What if you want to gain weight instead?

#1

Hi guys, first post here. I have gone keto a few weeks ago and I keep talking about it! so now a friend of mine just asked me what he should mainly eat, should he go keto, given that his goal is to gain weight as opposed to losing it, and I thought of asking here.

He’s been trying to gain weight for a while and I see him eat absurd amounts of food really, but then he visits the bathroom and he comes out like nothing had happened. I hate him ha ha!

I don’t even know if he should go keto. At first I told him he should just eat a lot of fats, but if his goal is to raise the weight setpoint, should he do a sort of anti-keto where he does all he can to raise the insulin levels? he doesn’t care to go to the gym and work out, he likes biking and more than that he wouldn’t care to do. He did a 10 days fast a few months ago and at the moment he lost weight rapidly, it kind of scared me actually, but in the following months his weight has actually gone above usual, so in a sense it worked. But he’s also eaten a lot lately, he keeps pushing himself to eat and eat, and would be very happy not to have to do that.

So what would you suggest him to do, that’s also healthy of course? no “supersize me” solutions.

(Aimee Moisa) #2

My husband is having trouble keeping weight on with keto, after a month on keto he dropped about 25 pounds and keeps going down, he started at 175!!! I keep telling him to eat more avocado & bacon. But there’s only so much avocado and bacon a person can eat, amiright?

(Firing squad, waitwait! I was kidding about the avocado and bacon!!! I swear! It was just a joke!)

(Jo) #3

Theoretically he would have to create macros that would have a good amount of both protein and fat, while keeping the carbs at a moderately low level. The advantage of adding pure fat in the form of oil/butter to everything he eats would up the calories without creating the bulk. so it doesn’t seem like he has to eat tons of food. Maybe a couple of bulletproof coffees a day? Olive oil on everything, drench the veggies in butter? Adding in really fatty cuts of meat would ensure he gets enough protein while also upping the fat.

But having said that, of course, everybody is n=1. so he’d have to experiment on what exactly works for his body type.

(Jane) #4

I can’t help thinking of the lady who drank double cream (5000 cal/day) for like a week and stil lost weight.

Maybe he could get into ketosis on higher carbs since he obviously burns through them instead of storing as fat - say 50? He would have to test to see where his limit is.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #5

Has he tried using the ketogains calculator, build muscle or maintain mode?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Two questions: (1) Is your friend metabolically healthy? (2) How does his body handle carbohydrate?

One reminder: keto is not a weight-loss diet, but a weight-normalization diet.

If your friend has, or is developing, metabolic disease, then keto will restore his metabolic health. If his body needs to gain muscle, he is likely to gain it as a side effect. Same if his body needs to gain fat, come to think of it.

On the other hand, if he is metabolically healthy and able to handle carbohydrate without ill effect, then let him eat carbohydrate.

(Robert C) #7

Keto can be hard on the social life so it might be a good idea to see if it is actually going to help at all first. But, not first for the weight gain. First for the health by checking for disease conditions and blood numbers. Your description could be of a person that has malabsorption issues (can’t get nutrients from food). It could also be that their pancreas is not producing enough insulin - which might be good to know before going keto (i.e. keto could be worse for this kind of person). Skinny people that live on doughnuts aren’t going to be motivated to go to (or stick with) keto for fun but they might be motivated if that have a full workup of their blood telling them they’ll lose their eyesight or a foot soon.

If, on the other hand, no disease conditions exist and blood all looks good - it might be foolish to play with dramatic changes. For example, if this person has a stress-free life and keto causes feelings of restriction (food, social) or stress through orthorexia (obsession with healthy eating) - they might be worse off.

#8

Thank you for the replies. Well he is very healthy and fit. He would do it for the mental clarity and the abundance of energy, and to see if his weight would normalize (like someone said) when the body is not any more disturbed by the carbs. I agree with those who suggested inquiring if he produces enough insulin, before taking any steps. I will suggest him to take a dr. Kraft’s simplified test (a fasting insulin test where instead of fasting he ingests 75g of glucose 2h before the test - like described in a podcast of the dudes).
Thanks again!