GAIN WEIGHT AS A VEGETARIAN

[Falcao]

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to know if you had any tips on how to gain weight. I'm on a vegetarian diet, I feel like im loosing a lot of weight, and as a skinny guy it is preventing is making me get second thoughts on the diet.

What or how should I eat to gain weight?

THANKS!~

[Paxiled]

Hey, there's a whole lot of variety out there you're missing!  My opinion is that raw kale and broccoli aren't easily digested, so if you insist on eating raw, as I said, get a juicer.  Carrots, on the other hand, are wonderful raw.  But I can't give you a rule of thumb, your digestive system is yours, not mine.  Learn by experimenting.  But, you know, you're going to get bored just eating that, so branch out!

[Falcao]

got you,

so, any rule of thumb on what should be eating raw and what not?  Im eating raw kale, brocolli and carros, beans and quinoa that makes pretty much my diet every day with fruits....what do you think I should add?

Thanks for your very knoledgeble insight.

[Paxiled]

Usually it's recommended to not eat a whole lot because of the fat content, and a little goes a long way nutritionally, but as you're trying to gain weight you can eat a lot.  Different nuts have different fat content, cashews and macadamias a whole lot and walnuts a lot less, for example.  And don't forget seeds -- sunflower, pumpkin -- hemp seeds are said to have a better protein profile than even soy.  But for the raw thing, I'm not in favor of that, just my opinion.  A lot of very healthy foods are not digestible raw and people are eating them that way.  Raw kale salad is very popular these days, for example, but kale has way too much complex fiber for humans to get much from it raw but gas.  Same with broccoli.  Also, carotenoids are much more potent in food that's cooked than in raw food, except in algae, so you can lose some antioxidants by not cooking colored vegetables.  If you really wat to get close to raw then you need to juice, which is light cooking from the heat of the juicer and the complex bits that aren't digested well without cooking are broken down.  Obviously, early humans, which are the presumed source of the notion of a raw diet, didn't have juicers, so this can't be called a natural diet, but we have juicers now so if that's how you want to go that's the best way to do it.  Just make sure you don't buy a juicer that produces a lot of heat, because then it isn't at all raw anymore.

[Falcao]

Thanks Paxiled for your response,

I'm trying to eat as heatlhy as possible, I want to go raw in all my food, anything processed, I jsut dont wanna eat junk food, I wanna gain weight and build muscles too, nuts would do the trick and how about eating a lot and very often?

[Paxiled]

Actually, vegetarian diets don't in and of themselves make you skinny -- if you eat a lot of simple carbs you'll get as fat as anyone else.  Meat diets don't make people fat, if you eat lean meat in reasonable portions you'll be thinner than most vegetarians.  It's how much and what you eat, not the ideology, that determines weight.  What I'd do is eat more protein, meaning legumes, nuts, seeds and whatever you eat (vegetarians eat a lot that's not vegetarian and still call themselves vegetarian, so I don't assume to know what you eat) and try taking up weight training if you don't already do it -- that will put on muscle, not fat.  If you don't care and just want to weigh more, eat more, and eat more simple carbs, such as sugary foods and white flours.  Junk food will do it if that's all you want is more weight.