’s about 700kcal if you do 40ml per “serving” the YouTuber “DougDoug” did something similar for his diet. if you buy the cheapest oil (here it’s sunflower I think) you’ll get extremely many calories per unit of Money. in Germany that’s about 3000 kcal per 1€
You absolutely can, if that’s what works for you. Nutritionally, there’s no difference between eating oil with a meal or separately. Lots of people take olive oil shots or mix butter in coffee or whatever and that’s OK. That approach can be particularly good if it’s helpful to think about it more like a supplement than a meal.
People may recommend against that in favor of working it into a meal you won’t hate eating, and there’s some merit to that for some people. But if eating is going to suck either way, just start by doing the thing that gets you calories. Work toward getting a mix of protein, fat, and carbohydrates (with potatoes + oil + eggs you have all 3) and fiber too. (potatoes have a bit) The rest can come later.
This page has a table of cheapest cost-per-calorie foods alongside some other general recommendations that may or may not be helpful. Notable items from that table are flour, bread, sugar, pasta, rice, olive oil, ramen, peanut butter, pinto beans, and lentils.
Ultimately though any food you’ll eat is always better than any food you won’t. A calorie is a calorie pretty much no matter what form it takes. You got this!
Oil is calories. Oil helps you gain weight. Same for butter, margarine and lard. If you can find a good price on any fat, buy it and use it.
Gaining weight requires consuming more calories than you use . If you hate everything you cook you will not eat enough. Simple as.
I don’t hate everything I cook, I hate eating. It’s a chore. I have no appetite. I need a way to cram more calories into me without needing to do so much chewing and swallowing.
Then you need to make your food more calorie dense. The only way to gain weight is to consume more than you use. There is no other way.
Been on the no chewing journey, how are you with meal replacement shakes? The bulk powders come in lots of flavours and cand be very cheap per meal. It’s usually got dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals, and will healthify you far faster.
For potatoes, you need the skin included to keep nutritional value, which can be hard with no chew but doable.
You’re essentially thinking newborn diet, you need calorofic nutition that’s easy to eat even when you don’t want to.
You got this, it’ll get easier.
My meal smoothie is basically banana, white beans, spinachs, frozen fruits, lemon flavored yogurt and soy milk. I’d also add hemp hearts (expensive but super dense), nuts and a few other things. Also vanilla and almond extract for taste.
Thick blended soups are also an option. You can just drink them.
Butter on potatoes if that’s an option too.
Since you mentioned that you hate cooking and have no interest in making it tasty but want efficient more calories: Pint of ice cream. Let it melt, drink it. 1000 calories per pint. Most of them useless, but if your goal is weight gain…
Otherwise, protein heavy diet (beans, rice, vegetables) plus a workout routine to actually build up muscles and not just fat
Lactose. I will shit my guts out if I do that. Also, ice cream is expensive. Would love to bulk up on it, but it would kill me. First with diarrhea, then with a heart attack once I see how much I paid for that ice cream.
And I need SOME fat. I am literally a skeleton. Going to the gym WILL kill me in this state. Not even exercising, just GOING there.
OK, here is the thing. If you are for real, get help. Real one, not internet strangers. Malnutrition will fuck you up long-term. Find out any program that can help you get real food. Get help.
In would also recommend to find a job to give you structure. Not some gig economy scam, something real. Wash dishes, help your community, anything that gives you structure and something to do. You don’t need to get rich, you need a foundation you can build on, because if you are for real, there is some serious ground work missing.
I do not believe any of it.
That is fine. You don’t have to. But it is my life, and the fact that someone finds it unbelievable is kind of funny. In a tragic way.
Some people born into privilege simply cannot empathize.
Why not other cheap foods like beans, vegetable oils, sugar? Sugar isn’t that healthy but it’s probably better than being borderline anorexic. There are even more possibilities if you add flour, which is cheaper than bread. Cake, pancake. Fried potatoes. Potato gratin or noodle gratin.
I can’t afford a bottle of coke. It’s as expensive as two loaves of bread. Two and a half loaves if I buy the cheapest bread. In my country sugar has a tax on it. Making products with sugar even more expensive.
Beans oil and sugar don’t sound great. I already eat oil when I fry the egg. And beans usually make my stomach hurt.
For weeks I’ve been fantasizing about eating a donut. But I ain’t paying an equivalant of more than a dollar for a single donut. Back in the day I’d buy 4 of them for the same price.
In my country sugar has a tax on it. Making products with sugar even more expensive.
Are you from Slovakia? We have a 5% tax on basic food, while 23% on sugary food.
To be honest, I have no idea what the percentage is. I live in Poland, and they have some weird system where how much sugar a food has changes the tax. And they are planning to raise that tax by 900% (nine hundred percent) in the next year, so… I should invest in suger, I guess. It’ll be the next Bitcoin in a year.
And beans usually make my stomach hurt.
If beans are making your stomach hurt you probably aren’t cooking them right. If you’re getting them from a can you have to rinse them very well to wash off all the garbage that they pack them with, but after that they’re good to eat right away.
The best and cheapest option is to buy them dry. About 1/2 cup of dried beans is equivalent to one 16 oz can. You have to either soak them overnight or quick soak them (boil for 5 minutes with some salt, then let sit for 1 hour), rinse, then cook for at least an hour, until they are soft.
You might also be having problems because you don’t have enough fiber in your regular diet, so the extra fiber might be a shock to your system. After about a month of consistently eating more fiber you shouldn’t experience that any longer.
They give me gas. And that is painful. Like, can’t fall asleep painful.
That’s probably because youre not used to the fiber. If you eat a small amount every day or every other day your body should adapt to it, then you can eat more and more of it without pain.
You can start by adding just a tablespoon or less of hydrated beans to your omelette.
Doesn’t the Polish sugar tax only apply to beverages? I’m talking about buying raw ingredients and making cake or pancake with it, if you can afford eggs and cheese I can’t quite believe that you can’t afford the flour, sugar and fat/oil for a cake.
Does it? Everything that contains sugar got more expensive once the tax went into law.
Also. I never said I “can’t afford” these things. Just that they are expensive. I said I can’t afford a bottle of coke. Because the price will put my family in generational debt. Although my budget is about 12 cents when adjusting for currency. So I guess, yes, I can’t afford them. I am being fed and housed by family. I don’t get to be picky, I either eat what is given or not at all. And often I prefer to not eat.
That’s what the information says that I could find in a quick internet search, and it’s consistent with how the sugar tax works in other European countries like UK or Germany.
Is that 12 cent budget per meal or per month? Are the potatoes and eggs included in that budget or are those provided on top?
You convinced me. I will try this. Ever tried it with boiled mashed potatoes instead of potato slices? I have access to a lot of leftover mashed potatoes.
spoiler
No way I’m letting that snake eat all the potatoes for himself.
If I were to try with mashed potatoes I would make small balls with the mashed potatoes and then try not to stir it to not mix too much the eggs with the potatoes.
No, but the potatoes can be cut however you want, the slices are only to make them faster to cook.
Mashed is technically sliced. In pieces so small they form a homogeneous mass. It shall be attempted. I’ll update y’all on how it went.
Fat goes a long way in both seasoning and adding calories. Any kind of vegetable oil, butter, lard, whiever is cheap where you live. Get the pan hot with the oil, turn the heat down and add the potato and let it brown. The browning, also known as the Maillard effect, adds a lot of flavor
With oils, it is extra virgin olive oil or bust imo.
Olive oil has substances equivalent to ibuprofen in it, along with plenty of other even better things.
There is a problem in this industry where most oils unless they have a harvest date are like playing the lottery with what you are actually consuming so you should absolutely make sure to get on with it even though it might look more expensive it is by far the most calorie dense and well rounded thing you can consume and you only need to consume it in quantities of a shot glass or less a day so even a medium sized bottle will last you months.
Make sure to store it away from sunlight, this breaks down all of the more useful substances in it.
cheese and joghurt is a good source of protein. try to eat a lot of protein and do muscle work out to not only gain fat mass but lean mass aswell. because if youre ana it might be that your body already “consumed” a lot of your muscle mass to retain enegery.
PS: coming from a former ana
I try my best with protein. Eggs, cheese, sometimes dairy or meat. Even an odd protein bar every once in a while. But I have noticed no difference.
Actually, I chipped my tooth on one of the protein bars, so I guess there IS a difference now, if you really look for it.
Add more sugar to everything for cheap calories that will generally trigger more hunger. Also liquids are a good way to add calories without triggering fullness as much.
I do want to feel full. It’s just such a chore to eat enough to be satiated. And then I get hungry again and have to eat again. It’s so annoying. So, less liquids, and watch the sugar. Got it.
If you want to gain weight though drinking a ton of calories could help.
Depends on how much you eat. If you have some idea of what your “ideal” calorie consumption per day is, your goal is to eat more than that. Bread is easier than potatoes because it’s more calorie-dense, i.e. you don’t have to eat as much of it.
You don’t really have to “cook” as in dirtying a lot of pans to make potatoes and bread more appealing.
- Nuke a potato and add salt and butter, and maybe a sprinkle of garlic and onion powder. Only takes a few seconds more than a plain potato.
- Get a big jar of jam and have butter and jam on your bread. Minimal effort, way more enjoyable.
- Low-effort grilled cheese sandwich: Put a slice of cheese between 2 pieces of toast, nuke 10 seconds, boom.
At risk of going off-topic, exercise?
I don’t mean run marathons, but just stuff at home. Knee push ups, sit ups, squats, standing on your toes, sitting in a chair to lift your leg with your biceps; whatever you can manage until you are little winded.
You will gain some weight, keep more of the calories you ingest, and eating will feel better too.
I’d recommend some beans too. I like blacks beans bowls with rice, and both are cheap.
Have you heard of ARFID? A close family member, as well as my close friend’s autistic child have this disorder. Low appetite and the visceral reactions to various food items are common with this disorder
Interesting. That would explain why I shiver and want to vomit from the mere smell of fish. And I actually do vomit when I eat meat and the texture isn’t uniform. That’s why I am no longer capable of consuming sausage or canned meats. The texture literally makes me throw it back up.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Now I’ll have more things to bother my doctor about. 🙃
I’m reading more of your comments in your thread, and I really hope your doctor can help you out. Treatment for this can range from having a feeding port installed to therapy. My family member needed both a port and therapy, but is thriving now.
I also do really understand the texture thing, I have both AuDHD and a sensory processing disorder. If I’m severely stressed about anything, I end up living off safe soft food for a few weeks until my stressor has resolved. Because some textures feel less like food that will nourish me, and more like random objects that might cause me health issues if I try to digest them. That rubbery canned meat texture, especially if it’s accompanied by a layer of fat at the top of the can… 🤢 Yeah I totally understand that :/
Yeah you kinda need to add some things.
Bake potato, keep skin or not comrade. Put in fridge over night. Fry in butter the next day. Put in bowel, add in mayonnaise, bacon if you have it or doctors sausage, egg, pepper, a drop of vinegar or hot sauce if you like. Mix it up. Put on bread and enjoy. Bonus, fry bread in olive oil.
Make a small salad. Simple, cucumber, raw onion, tomato, vinegar or mirin (or a mix of vodka and vinegar and sugar). To stimulate appetite.
But yeah jokes aside you just need MSG.
Put in bowel, add in mayonnaise
Uh. Not the way I would gain weight, but to each their own.
I prefer Miracle Whip in my bowels as well.
Potatoes are very versatile. You should cook the potatoes with skin intact as that’s where most of the micronutrients are at. Roasted smashed potatoes are fantastic with skins intact. I made a potato cabbage gratin dauphinois the other day with all plant based ingredients and it was superb. You can also shred them to make a breakfast hash. You can boil them and make mashed potatoes. You can mix in a bit a flour and make gnocchi. There are so many great options with potatoes. If you have access to a Costco or similar bulk store, buy them from there, it’s usually much cheaper to grab a 10lb bag from a bulk store than a smaller bag from somewhere else, assuming you can go through it all. Maybe you have some friends you can split the purchases with to further save money?
Have you considered dried beans, they are very cheap and shelf stable. You soak them over night, rinse, then boil for an hour. Alternatively you could quick soak by boiling for 5 minutes, then letting them rest for an hour, then rinsing, and cooking for about an hour.
Rice is cheaper than bread, will do a better job of managing hunger pains, and help you gain weight more so than plan white bread.
Have you considered a food bank to bolster your nutrition?
I’m surprised you’re eating eggs and cheese with how expensive they are. I would recommend replacing with nuts as they are much healthier and they have a higher caloric density, if that’s possible for you.
