How to gain weight

I wasn't diagnosed until about a month ago (Lyme, Babs, Bart), but judging by my symptoms, my doctors agree that I have probably had this illness for over a year - probably 2 or more. I am a 5'10" male. Last year around this time I was around 185 pounds. Now I am down to about 125 and I seem to still be losing about a pound or so a week. I have to follow the Lyme diet (no gluten, no sugar, no dairy). I'm eating as much as I can but I fill up extremely fast. Plus, my LLMD wants me to eat with every pill I take (3 abx and a few supplements). This is forcing me to eat small meals very frequently all day. What sorts of food will help me gain weight? I am so sick of this diet already - my appetite was horrible before I started it and it's even worse now that I hate most of the things I can eat.

By the way, my whole life up until the past couple years I was someone who struggled with being OVERweight. I have NEVER been underweight.

Drinking your calories is a good way to sneak them in, even when you don't feel great.

Try coconut milk smoothies with a little fruit.

Eat avocados with a little GF soy sauce on it, or mash them & add salsa to make guacamole.

Eat lots of eggs, in every form.

Coconut milk plus salsa over a roast done in the crockpot makes a tasty and nutritious meal with leftovers.

Nut butters on apples or celery or added to a smoothie.

At the health food store you can get plant based protein powder and make a nice shake out of it.
I make lettuce wraps with chicken, avocado, shredded carrots and zucchini. I put peanut sauce on it. I have no idea if they make that GF.

Try Siggi's yogurt. They did a piece on Good Morning America this week on yogurts and Siggi's had half the sugar of other yogurt.

I'm intolerant to all nuts except for pecans and walnuts. I order pecan butter and walnut butter and mix them together since pecans are very oily and walnuts are very dry. You can order through Amazon but it's not prime or order direct from Fastachi.

You can also have spaghetti squash which really does taste like spaghetti. Than add any sauce and meat you like. You can also have rice pasta and Japanese buckwheat soba noodles. Buckwheat is not wheat it is actually a fruit seed related to rhubarb

I have lost exactly one third of my body weight. Was 132 lbs, now 88. Yes I am worried, scared silly, don't know what to do. Do not go near the scales anymore, do not like what I see. Even the passenger seat airbag turns off when I get in the car. I eat all the good advocadoes,coconut oils, high protein smoothies etc, all to no avail. Just wonder how much more the body can take......

I eat lots of red meat, but most of it's venison. If you can find an affordable red meat w/o hormones or antibiotics, I'd say go for it. I think the saturated fats are good.

For quilty, I'd add a lot more carbs to your diet if you can. Can you eat brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, or mung bean pasta? If you're wanting to pack on a bit of healthy weight, add your healthy fats to one of these good carbs and some veggies & you might feel amazing!

I am on a triple abx protocol (tetracycline, rifampin, tindamax), so I think I am on a pretty good protocol. My herxing has been very mild - so mild I'm not even sure they're herxes. Just feels like worse pain days. My good days I feel almost normal. Maybe I feel so "good" because of how strictly I am following the diet.

Either way, I think the "good" days can be worse for my mental state; they make me feel like it is all in my head. Agh!

I think I will cheat a little bit more than I have been to get my protein and caloric intake up.

I'm just going to be real honest with you i didn't read any responses above mine (lyme brain bad today) but I wanted to respond because I've been there. I tried all kinds of protein shakes and the only one that helped me gain weight (Prior to lyme I was 118 then I lost so much weight down to 99 lbs and I'm now back to 112) is called Orgain. My LLMD referred me to it and I thought okay organic blah blah but honestly they helped me gain weight and it's healthy weight! You can buy them on Amazon, Vitamin Shoppe or Earthfare! I also wanted to mention I"m on gluten free, sugar free, dairy free as well and they have helped me maintain even though I hate being as skinny as I am now..at least I'm not at 99 lbs anymore. Good luck

Guys,

you can just eat meat or just eat fat - all food is bad in excess. I think there can be good cause to cut out certain foods if we have intolerances to them or they are bad for our personal constitutions (I.e. Of you are hypothyroid, cutting back in goitrogenic foods is appropriate, or if you are celiac/have leaky gut cutting out gluten helps). But sick people NEED calories. They give us energy for cellular energy production.

Your metabolism is so important in recovery. If it is slow, you do not make good use of fuel you get from food and that fuel is very important for making your body processes run. This in turn impedes your thyroid, makes you colder, which lowers your enzymatic count, which makes metabolism even worse.

This fear of sugar is doing a lot of harm to a lot of people. I used to be so scared of "feeding the bugs" that I would cry if I had one too many carrots!! I was so tiny. I tried autoimmune paleo, ketogenic, fasting, FODMAPS, GAPS and many more diets.

Then I started having a tablespoon of Manuka honey every morning. I justified it because it was morning - so the sugar would be absorbed quickly since I had been fasting all night. I also took it away from food and water so that it was not diluted and thus absorbed in my upper GI tract away from the small intestines where bacteria reside. Anyways, after being so low carb it felt really good. I added more and more tablespoons of Manuka throughout the day and eventually added back carbs. Potatoes, fruits, even sugar. I am still gluten free, and I try not to eat much soy or industrial oils. But I find that for me, macronutrient- and micronutrient- dense foods must include proteins fats and carbs to boost my metabolism which in turn gives me the ENERGY to fight infection. I didn't want to rely on antibiotics while I was physically too weak to ever get off them.

If you are afraid of eating sugar, I recommend trying tablespoons of honey away from food. This adds calories, has the added benefit of methygloxyl (a hydrogen peroxide forming anyimicrobial) and taste!

Yes, thank you gingeranne. I have lost weight, muscle, and mass, and struggle like everything to keep it on because of the destruction from the infections. I currently use Plant Fusion protein powder, and this seems very similar to Orgain. But, I will try the Orgain and see how I like it. It's a little cheaper than Plant Fusion anyhow.

gingeranne, I don't normally hang out here in (this) forum, but I have learned a lot from many here. I just wanted to ask you if you have ever been tested for brucellosis? Because the symptom list you have sure sounds like that. Brucellosis is normally very devastating and, if you have it, I'm glad you are still able to work.

Thanks again for the suggestion of Orgain.

And, Teejay, I hope some of these suggestions work for you! I know all too well what it is like to keep losing.