The Mirror's Health , Lifestyle and Fashion
Are you too lean and want to gain weight ?
These people are either born slim and do not like it about themselves or have lost weight due to some prolonged illness of some sort or have just lost weight without knowing how that happened.
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Oftentimes, these requests come from people who are bearing normal weights for their height. This means that they have BMIs ranging between 18 and 25, mostly theirs lie near the lower end of this range.
If you find your weight within this normal range yet desire to gain some more, I usually will try to discourage you from aiming to gain. This I do because weight usually increases with age.
So what needs to be done is to allow some more time for more years to add on and you will see some more flesh and fat gathering around your bones.
It doesn’t help if you force some weight on now and then nature also gives you more some years later. You may end up wanting to lose weight at that point in time.
Those who are underweight are the ones who should gain weight. And the way to gain this weight is by eating healthy and not by doing the opposite of what weight losers are supposed to be doing.
Your dietician will calculate your energy and nutrient needs, convert them into food portions that will help build you or give you the weight. Gaining weight by eating the wrong foods can make you a victim of some diseases; so do the right thing.
When prolonged sickness, coupled with lack of appetite and interest in eating causes so much weight loss, proper nutrition therapy is required to rebuild the lost weight and provide a real chance to good health.
In cases like these, there is so much reliance on fluid diets. There has to be an assessment carried out by a dietician after which they will tailor-make recommendations that will meet the individual’s needs.
Calculations have to be made to determine adequate quantities of energy (calories), fats and oils, protein, vitamins, minerals and water.
Fruits and vegetables form an integral part of these kinds of weight gain therapies since vitamins and plant chemicals help the body to rebuild its lost strength. Protein becomes a very important nutrient in muscle building and rejuvenation in patients like these.
Often, the aged fall prey to these kinds of situations. People who suffer from effects of cancer and cancer treatments can also be within this category of weight losers that require rehabilitation.
Small frequent meals become the mode of eating for chronically ill patients who have lost weight. They usually cannot eat so much hard food at a go; and so making their meals soft or fluidised and feeding them in tiny bits, many times throughout the day, is the way to go.
For such chronically ill persons, there has to be some nursing care at home to ensure that feeding is done as expected and medications are administered well.
Family support is key in seeing such patients through to recovery. There is the need to have someone around who will socialise with the patient. Financial support is key and once ensured, proper care is guaranteed.
So you see, while some people desire to gain weight to achieve their beauty and aesthetic goals, others require weight gain as a means to recover from diseases. Whatever the reason, just get the weight back the right way.
Read more at www.letsabooks.com
The writer is a DIETICIAN at the Trust Hospital and AUTHOR of the following books;
1. Be your own dietician – Vol. 1
2. Eating to prevent and manage lifestyle diseases.
3. LIVE LONG by eating well – Vol. 1
Contact 0244090262 for copies. Also you can download my books from the Google Play Store.
