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And if so, how?

My background: I'm female, short and skinny, always have been. Since going paleo about 6 months ago I have shed some body fat, and I am getting a tad concerned at how much of me is disappearing.

The only recommendations I have found relate to increasing calories, increasing carbs, eating at specific times of the day (on this one I even researched the sumo wrestler's traditional diet) - basically all I got was that I should stuff myself at every meal. Which is fine, I am willing to give it a go. I'm just a bit disappointed that I couldn't find anything more specific.

So is there anyone out there who is eating paleo and has actually successfully increased their body fat and if so, how the heck did you do it?

ADDED Q: Is it possible to gain fat without introducing a weight training regime. I'm female and while I'm not afraid of a bit of muscle, my main goal right now is to increase FAT.

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 2 years ago I had gotten very underweight from IBS/disordered eatign and was faced with putting on about 20 pounds. Gained it in around 2 months with a diet of 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, eating every 2-3 hours. I wasn't eating Paleo at the time though. However, I think consistent eating is what it takes. Every day felt like Thanksgiving. If you can do dairy, then some high-fat, high-cal foods like ice cream would be great. – Renee Mar 1 2012 at 17:46
Thanks Renee, I'll try to increase frequency of meals/snacks. I'm still confused how, if eating fat doesn't make you fat.... then what does make you fat? I'm dairy intolerant (can't even do butter or ghee) but I'm having some success with coconut milk for ice cream and such. – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 23:07
Macronutrients don't make you fat, persistent caloric excess does. – Travis Culp♦ Mar 1 2012 at 23:40
Thanks Travis, so my initial conclusion - that I need to eat as much as I possibly can - is correct? I wonder, will I have to keep that up forever. Or will my body learn to hang onto the fat I gain. Guess I'll just have to try it and find out... – Stefanie Mar 2 2012 at 0:09
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 You'll just have to find which foods you enjoy eating and eat a lot of them. It could be heavy on carbs or fat, depending on your tastes, and as long as you stick with Real Food, it should be plenty nutritious, though in your case I'd recommend padding your diet with rice. You'll probably need to increase gastric capacity, so eating all the way to total fullness for every meal might be a good idea. I like these Bizarro World questions where someone has to do the opposite of what most people are trying to do. – Travis Culp♦ Mar 2 2012 at 0:54
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4 Answers

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When I had the pleasure of meeting Stephan Guyenet I actually asked him a very similar question. I am someone who will occasionally not eat enough (due to minimal appetite in general) and lose several pounds at a time. I am frequently trying to gain weight so that I don't constantly slide down the weight scale until I'm too skinny.

I wanted to ask Stephan if there was a way to use food reward, a theory he has been championing lately, to gain weight in a healthy way. As I was catching him in a rush he didn't have time to respond with much depth, but he suggested adding spices and fats/oils to foods to increase palatability. This has been a worthwhile suggestion for me, especially the latter.

Stephan recently posted about a study measuring the palatability of various foods. Potatoes scored the highest in terms of not influencing food intake. It has been my experience that when I eat a lot of potatoes I lose weight, probably from decreased appetite. This also appears to be happening with Richard over at Free The Animal. So perhaps avoid the potato if you're looking to gain weight.

I think food reward and palatability theory is a worthwhile concept for people looking to gain OR lose weight. Furthermore, I have found snacking and eating multiple meals also helped me put on weight. Hope this was helpful

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Hmm yeah I did consider Stephan's food reward theory, but I just haven't been able to get my head around it 100%. Perhaps I need to read more into it, or maybe I'm not looking at it from the right perspective. Thanks for the info. Interesting about the potatoes. – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 10:12
Add fat. It's an easy way to up calories without adding volume. Put cream or coconut milk in coffee, add butter to veggies, make sure to eat fattier meat, etc. Speaking of Richard Nikoley, check out his "Fat Bomb" recipe over at FTA. A little dark chocolate couldn't hurt - and who needs to be hungry to eat that? – Dave S. Mar 1 2012 at 13:02
Thanks Dave but I'm doing all that already (in a dairy free way). I use beef tallow or coconut oil for cooking and dress everything with the fat from the pan, plus olive or macadamia oil, I drink coconut milk, I eat dark chocolate every day. These are all things that have helped people lose fat. I want the opposite. So if eating fat doesn't make me fat, and if eating starchy 'unrewarding' foods like potatoes doesn't make me fat, what will? – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 23:42
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Increasing body fat and gaining weight are two different things, albeit related. Gaining weight has a rock-solid solution, which not only makes you gain weight but can bring alot of health, happiness and strength just like the paleo diet: weight lifting and exercise. Of course this works even easier if you already have an adequate diet.

I've always had an BMI around 18, that is I'm weighing in around 57 kg with 178 cm's of height (sorry americans, I'm NOT converting to your weird measuring system). The last year i've been steadily increasing my weight to around 62 kg. If i could guess, I have'nt really increased my body fat as much as gaining muscle tissue and bone density. Appetite has GREATLY increased and I feel better in probably every way.

Weight training is also a great way of kicking in the natural hormones, which together with your primal foods will set your body fat in the appropriate range. If you eat right and exercise right you won't have to worry to much on the numbers on the scales even if you weigh less than your fellow person. As long as you feel good, strong and happy!

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Could you be a little clearer on your theory here - you're saying I should do weight training to increase muscle, which will increase body fat? – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 10:27
It will increase muscle and thereby weight, not necessarily your body fat. I add that it might increase your body fat with appropriate respons to the increase in training - induced hormones, increased metabolism, heightened appetite, etc. This depends if your body fat really is too low, since our bodies adjust the amount depending on how well it functions, which we in turn regulate through diet/exercise. So, if you're in fact low in body fat, it's much easier to chunk down heaps of raw milk with that mountain of food after working out - unavoidable weight gain both through muscle and bodyfat. – Koxa Mar 1 2012 at 10:46
Sorry to ask, are you male of female? – Hemming Oct 28 at 15:46
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In 6 months of my last year of college (remember I am a dude so my hormonal environment was favorable) I went from a skinny-fat 140 to a muscle-and-fat (i was measured around 22%) 193 by downing six 50g (protein not weight) whey shakes a day--and I did this as a vegetarian while lifting 4-5 days a week (pasta bowls at d-hall.) Did not program SS, do GOMAD or any of the current received wisdom on how to gain weight quickly (100% Brokinesiology--vanity muscles and machines.) I probably should've eaten meat, done more conditioning, got better sleep, etc, but everyone noticed (social validation--if everyone is honest they want this to some extent as well) and It worked rather too well. I'm still not lean about 7 years later (don't transition into a sedentary office life immediately after doing this!) so I'm labeling this approach as "100% stupid whey"

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'Stupid whey' maybe, but you might be onto something with the liquid calories. I'm thinking of replacing my water and tea with some kind of coconut milk smoothie.... – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 21:55
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Some folks I know do the GOMAD process ... A gallon of milk a day. You can look it up on google for the details. You will gain weight. I would gather you would need to drink Raw milk & of course need to be able to tolerate it.

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Thanks, yep, have heard of GOMAD - man that is a lot of milk. Unfortunately I'm dairy intolerant. I've been increasing my intake of coconut milk.... but a gallon of coconut milk? Kind of expensive... I'll look into it further though. Do you know anyone who has gained weight by drinking this much, without doing weight training? – Stefanie Mar 1 2012 at 23:22

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