Gaining

So I’m starting a HC diet for the next month or so. Question though — for the last week I gained 2 pounds and just added it in my cooking but didn’t make any shakes or drink it.

Today I tried to make a relatively small shake with ice cream, heavy cream, peanut butter and bannanas and it upset my stomach pretty bad.

Does anyone have advice on getting it down? Is it better to just add a small amount everyday and keep that going for a while or go on gainer shakes?

One tip of course is to possibly take it easier at first with smaller amounts, and work your way up as your belly gets used to digesting all the dairy fat. The last thing you ever want is to throw up. Not only is that not fun, but those are wasted calories that won't contribute to weight gain.

If it's been a very long time since you last had any, or your diet hasn't been rich enough, it could be a shock.

If necessary, even start off with half and half. It tastes like creamier milk, which is basically what it is. Ideally, you should give up regular milk and only have half and half or cream. Half and half should be pretty easy to drink straight and get down, even if you haven't had any cream in a long time.

Eventually, you should be able to get up to a cup every day, even a pint. If you have too much at first, it could potentially spoil your appetite the next day. That's what happened, the last time I somehow managed to chug an entire quart.

Being consistent with having it again and again, is what's most important, so the added calories and fat will add up.

The recipe you described sounds like it would be hard to drink. Peanut butter is solid, you want something you can suck through a straw.


Another tip, where it sounds like you have the right idea, is to mix the cream with something. Heavy cream out of the carton, most folks don't like the taste. When it's whipped, even then it's usually mixed with sugar.

One recipe I've found that works is 1 pint of heavy cream with half a cup of coffee flavoring syrup like Ghirardelli or Torani PureMade. You pick the flavor you like the best, since they're all fattening. The syrup with the least calories is still 110 calories per fl. oz. So that's at least 2,040 calories in only 20 oz., and you can suck it down with a straw almost mindlessly while at the computer, playing video games, or watching TV.

Another tip that works for some, but perhaps not for others is to try Lactaid pills (or the store brand) for lactose intolerance. Most folks don't normally need them, but others seem to report positive results when taken with the cream, or helps reduce gas. So, YMMV and I'm inclined to think it's some sort of placebo effect.

It's true that cream contains large amounts of dairy fat, which of course is what you're counting on.. but it doesn't really have much lactose, so I'd probably skip the Lactaid pills if I were you.

It never really goes away. That's why I have decided to gain to 200 minimum which will put me at 60lbs over weight then decide whether or not to keep going

I have noticed my BP is up from the cream/extra fat. Is this a normal result?

My BP tends to go up when I gain but I have never worked out what particular food (other than salt/sodium) causes it. I do find that exercise helps keep it down, even if I don't lose weight.

I'll experiment with heavy cream over a couple of weeks and see what it does to my BP (and my weight). Will update you.

I bet it is, and I'd even go further and say it's a result of mixing saturated fats like heavy cream ones and sugars (especially fructose). The combination of these two macronutrients in a caloric surplus is explosive for the body.

It's been such a long while (long story short, I've lost a lot of weight due to health issues not related to gaining), but I do remember whenever I did heavy cream, I would notice that spike. Sometimes in about a few days, but it'd gotten me from about 10 stone to 12. I've been riding on 10.5 after a lot of work gaining back the weight I lost.

Short answer, it's been key for me.

A pint of heavy cream has about 1600 calories. After 7 days that is VERY roughly 3.2 pounds’ worth of calories. So if your diet is otherwise balanced, that’s how much you can gain by adding the cream.

Wouldn't it be closer to 2.5 lbs?

Whether you can keep that up for 7 days in a row is another matter, though. I'm not judging anyone who can't, but I think most can't.

That estimate also seems posited on 3,500 excess calories being an extra pound. Whereas, a kilogram is 9,000 calories and thus, a pound would be 4,082.

Of course, you (or others) may say it's not that simple, and you would be right. Water retention, for one thing. But the human body also isn't going to be completely efficient. I think getting 80% of that would be very impressive.

Fat in general, though filling, is however very efficient in that regard. But this filling effect might prevent or discourage snacking that otherwise may have happened.

But after a certain point, if you go past your current capacity, some of it is discarded. A little TMI perhaps, but I think this may even change the color of your *ahem*... waste if you go overboard enough. It's why you can't drink oil (not that it would be very tasty!).

On the other hand, it seems that one's capacity likely increases, the heavier you get. I couldn't keep that up for a week, but some have said or claimed 10 days or even two weeks in a row.

I must say I have tried this sort of regime and found that a pint of cream just before bed would give me awful heartburn in the night. I can manage a pint a day, spread out, although there are some side effects (TMI). Incidentally, Double cream (which is the UK equivalent of heavy cream) is 2800 calories for 600ml (1.27 US pints).