new here - using calorie count for maintaining/gaining. Anyone else?

Hi All,

My name is Jenna and my friend showed me this website. She is using it to lose weight but I have the opposite problem and thought it might be helpful to track what I'm eating to make sure I'm eating enough. Sounds crazy, I know.

I am in my late twenties and am breastfeeding my 8 month old baby girl. I am also very active, working at a stable 3 days a week for 2-3 hrs in addition to keeping up the house and baby. I am now about 5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight and am afraid my milk supply is dropping because of it. The site recommended that I need 2100 calories a day to maintain. The my pyramid gov site recommends 2400 calories a day for me which includes calories for breastfeeding. So I'm thinking 2400-2500 is about right for me. That seems like such a lot! I just started today to track what I'm eating on here, so hopefully I can get a good idea of how much I am actually eating and get some good ideas to boost caloric intake healthfully! I don't want to just eat junk to get to the target. It does seem like there is no way I will be hungry enough to eat so many calories, though! Today I have had breakfast, lunch and two snacks and am at 1500. How can I eat another 1000 with only dinner and maybe another snack?

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself and say Hi. I'm hoping there are some others on here who are trying to maintain and/or gain instead of just loose. I look forward to meeting everyone!

If you choose foods that are dense in calories, you can do it.  Add good fats to your diet - olive oil, canola & flaxseed oils, nuts like almonds and walnuts, peanut butter and avocados.  Eat good carbs from whole grains and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and peas. 

Avoid the pitfall of eating high calorie foods that are laden with saturated fats.

These are just a few tips.  If you browse the forums you'll find many other members who are here to gain or maintain weight.  Try the Maintenance forum for starters.

You'll make friends in no time!

I'm trying to gain as well but my doctor told me to try and build muscle.  I'm 34 years old and I weight 145lbs and I'm 5'7".  My doctor said I was crazy because I'm a good size and I'm healthy.  I had a baby 3 years ago and I went from 140 to 210 lbs.  After the delivery I dropped to like 185lbs.  It took me a year for the weight to shed without any exercise.  I got down to 160lbs and I was loving it but I didn't like the "kangoroo pouch".  So I decided to hit the gym last March but I lost like 15lbs.  My stomach is flat but now I'm skinny.  I want to gain atleast 8 lbs now.  This website is great.   Look for the post "New member trying to gain 33 pounds" under this forum.  There are some great post replies that should help you to gain.

Good Luck!!!

thanks to both of the replies so far. So far I have only tracked 2 full days of eating and that was over the weekend, when I tend to eat a bit more because I have more time to do so with hubby's help around the house. Anyways, one day I got about 2100 and the other about 2300. Those were days I felt like I was eating a lot and I still didn't get to the 2400-2500 I need. The good (sort of) thing was also that I was in a car accident on Friday night and so I wasn't burning nearly as many calories as I normally would on Saturday and Sunday since I didn't go out to the stables.

Anyways, thanks again for the support and ideas, and I did check out that other thread and got some good ideas too. I think I need to try the protein shake idea or the Ensure - I was drinking that stuff back when I worked at the barn full time. Guess it might be good to start drinking it or something similar again. I also do have a doctor appointment on Monday for a physical with blood work so we can see if there is any medical reason for me losing so much weight, too.

Hi!

I just found this site today, I had a baby 5 months ago and have lost about 2 pounds a week since then, which was fine at first but now I'm 108 pounds and 5'4" and would really like to be at least 120. 

I'm exclusively breastfeeding and aiming for 2500 calories a day, which is a lot...on top of it I can't eat any dairy, nuts, bread, cereal, soy, most vegetables and fruits because the baby gets horrible stomach aches...I'm trying to find high calorie stuff to eat but it hasn't worked so far.

It kind of sucks that there is NO weight gain advice anywhere, it can't be that uncommon...=/

// Lee