Want to gain weight

I had lost quite a bit of weight at the time I was diagnosed, and I wasn't a large person before that. Since then I've been exercising more, and eating carefully to maintain control, and have not been able to put any weight back on. I'm not under-weight, but would feel better about my self image if I could pack back on 15-20 lbs. Any suggestions on foods or supplements to try that will help with weight gain without causing control problems?

One food you might consider is heavy whipping cream (HWC). I'm on a lower carb diet and need to lose a few more pounds. HWC is high in fat, calorie dense, but has no glucose raising carbohydrates. I often consume about 2 ounces of HWC with 85-100 grams of blueberries or raspberries -- yum! I bolus for about 10 grams of carbs for the fruit.

I've also mixed 2 ounces of HWC with 1/2 cup of heated applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon. It reminds me of apple pie a-la-mode. That treat costs about 15 grams of carbs. The beauty of these fruit and cream snacks for me is that the fat in the HWC slows down the absorption of the fruit carbs, leaving me with only slight BG rises.

Some people have great objections to high fat, especially the saturated fat found in HWC, but it's been a wonderful addition to a diet that has permitted me to lose 20 pounds over the last two months while maintaining very good BG control. It also leaves me pleasantly satisfied.

You can also add it to coffee without boosting your BG. Some of the HWC fat will convert to glucose so you will need to monitor your BGs and see what effect it has on you.

Good luck with your weight gain goal -- it's a goal many of us here wish we had!

On a very low carb diet, I found that no matter how much fat I ate, none of it stuck. I think a good way to gain weight is protein and weight training. After all, if you want to gain weight, the best weight to gain is muscle.

When I was newly diagnosed, I was underweight as a result of the uncontrolled Type 1. I was encouraged to eat nuts, peanut butter, and olives. I love nuts! It did take me awhile to gain the weight back, but I did.

Thanks for the tips everyone-- I had never thought about olives... what a good idea. I've been eating quite a bit of peanuts. It also just occured to me that avocados are probably a good source of fat / calories without many carbs...

I'm not really terribly underweight. I'm 6'1 and about 165 lbs right now. I actually probably look really fit-- I have gotten a lot of comments that I think were actually intended to be compliments-- but because I know that I lost the weight because of the D... I feel self conscious about it...

I used to be a very athletic guy... very well accomplished wrestler... when I was younger. I weighed about the same then as I do right now, but it was because I was a top level athlete, not because I was sick... so I guess to a certain extent this is in my mind... but I would still feel better back up to about 185 or so...

I also eat lots of olives, I buy them at costco. But you need to remember, olives can be high in sodium. I have no problem dropping 20 olives on my salad, but that is 1000 mg of sodium right there. 20 olives is 100 calories, virtually no protein, and about 8 g of good fat. If you are sodium sensitive, it might be better to just get totally liberal with the olive oil.

I make my own salad dressing, it is half olive oil. I have no problem consuming a 1/4 cup in my big ole salad. That is 50 g of fat and like 500 calories.