Meal plans

Hi everyone, was just wondering what your meals plans were and your calorie intake when you began recovery for anorexia.

Any MP's posted would be greatly appreciated!

:)

I highly suggest you check this place out...

Weight Gainers: What did you eat today?

Here's an example of one of the meal plans I was on, one of the times I was inpatient.  This is from John's Hopkins (in baltimore, MD).  It's based on the diabetic exchange system.  I can't find my highest meal plan that I was on there (4750), but this is the 3500 calorie meal plan (with no movement/activity):

Breakfast:  2 meat, 3 bread, 3 fruit, 4 fat, 1 whole milk

Lunch:  5 meat, 3 fat, 3 fruit, 2 veg, 1 Ensure Plus

Dinner:  5 meat, 3 fat, 3 fruit, 2 veg, 1 Ensure Plus

Here's an example of that meal plan:

Breakfast:  2 servings scrambled eggs (2 meats), 2 small-medium-ish muffins (2 breads, 2 fats) with 2 butters (2 fats), 1 sugar cereal [i.e. honey nut cheerios] (1 bread, 1 fruit), 1 cup whole milk, 8 oz juice (2 fruits)

Lunch:  sandwich:  2 slices bread (2 breads) with 5 oz meat (5 meats) and 1 Tb mayo (1 fat) with 4 tomato slices (1 veg)   1 oz chips (1 bread, 1 fat) and 1/2 cup cooked veggie (1 veg) with 1 tsp butter (1 fat) and 1/2 cup applesauce (1 fruit) and 8 oz juice (2 fruits) and 1 Ensure Plus

Dinner:  5 oz cooked chicken (5 meats) and 1 cup rice (2 breads) and 2 chocolate chip cookies (1 bread, 1 fruit, 1 fat) and 1 cup cooked veggie (2 veg) and 2 tsp butter (2 fats) and 8 oz juice (2 fruits) and 1 Ensure Plus

This was personally one of my least favorite meal plans, because each meal was so huge.   It killed my stomach, especially once I got to 4750 calories.  

Thanks guys :)

About 2500 calories (minimum to gain)

6 proteins

1 serving =

• 1 oz cooked meat/poultry/fish
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup cooked beans
• 2 oz. tofu
• 1 veggie burger
• 1 oz. cooked tempeh
• 1 Tbsp. seeds or nuts

3 dairy proteins

1 serving =

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 1/2 oz. hard cheese
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 2 oz. processed cheese
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese

8 starches

1 serving =

• 1/2 cup cooked rice or pasta or couscous
• 1/2 cup cooked cereal
• 1 cup unsweetened cereal or 1/2 cup sweetened cereal
• 1 slice bread
• 1 small muffin
• 1/2 english muffin
• 1 small tortilla
• 1/2 pits bread
• 1/2 cup corn or peas or mashed potato
• 1/2 medium baked potato
• 1/4 cup granola
• 1 pancake, waffle, or slice of french toast
• 1/2 cup croutons

6 fats

1 serving =

• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp margarine or butter
• 1 tsp mayo
• 1 Tbsp cream cheese
• 1 Tbsp salad dressing
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 8 olives
• 1 Tbsp nuts
• 1 Tbsp nut butter
• 1/8 avocado

2-3 vegetables

1 serving =

• 1 cup cooked veggies
• 1 cup raw veggies
• 2 cups lettuce
• 1 1/2 cups garden salad
• 1 cup veggie juice

3 fruits

1 serving =

• 1 whole fruit
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup grapes
• 1 cup canned fruit
• 1 cup fresh melon or 1 wedge
• 1 cup fruit juice
• 1/4 cup dried fruit

My nutritionist really stressed just to eat whatever I felt like eating, as long as I had enough calories. This was hard at first since I freaked out about eating too much (I don't know if you have this worry), so I ended up eating a lot of nuts, dried fruit, and crackers (I'm vegetarian).

Honestly, though, from my experiences it is amazingly difficult to gain weight. That may sound strange living in a society where about 33% of Americans are overweight, but if you try to gain healthy weight, it is harder than it sounds.

As a starting point, it takes about an extra 500 calories a day to gain 1 lb/week, but keep in mind that at the moment your metabolism is probably slowed. Once you start eating more, it will probably sky rocket like mine did, taking even more calories.

If you are looking for a meal plan, though I suggest you take a look at this:http://www.snac.ucla.edu/pages/Resources/Hand outs/HOWtGain.pdf

The pdf has great ideas to increase calories without increasing the amount of food, which was great at the beginning. Some of the ideas are not the healthiest, but you should know that it really doesn't matter right now. If you are as low in weight as I was, then the main priority is just to get some muscle back (also, if you are worried about fat, know that hormones such as estrogen are stored in fat, and foods high in fat don't necessarily turn to fat--they are just condensed energy).

Here's a link from an eating disorder recovery forum (for parents) about meal plans:

http://www.aroundthedinnertable.org/post?id=7 81626

This is a good site as well, with meal plans going up to 3,000 (which could easily be tweaked to be higher, if necessary).  It also has lots of good nutrition advice:

http://campushealth.unc.edu/index.php?option= com_content&task=view&id=257&Item id=78

I really hate "food group" meal plans. I think that as long as you're getting a balance of foods and are getting in enough calories and nutrients you're good to go. Planning by servings and groups makes things much harder when you're trying out new recipes and things. I just plan my days out by calorie limits...

I have been on many different forms of meal plans. Exchanges and calorie counting. I do both now as I am like a human calculator from all the years of this but I am trying to also be more flexible by eating foods without its calories listed like at restaurants and to use the exchanges. I think for myself when needing to gain it is impossible to go with intuitive eating. You often have to push past the full feeling to have enough and also since ones body is messed up hunger cues are off. I like a meal plan with 3 meals and 2 snacks. I know many like 3 and 3. Swimfan I am assuming there was a lack of staff and why 3 meals ip. That is what has happened in some of my ip stays. Most though do at least 3 and 2 snacks. Everyones needs are different though I agree it seems 2500-3000 for weight gain is the at least amount.

When I was inpatient in hospital my meal plan was constantly increased.

It ended up looking something like this (I also had Ensure Plus supplements on top of this):

Breakfast: 1 serving cereal, 150ml FF milk, Fruit, 1 boiled egg, 2 WW toast, 10g margarine, 1 fruit popper

Ensure

Morning Tea: FF yoghurt, 6 large crackers, 10g margarine, vegemite (in Aus)

Lunch: 2 sandwiches on WW bread (either egg or cheese, margarine), Apple, Dairy Dessert (usually gluten free ice cream), Fruit Popper

Ensure

Afternoon tea: 9 small crackers, 40g tasty cheese, margarine, Apple

Dinner: 2 serves Veg, 1 carb (potato, noodles, rice), main course (Veg Lasagne, Omelette, Pasta etc.) 2 WW bread, Margarine, Fruit, Fruit Popper

Ensure

Supper: Fruit Popper, Fruit Salad

ALOT of food. I struggled. I am not following this now, I really should be but I'm finding it all so hard since im not IP and not being pushed, as much as I know I need too. Sigh. I wish I had some strength.

I hope I have somewhat helped.

well, when I first started it was 900 calories but that was just temporary because of refeeding sydrome etc.

it was first upped to like 2200 which looked like this

breakfast: 2 slices toast, butter, jam

snack: 2 biscuits

lunch: sandwich, orange juice, yogurt/ice cream/etc

snack: 2 biscuits

dinner: small meal, small pudding, orange juice

snack: 200ml milk, 2 biscuits

then 3000 by adding cereal at breakfast and doubling the size of the dinner/pudding

now I'm on a 2000 calorie plan which is actually written out specifying exactly what I have to eat but I work it out by exchanges cause I don't like some of the components (eg I have yogurt instead of milk with my cereal, and random snacks instead of biscuits) I have an exchange list if that helps you? let me know and I can tell you some UK equivalent stuff.

Hey,

I have a really really really long story about my struggle with "anorexia." It involves social workers and child services, a private school that "kicked me out" without a legitimate reason (and I had a full 4-year merit scholarship there...), an abusive eating disorder clinic, medical malpractice, a 4-week hospital stay where I was not allowed to contact my family, and a doctor who refused to allow me a second-opinion.

Bottom line is I never had an eating disorder. Truthfully. The lowest weight I was ever at was 108 lb. at 5'4, which is probably too thin but not deadly. My heart rate is currently 42 beats/minute and drops into the low 30s when I sleep, but that is totally normal for me. Infact, Im in excellent shape.

Sorry, I know you probably dont care about my history... you just want to know my meal plan:)  Im just really angry right now at the hospital and eating disorder clinic and boarding school that screwed my life up so badly. (My family is suing them big-time, and I've got to go to trial in Washington in 3 weeks!)

ANYWAYS

When I was in the hospital, the nutritionist started me on a 2000 calorie meal plan. This wasn't nearly enough for me and I told her I was still hungry. (I have a huge appetite.) She s-l-o-w-l-y increased it, to prevent "refeeding syndrome." By the end of my 4- week stay, my meal plan was pushing 7500 calories/day. No joke. And I was gaining somewhere between 2-4 pounds a week. (I don't think my body needed to gain any weight... so the doctors were having a hard time getting the weight on me... They refused to release me from the hospital, or let me move, until I was at a certain weight though... but I dont need to get into that.)

My 7500 calorie meal plan was PAINFUL. I could barely sleep at night and my stomach hurt pretty badly. I felt stuffed to the brim. And I didn't even get to choose what I wanted to eat! Here's an example of one day:

5:00 AM Snack- Whole Chocolate Milk, Peanut Butter Crackers (400)

8:00 Breakfast- Ham and Cheese Omelet, Lucky Charms, 2% milk, Banana, 2x apple juice, toast, butter (1000)

10:00 Snack- Ensure Plus, 2x teddy grahams (550)

12:00 Lunch- Double "Mystery Meat" sandwich, 2x american cheese, 4x oreos, 2% milk, 2x apple juice, Hershey's Chocolate Bar (1050)

2:30 Snack- Ensure Plus, 4x granola bars(2 nature valley packs) (700)

5:00 Dinner- 4x chicken fingers, stuffing, corn, broccoli, 2% milk, graham crackers, orange juice, Peanut Butter crackers (1050)

7:00 Snack- Ensure Plus, Clif Bar, 2x peanut butter (850)

9:00 Snack- Ensure Plus, 2x strawberry ice cream, whole chocolate milk (850)

10:00 "Treat" (AKA Just shoot me now)- Large Mcflurry from the McDonalds in the hospital cafe, McDonalds apple pie (1050)

Total: 7500

oh my god beanaparker thats really terrible!!  I feel so bad for you and my stomach even hurts just thinking about eating all that. Jeezus!

Wowee and I thought 5,000 a day in IP was bad. sheesh.

I started off upping to around 800-1000. Increased up to 2400 from there. So on and so forth.

I eventually gave myself a kick in the ass because I was gaining super-slowly at 2600 (1/2lb every 2-3 weeks?) And upped it to 3600-3800.

Meal plan at that point was basically as follows:

Breakfast: 1100-1200

Snack: 500-550

Lunch: 630-700

Snack:  350

Dinner: 630

Snack: 370

Thanks for the sympathy, guys. It was pretty god-darn awful...

Beana... That's so disturbing. Why the hell did they do this to you?! I can't believe they'd force you onto such a meal plan at a BMI of 18.5. All of my love and sympathy to you hon and best of luck with the trial.

Thanks ninafish:) cute name btw...

Yeah, it was a nightmare. They thought I was about to die because my heart rate was pretty low (low 40s while awake..). Turns out, that heart rate is normal for me! The eating disorder "specialists" refused to let me see a cardiologists because they insisted "cardiologists dont know anything about this condition."

Not only did they treat me like a prisoner for a good 2-3 months, they completely sabotaged my freshman year of highschool. I had to leave the private boarding school I was at, and come home to enroll in public school. In 3 weeks, I had to make up all the work for my heavy class load (3 honors classes), and take midterms. Luckily I made it through, and am actually heading off to a different, (even better), boarding school next year.

wow beanaparker, I really feel for you! I hope those B*&%&s get what they deserve!!

beanaparker - they should try eating all that.... see how THEY feel !

anyway this is what my current meal plan looks like...

complan supplement = 250 calories

breakfast (+ complan supplement) 

450 cal

snack

150 cal

snack

150 cal

lunch (+ complan supplement)

400 cal

snack

200 cal

dinner (+ complan suppplement)

350 cal

after dinner: complan supplement

total = 2700 calories.

i seem to be gaining on 1/2 lbs a week, which is working well for me. :)

when you were eating this much food a day how long was it for and did you gain much weight from it ?

So brave thats alot of food